Administration, Governanace and Competition Season 2024
CHAIRPERSON: Jonathon Sands
LEAGUE SECRETARY: Vanessa Hernandez
TREASURER: Roz Harris
FIXTURES: Holly Lovell
GENERAL: Richard Manning
GENERAL: Gail Harvey
1.1 This organisation shall be known as the Herts Women’s Walking Football League (‘HWWFL’).
1.2 The League is affiliated to the Hertfordshire FA
1.3 All Clubs shall adhere to the Rules. Every Club shall be deemed, as a member of the Competition to have accepted the Rules and to have agreed to abide by the decisions of the Management Committee in relation to them.
1.4 All member Teams must be affiliated to their County FA.
1.5 Inclusivity and Non-discrimination:
(i) The Competition and each Club must be committed to promoting inclusivity and to eliminating all forms of discrimination and should abide and adhere to The FA Equality Policy and any legislative requirements (including those contained in the Equality Act 2010).
(ii) This Competition and each Club must make every effort to promote equality by treating people fairly and with respect, by recognising that inequalities may exist, by taking steps to address them and by providing access and opportunities for all members of the community, irrespective of age, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marital status, race, nationality, ethnic origin, colour, religion or belief, ability or disability or otherwise.
(iii) Any alleged breach of the Equality Act 2010 legislation must be referred to the appropriate Sanctioning Authority for investigation.
1.6 All Participants shall abide by The Football Association Regulations for Safeguarding Children and Regulations for Safeguarding Adults at Risk as determined by The FA from time to time.
2.1 All member Teams must complete and provide to the HWWFL League Secretary an Entry Form prior to competing in the HWWFL competitions.
2.2 A Team shall not participate in the competitions until the Entry Form has been approved and appropriate fees paid.
2.3 The Entry Fee is £50 per season to join the League.
2.4 Additionally £45 per team for each match day which must be paid at least 7 days before the match day.
3.1 The competitions shall be governed by a Management Committee (‘Committee’) which shall be elected at the AGM or other designated meeting in accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the FA. The Committee shall meet when required.
4.1 The Management Committee shall have power to deal only with matters within the Competition and not for any matters of misconduct that are under the jurisdiction of The FA or Affiliated Association
4.2 The Management Committee shall have powers to apply, act upon and enforce these Rules and shall also have jurisdiction over all matters affecting the Competition. Any action by the Competition must be taken within 28 days of the Competition being notified.
For all alleged breaches of a Rule the Management Committee shall issue a formal written charge to the Club concerned. The Club charged shall be given 7 days from the date of notification of the charge to reply. In such reply a Club may:
1. Accept the charge and /or submit in writing a case of mitigation for consideration by the Management Committee; or
2. Accept the charge and notify the Competition that it wishes to put its case of mitigation at a hearing before the Management Committee; or
3. Deny the charge and submit in writing supporting evidence for consideration by the Management Committee; or
4. Deny the charge and notify the Competition that it wishes to have a hearing before the Management Committee.
Where the Club charged fails to respond within 7 days, the Management Committee shall determine the charge in such manner and upon such evidence as it considers appropriate.
4.3 All fines shall be levied by the Committee. The maximum fine permitted for any breach of a Rule is £100 and, when setting any fine, the Committee will ensure that the penalty is proportional to the offence, considering any mitigating circumstances.
4.4 Decisions of the Committee must be notified in writing to those concerned within 7 days.
4.5 All fines and charges are payable forthwith and must be paid within 21 days of the date of notification of the decision. Any Club failing to do so may be liable to the imposition of a further fine imposed by the Committee. Further failure to pay the fine including the additional fine within 14 days will result in the Team’s fixtures being withdrawn until such time as the outstanding fines are paid.
4.6 All decisions of the Management Committee shall be binding subject to the right of appeal in accordance with Rule 5
5.1 All questions of eligibility, qualification of players or interpretations of the Rules shall be referred to the Management Committee.
5.2 All objections relevant to the dimensions of the pitch, goals, goal areas or other facilities of the venue will not be entertained by the Committee unless a protest is lodged with the Referee before the commencement of the match.
5.3 Except in cases where the Committee decide that there are special circumstances, protests and complaints (which must contain full particulars of the grounds upon which they are founded) must be lodged with the Committee within two days (excluding Sundays) of the match or occurrence to which they refer. A protest or complaint shall not be withdrawn except by permission of the Committee.
5.4 No protest of whatever kind shall be considered by the Committee unless the complaining Club shall have deposited with the HWWFL an appeal fee of £25. This may be forfeited in whole or in part in the event of the complaining or protesting club losing its case. The Committee shall have the power to order the defaulting Club or the Club making a losing or frivolous protest or complaint to pay the expenses of the enquiry or to order that the costs to be shared by the parties.
5.5 All parties to a protest or complaint must receive a copy of the submission and must be afforded an opportunity to make a statement at least 7 days prior to the protest or complaint being heard. All protests will be dealt with as written correspondence, unless either party requests a Personal Hearing when forwarding the written response. If a Personal Hearing is requested, all parties must receive seven 7 days’ notice of the hearing should they be instructed to attend.
5.6 Any appeal against a decision of the Management Committee must be lodged with the Hertfordshire FA within 14 days of the posting of the written notification of the decision causing the appeal, accompanied by the relevant fee.
6.1 The AGM shall be held not later than 1st September of each year. At this meeting the following business shall be conducted provided that at least 5 Members are present and entitled to vote to: -
(i) Receive and confirm the Minutes of the preceding AGM.
(ii) Consider any business arising therefrom.
(iii) To receive and adopt the Annual Report, and Statements of Accounts (as appropriate).
(iv) Elect clubs to fill vacancies (as recommended by the Committee).
(v) Agree the Constitution of the Competition for the following season.
(vi) Elect Officers.
(vii) Confirm Rule changes, if any (of which notice has been given).
(viii) Fix the dates for the commencement and end of the playing season.
(ix) Conduct other business of which due notice shall have been given and accepted as being relevant to an AGM.
6.2 Each member Club shall be empowered to send to an AGM no more than one delegate, and each Club shall be entitled to one vote.
6.3 Officers of the Management Committee shall be entitled to attend and vote at an AGM but cannot also cast a vote on behalf of a club.
6.4 Any continuing member Club failing to be represented at the AGM, or any other meeting called by the Committee to which they have been invited to attend, without satisfactory reason being given, shall be fined £30.
6.5 Fourteen days’ notice of the AGM shall be given to clubs.
7.1 The Committee may call a General Meeting (‘GM’) at any time.
7.2 Upon receiving a requisition signed by two-thirds (2/3) of clubs the League Secretary shall call a AGM.
7.3 Clubs will be given at least 7 days’ notice of a GM under this rule and will be provided with an agenda of the business to be conducted at the meeting. Each club shall be empowered to send up to two delegates to all GMs and shall be entitled to one vote only, as will Officers and Committee members.
7.4 If an Officer or Committee member is also a Club representative, that person’s vote will be classed as the Club’s vote.
7.5 In the event that a matter being voted upon receives equal shares of the vote, the Chairman shall have the casting vote.
7.6 Any continuing club failing to be represented at a GM without satisfactory reason being given shall be fined £30.
8.1 Dissolution of the HWWFL shall be by resolution approved at a GM by a majority of three quarters (3/4) of the member clubs present and shall take effect from the date of the relevant GM.
8.2 In the event of the dissolution of the HWWFL, the members of the Committee are responsible for the winding up of the assets and liabilities of the Competition.
8.3 The Committee shall deal with any surplus assets as follows:
Any surplus assets, save for a trophy or any other presentation, remaining after the discharge of the debts and liabilities of the HWWFL shall be transferred to another Competition or The Hertfordshire FA or to such other charitable or benevolent object in the locality of the Competition as determined by resolution at or before the time of winding up, and approved in writing by the Hertfordshire FA.
9.1 All Clubs must have valid public liability insurance cover of at least ten million pounds (£10,000,000) at all times.
9.2 All Clubs must have valid personal accident cover for all Players registered with them from time to time. The Players’ personal accident insurance cover must be in place prior to the Club taking part in any Competition Match and shall be at least equal to the minimum recommended cover determined from time to time by the Sanctioning Authority. In instances where the FA is the Sanctioning Authority, the minimum recommended cover will be the cover required by the Affiliated Association to which a Club affiliates.
Match Related Rules
10.1 A registered playing member of a Club is one who, being in all other respects eligible, who has been registered on the FA’s Whole Game System (‘WGS’).
10.2 All players must be at least 40 (forty) years of age on the day of the match they participate in.
10.3 All players must be female.
10.4 If a Club has entered two or more teams, players can only represent one team on a given matchday.
10.5 Players may however play for more than one team during the course of the season providing they are registered correctly and appropriately on the WGS prior to each match.
10.6 A player is not allowed to register to play for different clubs in different competitions that the League may organise.
10.7 Failure to comply with any of the above-mentioned conditions may result in the forfeiture of matches and/or the imposition of other sanctions including financial penalties, which will be determined by the Committee.
11.1 The fixtures will be played at Cheshunt FC on 3G pitches.
11.2 All teams must confirm their attendance/non-attendance at league fixtures to the Fixture Secretary at least 7 days prior to the league fixtures.
11.3 All Competition Matches shall be played in accordance with the Laws of Walking Football as determined by The FA. The new laws (published February 2024) will come into play from 1st May 2024. A full copy of the new laws can be found here: February 2024 Revised Laws of The Game. Please take note of the key changes below:
- Law 4. The Law regarding players equipment has been relaxed to allow plain wedding bands to be covered and not removed.
- Law 12/14. Sanction for Denying an Obvious Goalscoring Opportunity (DOGSO). Previous sanction was a red card, which was deemed as not a sufficient deterrent to deliberate fouls or running, and in addition could add undue strain on the remaining players. The change to this Law sees a red card replaced by a blue card and a penalty to the opposition.
- Law 18. The previous sanction for not walking was on an individual basis, with a blue card on the third not walking offence. Following the trial events, it was shown that the biggest deterrent to not walking would be to change from an individual count, to a team count in which each team will be penalised with the award of a penalty to the opposition on the fourth occasion of not walking. This count will then reset and continue for the remainder of the game.
11.4 Matches shall be played on Sundays over a 5-month period March to July inclusive.
11.5 For March and April, all teams will play each other once. For May, June and July, the league will split into 2 Divisions and teams play only teams in their division.
11.6 The times of kick-off shall be 2pm except for the July match dates, which is 10am and can only altered by the mutual consent of the competing Teams prior to the schedule date of the match, with written notification given to the Fixture Secretary at least 7 days prior to the match date.
11.7 Referees must order matches to commence at the appointed time and must report all late starts to the Fixture Secretary.
11.8 Any Team unable to fulfil a fixture for any reason will forfeit those matches and points will be awarded to the opposition.
11.9 Players must have numbers on their shirts or bibs. No player, including the goalkeeper, is permitted to wear black shirts.
11.10 The minimum number of players that will constitute a team for a match is 6 (six), with a maximum matchday squad of 10 on any given day.
11.11 Repeat substitutions may be used in this Competition and are unlimited.
11.12 Each competing team will be required to submit a team sheet to the League, either on the day or in advance via email.
12.1 Referees will be responsible for recording match results on scorecards provided by HWWFL and submit to the Fixture Secretary on match days.
13.1 Wherever possible, referees will be affiliated to HFA, validated by the HWWFL and appointed by the HWWFL.
13.2 The maximum fee payable to a referee for officiating at a tournament shall be notified in a separate communication.
14.1 Team rankings within the Competition will be decided by points with three points to be awarded for a win and one point for a draw.
14.2 If, during the season, a team is unable to fulfil a fixture its opponents will be awarded 3 points on the basis of a 0-0 score line.
14.3 The Teams gaining the highest number of points in their respective divisions at the end of the Playing Season shall be adjudged the winners.
14.4 In the event of two or more Teams being equal on points at the end of the Playing Season, rankings shall be determined by goal difference (where the goals scored against each Team shall be deducted from the goals scored by that Team and the Team with the most favourable goal difference shall be placed highest). In the event of two or more Teams still being equal, the Team which has scored the most goals during the Playing Season shall be placed highest.
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