City of Portsmouth Sunday League aiming for Easter Sunday restart

Games across the six divisions – featuring 56 clubs - have been paused since mid-December due to lockdown restrictions.

But the FA have given the league the green light to play on until the end of June if necessary.

‘I’ve spoken to the chairman of the league and told him we’ll start look to restart on April 4,’ said league secretary Dave Palmer.

‘A lot depends on the council extending the dates they take down the goalposts.

‘Normally it would be between mid-April and the first week of May, but as Hampshire (FA) have extended the season we’re hoping to keep them up a bit longer.

‘We’d like to get as many games in as we can.

‘It could be that we play as many as we can and then look to do PPG for promotion and relegation.

‘I’ve had a few enquiries about teams wanting to join for next season, so we need to do promotion and relegation and then see where we can fit them in.

‘Teams can also play midweek games if they want, though we can’t force them to play as we’re a Sunday league.

‘We’ve also got four cups but I think the priority will be getting the games done.

‘The cups will have to go on the backburner. If we can do them we will, but they may have to be voided.’

Given an April 4 restart, that gives 13 Sundays until the end of June on which to play games.

That won’t be enough for all teams - Shelford (Division 3) have only played two league games out of a scheduled 18 in Division 3 while Southsea have only played four out of 18 in Division 4.

Playing double headers, as well as midweeks, are options to completing those seasons.

Palmer is aware that some council facilities used for football during the winter are given over to cricket for the summer months.

He doesn’t feel that should be a huge problem to overcome.

‘There’s a cricket square at Farlington but you could still use at least six of the pitches there,’ he said.

‘And none of the other major sites - King George, Bransbury Park, Paulsgrove - have got cricket pitches.

‘We will do what we can to get the games back on.

‘I’m sure the council will want to get some of their revenue back they’ve missed out on.’

‘We’re going to go for an April 4 restart unless anyone tells me otherwise.’

Teams generally pay around £50 per game to hire one of the council pitches.