Kent Senior Trophy Final still on the Cards
Kent FA CEO Darryl Haden has spoken about the struggles of steering the football authority through these unprecedented times.
“It’s not been easy the last twelve weeks,” Darryl admitted in an interview to Kent Sports News.
“The FA’s decision to conclude grassroots football came around the end of March, and that then caused lots of issues for us in how we ended and how we supported our clubs and Leagues around that process as well.”
“I don’t think that they (the FA) ended things too soon, I think that the FA had no choice really and consistency in the decision across all football from Isthmian Premier down to grassroots made sense.”
“I understand the National League wanting to see whether they could finish the season in line with the Football League, I think that decision was most probably around the promotion and relegation issue. But overall, the consistency had to be there.”
The season may have ended early and the leagues made null and void but the Kent FA did manage to get 8 County Finals on before Lockdown and have not yet closed the doors on the others – including the one that affects two of our SCEFL sides, Sheppey United and Corinthian.
“Obviously time’s running against us a little bit at the moment but we’re looking at a lot of possibilities and eventualities on how we can get those Cup Finals up and running whether they become a season opener as it were, especially for the Senior Cup and maybe the Senior Trophy – we could look at something like that – but there’s lots of options at the moment, but we’re like everyone else that we can’t do anything and we’re just waiting for a bit more guidance and support and a bit more information from Government when we can get back going!”
On another positive note Darryl talks about his pleasure at seeing around £361,000 granted from the Football Foundation to clubs to improve pitches across the county.
“This will see over five hundred football pitches improved across Kent which is a massive level of investment for us and that’s been driven by the staff at the Kent FA – Lee Suter, with assistance from Jordon Mann, have really gone out there and pushed it to our clubs. We’ve got clubs right the way across the board who are going to benefit from the fund. “
The full interview with Darryl can be read at Kent Sports News here
