AS YET another weekend falls foul of the awful conditions that have battered the UK, and in particularly the southwest, over the past week, it is safe to say that many football clubs are going to be playing two or possibly three times a week come the end of the season in order to make up the back log of postponed fixtures, writes Ryan Cox.

It is normally a tell-tale sign that all junior Duchy and Kingsley league fixtures will be off if the senior South West Peninsula and East Cornwall league games are postponed, and that was the case this weekend.

What made it even more clear just how bad the weather had been was that Plymouth Argyle’s away fixture with Yeovil Town, Exeter City’s home tie with Oxford United, and Bristol Rovers’ home game against AFC Wimbledon had also been postponed due to waterlogged pitches.

Without doubt this has been one of the wettest, if not the wettest, sporting winter on record. It is usual for games to be postponed during these often miserable months, but not on the scale as they have been this season — with even the ever-reliable rugby grounds being put out of bounds.

A lot of football clubs, in the Duchy leagues especially, have had more matches postponed this season than they have actually played — some, astonishingly, haven’t played since October — and in that lies the impending crisis.

After last season’s also wet winter, it has left many amateur footballers seriously frustrated with the lack of matches and the lengthy ‘mid-season break’ without having the luxury of being able to make plans for the weekend with match status often not decided until Saturday morning.

This situation has caused many players to consider walking away from the sport and in turn, over the past decade, according to the FA (Football Association), participation numbers have dropped from approximately 2.02 million in 2005, to 1.84 million last year — staggering figures that will only get worse if something isn’t done very soon.

There is the bonus of the clocks going forward at the end of next month, offering lighter evenings where potentially extra mid-week games can be played, but it is now getting to the point that it could be too little too late.

With the referee shortage also featuring heavily this season, with the build up of so many games, who will there be to officiate them unless clubs mutually agree to let a volunteer take the whistle?

There has been an age-old debate that all grass-roots football should start league campaigns at the beginning of August rather than waiting until September, however, the sticking point has always come about when a number of footballers like to play cricket as well.

By starting the season in September, it gives those that wish to play both to do so without much, if any, overlap. However, with the current football crisis many are claiming this shouldn’t be considered a factor anymore as the damage it’s causing grass-roots football outweighs the wishes of the cluster that play both.

This has been part of a lively debate on www.cornwallfootballforum.com, with managers, players and officials in the southwest all having input.

Other solutions suggested have been for every club to work towards installing 3/4G pitches, but the cost is too great for most even with support, and for leagues to be made smaller as the South West Peninsula teams, for example, currently play anything between 50-60 matches a season with friendlies and cup games included.

The most sensible way forward it seems would be to start the season at least two to three weeks earlier to allow for the inevitable winter washout — a decision that is surely going to have to be made before the 2016/17 campaigns get underway.