WARREN Barlow, chairman of the Bolton, Bury and District Football League talks about the issues affecting grassroots sport and football.


JANUARY is traditionally a quiet month for football teams as many games are called off due to waterlogged or frozen pitches.

This January has been no exception, leading to increased focus in the grassroots football community on summer football, 3G and indoor games, such as futsal.
We can influence two of those, and, as stated previously, we have plans to do so with a summer league.

Work is also underway to pull together the various futsal providers locally in order that we can make a futsal league a reality.
One area which is harder to influence is 3G provision, but that doesn’t stop us trying.

Anybody who visits Bolton Wanderers Academy at Lostock will see the community 3G pitch which was given planning permission due to Bolton Wanderers Community Trust and the BBDFL working together.

There are other plans for sports expansion in the borough and we will offer our support to any organisation, including clubs and schools to assist in developing better facilities for the area.

It matters not if the facility is for football as I would like to see all sports providers working together to improve the infrastructure for all.

An area in which we are lacking is disabled football in the Bolton, Bury and District Football League, but there is I would ask people to check out a great club called AFC Masters which I ask people to check out as they are doing great things in the area.


The other is girls football and one of the largest clubs in the region Academy Juniors are worth looking at also as they are based locally and offer lots of opportunities for girls.