Following consultation with youth leagues, member clubs, the NFA Cup Committee and Council, the Northumberland FA Board have approved a proposal to split the Mixed/Boys Youth Cups for the U12-U16 age-groups from one single Cup Competition at each age group, to two separate Cup Competitions at each age group. The teams that enter each County Cup at their respective age-group will be split, or ‘seeded’, by previous season’s results, league tables, and Youth League(s) guidance to form two separate Cup competitions; a Cup and a Trophy.

This will provide:

• A more level playing field between participating teams.
• Reduced round numbers required to reach a final of a Youth County Cups.
• An additional Final at each age-group, providing more teams of all abilities the opportunity to play in a County Cup Final.
• A reduction in the number of teams who forfeit Cup ties when drawn against higher division opposition.

In practice, using the U12 age-group as an example, for 2020/21 71 teams entered the NFA U12 Mixed/Boys Cup and all competed in one knock-out competition. In 2021/22, if the same number of teams enter, they will be seeded into two separate knock-out competitions creating a Cup of 36 teams and a Trophy of 35 teams.

The Girls County Cups at U12, U14, and U16 will continue as one cup competition at each age-band for 2021/22 but we will continue to review this.

Clubs who have already affiliated and now want to enter more of their teams into County Cup competitions can still do so be emailing Lynn Barber lynn.barber@northumberlandfa.com with the team name(s) and age-group(s) they wish to enter.

Clubs who are yet to affiliate can enter their teams during the online affiliation process by selecting the respective age-group County Cup competition.

The deadline for County Cup entries is 23:59 on Sunday 1^st August 2021.