League History

Foundations

The League was founded in around 1987 by Somerset FA because clubs were beginning to install floodlights and wanted the youth set up to play under them rather than on Sunday afternoons which had hitherto been the only time to play. The league was founded with about eight clubs including Bristol City FC who played all their home matches at Clevedon Town and Winscombe. Clubs applying to join had to agree that the floodlights would be installed within 12 months of acceptance.

The first Chairman was Alan Hobbs who later became President when the league was well established. Roger Stone, a stalwart of Somerset football, was appointed Chairman in 2003 and sadly died in 20. At that time all Management Committee meetings were held at Winscombe but later transferred to Taunton Town FC.

The Management Committee in the early days comprised Dave Bissex, Colin Waller, Steve Rogers, Dave Callow, Roger Stone and Mary Maule. Many of these people are still involved in Somerset football.

Early Years

For a number of the early years there was one division with Backwell, Bristol City, Cheddar, Frome, Keynsham Town, Nailsea Utd, Paulton Rovers, Shepton Mallet, Welton Rovers, Weston super Mare, Winscombe, Wellington and Yeovil Town.

In season 1997/8 the league grew to 2 divisions, a North and South with 17 teams. The number of divisions often shrank to one then back to two. It wasn’t until later in the start of the 20th century that a Premier Division was created and has been ever present in the League structure since that time.

Expansion

Over the years the league grew slowly but following the covid epidemic interest grew substantially across four west country counties and is still growing. The main reasons for the growth spurt has been the desire of semi-professional clubs to develop their own players rather than sign expensive players who have proved their worth elsewhere.

They see the league providing a perfect platform to do this because it is run on professional lines and restricts membership to Step 1-6 squads from first team members. Also, the shock of the Premier League beginning to pay extortionate sums of money to buy players and then pay them huge salaries has impacted down the leagues to the point where clubs in the National, Western, and Southern Leagues cannot compete for players. As a result, they have looked for U18 leagues to support the development of their own players and within their own club structures.

Modern Era

Because of the popularity of the League, we expanded into a fourth division where 36 clubs now compete. By doing this it was our intention to reduce the number of fixtures that each club played but unfortunately as new clubs keep popping up that does not look possible.

As more clubs are confident about the skills of their players there has been an uptake in clubs entering the FA Youth Cup and of course their players getting into the club first team.

Volunteers and Support

Every volunteer organisation relies to some extent on external support whether that individual is giving their time or sponsorship which can bring cash or goods such as playing kit. We have embarked on such a journey publishing a brochure to potential sponsors.

Communications and the Future

As the league expands so does our reliance on modern technology and communications to the point where we now have an X (Twitter) account which is being used by most clubs in the League. This gives a much wider vision of what the league is all about. Clubs are posting achievements of players and teams, videos of matches and photographs of player of the match etc.

Supporting our drive to communicate well, we are launching a website that all clubs will contribute match reports to. It will thrust the League into the community that we serve and show clubs that are not yet members what we stand for. It’s all very exciting for everyone involved.