A growing number of adult and youth grassroots football teams will enjoy the start of their Essex County Cup journeys on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th October as six competitions get underway for the 2020/21 season.

This weekend sees the Essex Saturday and Sunday Junior Cups and Trophies begin, as well as the Cassels Under 16s and Cordell Under 13s Cups. The total number of County Cup entries is up by 119 on 2019/20, and shows an increase of 327 on two seasons ago.

Also coming up, following an extensive consultation with grassroots football stakeholders, are two new County Cups which have been introduced - the Under 12s Girls Cup and the Veterans Trophy - which begin in November to give more players the opportunity to participate.

Last October, local football clubs had the opportunity to submit their thoughts and feedback on Essex’s County Cup Competitions via an online survey, which formed part of a comprehensive Essex County FA review. Hundreds of valued responses were received.

Analysis then took place with a view to formulating improvements and recommendations, if necessary. As a result, the Under 12s Girls Cup and the Veterans Trophy were introduced, which will begin on Sunday 15th and Saturday 7th November respectively. As part of the consultation, extra seeding was also introduced as a trial in the Under 12s and Rosser Under 15s Cups.

Highly-anticipated draws have now been published online as teams discover who they’ll face in the opening rounds of the 2020/21 competitions. Male and female clubs, both in adult and youth football, have visited www.essexfa.com/competitions to see who they’ve been paired with.

As well as six male open-age competitions embracing Saturday and Sunday football, there are now three veterans, two adult female and ten youth cups (male and female).

All County Cups fixtures and results can be found via the 'Competitions' tab at the top of the page. Further information on grassroots Essex football is also shared on Twitter by @EssexCountyFA and by searching for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook.