Pre-season is an ideal opportunity to keep active with one-off or annual tournaments as teams begin preparations for the next campaign, and we've assisted in 2021 with the creation of a new web page listing sanctioned competitions online.

Clubs undertaking planning for their summer of football can now see which tournaments and pre-season events are taking place locally. Numerous small-sided and eleven-a-side competitions are organised each year, offering a great chance to play sides from different leagues.

In order to assist clubs who don’t know where to start when attempting to build a plan for the summer or pre-season, we have published a new ‘Tournaments’ page on our website, which is updated regularly and broken down by region.

This contains listings of all the sanctioned competitions in Essex, along with contact details of the organisers. Many of these actively welcome applications from new participants.

All tournaments and competitions taking place in the county are required to be sanctioned by the Essex County FA and, in the current climate, they must comply with current Government and FA Covid-19 guidance. It's now even easier than ever to obtain sanction, with an online form available to be completed via this link.

Click on 'Cups and Competitions/Tournaments' in the menu above to find the latest listings. Further opportunities to sign-up for tournaments are shared by @EssexCountyFA on Twitter and by searching for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook.