Will Crows soon be in a new league?

THEY have played each other for the past two years in the Courier Cup, but now Crowborough Athletic versus Tunbridge Wells could become a regular league derby.

Under new FA plans, steps 5 and 6 football across the country is set to be overhauled.

The proposed new structure will see London South East, London South and London South West Leagues – a very similar set-up to how rugby is run – created for the 2013/14 season. In practice, Crowborough Athletic will, along with five other Sussex League teams and Croydon, join forces with the Kent League.

There has been a lot of opposition in some quarters, mainly due to increased travelling. However, the feeling coming out of Crowborough is a positive one.

"We do not, collectively, see it as negatively as some other clubs," Crows treasurer Paul Boggis said.

"We are Sussex through and through as a club and individuals, but we recognised, when we had our season in the Ryman League, that clubs do go across county borders. If you want to aspire to move forward as a football club, then the likelihood is that you are going to have to do that.

"Also, in our opinion, this decision will be forced through by the FA. The clubs will find it very difficult to argue against it. The opportunity, therefore, is to grasp this or accept the consequence, which will be to drop back into intermediate football.

"We are a forward-thinking club. We will be visiting new stadiums and this will be a new challenge. We are not as negative about this as others."

Boggis added: "In our instance, we have been told we will travel an extra 500 miles a year. For some clubs it will be less than that; for others, like Peacehaven, it will be considerably more. The major significant factor in this will be the increased travel costs.

"The leagues will be enlarged. There will be midweek fixtures and what we don't want to see is Crowborough travelling to Deal on a Tuesday night or Peacehaven going to VCD. We hope they look properly at the fixtures."

The plans have been drawn up as part of an overall restructure to align the number of promotion places to Step 4 with the number of relegation places available. With Step 4 now established with six divisions and 12 possible relegation places, the leagues committee established a review group charged with the task of exploring the possibility of reducing the current 14 Step 5 divisions to 12.

Commenting on the project, Mike Appleby, the FA's leagues and clubs manager, emphasised that this was very much work in progress and that no final decision had been made. "There are a number of inaccurate rumours circulating at the present time and we must await the outcome of the consultation process before any final recommendation is made," he said.

"Part of the original aims of the restructure process was to try to equalise the travelling of clubs. It is inevitable therefore that some clubs will find an increase in their travel whilst some will see a reduction.

"The leagues themselves have asked that Step 5 and 6 be reviewed and we are following this through, but I reiterate that no decision has been made and will not be made until the consultation process has been completed."

Should any restructure take place, it will take effect from season 2013/2014.