Club Committee Statement

The relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions from 1 June 2020, and in particular, that “Football training or fitness activities in groups of no more than six, keeping two metres apart at all times” is now permitted, has led the Committee considering our options as a club. Of course guidance changes daily, so our current interpretation is outlined below.

We believe (along with Hampshire FA) that the relaxations are aimed at allowing groups of 6 to now meet in a park; we believe this is fundamentally different to a re-opening of the Enclosure and structured club training.

Alton FC is a club with over 500 players and coaches all focused on a single facility. As such we consider ourselves to be more like a “Sports Centre” than a “Park” and follow guidelines for those sorts of facilities. Hence we do not feel the time is right to open the Enclosure and return to training.

We are, however, very keen to get back to training at the earliest opportunity and when given the go-ahead, we want to have our plans in place on how to get back up and running quickly in a “Covid-safe” way. This will potentially involve, for example:

• a one-way system into the Enclosure;
• hand-washing and sanitising facilities;
• increased cleaning of cones, balls and goals;
• reduced time slots to avoid congestion;
• full documented training to all coaches on how to operate safely.

Coaches will also need to consider how to run a guaranteed socially-distanced training slot and how to involve all players with squads significantly larger than 6.

To be ready, we have therefore kicked off the above planning.

For now, we will work on this whilst we continue to monitor official guidance. We have scheduled a committee meeting for the end of June when we may be able to make further decisions.

We continue to keep the health and safety of all our members a priority, please keep well and follow government guidelines so we can all get through this fit and healthy.

Alton FC Club Committee