Marsden FC boss Luke Haigh has been appointed head coach of the Yorkshire Amateur League’s representative team.
Haigh, 36, will remain in charge at Marsden and his new role will involve selecting the best players from across the Yorkshire Amateur League to form a ‘super team’ which will take on other league representative sides from York, London and Manchester.
These teams will play in a cup style competition to see which league representative team is the best in England.
Haigh said: “I’m very excited about this new role. I was thinking about going back into academy football but then this role popped up and I’m delighted. I have much to do as I don’t know lots of the players in the top league so I’ll have to go and watch some matches.
“I want this new team to be as successful as possible and that means winning every game. I will probably have a squad of 26 and that will consist of the very best players in our league structure. I am proud to represent this league and will do all I can to be successful.”
Haigh says the new role won’t distract him from Marsden. He said: “Marsden FC is something I am building. We want to build the club and have ambitions of reaching the semi-professional level just like Golcar United.
“Living in Golcar I can see what can be achieved and although we at Marsden don’t have the same amount of funds, we do have the ambition of one day reaching Golcar’s level.
“We won the Yorkshire Amateur League Division Two easily this season and so we will now be catapulted into two divisions higher in the Championship. I think we deserve to play at that level but, of course, we want more.
“I want us to be a top Yorkshire Amateur League club and play in the Supreme league which is at the very top of our league structure (four leagues above Marsden’s current Division Two status).
“I believe we can get there for sure. The squad is improving all the time. As long as the club backs my ambitions I’ll stay. I’d love to take Marsden to the top.
“Off the pitch we are trying to improve things, having floodlights, advertising boards around the pitch, and we are looking at building a stand. Obviously not everything can happen all at once so we are doing it bit by bit.
“The work I do with the Yorkshire Amateur League will not impede my role at Marsden in any way so I can reassure our fans about that. I said I’d do at least another year and that’s what I’m committed to.”
