Welcome to the #COGSEUROFEST22 Information Page. All the details should be below but if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email or message! If there are any amendments to the festival details, we will post them here.
Updates will be sent periodically and they can be found on the Updates menu or you can download them here:
Accommodation Options – Update 1 Feb^. 22^
COGSEUROFEST22 – Update 2 – May ’22
NUMBER OF TEAMS = 48 – NUMBER OF PITCHES = 6.
TEAMS: (UPDATE – NOW FULL)
We have a maximum number of 48 team spaces available which will mean that the Festival will continue throughout the day to accommodate all the teams. We want to gather together as many women’s recreational teams as possible to enjoy a fun day of meeting each other and playing football together. We must stress that this is NOT a tournament, it’s a festival for fun and enjoyment. If you want to win trophies, this probably isn’t the right festival for you. We already have 32 teams entered as we honoured the entries from our previous COGSFEST20, which we had to cancel through Covid, so we only have a small number of teams spaces left. Please get your team details in quickly to ensure your place. It will be first come, first served. All teams will be (randomly) given 1 of the 8 countries who sit in the top 2 places in each group. The team will then play as this country throughout the day. Teams will only be confirmed as being entered, once the Team Entry Form as been received and the fee of £25 (for each team) has been paid. Payment should be made to the Crawley Old Girls bank account, with the reference as: Your team name or abbreviation so we know who it is and CEF please. Account no. 31720986 S/C: 60 06 20. Thank you. Once received, you will receive your final confirmation of entry. The Team Entry Form and Team Sheets are available to download under the #COGSEUROFEST22 “Team Forms” menu, on this website.
PITCHES:
The 6 pitches will be named after some of the 6 UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Stadium pitches, so we will have:
Old Trafford, Brighton & Hove Community Stadium, St. Mary’s Stadium, Stadium MK, Brentford Community Stadium and Bramall Lane.
The games will be played on GRASS pitches, so it will depend on the weather as to which footwear you choose.
PARTNERSHIP:
We are running this festival in partnership with the UEFA Womens’ EURO 2022 Legacy Project.
For Info: As #COGSEUROFEST22 is a UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2022 Legacy activity, facilitated by The FA, the following information will be on the Team Sheet Form for players to read and sign, to establish the link between The FA and research.
“Your experience and opinion are important to us. The FA would like to use your name and contact details to contact you for research (improving services or identifying trends). All the information you provide will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act and will not be shared with third parties or used for any marketing purposes. You are able to withdraw your consent at any time by emailing monitoring.WEURO22@thefa.com. Do you give us consent to contact you? Yes/No”
This will be important for the future of Women’s Recreational Football and we would encourage anyone to get involved with the research. Thank you.
We would also love to have some feedback from the day and your Welcome Pack will contain a laminated sheet with a QR code for your team members to access and enter some simple feedback. Please try and get everyone to complete this, it won’t take long but is really important for the Legacy Project.
DATE/TIMES:
We chose Sunday 10th July 2022 as it is the day prior to the Lionesses playing their second Group A game at the Brighton & Hove Community Stadium. If you want to stay over, there are plenty of hotels in and around Crawley that you could stay in on Saturday or Sunday night and travel to Brighton, on the Monday. Please make sure your place is confirmed before you book your hotel!
As we will have so many teams, we will start the day/festival fairly early so that may mean an early start to travel or a local stay on Saturday night.
Timetable:
08.00 – 08.45 BREAKFAST AVAILABLE
08.45 – 09.15 REGISTRATION AT THE CONTROL TENT
09.15 – 09.25 SET UP
09.25 – 09.40 ANNOUNCEMENTS & MANAGERS’ BRIEFING
09.40 – 09.55 WARM UP
09.55 – 09.58 GET READY TO START GAMES
09.59 – 10.00 MINUTES’ APPLAUSE
10.00 – 16.30 GAMES & LUNCH
16.30 – 17.00 PRESENTATION & RAFFLE
17.00 – 19.00 TIDY UP AND CHILL
19.00 – 23.30 DISCO IN THE CLUBHOUSE
Note: Times may be subject to change.
ADDRESS:
The festival will be held at Oakwood Football Club, Tinsley Lane, Crawley, RH10 8AT. Please car share where possible as it would be great to reduce the number of cars needing to park. If you are staying over there are plenty of taxi companies available.
WHO CAN PLAY?:
#COGSEUROFEST22 is for Women’s Recreational players only, aged 30+. We will, however, accommodate 2 players in each team who are between 25 and 29, with only ONE of those players playing at any one time. There are many women who will be 40+ and to keep up with the younger players sometimes proves quite difficult but we don’t want to exclude too many players. Players who are registered with FA Affiliated Leagues are not eligible to play, unless those Leagues are purely recreational. Your team managers will know if you are eligible or not. Obviously, the more players you have in your team, the less playing time there will be, so that will be left to your own judgement.
ABILITIES:
We will have 2 ability groups – Beginners/Intermediate and Intermediate/Advanced. Please, please, make sure your teams are entered into the correct groups to ensure the enjoyment of everyone.
AWARDS:
As in our previous festivals, we won’t have trophies but we have awards for those players/teams who display good practice, good sportsmanship, skills and overall awesomeness, in their groups. These will be decided by the referees (who are allocated to your pitches) and agreed by the festival organisers. Every player will receive a medal.
RAFFLE:
We will be holding a raffle during the day, where the proceeds will be going to be split between the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation and Women’s Aid. We have raised some good amounts in previous festivals, so hope to smash the record of over £860. Please bring plenty of cash, especially notes! We will be looking at getting some good raffle prizes, so if you know someone who can donate one, please get in touch. For example, signed shirts are always a good start! We are also going to have an auction which will go towards the funds raised for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation.
REFRESHMENTS:
During the day and evening, refreshments will be available. The bar will be open and there will be a BBQ during the day. Later in the day, we have our friends at Pizzacraft booked, who will make you a delicious pizza from their van! This went down extremely well at a previous festival.
GAMES:
The games will probably be 12 minutes each, played straight through, to accommodate the number of teams but this could be subject to change if the number of entries are different. 7v7 with maximum 3 substitutes, which can include your 2 x 25-29 aged players but only 1 playing at a time. There will be a short time in between games so we’ll need everyone to be on their pitches, on time.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
We will have two professional photographers who will capture the day’s action, as well as team shots so please make sure that your team members complete the consent column on the Team Sheet, prior to playing. If they don’t want their image used, we will issue a wristband for them to wear.
INSURANCE:
#COGSEUROFEST22 is affiliated with Sussex County FA and is covered by their Public Liability Insurance. Please make sure your team is covered for accidents/injuries, as a separate cover. When the Team Sheet is handed in, players listed on that sheet will be playing at their own risk. We will have First Aid services on site and we would encourage you to bring your first aid kits, too.
WELCOME PACKS:
On arrival at the festival, each team will be given Welcome Packs, which will include a Welcome Note, Team Sheet (if you haven’t already completed one), Fixture List, Programme and a Country flag (laminated, with ties) so you can set up camp as your Country. All teams will be advised of their Country prior to the event so they can purchase flags if they want to.
There will probably be more to add over the next 6 months but, for now, we hope that covers most things and we look forward to confirming final entries over the next few months.
If you have any queries at all, please just ask.
