December’s Partner of the Month sees the spotlight fall on Adam Brittain, from the Rugby area, who tells us just how important a role his community leagues fulfil in his home town.

So Adam, you’ve been with us almost five years. How’s it been for you?

It’s been challenging, with the objectives set back then and the timescales to achieve them. We’ve set a standard and the greatest challenge now is to push on and develop further and provide a professional platform for the local community to play football. As the ‘man in the middle’ so to speak, you experience the highs and lows or overseeing Leisure Leagues in Rugby, much like playing the game itself. However, one the best things about Leisure Leagues is the community is generates and bringing people together to play football which they may not have done otherwise. As a result I’ve met many great people within the game and players and made some great friends along the way so far.

Thinking back into the dim and distant past, what was it about LL that attracted you?

When I set about the idea of launching a platform to provide the local community with a way to play the game conveniently, I knew it had to be a robust, professional and structured environment. By nature local football is disorganised and unstructured, and so the key qualities was that when discussing launching Leisure Leagues in Rugby and beyond, our sentiments matched; that being the future vision to try and professionalise the small sided game as much as possible, a comprehensive administration and the quality of all of our features from the website through to facets of the league such as equipment etc.

Being such a long-standing partner gives you a unique perspective on how things have changed, what would you say was the biggest thing you’ve noticed?

This sort of overlaps with what has been spoken about above, but the biggest thing which has changed is the Leisure Leagues brand awareness. This hasn’t happened by accident. This has happened through continual improvement and adding additional features and services such investing in a state of the art website. These things matter as it helps build an overall quality product which people recognise. From a personal point of view, providing sustainable leagues involves using experienced referees/match officials. Over the course of time more referees have been attracted to working with us in Rugby as well due to the support they receive from us.

You now run four leagues throughout the week in Rugby, you must be pleased to have grown them like that?

If honest yes I’m pleased that we have got to this point but that satisfaction will only last for a certain time. There’s a lot of football to be played out there and new ways to experience playing the game. So pleased to reach that yes, but happy with it…no! There is plenty of scope for progressing the game in the area further. We have plenty of plans for 2018 to take us forward.

You are one of our few partners to offer a mixture of indoor and outdoor leagues. Was it always a plan of yours to offer that choice?

With the amount of opportunity to play outdoor, I believe it provides an alternative way to play the game and a good demand due to the differing nature of the game, and tests different footballing qualities for players. So yes, it was always in my mind to provide both forms of the small sided game.

And what of the future, what are your plans for the next five years?

That would be telling now wouldn’t it!!? We do have plans with which we are progressing with the relevant parties in the area, all with the idea of trying to provide that ultimate playing experience for players and give them the opportunity to play in a wider setting outside of the local area too.

Lastly, as a Rugby resident, you must be really happy to provide so much sport for the community in your home town?

Absolutely. Overseeing Leisure Leagues in Rugby, you realise the huge amount of fantastic people there are in the area who love the game. Why shouldn’t the opportunity to play football in a structured environment and within a professional setting be accessible to all within the local community? Helping to provide that and increase the sense of enjoyment playing the game is what it’s all about.