Summer football’s cold shoulder

As the Mid Wales sports scene prepares for an unwelcome spell of inactivity, the area’s most experienced manager has urged football clubs to be cautious about calling for a switch to a summer season.

Mike Evans agrees that the Welsh winters are worsening and is feeling the frustration more than most with his Caersws side sitting amongst the Huws Gray Alliance leaders. But he has warned that a switch to summer football is not as straight forward as it seems.

“It is a debate that is undoubtedly going to be opened once again with the snow and freezing weather coming so early this season,” said Evans. “But unfortunately there seems to be more questions than answers. My biggest concern is the hard grounds and the need for sprinkler systems on the pitches. Earlier in the summer we had weeks of no rain and the grounds were bone hard. If we had a hose pipe ban, which does happen often, then we would be a position where matches could be cancelled for hard pitches so we’re no better off.

“You have also got to take into consideration that a lot of footballers have young families so the clash with summer holidays would create problems for them. There’s the cricket season which would be affected as well. There are so many things to consider.”

Evans was also cautious about backing a winter break pointing out that it wouldn’t be set for this time of the year anyway (probably early January for a fortnight) and that snow has even been known to fall in April causing widespread cancellation then.

The debate is set to rumble on as the temperatures plummet and Football Association of Wales (FAW) President, Phil Pritchard, said: “The FAW serves the clubs and if they feel that summer football was the way forward then we would have to consider it. We have made moves like reducing the Welsh Premier to 12 clubs and feeder leagues to a maximum of 16 to try and ease fixture congestion and will look at other proposals should the clubs wish there is a need. However, I don’t believe there is a groundswell of support for summer football.”