The Football Association unveiled their proposals for league allocations for the 2024/25 season,and in what was a surprise annoucement, Retford FC have been moved laterally across from the Northern Counties East League (NCEL) to the United Counties Football League (UCL) - Division One.
A total of five NCEL sides have made the move across along with Retford FC as they will be joined by Retford United, Clay Cross Town, Shirebrook Town and Staveley Miners Welfare.
The league will see trips to a more southern based geographical area mainly with teams based in and around Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in the same division.
Club Chairman Chris Woodhead said "If we are honest, we weren't expecting to be moved to a new league. We had heard that some clubs were moving across but we didn’t seem to be in the mix for this to happen so it was quite a surprise when the announcement was made."
"We now have to concentrate on preparations for the new season in a new league and this announcement has had a knock on effect to pre season as we were due to play sides from this division so we will be hastily rearranging our plans, then when the lads return to training we can regroup and look ahead to what I am sure will be an exciting season ahead."
The new league line up for 2024/25 looks like this:
Further updates will be issued in due course as more details emerge from the FA and UCL.
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