Welcome to season 2025 – 2026 as we enter our 45th season as a
League.

I want to start by thanking all my Committee and Officers who continue to
work tirelessly across the season and to bring you a product which we believe
is the best around. My personal thanks to Jon Barrett who was our Senior
Fixture Secretary and has now retired. Thank you Jon.
This season we have received a new record of teams wanting to join the
league and we start the season with a record number of clubs participating
beating our record from last season. I am very proud of the way the team
works and apart from Jon leaving us, we have the same team…….and Steve
Rowedder has stepped up to become our Senior Fixture Secretary.
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I would like to thank our sponsors and supporters of the League and a special
welcome to Gary and Tracy Axford (Kent Awards) who took over Faversham
Trophies which has allowed Colin and Sue to retire. Again, a massive thank
you to all four of them, as the transition has been seamless and resulted in us
being able to offer a great service to teams who won and were runners up in
their leagues. My thanks also to Phil Reader of Reader & Phillips who
continue to sponsor our U14 League Cup.
A huge welcome to all our new clubs and those returning after a break! It is
always good to welcome to new clubs and teams, and I hope you enjoy the
KYL experience.
We would ask you all to look at our social media platforms and encourage
parents and players (Instagram) to take a look….. We have X formerly Twitter,
Instagram where we highlight the many professional photos that are taken
every Sunday and YouTube – where highlights of all our Cup Finals can be
found, and from time-to-time interviews with myself and others across the
season.
We continue to work hard with behaviour. All Managers and Coaches will wear
their ID badges in the technical areas – this ensures that we and spectators
are aware of who is permitted in these areas, and we will continue to educate
those who feel they do not need to wear them.
I would like to place on record my thanks to Kent FA for their continued
support, especially on the discipline side.
My thanks to those clubs who hosted our Cup Finals: Maidstone United, Cray
Valley, Dartford, and Corinthian. We had some excellent finals, and our
Thursday night matches are a must to come and watch.

I always like to talk about the match officials in our League. We have Alan
Faulkner as our Referee Secretary and a new Assistant Bradley Godden and
we have seen a significant improvement in matches we have been able to
cover, and we have seen some excellent performances from the Referee
panel.
We continue to ask all clubs to make the matchday experience a good one for
the official. Hospitality for the official goes a long way to keep Referees
wanting to referee on the League. A lot of the feedback we receive is that the
officials enjoy the quality of football and the challenges it brings. However, we
do hope that we can see improved behaviour, but we now have a team of
Referees who will deal with these matters in the correct manner.
Can I personally thank every Referee who covered a game for us last season.
We do get the odd game where an adult usually feels the need to berate a
match official and I am hoping that this season, that the silent majority can
help us to stamp this out. We lose officials who can only give decisions that
they see, and no referee sets other than to do their best. The league is often a
springboard for young referees to start their time, and we are proud of that…..
so please help us to stamp this out.
The season will start this season on Sunday 7th September, and end
17th May 2026. There will be no games on Sunday 21st December and
Easter Sunday 5th April 2026.
One important rule change this season. There will be NO extra time for all
League Cup games, and at full time if the scores are level the game will go
straight to penalties.
Finally, let us remember that we are providing over 4,000 young people with
an opportunity to play football every Sunday – just take stock of those
numbers. The exceptional stories we keep reading about players going on to
play professional football and semi-professional for our member clubs who
started in the KYL……I always feel a sense of pride when I read about these
great achievements.

Ken