Northern Region Football say a record number of children have registered to play football in the 2023 winter season.
In its newsletter to clubs, NRF said:
“We’ve seen a big increase in registrations — in junior football, we’re 14% up on last year with 805 teams registered, well up from the record of 778 in 2019, and there are plenty of youth teams still coming in.”
The unprecedented demand has put pressure on clubs to process registrations, and NRF says community numbers are up for men’s and women’s seniors, masters and legends, with about 700 teams registered.
“Feedback from our clubs is that the extra numbers and entries still coming in means understandable delays in registering all teams,” NRF said.
“While increased numbers are great news, we need some extra time to confirm everything is correct and finalise the draws to get everyone playing in 2023.
“We sincerely appreciate your patience while we work through this.”
NRF says it will release fixture schedules as they become available and some match venues will need to be confirmed and could be changed when ground availability is finalised.
No junior or youth draws will be available until the third week of April.
“We expect to publish final draws by Wednesday April 19, and will be in touch while these are confirmed,” NRF said.
Main photo: Junior football registrations have reached record numbers.Photo by Lars Bo Nielsen on Unsplash
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