A switch to a summer season has been discussed by the Maidstone & Mid Kent Football League as they fight the decline of the grassroots game.

Officials are exploring ways to attract new sides to a league who have gone from 72 teams in their early 1990s peak to just 33 today.

With facilities stretched at the best of times, the league are badly hit by postponements over the winter months.

Moving the season may be radical but would ease the burden and could appeal.

Secretary Steve Taylor said: “If you take out the fact we haven’t got the numbers, we’re getting to a point where most of December/January is written off through wet weather.

“I know the FA are looking at giving leagues the opportunity to change things a little bit, where we’re not told this is what we’ve got to do, that we can think of something different.

“So who knows, we may end up starting in March and playing through the summer to September/October, if that’s possible.

“I know football’s a winter sport but if you can’t play because of the water and the pitches, we’re not all of a sudden going to get 50 3G pitches in Maidstone, so maybe we have to think outside the box.

“We’ve talked about it at our own committee level.

“In an ideal world, if we can’t do that, maybe we could try to get a pitch for a four-hour slot and have a little knockout tournament but trying to change anything is difficult.”