Luton's North Home Counties Sunday Football League ready for kick off - but with just one division

The secretary for the North Home Counties Sunday Football League says speculation that the league has folded is off target.

Tony Gee told the Luton News that despite teams moving to other leagues, the North Home Counties Sunday Football League - which has teams from Luton and surrounding areas - will still be running this season.

This season the league has one division, last season there were two - the number of teams has declined significantly since the league's heyday.

Following speculation on social media that the league had folded, Tony insisted that was inaccurate and he has had three more teams sign up.

He said: "It's not true, the league hasn't collapsed and we are still going.

"There are not as many teams or players as there used to be, a lot of players now play mid-week in the five and six-a-side leagues which free up their weekends.

"We do still have the die-hard players that are here and loving it.

"We had a number of teams leave to try out other leagues and some of the teams from the Premier Division have gone to other leagues as the football would not have been competitive for them in just one division.

"We have one division and we have 15 teams now, three teams signed up this week.

"We are looking forward to starting the season on October 4, the season was pushed back because of the pandemic.

"Unfortunately, it is just a general decline in local grassroots football, we had 2 divisions last year and now we are down to one."

Bedfordshire FA, CEO, Alan Young said: "Adult Sunday League teams across Bedfordshire FA have increased by 20 from season 2019/2020.

"The number of teams in the North Home Counties has decreased due to some teams moving across to the Leighton Sunday League."

> Is your team still playing in the North Home Counties League, share your story by emailing [email protected].