Non-stop rain forces cancellation of hundreds of games in the Russell Foster Youth League this year

Non-stop rain has forced the cancellation of hundreds of games in the Russell Foster Youth League, with more teams than usual dropping out of the North-East competition in the last few months.

Youth League chairman Mick Clark admits this season has been a literal wash-out - the worst since the League launched in the mid-1970s - and has particularly affected the Youth League’s headquarters in Newbottle, where not a single game has been played in 2026.

Now the fear is that if this is the shape of things to come in the seasons ahead, a younger generation of the region’s young players will miss out on the games that help them develop their skills and maximise their potential. Youth leagues in Teesside and Northumberland have also been similarly disrupted by the continual rain.

“The weather has really affected us this year, more than any other time in the history of the league and there’s no getting away from it,” Mick confirmed. “It hasn’t been quite so bad for the mini-leagues of the Russell Foster Youth League - those from ages seven to 11 - because a lot of their games are played indoors and they can use 3G pitches. “But we run hundreds of teams from Under 11s up to Under 18s and it’s those that have been most severely affected because, ideally, their games should be played on grass.

“Sometimes we’ve had most of the pitches flooded, but even when that has not been the case, the ground has either been too wet for the guys to get on with the tractors to cut the grass and put line markings down, or too sodden to play on for the players. “The council are doing their best and we’re hoping by the end of this week it will have finally dried sufficiently.”

The Russell Foster Youth League is a North East institution, having grown over the years to include teams from the banks of the Tyne down to Teesside, and is the largest youth league in the country. It started with just one Under 13 league and eight teams in 1975, and now has dozens of leagues, youth football from under sevens up to under 18s, both boys and girls and mixed teams.

But the rain is a challenge, and if scientists' predictions about climate change continue to be right, this could be the shape of things to come. Modelling of weather changes has consistently predicted increasingly rainy weather across the UK in winter months, with the risk of flooding becoming a feature.

“Nobody can control the weather and we hear from the scientists and through the news systems about the climate changing,” reflected Mick. “I don’t really know about that, but I can say this is the worst I’ve ever known for games being rained off. “For us, it’s now all about catch-up. “We play here at Newbottle but we do go out to other venues and, in that respect, the 3G pitches have been a godsend because the grass pitches have been really badly affected. “We haven’t played at Newbottle this year, as yet, and that’s all down to the weather, a couple of weeks to snow, but the rest to rain and this last weekend wasn’t any better.

“Unfortunately, we have lost a lot of teams this season because of the weather. If they’re not playing, they can drift away. “Also, the revenue for teams comes in through subscriptions, and if they are not playing football, they are not paying subscriptions, and I think that may be a factor. “Of course, we always lose a few teams every year and we expect that, but this season has been exceptional for the number of teams that have withdrawn.”

No pun intended, but Mick says the Youth League will now hope to stem that tide. “We will try to get them to come back, but it is a worry,” said the 78-year-old, who has been with the Russell Foster Youth League since its 1975 launch. “We pride ourselves on our numbers and we work hard to provide good facilities for the teams and that hard work is why the numbers we have attracted over the years have been so vast. "Games are played all across Sunderland and County Durham and up into South Tyneside, where the Monkton facility is regularly used and we try to provide the best for the teams.

"All year round, we do renovation work, but it has been an uphill battle this season because of the rainfall. “Now we’re in the territory of trying to play two or three games every week to catch up and that’s never ideal.”