THE new man in charge of the Herefordshire Football Association hopes he will bring some youthfulness to the decision making process within the company.

Jonny Walker has replaced Jim Lambert as the chief executive having previously served as football strategy manager.

And he says that the way the HFA communicate and embrace new technology is imperative.

"I think the key thing is that we ensure we move with the times and are agile enough to take on new projects that might differ from tradition," said Walker.

"Over the last few months or so we have made some great changes to how we communicate externally and how we engage or interact with clubs, coaches, partners, volunteers, schools and parents.

"We are looking to become more customer focussed and will be trailing a new system over the coming months using cloud-based customer service software providing helpdesk support to get things done faster and more efficiently.

"In order to be a forward thinking organisation and provide the best service possible, we still need to engage more, and I have challenged the development team to be out and about within the county as much as possible.

"We have some fantastic volunteers within the county who put in an astronomical amount of hours to develop grassroots football.

"Ultimately we need to ensure those people are given all the support possible and more because, without these volunteers, we are simply unable to deliver on the FA National Game Strategy and grow grassroots football.

"I very much hope that I can bring some youth to the decision making processes within the HFA and some fresh approaches to how we can start to tackle some of our key challenges in the county."

Walker acknowledges that the traditional 11 versus 11 game is in decline, while the number of referees needs increasing.

In Herefordshire, there are 62 adult male teams, with the target being 72.

There also needs to be more adults enrolling on referee courses, admits Walker.

"It goes without saying that the decline of teams taking part in traditional senior football needs addressing, along with a shortage of officials," he said.

"While I don’t believe there is a silver bullet to the situation, we cannot hide behind the security blanket of saying it’s a national problem, we have to consider options.

"Our local Sunday League has suffered numbers wise.

"We have to recognise that there are changes in lifestyles, priorities and financial constraints but one thing is for sure, we will consult with teams around any changes to formats or new offerings, as I believe we have to support and protect what we already have, before we can have real aspirations of growth.

"I certainly feel the best way of increasing participation in grass roots football is to continue developing initiatives and routes into the game for all.

"We have achieved this recently with girls wildcat’s centres, disability and inclusion turn up and play sessions, a new walking football league and a new ladies development league.

"The latter two are both held at centralised venues, which begs the question do we have access to enough quality facilities across the county to increase and encourage participation?

"Nationally, many leagues are now run at centralised venues, which can be beneficial to clubs from a financial point of view and also on volunteer time.

"In order to improve grassroots participation, we need to improve and develop quality facilities within the county.

"My hope is that in the not too distant future there will be further all weather facilities to enable this."

Walker previously worked in various commercial roles in remote health, including working for United Health Group, an American company.

However, he has always been passionate about football, especially in Herefordshire where he has always lived.

Therefore, he decided to apply for the football strategy role at the HFA and was appointed in April.

He adds that he will also be looking at some commercial projects in order to move forward.

"We have recently started developing several key partnerships, which have enabled us to increase of offerings within the county," he said.

"One recent example of this is our new football roadshow partnership with Beyond Storage

"This partnership has been a great success and has enabled us to provide five football roadshows around the county with the aim of creating new junior teams or supporting teams who have depleted numbers.

"There is also a wider benefit of this partnership to affiliated club members, who in turn have access to specific rates of storage."