THE McDonald’s Worcester and District Football League have been forced to cut down following “the worst ever” season for withdrawals.

The number of divisions has been reduced from six to five with 60 sides, six less than last year, set to play Sunday league football in the city and surrounding area next season.

Bedwardine, FC Northwick Arms, Worcester Lynx, Eagle and Sun, FC Sporting Worcester and Malvern Radar Youth have entered the league.

But secretary Tim Phillips said it was not enough to keep six divisions going after a “concerning” number of teams dropped out.

Seven sides fell by the wayside in the 2015-16 campaign before five more clubs handed in their resignations at the end of the season.

Phillips believed the amount of withdrawals was down to a “lack of commitment” from people to play the game.

He said: “Obviously it is a concern.

“But it is a national trend that we just don’t have as many people wanting to play football locally these days. The commitment is just not there like it used to be.

“It was the worst ever season for withdrawals as we started with 66 teams in six divisions of 11 sides and ended with 54.

“So we have had to drop a division this year because the numbers don’t warrant six divisions.

“We want to be getting as many people playing football as we can, however, you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”

The Premier Division particularly suffered with four of the original 11 teams calling it a day last season.

Phillips admitted there was a “lack of appetite” from players to test themselves against the best.

But he was hopeful of seeing more sides following in the footsteps of youth team Malvern Wanderers, who have stepped up to senior football as Malvern Radar Youth.

“We hope the league stabilises,” Phillips said.

“Historically, you tend to find one or two teams drop out, so we hope that doesn’t happen and we are hopeful more youth teams will move into senior football.”

Despite the decreasing number of teams, Phillips insisted the league was in a “healthy position” financially.

He said this was largely down to sponsorship deals with McDonald’s, Layton Roofing, Herbie and 28 local companies.

“Any money we get from sponsorship we try and plough back into clubs in as many ways as we can,” Phillips said.

“For the eighth successive year, we have not increased league fees and we are paying 100 per cent of the players’ minimum personal insurance premiums this year.”

The 2016-17 campaign will run from September 4 through until May 21.