The Woolwich & Eltham Sunday Football Alliance was formed by the merger of two former local Sunday leagues: The Woolwich & District Sunday League (1891), together with the Eltham & District Sunday League (1959). In 2005, both leagues were operating three Divisions, with around 30 Clubs, give or take. 

In order to provide more competition and a more varied and interesting competition, we decided to “pool resources” and the proposal was put to each set of Members Clubs. There was an astounding vote in favour of merging. The necessary work was done and “W & E SFA” was born. We have 8 Divisions and 15 Cup competitions, one of which (The Plumstead Challenge Cup, which dates back to 1931), is open to teams from other local Leagues. League Fixtures are cast for a Sunday morning.

We remain solid and have now established a reputation for fair play and the close monitoring of conduct. We firmly believe that everyone should be able to play their game without fear of intimidation, threat or lack of respect. We are signed up to the FA’s “Respect” programme and have been awarded the ‘Commended Status’ award for our work with this programme and the values within it. We are also well on the road to attaining England Football Accreditation status with the help of the London Football Association.

We pride ourselves on innovation, we were the first league in England to have referees trial Refsix & are continually in consultation with County FA’s in order to help fix the problem of youth teams simply disbanding, instead of stepping into adult football. The scope to provide female football within our membership is gaining momentum all the time as well as a Vets Division to ensure we capture and retain our older players, is in the pipeline. Each member club must be willing to adopt this recognition and have the desire to gain the England Football Accreditation award by the end of your second season of membership. 

Our belief is that, although the FA is very vocal about “grass-roots” football, it still does not receive the recognition and funding it deserves. We will continue to highlight this to the footballing authorities, pushing for a change of emphasis towards developing our young talent.

So, after just a short period of time, we are pushing ahead with some major issues and growing stronger. Our ethos is “firm, but democratic”. This has filtered through to our Clubs and they are working themselves to evolve into well-respected organisations. We (and they) believe in quality, not quantity and we do not approve every application to join us. 

There is, and never has been, room for thugs in football at whatever level, so we have a responsibility to protect our Members against those who seek to disrupt and spoil their Sunday mornings. 

The Management Committee have drive and ambition, our administration is superb allows a smooth transition for our members to enjoy their football. We know we have the resources, contacts and ability to be the best Sunday League locally, our internal passion for continuous improvement will not only get us there but stay there for a prolonged period of time.

We have consistently good, competitive football with the aim of having fun rather than the ‘winning at all costs’ mentality.

We are in our 17th season of the WESFA and we are very fortunate by finding ourselves having a sponsor for each of the divisions, in what is a competitive and rewarding constitution for the Alliance. 

Premier Division = Supreme Trophies & Engraving
Senior Division = Happy Bellys Cafe & Grill
Division One = King of Hearts Media Productions
Division Two = Abal Environmental
Division Three = MD Foundation
Division Four = Pat & Arthur Tansley
Division Five = Voltra Sports
Division Six = SELK Grassroots Podcast Football Network

We hire VCD Athletic for our prestigious cup finals. All Cup Finals are played in the months of March, April and May, two finals per Sunday, with kick off times at 10:30am and 2:30pm. We play midweek fixtures under floodlights too, these are superb occasions for all and the atmosphere generally with the support obtained is fantastic. We are quite sure that we provide an amazing service and value for money. We would like to thank VCD Athletic for their accommodation and providing a top quality playing surface for our member clubs to compete on.

The next 5 years are exciting times for us, as major steps are being taken to establish ourselves as a model for local Sunday football, by adherence to our base criteria for clubs, players and officials. A very strong structured Management Committee with a firm ethos of an embedded passion for grassroots football enables us to deliver high quality service to all member clubs. This hasn’t gone unnoticed as we expand our membership with good competitive teams thus improving the competition and also the reputation of the Alliance. In season 2021-2022 we consisted over 100 member teams and it was the first time we have ever constituted 10 divisions of football. It is imperative that member clubs have the right people administering their teams, it is very evident that having the wrong people, albeit with the right intentions, does not bode well. 

At the end of the 2021-2022 season we removed 15 teams that could not carry out the key tasks in club administration. A risk assessment was applied throughout the membership which highlighted areas of concern for some, we are always here to support but the emphasis is on support and not ‘doing’ your work for you.   

The Woolwich & Eltham Sunday Football Alliance is a certified Respect League.

We were awarded by the London Football Association during their presentation evening on the 1st November 2012 in the following categories:

LFA “Respect” League of the Year 2012
LFA League Administrator of the Year 2012

We are an inclusive football league and welcome people that will add value to our organisation, if you have time and want to volunteer to give something back to the community then feel free to drop an email to the League Secretary. If you have our members at heart then we want to hear from you. @WESFA_Football  Leaguesecretary@wesfa.co