BEING in charge of a local football league must be a thankful task.

Warren Barlow, chairman of the Bolton, Bury and District Football League continues with his weekly column talking about the latest developments.

WHEN I first started on the BBDFL I came in as the under-9s age group secretary and the league only catered for u7s through to u11s with around 100 teams and the cornerstone of youth and adult football were competitions such as the Bolton Boys Federation, the Bolton Combination, the Pioneer League, The Horwich Sunday League and the Bury and Radcliffe League.

All these leagues have now gone and sadly I do recall approaching the Boys Fed and the Bury and Radcliffe league to see if we could work in partnership, but it wasn't to be.

The BBDFL now provides football for U7s through to u21s as the oldest age group was added to our portfolio this year.

This was not without controversy as three years ago we approached the Lancashire FA and requested sanction to provide this age group, but this was declined in favour of the Lancashire Amateur League (LAL) who were given sanction to provide this age group

Unfortunately, the LAL were unable to get U21s off the ground and this year the sanction was provided to the BBDFL.

We did ask for Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon kick-offs in order that we could attract junior teams which are used to playing on a Saturday morning and adult teams which traditionally play in the afternoon, but this was declined and we were provided with Saturday morning football only.

This doesn't detract from the fact that we can play in the evenings and we used this as a catalyst to provide a competition which will appeal to both traditional adult clubs and junior clubs alike.

With that we want to thank Atherton Collieries and Atherton LR who have both provided their facilities for our U21s night games.

Currently in year one, we have seven teams in the league with Hindley, Mace, Mitch, Ramsbottom United, Moston Juniors, Moss Bank and Whelley and we plan a superb night game cup final at the Macron Stadium, plus many other surprises for this inaugural season.

In year two this years U18s will join, followed in year three by that years U18s making a league we believe will include at least 40 teams.

This then will open up the next chapter which may include a Bolton Combination type set up being reintroduced, but I will go into that next week!!!