Clubs will lose out on sponsorship money, says Kent League chair Denise Richmond

Safety Net Associates have withdrawn their sponsorship of the Kent League, but when addressing the League’s Annual General Meeting on Thursday evening, League chairman Denise Richmond informed the clubs that they themselves were partly to blame as the management of Safety Net considered that the member clubs had not shown the company enough support, writes Mike Green.

 

Speaking after the meeting, Ms Richmond explained her comments.  “Administratively losing our main sponsor won’t cause the League too much of a problem,” she said.

“It does, however, cause a problem when it comes to awarding prizes at the end of next season as we won’t have the finances.  We get administrative grants from the FA and the fees that the member club's pay which is fine, but we just won’t be able to pay out prize money to clubs as the money simply won’t be there so it will be the clubs in the end that will lose out.

“It’s a very disappointing position to be in, but to be fair to Safety Net they did come in on a one year agreement which was trailed to see how it would go. 

“I think that they must consider that it hasn’t gone well and that club’s haven’t supported it and because that wasn’t brought to our attention until late in the season, it was very difficult to do anything about it as far as the clubs are concerned. 

“There are rules that enable us to charge fine and punish clubs if they are not doing the right thing by sponsors, and I just wish that it would have been brought to our attention much earlier so that we could have done something about it.”

Ms Richmond added, “We are talking to people but it’s just hard work in this difficult economic climate and it really is hard work to try and find a replacement.”
 
Canterbury City and Cray Valley (PM) were both duly elected to the League – decisions that Ms Richmond commented, `It’s great that Canterbury are back in the Kent League.  They’ve worked very hard since they reformed and after starting at the very bottom of the County league.

“They’ve all the right things year on year and it’s great that we can welcome them into the Kent League and their rightful position. 

“I’m sure they’ve got bundles of ambition but they’ve still got their ground to sort out and give time I’m sure they’ll do that.  They now need to show the Council that they mean business.  They’ve done the right thing with the pitch they delivered to the Council.  The Council now need to deliver the facilities to support that.
 
“I think that Roy (Vinter, Kent League secretary) got this about right when he said that common sense has prevailed. 

“Sporting Bengal have struggled playing away games in the past few seasons,  They pool from a great pool of players and a wide geographical area of players which mean that when they travel from north of the river, players just don’t want to travel far.  That’s why they’ve had great results at home and I think that in the end their move to Essex will be good for them. 

“It’s good for others too as that move has allowed others to take their places with Cray Valley one of those benefiting.  They’ve been pushing for the past few seasons and have just made a massive investment in their ground.

“I also then allowed Lewisham Borough to join the new Step Six League.  So I really do think that common sense has prevailed.”
 
“Hollands and Blair were never going to be considered for the Kent League as they never applied and unless they do the FA don’t look at their record over the past couple of seasons however good it happens to be.  The simple truth is that if you don’t apply by the date you won’t be considered and they didn’t – it’s part of the League system and part of the rules.”
 
This season has been particularly successful for the Kent League Chair following the formation of the new Kent Invicta league

“It’s been my dream for the last four years to get people together and promote a Step Six league to clubs and get club’s to work together to get to where we have now. 

“It’s great – five of the sixteen clubs have already got floodlights and of course they’ve all got some ground improvements to happen but I think it’s great!
 
“Because both leagues are part of the national system there will automatically be promotion and relegation between the two.  The Leagues will agree the number of places as both Leagues need to sit down and debate it, but I think we need more clubs in each of the Leagues before you can even think about promoting and relegating more than one club at a time. 

“It could make both leagues unstable and you’re creating false expectations with club’s coming up when they’re clearly not ready to come up.  Ideally you’d want two up and two down as most other step six and seven leagues have around the country.”

Ms Richmond added, “I just want a rest now as far as I’m concerned my season only just finished tonight when we closed the AGM.  The AGM is the finishing point and if I’m honest I won’t start thinking about next season until the middle of July.  It’s busier now than any other time of the season.  I actually look forward to the season so that I can actually get out and watch the games and don’t get pestered quite so much by the clubs.”

Visit the Kent League’s website: www.kentleague.com