National Competitions – Page 5 – English Schools' Football Association

Round 1 and 2 draws for all ESFA National Schools’ Cup competitions are now live on the ESFA website. The 2022/23 Schools’ Football season will be the biggest ever, with over 7,000 school teams entering ESFA National Competitions across the country – that’s over 110,000 pupils taking part!

Girls taking part in a football match at West Bromwich Albion's Hawthorns stadium

A team of PlayStation F.C. Schools' Cup National Champions, lifting the trophy

The biggest ever Schools’ Football season is about to get underway and draws for ESFA PlayStation Schools’ Cup and ESFA National Cup competitions are now live on the ESFA website. Schools can click here to see who they will face in the opening rounds of the U12 – U18 competitions. The ESFA has received a record number of entries for 2022/23 with over 7000 teams taking part, equating to over 110,000 players. This includes 1886 girls teams and 30,000 girls taking part, which is a record number for participation in the girls’ game, for the second consecutive season!

A winning team lifting the trophy and holding the winners' banner after becoming National Champions at West Bromwich Albion FC

More information on the competitions that the ESFA offer can be found below, alongside details on entry requirements, competition rules and more.

ESFA-National-Cup-Programme-2022 Download

ESFA handbooks and information emails will be distributed to participating schools in the coming days, with full information on competition rules. Deadline dates for planning fixtures in the 2022/23 season can be found here. Competing Team Managers should be sure to add these dates to their diary, ready to begin arranging fixtures with drawn opponents for any point prior to the stated dates.

If you want to get involved in the biggest ever Schools’ Football season – it’s not too late! There are a number of late entry places available in all of the ESFA’s Schools’ Cup competitions. Click here to register your team or email [email protected] to get involved.

Two girls celebrating on the pitch during a national final match

PlayStation F.C. Schools’ Cup

The PlayStation F.C. Schools’ Cup (PSSC) covers ESFA National Competitions from U12 to U15 and provides amazing opportunities for players up and down the country to get involved in both footballing and non footballing activity. Check out the ESFA (@schoolsfootball) and PlayStation F.C. Schools Cup channels (@Psschoolscup) to stay up to date with the amazing opportunities schools can get involved in this season!

Two plinths displaying the match ball and winners' trophy on the pitch at West Bromwich Albion FC

Social Media – Stay up to date and share your stories!

Don’t forget to share your opening round draw on social media by tagging your opponents and @schoolsfootball using the #SchoolsFootball and #PSSchoolsCup (for U12 – U15 competitions) hashtags. Keep us involved in your fixtures throughout the schools’ football season by tagging us in your results and let us help celebrate the achievements of your players.

The English Schools' FA

The National Governing Body for Schools’ Football in England.

The English Schools’ Football Association’s player engagement campaign is aimed at increasing the amount of input that players have in the decisions taken by the ESFA. This feedback helps the Association to continue to provide schools’ football opportunities that players truly benefit from.

As part of the Association’s ongoing mission to seek out feedback from players who take part in ESFA activity, they have collected feedback from those who took part in the 2022 National Final events at West Bromwich FC, Stoke City FC and Coventry Building Society Arena. The aim was to see how the players directly involved in these events felt about their experience and to identify opportunities to improve this experience for future finalists.

National Finals 2022

There was a good spread of representation in terms of age and gender across the respondents. 100% of school players said they enjoyed representing their school in National Cup competitions in 21/22 with 93% of rep team players saying that they enjoyed representing their Association.

When asked about qualifying for the National Finals, 79% of players said they were
“really excited” with 18% saying they were “excited” knowing that they would be attending National Final events.

Players were asked what their ‘highlights’ of the National Finals were and there was an even spread across the five options they were provided

Some of the additional highlights players listed included:

“winning”

“All of it”

“Scoring a goal”

Ratings

Respondents were asked to rate this season’s National Final venues on a 5-star rating scale. The ESFA was delighted to see that the feedback gave an average rating of 4.4 stars across all venues used.

The overall rating of the National Finals events at this season was a fantastic 4.6 stars out of 5.

ESFA Primary Finals

100% of respondents enjoyed representing their school in the 21/22 National Cup competitions
Respondents gave a 4.4 star rating out of 5 for the organisation of the National Finals at Coventry
Respondents gave a 4.2 star rating out of 5 for the facilities at the Coventry Building Society Arena
100% of respondents said they felt they and their teammates were well looked after upon arrival and throughout the day
100% of respondents said that they felt safe during the event

Thank you to all of the players who provided us with feedback on our National Final events 2022!