The Evolution of MAN v FAT Football 11’s

Confirmed Dates

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MAN v FAT Football 11’s is a network of 11-a-side football clubs from around the UK. The competition is exclusively accessible to MAN v FAT Football members.

The competition was originally started by a passionate MAN v FAT member and volunteer and supported by dedicated Team Managers. MAN v FAT Football 11’s has continued to enable overweight men to play even more football in a competitive and safe environment. Importantly,  where they are also playing alongside and against other like-minded individuals who are part of the same programme.

MAN v FAT Football 11’s has grown quickly in its relatively short life span. We are excited to announce that in 2022/23 the competition will become part of the official MAN v FAT Football membership offer. This transition from an unofficial voluntary setup into an exclusive MAN v FAT Football membership benefit will allow MAN v FAT to provide more resource and ensure high standards of quality and governance.

With this in mind, we are also very keen to nurture what has already been created by our committed members. Our aim is to support and improve the competition rather than to make too many drastic changes. Some of the many ways we aim to achieve this is are;

• To welcome Paul Baker to the MAN v FAT HQ Team as our Events and Community Coordinator. Paul will continue to manage MAN v FAT Football 11’s with more support and capacity than was previously possible as a volunteer.
• Enlist the support and guidance of the FA by officially sanctioning the competition.
• Using learning and player feedback from the previous season to develop our key competition rules.

In our efforts to evolve the competition ahead of the 2022/23 season we will be focussing on;

• Eligibility – ensuring that the competition remains exclusive to MAN v FAT Footballers. This should enable us to support a safe, competitive and fun competition. Systems developed by the FA along with a clear set of competition rules will enable us to achieve exclusivity for eligible MAN v FAT Football members.
• Fixtures & League Tables – As a sanctioned competition MAN v FAT Football 11’s will be able to utilise systems developed by the FA such as the Whole Game System and Full Time apps. Here we will be able to publish fixtures, results and league tables all in one place.
• Affiliation & Insurance – By officially sanctioning our competition with the FA and ensuring all teams are affiliated and insured, we are safeguarding our members and can rely on the support of the FA in providing qualified referees and with disciplinaries for misconduct.

MAN v FAT have strived to keep player fees to a minimum. The aim is not to make MAN v FAT Football 11’s profitable but rather that the income generated will cover staff, resources and facilities for finals day. Teams will need to pay their County FA for affiliation and insurance as many were previously. MAN v FAT Football 11’s players will be charged an annual registration fee of just £9 per player for the 2022/23 season.

The 2022/23 season will commence in August 2022 with group stages running from August through until December. The aim, pending uptake, is to place teams into groups of six regional squads. Teams will be expected to play each team in the group once at home and once away, meaning that they will play ten fixtures in total. At the end of the group stages the teams will then progress to a knock-out stage of the competition which will continue until we are left with two teams who play in the final at a venue to be confirmed

Teams will be expected to complete two games each month and will be given a fixture window (two weeks) to complete each round of fixtures.

We will endeavour to keep MAN v FAT Football 11’s as inclusive and accessible to all as possible. We are aware that the clubs outside of England would not normally be able to take part in a competition that is not governed by their own Football Association. Therefor the advice from the FA is that these teams will need permission from the FAW and SFA to participate. MAN v FAT Football currently have  over 160 UK Clubs. There will be a requirement at some stage of the competition for teams outside of England to cross the border and play fixtures against teams covered by the FA and vice versa as teams will be playing home and away legs in the first stage of the competition.

We understand that change will bring questions and as a team we will do out best to answer them as quickly as possible. To help with this you will find a current copy of our MAN v FAT Football 11’s FAQ’s below.