Wednesday’s AGM at the Aviemore Legion was well attended, but sadly the anticipated 8 participating clubs failed to be realised.

A prospective side from Nethy Bridge didn’t happen in the end, plus Kingussie and RBL were forced to drop out for the season to to issues with players and organisation. So this has left us with 5 teams to do battle in the season ahead.

In order to provide enough games, the League campaign will see each side play the others 3 times, which unfortunately means an uneven split of home & away fixtures for some: the maths simply don’t allow it.

Five cups will also be played for, with a preliminary round seeing the hosts play. Each team will provide the opposition once in these preliminary rounds across the 5 cups to maintain balance.  Again, the maths of having 5 clubs make this the only realistic way to proceed, as has happened in previous seasons.

Referee fees remain unchanged from last year, with clubs splitting this 50/50 for payment on the night.

The most controversial issue was the involvement of Highland League and Junior players in the league, and it was agreed to cap each side to a maximum of 3 players who have been signed to either a Junior or Highland League club during the 2015/16 season.  This was not a unanimous vote however.

It was felt many fringe players were denied game time last season due to the arrival of more senior level players during their off season, leading to many disillusioned players leaving their clubs completely.  This backfired in the second half of the campaign when players left the Welfare to return to their senior sides, and saw too many games being cancelled or teams fielding less that 11 players due to a sheer lack of numbers.  It was an unacceptable situation which required ‘outside the box’ thinking to resolve.  How successfully this initiative pans out in practice will be judged in time.

The full 2016 fixture list can now be viewed on our Fixtures & Results page.