East of Scotland Soccer Development Association

ESSDA Quarterly Meeting

The May 2019 ESSDA Quarterly Meeting will take place -

•   on Sunday 26th May 2019
•   at 7:30pm
•   in Laura Ferguson Court Lounge at 72 Craigmount Brae, Edinburgh EH12 8XF

As space will be limited, please let me know if you intend to come along so that we can prepare the venue. Use Contact Us page.

Items for the agenda should be sent to me.

Hearts Coding Club

The perfect way to introduce young people to technology!

Coding and digital skills are vital skills in today’s world, and computers are an ever more important part of life and work. Understanding how computers work and the best ways to interact with them will open up lots of opportunities for young people!

The coding clubs at Hearts build an excitement and interest around digital technology and supports young people to develop valuable skills for the future. Young people attending the clubs will explore digital technology in a fun, informal, creative and social environment while developing problem solving, communication and presentation skills.

The clubs run once a week for six weeks, with all equipment provided, easy-to-follow instructions and no previous experience is necessary! 

The clubs are completely FREE for girls and boys aged 8-16 years.
At present, Hearts are running two Introductions to Coding Clubs that are as follows:

•   Introduction to the Microbit with CoderDojo
•   Introduction to Robotics with Robotical

See Hearts website for more details - https://www.heartsfc.co.uk/community/digital-skills

SFA South East - Coach Education Events

•   Transition to 9v9 (ID: 20096)
  - Monday 10th June 2019 18:30 - 20:30 @Oriamscotland
•    Player Pathway 11v11 (ID: 19829)
  - Saturday 11th May 2019 09:30 - 11:30 @Oriamscotland

Both courses can be booked using SFA Live - scotfa.co/CourseBooking

SYFA and Winter Football

Sadly, constraints within the SFA Live system make registration at the start of the season difficult. Over the last two years, this has severely impacted our ability to put on a Winter Football programme. Last year, although permission was eventually given, this was less than 48 hours before the event was due to begin.
ESSDA cannot plan a Winter event if SYFA cannot guarantee that registration will be available. Despite promises last year, the registration process was worse than the year before.

I have offered to go through to Hampden to discuss this situation, but despite repeated attempts to contact SYFA, I have not had any reply.

The SYFA promotes indoor football during the winter shutdown, but their SFA Live system will stop all football being played in January/February.

Unless this situation changes very quickly, the ESSDA 2020 Winter Football event will be cancelled.

ESSDA PVG Night

With thanks to Craigroyston FC, ESSDA will be holding a PVG night

Where:  Craigroyston FC club rooms on Muirhouse Parkway
When:    Monday 18th March 2019
From:     18:30 to 19:30

ESSDA Coaches who intend to come along should bring:

•  SYFA Official Form (or proof that they are registered to ESSDA Club on SFA Live)
•  Passport
•  Driving Licence
•  NI Number
•  Existing PVG Scheme Membership Certificate (if you have one)
•  Proof of current address (recent bank statement or utility bill)

Please note: Passport and/or Driving Licence are NOT proof of current address.

ESSDA Fixtures 2019 First Half

Fixtures are back and can be viewed on Fixtures Page.

They are are correct as per the information I had last week. Urgent changes will be made as soon as possible.
If there is a problem with your fixtures, please drop me a note and I will try to correct them as soon as possible.

Switching between leagues depends on the availability of a team with which you can swap

ESSDA Season 2019

Applications for 2019 First Half have now closed. I have started to prepare the schedule of fixtures.

Late applications may not be included in the fixtures and will have to wait to be added in upcoming weeks.

Fixtures for age groups 2007 (12s) - 2010 (9s) will be published on ESSDA website Fixture Pages on Sunday 24th February 2019.
The 2019 Season First Half will start the following weekend 2nd/3rd February 2019

SYFA and Winter Football

The SYFA/SFA Live system cancels the registration status of all development football clubs at the end of the year. 
This forces all Clubs to re-register for the new season.  Some Clubs have still not completed that process for 2019.

SYFA Rules say that Clubs are not allowed to play any form of football unless Clubs are properly SYFA registered (and insured).

As SYFA Offices are closed over the New Year period, it is impossible to be a registered development football club early in January. The registration process did not open until 5th January 2019, so anyone playing football before this date cannot have been registered/insured. The average date of registration this year was 25th January 2019

Unless this changes, there will be no ESSDA Winter Football next year, as no Clubs can be registered in time to play.
Unless this changes, no Clubs will be able to train (even indoors) in early January as they will not be SYFA registered (and insured).
Unless this changes, no Club can take part in fixtures or festivals over the New Year period as they will not be SYFA registered (and insured).

I have tried to take this up with SYFA at Hampden, but to date that have refused to comment or clarify the situation.
I will post further news if I get it.

ESSDA PVG Night

With thank to Craigroyston BC, ESSDA will be holding a PVG Night at the Craigroyston BC clubrooms on Muirhouse Parkway on Monday 4th February 2019 from 18:30 to 19:30

If you plan to attend, please let me know.

Please bring ALL the necessary document not what you think you might need. See PVG page for details

2019 Registration

Registration for 2019 is now open.

All Clubs must register with SYFA for 2019 at SFA Live. This is free and must be done before registering age groups.
All Age Groups (except 2007) must register with SYFA at SFA Live. (But only after their Club has registered)

All Teams must register with ESSDA for 2019. (Age Group 2007 only registers for half a season).
All teams playing Nines or Soccer 7s must select their league for the 2019 First Half (Pele > Maradona > Zidane > Beckham).
For age group 2009 (10s), there will be five leagues (Pele > Iniesta > Maradona > Zidane > Beckham)

You can check your ESSDA & SYFA registration status at the Registration Page. If you are not properly registered you will miss the start of the ESSDA season. Please register now

Outdoor Football in December and January

The SYFA rules are very prescriptive about what football can be played and when. No teams should be playing in 2019 until they are properly registered with SYFA for 2019. Check your registration status at the Registration Page.
ESSDA permission is required for all indoor fixtures and festivals in January 2019

The SYFA Supplementary & Playing Rules state:-
https://www.scottishyouthfa.co.uk/images/Information-Downloads/Football-Games-and-Tournaments/Supplementary-and-Playing-Rules/Supplementary-Playing-Rules-2018-2019.pdf

3: Development Season : League / Association fixtures shall only be listed and played between 1 March and 30 November inclusive each year and no matches, friendly matches included, shall be played between the second weekend in December and 31 January inclusive each year without the consent of the SYFA.
Clubs will be permitted to play friendly matches indoor or participate in Futsal Festivals during this period.

Winter Football

Winter Football is up and running at Riccarton Campus (2011) and World of Football (2007, 2009 and 2010).

Fixtures for the remainder of the session are now published for World of Football.
It is best viewed via the Fixtures Page but you can see all the fixtures in the PDF of World of Football.

The rules for our Winter Football can be seen on the Rules Page.

Any comments or criticism about Winter Football should be returned to me. I hope everyone is enjoying it.

SYFA Membership for Coaches

All Team Coaches, Assistant Coaches and First Aiders must be members of SYFA and registered on SFA Live.
To be members of SYFA, officials must be PVG Scheme Members through SYFA.
All Officials must also complete the free online Child Welfare and Wellbeing course on SFA Live.

Coaches who have not completed the online training will shortly have their SYFA membership suspended - do it now!

Parents who look after teams on match days or who act as Match Officials must also be SYFA registered on SFA Live as Team Helpers.

ESSDA Registration 2019

ESSDA registration for 2019 will open in December 2018. All teams playing ESSDA football in the new 2019 season must register.
All Age Groups must also register with SYFA (see below).

Each team playing Soccer 7s or Nines 9s will have a free choice of league : Pele > Maradona > Zidane > Beckham

SYFA SFA 9v9
 SYFA SFA Player Pathway 7v7
 SYFA SFA Player Pathway 4v4 and 5v5

Concussion Report

All Clubs are encouraged to read the attached Concussion Report and pass round their coaches
https://www.scottishyouthfa.co.uk/images/Latest-News/Concussion-Report.pdf

Twitter / Facebook

All Clubs are reminded that SYFA rules prohibit the publishing of any results of development football on social media.

"Club A won 10-0" "Club B beat Club C" and similar statements are not allowed.
See https://www.scottishyouthfa.co.uk/images/Information-Downloads/Football-Games-and-Tournaments/Laws-of-the-Game-Small-Sided-Games-and-Player-Pathway/Player-Pathway-SSG-Rules-2018.pdf

Formal Complaints

Anyone who wants to make a formal complaint about any aspect of ESSDA or ESSDA match must follow the SYFA Complaint Management System. This can be viewed at http://www.scottishyouthfa.co.uk/index.php/members-corner/complaints-management-system

Complaints must be made in writing to Hampden using the forms available on SYFA website.

The Complaint Process consists of several steps:

Stage 1) Discussion with the party the complaint is about
Stage 2) Telephone or email enquiry to SYFA
Stage 3)  Lodging a formal complaint with SYFA
Final Stage) Complaint referred to a senior person within SYFA

Feedback on ESSDA Matches can be made using the ESSDA Monitoring Form.

Social Media