Midland Football Combination

We were approached in January 2009 by the Midland Football Combination to discuss the possibility of implementing an online player registration system.

The Midland Football Combination is a league operating at Step 6 and 7 of the National League System and as such has development requirements set out by the Football Association. A more modern approach to player registrations was one such requirement.

The imoSports registration system was tailored whilst working closely with Midland Football Combination officials. The system went into a period of controlled testing in the final weeks of the 2008/09 season and, following consultation with the league membership, went into a full season of live operation in July 2009.

In this first full season the system successfully managed over 4,000 player registrations, over 250 internal player transfers and integrated fully with all of the operations of the league committee.

Prior to the implementation of the system the Midland Football Combination handled all registrations and transfers with individual paper forms sent in by clubs to be processed manually. This processing was completed by one individual at the league, essentially as a full time job. With the implementation of imoSports that individual has now been able to take up more of an oversight role, as all data entry is handled by the individual clubs.

Although the change to imoSports was a substantial move from the tried & tested paper-based methods, the clubs in the league have reported no substantial problems at all with using the system. The Club Secretaries report that using the system is now second nature and those amongst them with other teams competing in different leagues have commented that they wish those other leagues would make the same transition too.

Following this first season, for the 2010/11 the imoSports system will be fully implemented in the MFC with all features active. This will include the online management of teamsheets as well as player registrations.

Representatives from imoSports have attended several league committee meetings to be on hand to answer any queries. We will also attend the forthcoming clubs' meeting and the AGM of the league to review the implementation of the system with the clubs directly, just as we did for those meetings at the end of last season.

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Stratford Upon Avon Football Alliance