A few years ago a caricature of footballing great Lionel Messi emerged with two batteries strapped to his back. The batteries were called Xavi and Iniesta.

The inference was that Messi wouldn’t have been half the player were it not for the two Spanish maestros playing just behind him in Barcelona’s midfield.

Debatable, perhaps. Messi has proved many, many times that he can create chances and conjure up goals out of nothing, although as a consummate team man he will always say that he needs the support of others in order to weave his footballing magic.

Closer to home, it’s a much more clearcut story for football leagues across the county. While players play, the wannabe Messi’s and Ronaldo’s are only able to strut their stuff because of the unsung heroes who work tirelessly night and day to make sure that there is a league for them to play in week in and week out.

It’s not uncommon for these leagues to have a roll of honour come season’s end – the divisional winners, the cup winners, that sort of thing.

But what about a roll of honour for the people who make it all happen? The people who work on the league committees, organising fixtures, collating results and tables, sorting out referees and generally making sure that everything works smoothly.

“Yes, a lot of hard work does go on behind the scenes,” said Nigel Newport-Black, who is chairman of the Cheltenham Youth Football League. “We have monthly management meetings and the people on the committee are in contact all the time, whether it be via telephone or emails.

“Last night the treasurer called round to my house because he needed some cheques signed and this morning I must have dealt with six football related emails before I started work.”

Newport-Black, of course, is not the only league officer pulling out all the stops to ensure that the start youngsters make on their footballing journey is a good one.

“It’s a huge team effort, I can’t stress that enough,” said Newport-Black, who is also a Director of the Gloucestershire FA in Bristol. “We’ve got 3,000 to 4,000 players signed on and over 230 teams from under-8s through to under-18s.”

That’s a lot of players and a lot of teams of course, and it requires an awful lot of effort to make sure that they are able to play the beautiful game on pretty much each and every weekend from the beginning of September right through to the end of April – and that’s before the end-of-season cup finals at Whaddon Road which finish in early May.

It’s no surprise, then, that the league has 16 officers as well as a president and eight vice-presidents.

Newport-Black, a successful businessman, is big on collective responsibility – so refreshing these days when from the Government down it seems to be a thing of the past – but push him and he’ll tell you that the work that Denise Pates does as league secretary is above and beyond.

“She does an awful lot of work,” he said. “She deals with the clubs, the managers, the club secretaries. It’s all very time consuming but she does an amazing job.”

He’s also full of praise for referees’ secretary Graham McNulty.

“We get up to and above 90 per cent coverage for pretty much all of our games,” said Newport-Black, who is a referee himself. “Some weekends we get 100 per cent which is incredible. That covers all matches from under-9s on a Saturday morning through to under-18s on a Sunday afternoon.”

It may be incredible but it’s also a lot of a man hours taken up, so what makes Newport-Black, who has been involved on the committee since the start of the millennium, and the other hardworking league officers want to do it?

“I can’t really speak for the others but it’s nice to be able to give something back,” said Newport-Black, who was a footballer himself many years ago. “I think we like being part of something that is successful.

“And that’s not just down to the current committee. There are a lot of people who have worked very hard to make the league as successful as it is today and it is our job to make sure that continues.”

And one of the key components of measuring the success or otherwise of the league is how many of the youngsters go on to play adult football when they get older.

“We want to keep as many playing as possible as they move into senior football,” said Newport-Black. “The Sunday league in Cheltenham has disappeared and the Saturday league has shrunk to four divisions, so we all know the problems.

“It’s as much about lifestyles as anything. The Saturday league has got as many players signed on as before but there are fewer teams because players can’t commit week in, week out.”

The Cheltenham Youth League, which numbers teams from pretty much all parts of Gloucestershire, doesn’t have that issue, of course, and Newport-Black added: “Whether we have 3,000 players registered or 300, our aim is to make sure that the players, their parents and the clubs are happy to be involved in a safe and well-run environment.”

The Cheltenham Youth League Roll of Honour

President: Roger Burden
Vice President: Steve Mattos
Life Vice Presidents: Darren Brown, C Eaton, D Kane, D.Lewis,
T Middlecote, C Perry, Pat Rose, P Tibbles

Chairman: Nigel Newport-Black
Vice Chairman: Dave Surgenor
Treasurer: Keith Iles
League Welfare Officer: Steve Mattos
League Secretary: Mrs Denise Pates
Referees’ Secretary: Graham McNulty
Fixtures Secretary: Mrs Denise Pates
Results Secretary: Dave Pates
Charter Standard Co-ordinator: Nico Goymer
Child-Friendly Football Co-ordinators (u9s, u10s, u11s): Simon and Maxine Greenwood
Trustee & Registration Secretary: Russ Fulford
Trustee: Steve Harris
Ex-Officio Member & Under 8s Co-ordinator: Martin Bliss
Ex-Officio Members: Matt Roberts, Neil Jacobs, Steve Pearce