How The Club Is Run

A Committee, including all Captains, elected for the forthcoming season by the members of the club at the Annual General Meeting in May, manages Norsemen F.C. If positions are vacant after the AGM the Committee may fill them at a later date.

The Committee meet regularly before the start of each season to plan and organise for the season ahead. When the season starts, meetings take place every Monday at the club commencing at 7.30 pm. This meeting, chaired by the Club Chair, hears match reports from Captains, selects sides for forthcoming fixtures and deals with disciplinary issues.

On the first Monday of every month a Business Meeting also takes place chaired by the Club Chair. This meeting deals with a range of financial and policy issues and receives and discusses progress reports.

The Committee consists of:

The President
Each Captain
The Honorary Secretary
The Honorary Team Secretary
The Honorary Match Secretary
The Honorary Referees Secretary
The Honorary Treasurer
The Officer responsible for Player Discipline
The Grounds and Facilities Officer
The Communications Officer
The Membership and Recruitment Officer
The Honorary Entertainments Secretary

A Representative from Norsemen Youth F.C, usually the Chair, attends Business Meetings to ensure there are effective communications and a good working relationship between the two sections.

If you want matters raised at Committee please let your Captain or a Committee Member know. We are always very pleased to hear your views and deal with issues that matter to you.

What The Officers Do

The club officers do an enormous amount of work to help you enjoy your football. The roles of all the club officials listed below:

Captains

Captains have a huge range of important duties they can undertake personally or delegate to team members. Their responsibilities are to:

Select a side that they or a representative bring to Committee meetings for the Committee to approve.

Notify the players they have selected promptly by Wednesday at the very latest and also personally and promptly notify players they have dropped from their side before the captain of the side they have been dropped to informs such players.

Through liaison with the Grounds and Facilities Manager, ensure their team has the appropriate kit for the match and that kick about balls are available for all games.

For home games ensure the corner flags are in place and collected after the match.

For home games, ensure a match ball is provided to the match officials in their dressing room before the match

For home games, ensure meal vouchers are provided to the match officials in their dressing room before the match

For home games, ensure meal vouchers are provided to opposition in their dressing room before the match

For home games, ensure oranges for the match officials and the opposition are collected from the caterer and given to the match officials and opposition at half time.

Ensure high standards of discipline and sportsmanship during the match.

Call for and get three loud cheers for the opposition immediately after the match and ensure your players shake hands with their opponents.

Shake hands with and thank the match officials and encourage your players to do so.

For home games, retrieve the match ball from the match official after the game.

For all games ensure the kick about balls are retrieved.

For home games, ensure the opposition know where to collect their meals.

For home games ensure the match officials are paid their fee immediately and at all games offered a drink from your jug.

For home games, ensure the opposition are offered a drink from your jug and encourage your side to socialise with your opposition.

Collect the appropriate match fee, fill in the result card and ensure the fee and the card are forwarded to the Treasurer and the Match Secretary respectively.

Ensure the kit is washed in advance of the next game.

The Honorary Secretary

Is responsible for ensuring all administrative matters are handled smoothly and efficiently

Is one of our two Trustees

Enters teams in all necessary cup and league competitions

Deals with all general correspondence

Responds to all disciplinary correspondence and liases with the Disciplinary Chair

Prepares the end of season annual report

Arranges all meetings including the AGM and notifies attendees accordingly

Takes minutes at all meetings

Maintains a database of all former members and vice-presidents and keeps them well-informed of club events

Invites vice-presidents to make a financial contribution

Is responsible for the operation of 100 club through liaison with the promoter

Organises Old Players day

Ensures the Club has an adequate supply of kit and balls

The Honorary Treasurer

Ensures the Club has a balanced budget so income covers expenditure

Ensures the Club receives value for money on all purchases

Is one of our two Trustees

Prepares the Annual accounts for approval at the AGM

Ensures all income due from match fees, subscriptions, discipline, fines and all other sources is received and banked accordingly

Holds the Club cheque book and authorises all expenditure

The Honorary Team Secretary

Ensures all teams have a least 12 players

Is responsible for player registration

Maintains and distributes an up to date database of all players

Establishes a club e-mail group

Liaises with the Membership and Recruitment Officer

Allocates pitches for home games ensuring a fair distribution among side in liaison with the Match Secretary

Co-ordinates and agrees changes to teams made after selection on Monday

The Honorary Match Secretary

Arranges home and away games in accordance with league and AFA notification and re-schedules postponed matches

Organises pre-season and Christmas friendlies in accordance with Captain’s requirements

Arranges pre-season and end of season games against Norsemen Youth FC

Ensures home games do not exceed the capacity of the ground or changing rooms and takes account of ground conditions in arranging matches

Ensures match cards are dispatched in accordance with league and cup regulations

The Discipline Officer

Enforces the Norsemen FC disciplinary code

Ensures the Club does not breach the AFA disciplinary standards

Chairs the Discipline Sub-Committee in respect of breaches of the Disciplinary Code

Keeps detailed disciplinary records

Through liaison with the Hon. Sec and the Hon. Treasurer ensure disciplinary fines are paid and the Committee are advised about non-payment of such fines.

The Honorary Referees Secretary

Ensures all home games that do not have league appointed officials are covered

Establishes a pool of referees for home matches

The Grounds and Facilities Officer

Through liaison with the Club Manager ensures grounds and facilities meet the needs and standards of Norsemen F.C

Acts as the Club’s link with the Club Manager on grounds and facilities matters

In the event of bad weather undertakes pitch inspections with the Groundsman or arranges for such pitch inspections to take place.

Deals with allocations of pitches for Norsemen Youth FC

Controls the storage and allocation of kit, match balls and kick about balls.

Controls the storage and allocation of kit, match balls and kick about balls.

Organises the annual cricket match against Edmonton CC

Ensures the club notice board is tidy and content is up to date

Ensure the Honours Boards are up to date

Provides a kit laundering service in conjunction with Captains

The Membership and Recruitment Officer

Ensures there are sufficient adult (over 18) members to meet the Club’s playing requirements

Organises and implements recruitment initiatives for adult players

Co-ordinates new membership applications and makes recommendations about new members to the Committee

The Youth Development Officer

Develops a good working relationship with Norsemen Youth FC in order to encourage the transfer of players to the Senior Section

Ensures there are sufficient players under 18 to meet the Club’s playing requirements

The Communications Officer

Administers the web site and ensures it is always up to date

Ensures all captains provide weekly match reports for the site

Seeks content for the web site from club members

The Honorary Entertainments Secretary

Recruits a sub-committee to organise the Annual Dinner and other fund raising events

Selection

The Committee selects all sides every Monday. Captains suggest their selected sides to the Committee for approval. The Committee ultimately selects the sides.

You will be contacted with details of your game by 9.00pm on Wednesday. If you have not been contacted by that time call the Team Secretary immediately.

All changes made to selected sides after the Committee meeting must be notified to and authorised by the Team Secretary. Captains must adhere to this procedure.

At selection meetings players may go up as many sides as the Committee feel appropriate. After selection meetings players may only go up one side.

Players may not be dropped more than one side in one week.

The Captain who is dropping you will personally notify players who are dropped. This will be done before the Captain of the side you are being dropped to contacts you.

If you start a match as a substitute you will not start as a substitute in your next game unless you give express permission. Players will be treated fairly and instances of the same players being made substitute each week will be dealt with severely by the Committee.

If you do not turn up for a match without giving prior notification you will not be selected for the Club again until you have appeared before the Committee.

With the permission of the Team Secretary, Captains may take from the side below them up to 9.00pm on the Thursday before a match. After that time it is the responsibility of the Team Secretary to ensure sides are complete.

Disciplinary Code

Non-attendance and match fees

Players who fail to turn up for any match, without giving prior notification or who fail to pay their match fee before departing, will not be selected again until they have appeared before the Disciplinary Committee and provided a satisfactory account of their absence.

Avoidable cautions

If a player is cautioned (yellow card) for dissent by word or action, delaying the re-start of play, failing to retreat the required distance from a corner or free kick, persistent infringement of the laws of the game or entering or leaving the field of play without the referee’s permission, the player will receive a one week club ban as soon as the referee’s report is received by the club.

On the second occasion the player is cautioned for one of the above offences, he will receive a two-match Club ban as soon as the Club receives the referee’s report.

On the third occasion the player is cautioned for one of the above offences, the player will receive a three-match Club ban as soon as the Club receives the referee’s report and will appear before the Disciplinary Committee. Such an appearance may lead to expulsion from the Club or any other punishment that the Disciplinary Committee may impose.

The Disciplinary Committee will monitor cautions for offences other than those listed above. Three cautions for such other offences will lead to the player appearing before the Disciplinary Committee who may administer such punishment as it sees fit.

We accept that football is a contact sport and a physical game. We want you to play hard and competitively but we will not tolerate unnecessary cautions for offences like dissent, delaying the restart, kicking the ball away, foul and abusive language, trying to get other players booked, diving, racism, fighting, retaliation or off the ball incidents.

Sending Off

A sending off (red card) will result in an immediate two-match Club ban as well as a County FA punishment if this requirement is communicated to the Club.

A dismissal for preventing a goal by handball will receive an immediate one-week Club ban as well as a County FA punishment if this requirement is communicated to the Club.

Two sendings off in any one season will result in an appearance before the Disciplinary Committee that may lead to expulsion from the Club or such other punishment as the Disciplinary Committee may impose.

We take the view that all sendings off are unwarranted.

Payment of fines

Players cautioned (yellow card) for any offence must pay the £8 County FA fine to their captain after the match or attend the next available Committee meeting to pay their fine personally. Players will not be picked again until the fine has been paid in this way. Refunds will be paid if the club does not receive referees reports.

Players sent off (red card) will receive notification of the County FA fine and must pay the fine before they are selected again.

Match Fees

Norsemen Football Club incurs significant expenditure in providing you with football.

It costs us over £14,000 a year to hire pitches from Edmonton Sports Club. We buy kits and footballs, we hire training facilities and we provide meals for our opposition after each match. We have to pay nearly £1,000 to enter leagues and cups and we get fined for late kick offs and poor discipline.

We have to raise this money from our members through subscriptions and match fees so it is vital you pay promptly. Avoiding payment ultimately means the burden falls on other members.

If you do not pay your annual subscription promptly you will not be selected for the club until you do. Priority in selecting teams will always be given to members who have paid their subs.

You are expected to pay a match fee and contribute money for the drinks kitty at the discretion of your captain. This is primarily to provide hospitality for the opposition.

If you do not pay your match fee on the day of a match you will not be selected for the Club again until you have appeared before the Committee to give an explanation.

Competitions

Norsemen FC is affiliated to the Amateur Football Alliance (AFA), our County FA.
The AFA in turn affiliates to the FA like other County Football associations such as Middlesex, London and Surrey.

The AFA has around 420 affiliated clubs and has designated responsibility for managing local league football for affiliated clubs in the Greater London and Midlands since 1907.

There are 6 full-time employees at the AFA and this includes the Secretary who heads the administrative function and a Football Development Officer (FDO) who is responsible for the development of the game in the AFA region.

The role of the AFA is:

To deal with disciplinary matters
To sanction all leagues and competitions
To be responsible for the affiliation of clubs
To be responsible for the registration of players
To organise cup competitions
To ensure that the rules and regulations set out by the FA are followed

Norsemen are long established members of the Southern Amateur League (SAL). All our sides play in different divisions of the SAL.

Former members of the league include Ipswich Town FC. The league is one of many that are also affiliated to the AFA. Referees for the higher teams are appointed to league games by the SAL

All teams also play in the AFA cups and the 3rd-9th teams also play in the SAL cups. The AFA cups are County Cup Competitions organised by the AFA. Referees for all these games are appointed by the AFA

The SAL cups are League Cups organised by the SAL and referees are not usually appointed until the latter stages of the competition.

The County Football Association, the AFA, deals with your case if you are cautioned or sent off.

Norsemen F.C. is bound by the disciplinary penalties imposed by the AFA.