	{"id":109443,"date":"2025-08-25T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/lismoretimes\/?p=109443"},"modified":"2025-08-20T21:47:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:47:55","slug":"summer-football-competition-to-make-up-for-rain-affected-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/lismoretimes\/sport\/summer-football-competition-to-make-up-for-rain-affected-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Football competition to make up for rain-affected season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A SUMMER Football program is being rolled out across the Far North Coast to make up for a rain-affected season that left thousands of players without games.<\/p>\n<p>Persistent rain and ground closures meant many matches were abandoned, while others took months to be played on catch-up dates.<\/p>\n<p>Summer Football provides a revised format of the game for clubs to run with either a competitive or social playing environment for all ability levels.<\/p>\n<p>Competitions can run for a maximum of 20 weeks, commencing no earlier than October 1 and finishing by February 28.<\/p>\n<p>Northern NSW Football club support and development officer Brett Hodgekiss said Summer Football was an evolved way for clubs to keep players involved in the off-season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hosting a Summer Football program is a way progressive football clubs can provide more people with opportunities to play more football,&#8221; Hodgekiss said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s an excellent way for clubs to keep their current players involved while also drawing in new players from the local community. The program can also generate off-season revenue for the club.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lismore hosted an A-League preseason match between the Brisbane Roar and Newcastle Jets this month, which attracted a crowd of more than 3000 people.<\/p>\n<p>It provided a boost for local clubs at junior and senior level ahead of the winter finals.<\/p>\n<p>Playing in the summer months will also give clubs a chance to promote the junior girls&#8217; and women&#8217;s competitions ahead of Australia hosting the AFC Women&#8217;s Asian Cup in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With Australia hosting the AFC Women&#8217;s Asian Cup in 2026, it&#8217;s the perfect time to get your club involved and build off the ongoing exposure football has had over the last few years,&#8221; Hodgekiss said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Last year we had more than 30 clubs involved in Summer Football and it would be fantastic to see that number grow even more this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Expressions of interest for clubs close Friday, September 19 and can be made at <a href=\"http:\/\/form.jotform.com\/251937991906876\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">form.jotform.com\/251937991906876<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SUMMER Football program is being rolled out across the Far North Coast to make up for a rain-affected season that left thousands of players without games. Persistent rain and ground closures meant many matches were abandoned, while others took months to be played on catch-up dates. Summer Football provides a revised format of the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/lismoretimes\/sport\/summer-football-competition-to-make-up-for-rain-affected-season\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":109444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-109443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Summer Football competition to make up for rain-affected season - Lismore Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Far North Coast launches Summer Football to make up for rain-hit season, offering competitive and social games from October to February.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/lismoretimes\/sport\/summer-football-competition-to-make-up-for-rain-affected-season\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summer Football competition to make up for rain-affected season - 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