Leisure Leagues are Europe's largest organisers of five-a-side football

Five-a-side football

thumb|240px|alt=Men playing football on artificial grass pitch.|Five-a-side game on astroturf pitch.Five-a-side football is a variation of association football in which each team fields five players , rather than the usual eleven on each team. Other differences from football include a smaller...

 and six-a-side football, and as well as running leagues in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 and Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, they also operate leagues in the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

History of Leisure Leagues

The name "Leisure Leagues" was first used in 1990 although the small-sided leagues had been running for many years previous.

The first leagues began cropping up in the Midlands

English Midlands

The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

 area (Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

, Stratford Upon Avon and Warwick

Warwick

Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...

) but the organisation soon grew and more areas were soon added to the list.

Charity

The only small-sided football provider to donate all of their profits to charity

Charitable organization

A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...

 and environmentally sustainable projects, Leisure Leagues are delighted to benefit the Dog's Trust and Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the United Kingdom, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Its aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. As the world's largest independent cancer...

. And even with the organisation's massive operations across Europe, they are committed to keeping their travelling carbon neutral

Carbon neutral

Carbon neutrality, or having a net zero carbon footprint, refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference...

.

UKIFF

Leisure Leagues are affiliated with the United Kingdom Independent Football Federation (UKIFF) who are a stringent organisation for discipline within five and six a side football.

National Tournament

Leisure Leagues hold the annual 5 a-side and 6aside National Tournament where the most successful teams from all over the UK are invited to battle it out with other teams from across the country. An All-Irish tournament also takes place annually for teams from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Media Team

Leisure Leagues are the only providers of 5-a-side and 6aside football who can boast a dedicated Media Team, working tirelessly at the organisation's head office in rural Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

. The Media team are responsible for the Leisure Leagues Blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

  which is updated throughout the week with stories from the footballing world and beyond.

Testimonials

The organisation can boast kind words of support from several footballing celebrities, including Alan Wiley

Alan Wiley

Alan G. Wiley is a former English football referee in the FA Premier League, and he is based in Burntwood, Staffordshire.-Career:...

, Alex McLeish

Alex McLeish

Alexander "Alex" McLeish , is a Scottish former professional footballer and manager, who is currently managing English Premier League club Aston Villa...

, Stephen Kelly and Jeff Kenna

Jeff Kenna

Jeffrey Jude Kenna is an Irish football manager and former player who played the largest part of his career as a defender with Southampton and Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League. He has managed Galway United and St Patrick's Athletic...

. It is not only in the footballing world though where the honest charitable work of Leisure Leagues is recognised, as Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

, David Cameron

David Cameron

David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

, The Prince Of Wales and Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...

are all supportive of the organisation.

Format

The Leisure Leagues, using football pitches across the country, gives the opportunity to people from different walks of life and standards of football to get involved in an entertaining local league, and either be committed and competitive or casually with a group of friends. The different Leagues in different regions (and days)contain varying amounts 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.

List of Regions/Areas containing one or more of the Leisure Leagues

Avon/Somerset, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Birmingham and Solihull, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon and Cornwall, Essex and Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire, Guildford, Herefordshire, Hull District, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Merseyside, Middlesex, Norfolk, North East, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, South Coast, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Swindon, The North, Walsall and Wolverhampton, Warwickshire, West Berkshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and Yorkshire.