REPORT FOR SEASON 2025/26
“I have no wish to trivialise anything applicable to the 2025/26 season but the huge financial loss has, for me, overshadowed every other aspect of my report. In all my roles within the Club, I am left shocked and extremely saddened about the entire PayPal matter; therefore, it has been very difficult to put a gloss on anything that went well during the season.
Membership: To my knowledge, membership was at a satisfactory level in keeping with previous seasons. Kerry will expand on this.
Registrations: The FA introduced a new portal to cover registrations to replace WGS (the Whole Game System). Kerry looked after the portal with her usual efficiency, dealing with TFFC registrations and the transfer of Masters guests both in and out of the Club.
Pitches: Again we used Silver Jubilee Park for our MGBSFL fixtures, sharing with Hendon United FC for the third successive season. This was the first season of a 3-year deal which was agreed with Rob Morris where we will be paying £225 per match. Payments were made in two instalments, at the end of August and December 2025. We staged 12 competitive fixtures there plus a few pre-season friendlies.
The Old Boys Team continued to play at venues arranged by the Masters League, mainly at Hertfordshire Sports Village and Thomas Parmiter Sports Centre.
Unplayed matches: Just one match was forfeited when the First Team were forced to forfeit their last MGBSFL Super Cup/Barry Goldstein Trophy against Sukkotingham Forest, due to mass unavailability of players. The £50 fine (doubled for forfeiting one of a team's last four fixtures in accordance with League rules) had to be swallowed but acceptable under the circumstances. We did not pay for the unused pitch at SJP.
Discipline: I'm pleased to see that our disciplinary record for season 2025/26 improved and Kerry will expand on the figures.
Match subs collection: Via mainly the iZettle payment devices in addition to manual bank transfers, match subs were generally collected by Sammy and Jonathan, with Kerry assisting when chasing up bank transfers. Again, working with me, she supervised the accounts on a weekly basis using the Excel spreadsheets and will cover this category in her report. The average amount of weekly collections across the Club were very pleasing despite the problems we had with the iZettle payment devices.
Events: The Club ambitiously ran the 2025-26 CAPE with six teams, but we know that the Arsenal parade impacted on our event for certain. Players withdrawing over the weekend, plus those failing to show on the day, caused disruption to the extent that the additional team, the 200 Clubbers, had to be dropped. With players being shunted around, the tournament reverted to five teams and, despite the unforeseen circumstances, generally went well. Unlike previous CAPEs which have been successful, this one disappointed me because overall it did not go to plan. We had to muddle through to ensure everyone was involved in the games; luckily the cooperation was excellent but to me, the disorganisation in the tournament caused by too many let-downs made it the least enjoyable CAPE held at SJP.
However, the awards ceremony ran smoothly, despite the absentees. I thought the clubhouse looked tremen-dous – we had so many banners, we ran out of time to put them all up but they made great table cloths! On the stats front, of the 34 players making 10 appearances or more across the Club this season, 22 attended – Firsts 11/19 and Old Boys 11/15. That's an attendance figure of 64.7%. 32 attended the awards ceremony including all other guests. 11 players withdrew over the weekend or failed to show on the day. Had they all showed, we would have just about reached 42 players, the minimum required for 6 teams of 7. What we've established is that 5 teams are enough to avoid this shortage moving forward. My thanks to everyone who helped, especially those who arrived early, and not forgetting the immense efforts of Kerry, who, even though she was carrying a painful left knee injury, virtually kept on her feet from 6.30am to 2.30pm.
In February we entered a team of eight in the Quiz Evening arranged by the SJP Charitable Foundation, and finished up as narrow runners-up for the third consecutive time. More importantly, the Club raised £250 from the proceeds which were shared amongst the SJP facility users. This amount went into the TFFC book fund.
We held an inter-club friendly between the First Team and the Old Boys Team for the first time since 2019, which counted as this season's Founders' Shield match. Kerry did very well to book a superb grass pitch at the Hertfordshire Sports Village in Hatfield. I refereed with Kerry assisting and the Firsts won 7-1.
An event of sorts which I will report, because it was very poignant to Mike Shorvon and I particularly, was the funeral of David Wolff in February which we both attended. Other ex-TFFC personnel there included Danny Caro, David Goldberg and Hilton Teper. Mike and I attended the reception held afterwards at a local hotel in Waltham Abbey. Unsurprisingly, there were over 250 people attending.
Equipment: The Club renewed the sponsorship for the First Team kit through Harris Balcombe who were the main front of shirt sponsors. We stocked up with extra kits to replace the shortage faced during the previous season. Shirts, shorts and socks were allocated to members of James Lee's squad (who did not purchase their own sets) and Kerry has a list of those who will need to return the kit to the Club as agreed pre-season.
The Firsts used the light blue clash shirts on two occasions. The Old Boys Team used the dynamic '25 Years in the MMFL' playing kit for the third season in succession.
We bought 29 navy training/warm-up tops to hand out free to First Team players, costing just under £160 from Temu. We stocked up with new Precision (x10) and Ziland footballs (x10).
In storage, we have the Hampton and Fantasy Five kits (all-navy), two full sets of 'Covid' shirts (yellow/red stripes), the Daniel Stewart shirts (yellow/red), the Founders’ shirts (red/yellow broad stripes), the Bekhors kit (all-yellow/navy), the Winckworth shirts (yellow/navy), the Ellis/Winckworth shirts (red/yellow kit), two sets of Ellis & Co shirts (red with yellow curved band), a set of 10 outfield Kingsleys shirts (yellow with navy ‘stars’ design), and a green/white Bekhors kit.
At the end of April, I agreed to a request by Stefan Simons, the Old Boys manager, to purchase a set of navy and yellow tracksuit tops carrying the TFFC branding and individual players' initials primarily for use at the MMFL Charity Cup final on Sunday 10th May. Stefan's poll attracted 17 players wishing to purchase and Kerry supervised the payments; in record time we secured £32 payments for all garments, so the majority of Old Boys players now have their own TFFC tracksuit tops for next season.
Training: We arranged two pre-season sessions on the 3G pitch at Boreham Wood FC. Apart from that, players were left to their own devices to organise midweek football sessions at various Powerleagues, albeit for playing football rather than actual training sessions.
Conclusion: Leaving aside the financial issue, and of little consolation but worth reporting, the administration went relatively well. A general huge thank you to everybody who helped this season."
NIGEL KYTE, 3rd June 2026
“I have no wish to trivialise anything applicable to the 2025/26 season but the huge financial loss has, for me, overshadowed every other aspect of my report. In all my roles within the Club, I am left shocked and extremely saddened about the entire PayPal matter; therefore, it has been very difficult to put a gloss on anything that went well during the season.
Membership: To my knowledge, membership was at a satisfactory level in keeping with previous seasons. Kerry will expand on this.
Registrations: The FA introduced a new portal to cover registrations to replace WGS (the Whole Game System). Kerry looked after the portal with her usual efficiency, dealing with TFFC registrations and the transfer of Masters guests both in and out of the Club.
Pitches: Again we used Silver Jubilee Park for our MGBSFL fixtures, sharing with Hendon United FC for the third successive season. This was the first season of a 3-year deal which was agreed with Rob Morris where we will be paying £225 per match. Payments were made in two instalments, at the end of August and December 2025. We staged 12 competitive fixtures there plus a few pre-season friendlies.
The Old Boys Team continued to play at venues arranged by the Masters League, mainly at Hertfordshire Sports Village and Thomas Parmiter Sports Centre.
Unplayed matches: Just one match was forfeited when the First Team were forced to forfeit their last MGBSFL Super Cup/Barry Goldstein Trophy against Sukkotingham Forest, due to mass unavailability of players. The £50 fine (doubled for forfeiting one of a team's last four fixtures in accordance with League rules) had to be swallowed but acceptable under the circumstances. We did not pay for the unused pitch at SJP.
Discipline: I'm pleased to see that our disciplinary record for season 2025/26 improved and Kerry will expand on the figures.
Match subs collection: Via mainly the iZettle payment devices in addition to manual bank transfers, match subs were generally collected by Sammy and Jonathan, with Kerry assisting when chasing up bank transfers. Again, working with me, she supervised the accounts on a weekly basis using the Excel spreadsheets and will cover this category in her report. The average amount of weekly collections across the Club were very pleasing despite the problems we had with the iZettle payment devices.
Events: The Club ambitiously ran the 2025-26 CAPE with six teams, but we know that the Arsenal parade impacted on our event for certain. Players withdrawing over the weekend, plus those failing to show on the day, caused disruption to the extent that the additional team, the 200 Clubbers, had to be dropped. With players being shunted around, the tournament reverted to five teams and, despite the unforeseen circumstances, generally went well. Unlike previous CAPEs which have been successful, this one disappointed me because overall it did not go to plan. We had to muddle through to ensure everyone was involved in the games; luckily the cooperation was excellent but to me, the disorganisation in the tournament caused by too many let-downs made it the least enjoyable CAPE held at SJP.
However, the awards ceremony ran smoothly, despite the absentees. I thought the clubhouse looked tremen-dous – we had so many banners, we ran out of time to put them all up but they made great table cloths! On the stats front, of the 34 players making 10 appearances or more across the Club this season, 22 attended – Firsts 11/19 and Old Boys 11/15. That's an attendance figure of 64.7%. 32 attended the awards ceremony including all other guests. 11 players withdrew over the weekend or failed to show on the day. Had they all showed, we would have just about reached 42 players, the minimum required for 6 teams of 7. What we've established is that 5 teams are enough to avoid this shortage moving forward. My thanks to everyone who helped, especially those who arrived early, and not forgetting the immense efforts of Kerry, who, even though she was carrying a painful left knee injury, virtually kept on her feet from 6.30am to 2.30pm.
In February we entered a team of eight in the Quiz Evening arranged by the SJP Charitable Foundation, and finished up as narrow runners-up for the third consecutive time. More importantly, the Club raised £250 from the proceeds which were shared amongst the SJP facility users. This amount went into the TFFC book fund.
We held an inter-club friendly between the First Team and the Old Boys Team for the first time since 2019, which counted as this season's Founders' Shield match. Kerry did very well to book a superb grass pitch at the Hertfordshire Sports Village in Hatfield. I refereed with Kerry assisting and the Firsts won 7-1.
An event of sorts which I will report, because it was very poignant to Mike Shorvon and I particularly, was the funeral of David Wolff in February which we both attended. Other ex-TFFC personnel there included Danny Caro, David Goldberg and Hilton Teper. Mike and I attended the reception held afterwards at a local hotel in Waltham Abbey. Unsurprisingly, there were over 250 people attending.
Equipment: The Club renewed the sponsorship for the First Team kit through Harris Balcombe who were the main front of shirt sponsors. We stocked up with extra kits to replace the shortage faced during the previous season. Shirts, shorts and socks were allocated to members of James Lee's squad (who did not purchase their own sets) and Kerry has a list of those who will need to return the kit to the Club as agreed pre-season.
The Firsts used the light blue clash shirts on two occasions. The Old Boys Team used the dynamic '25 Years in the MMFL' playing kit for the third season in succession.
We bought 29 navy training/warm-up tops to hand out free to First Team players, costing just under £160 from Temu. We stocked up with new Precision (x10) and Ziland footballs (x10).
In storage, we have the Hampton and Fantasy Five kits (all-navy), two full sets of 'Covid' shirts (yellow/red stripes), the Daniel Stewart shirts (yellow/red), the Founders’ shirts (red/yellow broad stripes), the Bekhors kit (all-yellow/navy), the Winckworth shirts (yellow/navy), the Ellis/Winckworth shirts (red/yellow kit), two sets of Ellis & Co shirts (red with yellow curved band), a set of 10 outfield Kingsleys shirts (yellow with navy ‘stars’ design), and a green/white Bekhors kit.
At the end of April, I agreed to a request by Stefan Simons, the Old Boys manager, to purchase a set of navy and yellow tracksuit tops carrying the TFFC branding and individual players' initials primarily for use at the MMFL Charity Cup final on Sunday 10th May. Stefan's poll attracted 17 players wishing to purchase and Kerry supervised the payments; in record time we secured £32 payments for all garments, so the majority of Old Boys players now have their own TFFC tracksuit tops for next season.
Training: We arranged two pre-season sessions on the 3G pitch at Boreham Wood FC. Apart from that, players were left to their own devices to organise midweek football sessions at various Powerleagues, albeit for playing football rather than actual training sessions.
Conclusion: Leaving aside the financial issue, and of little consolation but worth reporting, the administration went relatively well. A general huge thank you to everybody who helped this season."
NIGEL KYTE, 3rd June 2026