Leisure Leagues

Leisure Leagues'logo with trademark

Leisure Leagues are the world's largest organisers of five-a-side football and six-a-side football,^[1][2] and as well as running leagues in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, they operate leagues in the Republic of Ireland and America.

in 2017, the brand expanded to Pakistan^[3] and plans to launch new competitions across the UK and the rest of the world.^[4]

History

In the 1980s a co-operative of sports facility managers began the first established network of small-sided football leagues, predominantly in sports halls and, in 1990 these were grouped under a single generic name, Leisure Leagues, to represent a local small-sided football league usually located outside London and in rural or provincial towns across the United Kingdom where the opportunity for low cost competitive sport was limited.

Leisure Leagues then grew throughout the United Kingdom with the first leagues in the Republic of Ireland beginning in 2007, in the United States of America in 2012 and in Pakistan in 2017.

Leisure Leagues is the generic name for multiple organisations operating under either a franchise or licence and is the largest independent network of small-sided leagues globally.

Leisure Leagues operates over 70 separate multi-league franchises in the United Kingdom.

Charity

The only small-sided football provider to donate all of their profits to charity and environmentally sustainable projects, Leisure Leagues are delighted to benefit the Dog's Trust and Cancer Research UK and Blind Children UK.^[5][6] And even with the organisation's massive operations across Europe, they are committed to keeping their travelling carbon neutral.^[7]

Leisure Leagues TV

Leisure Leagues are the only providers of five-a-side and six-a-side football who have a dedicated film department^[8] that films promotional videos at leagues across the world.

Testimonials

The organisation has received words of support from several footballing celebrities,^[9] including Alan Wiley,^[10] Alex McLeish,^[11] Stephen Kelly^[12] and Jeff Kenna.^[13] It is not only in the footballing world though where the charitable work of Leisure Leagues is recognised, as Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Usain Bolt and Boris Johnson have all given messages of support to the organisation.^[14]

Format

The Leisure Leagues, using football pitches across the country, give the opportunity to people from different walks of life and standards of football to get involved in a local league.

These are generally people that have been left behind by the 11-a-aide game, which is more geared to better, fitter footballers.

The different leagues in different regions (and days) contain varying numbers of teams and divisions. Teams and players can compete in multiple leagues at the same time and as there are different skill levels throughout the leagues, teams may win one league and find themselves in a relegation battle in another.

Number of players

As of April 2017 the Leisure Leagues Network had well over 300,000 players, which makes it the biggest independent network of leagues anywhere in the world, with well over 3000 teams playing in competitions in the UK alone.

New website

On 5 September 2016, Leisure Leagues unveiled its new website.^[1] The first league to be tested on it was the Flagship competition at Birmingham University.^[15] The roll-out was completed fully on 31 October, with the old website switched off on 1 November 2016.^[16]

Franchising

In 2010, Leisure Leagues unveiled plans to franchise their brand worldwide.^[17] By 2016, almost a third of their leagues were operating on a franchise basis. This includes the competitions in Ireland ^[18] the US ^[19] and Pakistan ^[20]

In 2014, the brand moved into the USA, and in 2017 leagues had started in Pakistan, with Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho announcing in mid-March that he was to visit Pakistan to be the face of the launch.^[21]

References