A LONG-SERVING local football league committee member admits their Step 7 status in the FA National League System is "in the lap of the Gods."

The West Riding County Amateur Football League (WRCAFL) has a rich history in providing a platform for success for a host of Bradford district clubs, but their future appears in jeopardy.

A decade ago the organisation boasted 53 teams across four divisions.

Now numbers have dropped to 11 sides after Bradford Olympic resigned earlier this month, which puts the league further under the FA minimum of 14 competing clubs to maintain Step 7 status - the last rung on the nationally recognised non-league pyramid.

WRCAFL League life member and results secretary Philip Rhodes admitted the league has struggled for a while and the committee tried to arrest their demise by reverting to a one-division system.

But, four of the 15 clubs starting at the beginning of this season have now quit the league, citing "lack of players" as their reasons.

Rhodes said: "At this point you're thinking where's it going to come from? Who's going to be next? It's like a snowball.

"Over the last three seasons, by clubs pulling a reserve side out or folding, we've finished up with about 28 or 29 clubs that have dropped out, so we're really struggling.

"What's going to happen next year, at the moment it's in the lap of the Gods.

"We've spoken to the FA, we've spoken to other leagues in the area to see what, if any, help can be gained. If it means a merger somewhere along the line, it may have to be."

The FA are concerned with circumstances in the WRCAFL, but clubs can't simply be moved around from league to league, according to Rhodes.

He added: "I know they tried it at Steps 3 and 4, in the higher leagues, in the midlands and the south, and they had about over 120 appeals against teams being moved from one league to another, last season.

"Moving a team laterally from one league to another, it's just not done, not at our level of football anyway."

Rhodes explained the need to come down to having just one division rather than several, as used to to be the case, has not helped. He said: "Every season we make it known we're open to clubs applying, but when you've got to drop a division, you've nowhere for clubs to come into, to prove that they are worthy of playing in the Premier Division.

"We're disillusioned that clubs who come to us, are then leaving. It's not the easiest thing in the world.

"It's a big worry, but we've got to accept the inevitable. Clubs just aren't there. We've tried everything we can."

The future is uncertain, but Rhodes hopes whatever happens the league's clubs are protected.

He said: “I’d like to think that we could continue, but if we don’t I’m hoping that our clubs can blend into one of the other leagues within the area and hopefully retain their Step 7 status.

“Some of them have spent a lot of money on getting a Step 7 facility, so it would be unfair to just kick them down to the bottom of another league and tell them to start again.”