COLFC News: The Early Years

Here are the news stories on our website in the early days building up to our first season playing football.

On Friday of last week we issued a statement on our website that we intended as a factual reporting of a decision made by the League Management Committee, concerning a request we had made for a delayed Kick Off v Litherland Remyca on Saturday 21st January.

The League Management have made it clear to us that they consider the details to be not fully correct and that Litherland Remyca were in no way to blame for the committee decision.

We now accept that our statement was not fully correct and have accepted the Management Committee's decision. We offer our sincere apologies to the League Managament Committee and Litherland Remyca for distress caused. We accept that this statement triggered unneccesary comments on social media, which have no place in football.

We would like to remind all concerned that such comments are unacceptable .

The Hallmark Security League is a Respect League; all supporters, including Directors, Volunteers and Fans are free to enjoy the game and the banter that goes with it, but we must treat our opponents and match officials accordingly.

We hope that all our fans understand and that we look forward to renewing our sporting rivalry with our near neighbours on Saturday.

Neither the club nor the Hallmark Security League will be making any further comment on the matter.

Back in 2014 when the first strategy meetings took place regarding the project that was then called “Community Football Club for Liverpool” and later became City of Liverpool FC, we discussed what the club’s role could be in local grassroots football.

We were unanimous back then that in the grassroots sense, we did not want to compete with local junior football clubs, attracting kids away from existing teams to come and play for our junior teams and nor did we just want to land on a junior football club, impose our name upon them and tick a box that implied we had somehow done our bit for community football.

The committee at that time all agreed that we wanted to support local grassroots football, by helping as many junior football clubs as possible.

In June 2016, we received notification from the FA that we would be playing in the Hallmark Security League in Season 2016-17, after we were forced to appeal the original decision to place us at Step 7 of the National League pyramid. From that moment on, every bit of time we could spend as volunteers, has been spent getting a semi professional football club up and playing and competing in what is a very high standard of football.

Consequently, we have not been able to spend as much time as we would have liked developing our community strategy, which genuinely was a key factor in us starting the club in the 1st place. We as a club along with our Partisan supporters have done some great things for the community; Supporting Foodbanks, the Jospice collection, the Zak Harris collection to name just some, but it was always in the forefront of our minds that we had to make good on our grassroots football pledge.

So today we are delighted to announce that with immediate effect, we have become the sponsor of the Edge Hill JFL, which will now be known as the City of Liverpool FC Edge Hill JFL. Our sponsorship of £569 will be used by the City of Liverpool FC Edge Hill JFL to upgrade the kitchen at the league’s home ground of Botanic Park, which in addition to providing hot and cold food and drinks for volunteers, players and parents, will also help to make the league become self-funding and sustainable moving forward.

COLFC Chairman Paul Manning said “When we were first approached by our own supporter and Edge Hill JFL league secretary John Worthington to see if we could help the league out, we immediately agreed and knew that it was something which we could deliver on.

John explained that the league had 70 odd teams in 40 clubs in a range of age groups and having been a parent, coach and volunteer at my own Junior football club, I know how important a kitchen or café is to the sustainability of junior football clubs or in this case; an entire League. That’s at least 700 local children that we are delighted to be able to help and continue to help in the years to come”

John Worthington, secretary of COLFC Edge Hill JFL said “This sponsorship by City of Liverpool FC will be a big help to our league and knowing how much COLFC value the kids coming along to watch the team, we are confident that this is going to be a great partnership moving forward.

With the sponsorship we can now begin to upgrade our kitchen to help make the league sustainable and we know that there is going to be a strong connection between our league, our clubs, our parents and most importantly our children, with City of Liverpool Football Club.”

City of Liverpool FC are delighted to announce that our relationship with Regenda Homes is to be further extended with the local Social Housing provider now to become our Home Shirt sponsor for the rest of the season, in addition to already featuring on our Away Shirts.

This is great news for our club and a big thank you must go to Kevin Short at Regenda for facilitating this arrangement.

Regenda are perfect partners for our club as they clearly demonstrate the kind of social values we hope to foster. 

The newly branded shirts will feature at the next home game v Holker OB on Saturday 10th December.

The team from Gillette Soccer Saturday featuring Johnny Phillips are coming to film about COLFC on Saturday 10th December at the home game with Holker OB, with the film going out the following Saturday 17th December.

Johnny will be looking to interview Directors, Management, Players & Partisans.

As well as the home game with Holker and Sky Sports visiting, the 10th is also our Christmas Party, so maybe Johnny & the Team will join us at the Picturedrome to carry on filming.

Anyway, the 10th is gonna be a boss day and perhaps this could be our first 1000+ crowd as we are sure the Partisans (and especially Junior Partisans) will want to come along and be a part of the filming, so long as the great British weather doesn't ruin it!

Also please note that if Bootle FC's FA Vase game v Cleethorpes goes to a replay our game v Holker will be re-arranged, so its fingers crossed for the weather to hold out and for Bootle not to draw!

Unbelievably, it has been 12 months since we made annual share memberships available in COLFC and those members who purchased in November & December 2015 will be receiving renenwal emails shortly.

Since then we have agreed a groundshare with Bootle FC, Applied to join the (then) North West Counties Football League (now Hallmark Security League), held our 1st members meeting, retained the services of Simon Burton, been rejected by the FA to join the NWCFL and been placed in the Liverpool County Premier League, appealled that decision and been successful, played our 1st ever match at Prestatyn Town and began our 1st ever league season and currently sit 2nd in the table with a record of P22 W14 D3 L5 pts 45 and are currently the 81st best supported club in the whole of the National League pyramid.

All in all a pretty quiet time for the club and members alike!

The renewal email will explian what action you need to take if you wish to renew your membership or indeed if you do not. If you renew your membership you will retain your original membership number in the club, which for people who purchased in November & December 2015, will be roughly numbers #1 - #300.

We hope you choose to renew your membership and continue to support the club as we continue our exciting journey.

If you are expecting a renewal noticve and do not recieve one, please check your SPAM / JUNK email folders, but if anyone has any difficulty renewing thier memberships please email the club on contact@colfc.co.uk

We have been contacted by AFC LIverpool who state that while alcohol will be on sale in the clubhouse at Marine FC for the game on Wednesday, ground regulations stipulate that alcohol cannot be brought to or consumed at pitch side.

Also children will not be free entry into the match, but as yet we have not had notification of what children will be charged for entry. When we know how much they intend to charge, we will let supporters know.

Finally, just a note that parking is very limited at the stadium to pre-registered officials and we assume players, so any supporters driving to the fixture will need to park "on street" in and around the ground, where possible.

A purple seed was planted

Convinced that it would grow

We never doubted our belief

When others told us no!

So from a seed, a Purple stem,

But strength grew from its roots,

For scouse ran through its humble veins,

And belief did start to shoot.

It blossomed next with love & branch,

its height took on no bound,

So masses came from City wide,

Its trunk called them by sound.

COLFC was its name,

As branches touched your heart,

It only ask that young & old,

Turn up and play their part.

That Purple seed has spouted roots,

Foundations here to stay,

Which 11 men who take the field,

Can feel each time they play.

From a humble seed,

A dream was born, purple masses made it so,

We turn up weekly in our droves,

A band of partisans make it grow.

Our club is strong, it feels no pressure,

Where it takes us we cannot tell,

But we will follow, strong as one,

For it has cast a Purple spell.

So as we tend our Purple thing,

Never to see it to fruition,

For when we're gone, rest assured,

Our next generations will complete our mission.

C - Anthony Caveney 2016

Manager Wayne Coldicutt and Assistant Robbie Machell have left the club by mutual consent after the Reserves team failed to field a team for 2 games on the run and only notifying the West Cheshire League and the opponents on the Morning of each match.

City of Liverpool FC apologises to the West Cheshire League and to all other clubs affected by these events with an assurance that the club will either get its house in order in relation to the Reserve team or will disband the team for the season.

Deputy Chairman Peter Furmedge is currently working on matters and is inviting applications of interest from anyone who wishes to be considered for the role of Manager at contact@colfc.co.uk

The successful applicant must have experience of managing a team at Step 7 and be qualified to at least FA Coaching Level 1, have an upto date First Aid certificate and would ideally be able to pull together a squad at short notice.

We would like to thank the Management Committee of the West Cheshire League for thier assistance and all Reserve team matches are suspended currently pending the decision of the club as to whether we proceed with the Reserve team this season or not.

The Hallmark Security League has today issued the full league fixtures for 1st Division Clubs and you can see the full fixture list here

Because of potential adverse weather, the league has weighted the early part of the season with midweek fixtures, in an effort to avoid congestion, but usually teams will see games postponed and re-arranged for midweeks later in the season.

Also be aware that COLFC is actively pursuing alternate matchdays when Saturday fixtures clash with both LFC and EFC fixtures, so supporters will likely see Fridays and Sundays used as the season progresses. Indeed we already have a couple of these fixture changes in the pipeline already, with all clubs having agreed and us just waiting on confirmation from the Hallmark Security League.

Looking at the fixture list we are very grateful that all of our most distant away fixtures; Carlisle City, Holker OB, Silsden, Eccleshall, AFC Blackpool, FC Oswestry Town & Bacup Borough are all currently scheduled as Saturday away trips.

We are also very lucky that both of our Festive period fixtures; Away at Widnes and Away at Stockport Town, are both guaranteed to be played, as both clubs play on 3g pitches.

We are also privileged to be a part of the Groundhopper weekend fixtures, as we will play St Helens Town away on Easter Sunday. More details about the Groundhopper weekend can be found here

Our first derby of the season against near neighbours Litherland REMYCA will take place on 12/10/2016 at the Litherland Sports Park and then back at Vesty Road on 25/02/2017, with of course an FA Vase clash against the REMY to come first on 10/9/2016.

COLFC member #387 Peter Knowles has began a crowdfunding page to raise £200 to purchase a Defibrillator machine for COLFC so that our players, staff and supporters can have the best treatment possible should the worst come to the worst and someone have a serious heart problem at one of our matches.

We are already 55% towards our total, so if you can help please do so by following the link here Defib Crowdfunding

A brilliant initiative by Peter and obviously something close to his heart.

Rocket Claims is a local Accident Management Company and is a member of CoLaborate.

Rocket Claims is the home of Rocket Man, Merseyside's very own Super-Hero and for each COLFC match, Rocket Claims will pick a Man of the Match.

Those match by match awards will be accumulated over the Season and a "Rocket Man" Player of the season will be named and provided with some big, boss award thingio (we haven't decided what yet!).

The Rocket Claims "Man of the Match" v Prestatyn was #11 Nathan Martland, whose unbelievable burst of pace to skin the Prestatyn left back and set up the winning goal was truly worthy of the name Rocket Man

If you, or your freinds or family or work colleagues have had an accident that was not your fault, Rocket Man will help you get compensated!

Yesterday the club played its first ever match and what a great day it was!

Around 150 COLFC supporters made the journey to Prestatyn, despite the bad weather, the Runcorn Bridge and the trains being chaotic and we hope that everybody enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

And we won!

And had a laugh!

And had a bevvy!

As the late great John Peel said "Football, Beer & Music - the very stuff of life itself" (or something like that anyway!)

Who's coming to Congleton on Tuesday?

The Hallmark Security League held a "New Clubs" Meeting today at Irlam FC to help the 6 new clubs to understand the administrative procedure required by the league. At the end of the meeting, the draws for the Reusch 1st Division Cup and the Macron Challenge Cup were made.

Reusch 1st Division Cup

The early rounds of the draw were made using a North & South system and after recieving a bye into the 2nd Round in the Southerly group, we have been drawn against Cheadle Town at Home, at a date to be confirmed by the league.

Macron Challenge Cup

This is the cup for all teams in the Hallmark Security League and for the 1st time it was an open draw and COLFC again were lucky enough to receive a bye to Round Two, where we will meet the winners of the 1st round tie between Congleton Town (Premier League) & Prestwich Heys (1st Division). We will be the away team and the tie will be played on Saturday 29th October.

Saturday 11th June, saw 37 triallists attend Admiral Park, L8 to be put through thier paces by 1st team coach Tom Spearritt and assisted by fellow members of the coaching staff.

Manager Simon Burton was in attendance but was on restricted duties due to a recent knee operation and so was merely observing.

The standard was very high across the whole day and 8 triallists have been invited to join us for pre-season training, which starts next Saturday 18th June.

Below are some photographs taken by club photography pool member Philip Costello.

Further to yesterday's club statement on the FA's decision to place us at Step 7 of the National League System, the Executive Committee can confirm that we are instigating the Appeals procedure, as offered to us by the FA.

Whilst disappointed at the original decision, City of Liverpool Football Club accepts the integrity of the decision making process and will not make further public comment, until due process has been completed. 

It is disappointing to read the decision of the FA National Leagues Committee that we received this evening, placing the club at Step 7 of the pyramid and we know that our 914 members will also be disappointed.

We felt that the club had made an outstanding case of having "exceptional circumstances" to be allowed to join the pyramid at Step 6 and that we had delivered that case in a high quality, professional, presentation.

The FA have not told us on what grounds we have failed in our application, but in light of the statement made this evening by the North West Counties Football League http://www.nwcfl.com/news-articles.php?id=5151 that the League has been left 1 club short of capacity for season 2016/17 and the fact that we are ready, willing and able to fulfill that position, we are considering our options as to the way forward.

Our 1st ever members' meeting will take place on Moday 15th February at 6.30pm, at Jack Jones House, Commutation Row, Liverpool (former TGWU building).

Members will get a detailed overview of progress so far and an update on the recruitment of a Manager and the progress of securing our own ground within the city amongst a raft of other items.

We will also have a full Q&A with members, fielding any matters arising.

If your are already a member of the club, you are urged to access your webcollect account (www.webcollect.org.uk) and secure your ticket for the meeting. Tickets are free but space may be limited, so be certain of your place by registering to attend in advance.

If you are not already a member of the club and want to attend the meeting, you can join the club now at www.colfc.co.uk/memberships and you will be part of our exciting new adventure.

Only fully paid up members of the club will be allowed access to the meeting.

Excellent news that we are now officially a CBS (Community Benefit Society), which in short terms mean we are now a supporter owned football club.

Grateful thanks to the team at Supporters Direct for thier work on our project.

All we need now is supporters, which is where you come in!

Memberships in City of Liverpool FC will now shortly be available to anyone who shares our aims and aspirations, be they from Liverpool, the UK or anywhere in the World.

UK Memberships are available in 4 categories:-

Adult 21-65

- £10 annual membership, including £1 share in club, granting owner voting rights in club issues.

- With this membership, entry to home games is £5

Young Adult 16-20

- £5.00 annual membership, including £1 share in club, granting owner voting rights in club issues.

- With this membership, entry to home games is £3.00

Seniors + Concessions

- £5.00 annual memberships, including £1 share in club, granting owner voting rights in club issues.

- With this membership, entry to home games is £3.00

Children 0-15

- £1.00 annual membership, but does not include a share in club (anyone under the age of 16 is not legally allowed to hold shares in a CBS unfortunately)

- With this membership, entry to home games is FREE.

NB - Child memberships can only be bought in conjunction with an adult membership, not as a stand alone membership.

International Members

- £15.00 annually, but does not include a share in the club (non UK residents cannot hold shares in a CBS unfortunately).

Please watch our social media outlets or your email in box, for confirmation of when memberships become available to purchase shortly.

Our public meeting took place on 21st September 2015 at the Quakers Meeting rooms, Liverpool City Centre.

Around 40 people were in attendance to hear about the aims and aspirations of the club and various opinions and advice were shared with members of the executive committee in attendance.

After presentation of our model club rules in association with Supporters Direct, we held a vote as to whether the community supported the launch of COLFC, which was unanimously agreed with and the motion was carried.

The club will now proceed to work closely with Supporters Direct to transfer the legal standing of the club from a limited company (which we formed simply to protect the name of the club) to a Community Benefit Society.

COLFC will be hosting a public meeting at 7pm on Monday 21st September 2015, at The Quakers Meeting House, 22 School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BT.

The meeting is to officially launch COLFC as a community owned football club and to accept nominations for a steering committee to take the club forward towards the big kick off in August 2016.

Anyone who shares the aims and aspirations of COLFC is welcome to attend the meeting.

Please watch the video below to undertsand what COLFC wants to do for the whole of the City.