Attendances have continued to thrive in both the Premier League and the Football League although a number of clubs still had to go into administration.
The likes of AFC Bournemouth and Darlington and Accrington Stanley have been battling to survive, and many other clubs have been given short term loans by the PFA to help protect players’ wages and keep them in existence.
The Football League has a new monitoring policy that enables events to be dealt with sooner rather than later in the event of club cash problems.
We have had successful years throughout all our departments but in particular the Coaching Department who have achieved excellent results for our senior players taking their UEFA A Licence and our apprentices taking their Level 2.
It has been a difficult year with regard to rules on agents and we have spent a great deal of time brokering arrangements between the FA, the FL and the PL.
Hopefully a new transparency and informed consent that has to be given by the player which will make sure there are no hidden charges that players have to deal with the Inland Revenue at a later date.
Another contentious issue has been the matter of drug testing with the formation of a National Agency of Anti Doping being a spin off from UK Sport and following the WADA guidelines.
It is fair to say we have made approaches to WADA about whether it is necessary for footballers to be available on a ‘whereabouts rule’ for 365 days a year, particularly when players have such ease of access at training grounds.
Different countries have adopted different approaches to this rule but at the moment the Football Association has settled for ten senior elite players and five from the Under 21 side.
Players need to be mindful though that there is every possibility still to be tested in training and if you are not going to be present to make sure that the FA know of your whereabouts
