SUNDAY morning and local pitches should be full of local amateur football teams scrapping it out.

Well that’s how it used to be. But not anymore, council pitches are now no longer used by the masses of local amateur open-age teams they used to be and we are left with just one Sunday league in the Bolton area.

For the committee of the Bolton Sunday League, though, this is just a rebuilding phase, and their aim is to get the people of Bolton picking up their boots once again and running out on a Sunday morning.

It may be a tall order but they are working to change the way we perceive amateur football.

Modern day culture has no doubt changed the way we live, and no longer do people work a nine to five job like they did 20 years ago.

The working adult does not have time to play football on Sunday as well as balancing their job with life at home.

This is why Carl Cover, the secretary of the Bolton Sunday League, wants Sunday morning football to become a family occasion.

A “carnival atmosphere" is how he describes it.

It is an ambitious plan but it may just be the way to get the league thriving again, and with the new committee in charge they may just realise their ambitions.

“We have a young, vibrant committee with fresh ideas," he said. "We wanted to get away from the cloth cap image.

“We now want to get the message across that it is more family orientated.

“Last year we had the Open Cup final at the Macron Stadium.

“We had 700 spectators turn up, and for a Sunday league football game that is brilliant.

“Kids and the over 60s got in free so it made for a great atmosphere and a family day out.”

The Bolton and District Sunday Football League currently has two divisions made up of 21 teams, and Cover wants the league to expand to at least three tiers.

For that they need more teams, but the obstacles facing new clubs often stop them in their tracks before they have begun.

Financial barriers are a huge problem; pitch costs, kit and insurance all lead to an expensive bill.

Teams are constantly looking for sponsors, but they need in excess of £1,000 just to get started.

The league committee want to make it more inviting for teams to join them, and the background in business of some of the committee members is something Cover believes will help them achieve their goal.

“We have some great business minds on the board and that has helped us build the league up to what it is now,” Cover said.

“Clubs who are starting out can seek help from us and we will give them advice and guide them through what we know is a difficult stage.

“Whether that is regarding funds or simply recruiting players.”

The committee has worked hard to get the league even functioning again, and rewards have begun to show with the Bolton at Home Sunday League being nominated for one of the best-run leagues in the country.

A reward that should not be taken lightly considering it was only set up three years ago.

“We are on course to achieve the FA Charter Standard League status,” Cover said.

“We have a great rapport with the FA and the Lancashire FA (LFA), they know how hard we have worked to get this league up and running.

“On the field we have transformed the league. We have pushed the respect campaign more than anything and that is one of the biggest ethoses we have bought to the table.

“We’ve started roping off pitches for example so players and officials feel protected.

“Three years ago the league was suffering from a bad reputation, hence the reason less people wanted to play.

“There was unsavoury behaviour and just general bad discipline from the players, but we have turned that around and don’t accept it anymore.

“We have had a few cases over the last year or so of bad behaviour on the pitch, so we told the players not to come back. People now feel safer and can enjoy playing.”

One key idea being suggested amongst the committee is to integrate a junior league with the adult game.

The plan is to create a buffer league for people aged between 16 and 21, giving them the opportunity to build up to the open-age group.

“In one year I would like to have the U21 league close to being set up or at least having the blueprints ready,” said Cover.

“We want to have that intermediate league there to keep young people in the game. We know it’s hard because they go off to university or want to go out drinking, but we feel if we can get them involved in the intermediate league they will want to carry on to the adult league.

“It’s all about increasing the volume of participants and raising more awareness.”

To increase awareness of the league Cover knows that getting the local community involved is a vital step in clawing back the affection of the people of Bolton.

Going into schools, putting on summer camps, and arranging tournaments are all suggestions that have been thrown into the pot.

All these new initiatives are part of the re-building of Bolton’s once thriving amateur leagues.

“The league has great sponsors and it is helping us to achieve what we want. Bolton at Home, who sponsor the league, are great.

“Working closely with Bolton at Home it means we can go into the community and get local people involved, which is what we have set out to do from the beginning. We can go into the local estates and get youngsters playing football rather than being on the streets.

“In the summer we have four venues confirmed where we are going to put on camps. We’ve called them a festival of football and we will put on training sessions followed my tournaments.

“We have got trained coaches from the LFA coming in and helping and they have been brilliant with the way they have backed us from the start.”

Cover has been involved in Bolton’s amateur leagues for most of his life and it was he who managed the winning team in the final season of the Bolton Pioneer League before it disbanded nearly a decade ago.

“Bolton is historic for its football and the thought of having no Sunday league in the area was devastating so we had to save it.

“We are proud of what we have done so far but we are not complacent and we know there is still a long way to go to get it back to being how it was.

“We just have to keep developing it like we have and most of all make it sustainable so it can last in the future.”