Leisure Leagues have welcomed new guidelines by the ISF, the world governing body for small sided leagues, on how to make leagues in the UK Covid secure following the Government’s announcements last week.

Executive Director Stephanie Bullock said: “We have been urging more guidelines on small sided leagues for a while now, and are delighted that we finally have a set of guidelines which are specific to small sided leagues”.

“A lot of the guidelines have been things that we have been doing since we got our leagues slowly moving again over the past few weeks but we are aware that there are some of the operators who are not taking public health seriously as we are”.

“For example, we invested over the summer to make our website able to integrate multiple online cash payments from teams for any of their matches and this has meant that, so far, we have eliminated cash handling at all our leagues by 97%”.

Yesterday, the so called “Rule of Six” came into law. This bans gatherings of more than six people. 6 a side football is one of the sports that is exempt, with Ms Bullock adding: “The Government is telling us that it is now young people who are transmitting this disease so the spotlight is on 5 and the 6 aside leagues so we are being extra vigilant and are proud to be the only leagues organiser in the country who have fully committed to implementing all of the guidelines and the recommendations in the report.”

Footage emerged at the weekend of other providers not abiding by the regulations, but the Director moved to reassure players, staff and the wider community that this was not the case with the World’s largest provider of community sport. “Certainly, any facility can know that Leisure Leagues stands alone in our industry in ensuring our leagues are completely Covid secure, and adhering to the strict letter of the guidelines that are being issued,” she confirmed.

Our latest Covid guidelines are below and to speak to your Area Manager if you have concerns, give us a call on 0333 123 2340.