Dear Parents

Further to the government’s  announcement regarding a further lockdown, The FA have now given guidance regarding grass roots football. 

All fixtures and training for indoor and outdoor youth and adult grass roots football will be suspended until Wednesday 2nd December at the least. This starts from 00.01 on Thursday 5th November. In short, Saturday training ceases for now and tonight is the last mid week training session at Rosslyn Park

As before, the club will continue to review the situation but intends to provide training sessions further into the season in lieu of those missed. Please note that all the money that you pay for training is retained in a Trust Account that is administered by the club and only used to organise and provide football for the children. The club does not own this money, it is held in trust for the members. 

Be assured, as soon as there is further news regarding youth football I will once again email with any update.

Thank you for your patience and ongoing support in these very difficult times.

Keep well.

regards
Sarah Street
Club Secretary
Sheen Lions F.C.

The new guidance issued by the government is not specific on organised team sport. We can expect more information to appear over the next day or so.

The Club Secretary, Sarah has a meeting on Monday (2nd) evening where she is expecting clarification from the FA.

The FA site is currently saying that they are awaiting further information before saying how the new restrictions will affect non elite football.

Saturday morning training on 3rd October is cancelled due to persistent rain.

Sarah Street
Club Secretary

Sheen Lions would like to remind you that in order for the children’s football to continue, we must follow the procedures that the FA have agreed with the Government and that are incorporated into our club rules.

http://sheenlions.com/additional-measures-during-covid-19-pandemic/covid-19-measures-for-parents-and-players/

Please in particular note that the special rules for participation in an organised team sport apply to the players, managers, coaches and officials at the event. It does not apply to parents or spectators.

It is the responsibility of parents and spectators to abide by the current standard social distancing rules, guidance and laws when at any Sheen Lions event, and everyone is to follow those rules, guidance and laws when travelling to the event.

This will not be easy but please, do your very best to comply. We must do everything we can to minimise the chance of any Covid transmission through our activity and we do not want complaints to the club or to LBRUT that rules, guidance and laws are being ignored, as this would jeopardise our continued use of the facilities resulting in us not being able to provide football for the children.

Team up to and including U11 train on Saturday mornings at Palewell. Until Easter older teams (U12 and up) train at Rosslyn Park. See our Find Us page for directions.

For the exact time of training please look at the calendar on your team’s page on SheenLions.com. All teams in an age group train at the same time so Cubs and Trial players may look at any team in the age group. These calendars show all official training and will answer questions like when does training start, when is half term etc.

• Shin pads must be worn and you must bring refreshments.
• Please make sure that you arrive 10 minutes early for any training session so you are fully ready to start the session on time. If you are late you will probably have to stand and watch till the Coach can allow you to join and you may be excluded!
• If parents leave during training (or matches) Parents must make sure that they are back before the end of the session to collect their child. Coaches and Managers have to leave and will be very inconvenienced if they have to wait for you so this is a big no no and even one occurrence will result in a review of your future with the Club.
• Only Players that are registered with Sheen Lions as Members or to Trial may attend our training sessions. If you wish to try you should contact us at least three days before the training session, please see Trialling At Sheen Lions.

As explained to you during the registration process you do have to buy the training kit. The kit you get as part of your membership is only match socks and shorts, a match shirt is lent.

There is of course no Sheen Lions shop (or any other premises). During the Pandemic you must have all kit that you buy posted directly to you. The option to have it delivered through the Club may return when possible. Until you get your kit that you have ordered you will have to find something suitable to wear at training. Of course you can train while you are waiting for Sheen kit to get to you and of course if you are trialling we do not expect you to turn out in Sheen Lions kit.

Revised 26th August

Revised 28th August and 29th August

You will see from our web site that we are starting on 1st Sept with first Saturday training on 5th Sept.

U6, U7 and U8 are now invited to attend when training starts on 5th September.

For the older age groups, it is up to the manager. Please contact them directly if you think that they have forgotten you, contact details are on SheenLions.com.

Competitive age groups (U13 and older) may be contacted by a manager directly and invited, possibly even to a pre season in August.

U12 Trials will be on Friday 11th September, details on team page.

For Development age groups (U9, U10 or U11) that train on Saturday you are invited from 12th September.

Dear Parents,

I hope this email finds you and the family all well. It was not long ago that I thought we may not even have a club to return to but with your support and loyalty here we are, and I truly thank you for that.

I would like to give you with an update as to how things are progressing before I try and take some time off. I, and several members, have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure your child can return to football as quickly and safely as possible. It is important you read ALL the information on our website so you know what to expect and what will be expected from you. There is plenty to read but 3 key points to follow are:

1. Parents are to register their child with their coach BEFORE any activity.
2. Players MUST have a named water bottle and named hand sanitiser. THEY CANNOT PARTICIPATE IF THEY DO NOT HAVE THESE.
3. Parents need to be aware that coaches will not attend to players who fall ill or incur injuries. They can only attend a player if an injury is life threatening.

Risk assessments have been presented to Richmond Council, protocols and procedures are in place as required by the Surrey Youth League and The FA. As we progress into next season we will continue to follow instructions from the government and our governing bodies.

Several training sessions were missed at the end of 2019-20 due to the Covid Lock down and so some expected expenses were not incurred. However, to help our coaches cope with the abrupt loss of some of their income, the Club decided to make some ex gratia payments to coaches in April to cushion the blow and so the training costs were not reduced pro rata as you might expect; but it does leave some money in the kitty.

The lack of activity at the end of the season and into the summer has created problems setting up the teams for the coming season, as we have not been able to trial new and existing players as we would have wanted for everyone, to place them in the most appropriate squads. The intention was to use money saved in 2019-20 to pay for extra sessions in August to give the players pre-season sessions in lieu of what was missed.

The competitive age groups have these sessions in place now. However it has proved too difficult to arrange August sessions for the Development age groups as too many people are away on holiday. The plan for these age groups now is to hold sessions during October half term in lieu of those missed. I know none of us know how things will be in mid October but, all being well, we plan on holding sessions during Monday 19th – Saturday 26th October 2021. This will give your child something to do during the half term, when usual options might not be available, and also give some further help to our coaches with some substitute work.

Gordon will email you to register for these sessions separately, once the season has started. These additional sessions will be free for players that fully paid their 2019-20 fees. Others will have to pay. If the sessions turn out not to be feasible, due to limited numbers, then they will not go ahead and instead we will need to decide what is done as an alternative.

A few people have asked what will happen if the Pandemic causes us to lose further training sessions. To clarify, all the money that you pay for training is retained in a Trust Account that is administered by the club and only used to organise and provide football for the children. We will consider how best any surplus is dealt with at the end of the season when the final position is clear. The club does not own this money, it is held in trust for the members and is not part of the club’s books.

It is essential that there are sufficient reserves to allow the club a good chance to carry on operating, even in unexpected circumstances, and with good planning we have been able to do that. Both the club and the trust account are healthy. We have been able to commit to some of our suppliers for the 2020-21 season before we had to ask members to commit to us by paying as early as is usually necessary. However we do need next season’s fees to be paid before we can go ahead with training and match day programmes. A few people have wishfully suggested that government help will be available to us. It is not, unless we have missed something? We do not have employees to furlough nor business rate relief to claim.

Training timetables are on the website. The competitive age groups start their official training programme the week commencing Monday 31st August and the development age groups will return to training on Saturday 5th September, subject to government guidelines.

Lastly I want to wish you all a peaceful and relaxing time for the remainder of the summer. Hopefully I will see everyone back in September.

Keep well.

regards
Sarah Street
Club Secretary
Sheen Lions F.C.

As we have already let you know measures agreed between the English FA and the UK Government on 17th July do allow a restart of Grass Roots football but of course there are new procedures necessary.

Timing Of Restart

In normal times Sheen Lions has very little activity from late July until the end of August and this seems likely to be the case even now. Sarah has been talking to Coaches and Managers about the feasibility of starting training earlier than usual (in August) but in almost all age groups the numbers are not sufficient as people are away on holiday. The sudden change in travel advice for Spain at the weekend may change this, but it might make it worse not better if players have a period of self isolation following their holiday.

At the moment you must assume that training will start on your first normal training day after 1st September, so for U6 to U11 that will be Saturday 5th September. Maybe some of the older age groups might manage some sessions earlier, you will hear from your Manager or from the Club if that is to happen.

People waiting to trial will be invited to the first training session to do so.

League competition is due to start on 12th September. We have not yet heard from the League as to whether they will start on that date because they have not decided. They will need confirmation from Clubs that they will be ready and more certainty on the number of teams entered. We are still in a process to do that and other clubs will be the same. Your responses on some of the points below affect what we can tell the League.

Training Kit

Members that need to order new training kit please note that there has been a change of brand. You need to read http://sheenlions.com/sheen-lions-training-kit-brand-change/. Players can continue to wear their existing kit but going forward new and replacements garments will be be from JOMA. At the time of writing the new kit is not yet available for sale on the KS Teamwear website. We require you to wear the official kit at training but until you can get hold of it you can of course attend training anyway!

Notice of Additional Measure During Pandemic

We have now put in place our additional measures that we need to bring in to allow your football activity to resume as safely as possible following the FA Guidance.

You must read our notice about this, it is very important that you understand and are agreeing to the additional risks of continued participation. If you decide that you are unable to accept these changes then you will need to let us know (registrations@sheenlions.org) that you wish to end your membership as you will no longer be able to participate. If we do not hear from you we will take this as confirmation that you have read, accepted and will comply with all rules and protocols notified here.

Payment

Sheen Lions is a registered charity it is run by unpaid volunteers. We rely entirely on parents paying fees so we can pay for what we do. Normally we collect the necessary contributions as people register for the new season but this summer we deferred payment as we did not have any certainty as to when Grass Roots football would be allowed to resume. Now that we have a reasonable certainty of starting as normal we now need to collect the fees. During this week Members will receive an email asking for payment of their contribution. People waiting to trial do not pay.

Please deal with this matter promptly. If you have a difficulty with payment please be proactive and explain it to us.

• U11, I will send you another notice about fees before your request to pay.
• U12, following the trial last Saturday, I will not be able to send you payment requests until I hear what decisions have been made.
  

Following the message in our notice “Changes To Your Agreement With Sheen Lions July 2020” we have now decided on the addition measures we need to bring in to allow your football activity to resume as safely as possible following the FA Guidance (GUIDELINES FOR THE RETURN OF OUTDOOR COMPETITIVE GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL).

You may view the current version of the measures in our Member’s Info section Additional Measures During Covid-19 Pandemic. Players and Parents must read Covid-19 Measures For Parents and Players.

In particular please note that “On arrival at the event the player must not approach any other person until they have reported to their manager for registration and confirmation of self check.“

The FA Guidelines are concentrated on measures to mitigate the risks leading to a Covid-19 outbreak around this activity. They do not eliminate these risks.

• We expect that the risk of transmission will be significantly reduced by following these measures over the risk if the activity takes place without these measures but we do not know what that risk is.
• The impact if a risk occurs (i.e. the virus is transmitted between participants at a Sheen Lions event) depends on individual circumstances and it is left to you to decide if you wish to take the risk given the mitigation in place.

There is another risk in participation apart from the risk of infection. You may be told by the NHS Test and Trace service that you have “been in contact with a person who has coronavirus” as a result of Sheen Lions activity. Remember that this includes matches against teams from other Clubs but note than Sheen Lions only plays teams from Clubs that, like us will be following the FA Guidelines.

If you decide that you are unable to accept these changes then you will need to let us know (registrations@sheenlions.org) that you wish to end your membership as you will no longer be able to participate. If we do not hear from you we will take this as confirmation that you have read, accepted and will comply with all rules and protocols notified here.