THE Worcester and District Football League are encouraging more players to join clubs by introducing rolling substitutions.

From September, teams in both the Saturday and Sunday divisions will be allowed to replace up to five players as many times as they like during the 90 minutes.

It is part of scheme being trialled by the Football Association over the next 12 months to retain players and was piloted in the Evesham Sunday League last season with “more positives than negatives”, according to secretary Martin Malin.

The Worcester League, who have been using the system of three permanent substitutions from seven, are keen to prevent players continually sitting on the sidelines and losing interest.

Worcester secretary Tim Phillips said: “We will have an experiment and see what the response is. The main thing is if we don’t do it we won’t know what it is like.

“We just hope people will be sensible about it and not get silly because it is to increase participation.”

He continued: “What we want to avoid is, with a team 1-0 up with five minutes to go, a manager bringing on lots of subs but it is down to the referees to control that.”

The initiative coincides with an influx of 15 new teams to the Sunday competition, taking the number signed up for 2013-14 to 72.

However, despite three new teams — Malvern Town Reserves, Malvern Vale and WCT Raiders — being recruited to the Saturday set-up, a spate of resignations means there will only be 10 competing in one division next term, down from 16 at the start of last season.

Phillips said: “There is still an appetite for Sunday football but for some reason players don’t want to play on a Saturday these days.

“There are so many other things to do in life and Sunday morning football is far more popular.”

Meanwhile, following the league’s annual meeting, a penalty points system will replace fines for minor offences, meaning occasional misdemeanours will not be punished financially.

League fees will not be charged for the fourth year running in the Saturday competition, while clubs will receive £26 each for mandatory player insurance.

A course for new referees is also being planned in conjunction with the Worcestershire FA and Worcester Referees Society before the start of the season.

Anyone interested should contact Jeff Widdett on 01905-749579 or e-mail jeffwiddett@hotmail.com Steve Harness of Malvern Radar has taken over as treasurer from Graham Russell, who remains vice-chairman.

West Midland’s Andy Purslow has been elected assistant secretary, while John Jordan of Worcester Rileys joins the management committee as the new club representative.