Competitions Consultation Conclusions: Our plans for 2020 – 2023

We would like to thank those clubs and areas that provided feedback regarding the Future of Competitions in English Korfball document that was published in June-2019. We had asked that clubs and areas to give written feedback by 15 July.

The Competitions sub-committee, at its meeting on 20 August, discussed all of the written feedback received and came to the following conclusions:

1 Split of the CERL into the Northern Regional League (NRL) and Midlands Regional League (MRL)

Since the majority of feedback received from relevant clubs and areas, plus the CERL chair reporting from the CERL AGM were all positive, the split of the CERL into the Northern Regional League (NRL) and Midlands Regional League (MRL) will go ahead as planned with the new Regional Leagues starting in the 2020-21 season. It should be stressed that this change only affects Regional Leagues and should not impact upon local area competitions.

The England Korfball Competition Sub Committee will liaise with the current CERL committee regarding how the finances/administration would be split in order to form the new Regional Leagues.

2 Split of the WRL into a new Western Regional League (WRL) and a Southern Regional League (SRL)

The feedback from the main areas and clubs in the regions concerned was negative. Having taken into account the written feedback received, the Competition Sub Committee felt that now is not the right time to make this change and the split will not, therefore, go ahead at the end of the 2019-20 season. As a result, the SMKA will continue to feed into the SERL.

Dialogue will continue between England Korfball’s Competition Sub Committee and the Areas concerned with the aim of possibly making the proposed changes in two years’ time, i.e. 2022-23.

3 EKL Promotional Divisions from 2021-22 season

As a result of the above decisions, the N&W Promo Division will consist of five (5) teams as follows: WRL 2 teams; NRL 2 teams; MRL 1 team and the S&E Promo Division will continue to consist of 4 teams, 2 from LRL and 2 from SERL

4 Other subjects considered

There was no adverse feedback to the following matters, all of which will be handled as announced in the consultation document:

• Should the Premier Division remain at 10 teams? – Yes
• Should we relegate two teams from the Premier Division? – No
• Should the Reserve Division be reintroduced? – No
• Should we have an extra team in one Promotion Division when a relegated team does not replace a promoted team from the same Promotion Division? – No. However, where a RL only has only one place and there is a team playing from that RL in the Premier Division, then a decision on this possible scenario would be included in the League rules for whenever this situation exists.
• Size of Regional leagues – it is recommended that a RL should have a maximum of 10 teams (to fit the calendar and also allow EK Promo Division fixtures to fit in the standard season

5 Other matters

The six items listed in the “Other matters” section of the consultation document will all be put in place as announced.