The merger between the Southwest Peninsula League and the Western League was given approval by the Football Association’s League’s Committee last month.

John Pool the Chairman of the Toolstation Western League and Phil Hiscox, the Secretary of the Southwest Peninsular League, joined Ian Nockolds on the Toolstation Western League Podcast to discuss what this latest announcement means for Project South West.

The full interview has been serialised in The Journal and in this sixth and final episode, John Pool sets out how the project will be taken forward.

JP: Phil’s mentioned the fact now that we need to start lining everything up with regards to who wants to be part of the steering group, be part of the subcommittees to take this all forward. We’re fairly confident at this point in time that we know the direction we’re going in. What we are in the process of setting about now is producing things like Gantt charts, which is probably going to put us under a bit of pressure, really. But there are reasons for that; one, as yet, we’ve not had any direct contact from the FA as I referred to earlier on, I think they will probably want to start monitoring what progress is being made towards setting up the new company.

It’s also a mechanism for reporting back to the clubs to let them know what progress is being made or not. Like Phil alluded to on Monday, we’re probably further forward than we perhaps anticipated we would be at this stage. So, we’re quite comfortable with where we’re going.

In the long-term it’s going to be the clubs that is going to make or break this. And we’ve listened, you know, the project was launched on the basis that we recognise the existing restructure was never going to work in the long-term. We’ve embarked on the route that we’re going down now, we’ve got support, as far as we’re concerned of all the stakeholders, including the FA. Yes, there’s a lot of work to be done but I’m quietly confident, well, I am confident that we will achieve the deadlines by 23/24. In fact, we’ve got to. What I would actually ask, you know, given the opportunity is, is for those people that are doubting whether this can work or not; it is very much down to the clubs and their desire to want to participate in this. And that reference is being made more to the clubs in the feeder leagues. You know, seriously think now about whether you’d like to participate. It’s not for everybody, I understand that, but there is a lot on offer and there will be a lot on offer.

We’ve got a number of things that are in the air at the moment, which has been alluded to as regards to the financial implications in and around the new league. We’ve been very fortunate for some considerable time; they’d have very good sponsorship. We’re hoping that continues because without a shadow of a doubt it will play a major part in our future.

So yeah, exciting times. Looking forward to it very much. I’m more than happy with the way things are progressing at this point in time.

The full interview can be heard on episode 4 of the Toolstation Western League Podcast, available to listen at http://toolstationleague.com/podcasts/