NATIONAL TEAMS

Every year all 30+ Little Leagues are invited to enter a football competition known as the National tournament. This is an event which commences in March or April and goes through to the Final which is usually held in May, depending on the number of teams taking part. In our League we appoint a National Squad Manager whose job it is to select and train a squad of players drawn from the six Main teams. This is an unenviable task because the manager is restricted as to the number of players he/she can select in each age group and there are sometimes very difficult decisions to make on which boys to include in the final squad. Naturally all the boys have hopes they will be among the chosen few but non-selection is a small part of life’s learning process.

The Tournament Organisers draw up a fixture list that includes leagues in the south London, Birmingham and Midland areas but generally it is not until the semi-final stage that teams might find they are drawn to play against teams from the different areas

In 2007 the Little League National Executive decided to introduce, on a trial basis, a National 7-a-side competition for players aged under 10 years. The event proved to be a success and it appears that it will now be repeated every year on a regular basis.