DON Rogers revealed his delight as the North Wilts & District Youth & Minor League was awarded Charter Standard status on Thursday.

Town legend Rogers, who is president of the league, was among hundreds present at the County Ground’s Legends Lounge to witness chairman Kevan Williams receive the award formally, in a ceremony presided over by Wiltshire FA county secretary Mike Benson.

The North Wilts League is the first in the county to receive the award, which covers a wide range of operating standards relating to areas including coaching, safety and emergency aid qualifications.

An upbeat Rogers told the Advertiser: “It’s a lot of hard work for everybody but it’s paid off and will benefit the clubs in the future.

“It can only make the league better because people can see it’s progressing and that the people involved are doing things all the time.

“People don’t realise how much work is actually involved, some of the committee put their whole life into it, which is brilliant.”

County secretary Benson also lent his praise to proceedings, saying: “This particular league has been going since 2003 and now has 307 teams with about 6,000 registered players, which is a big achievement in that short space of time, so they’ve got a lot to be proud of.

“We (the Wiltshire FA) are really proud of the fact this is the first league in the county to attain Charter Standard status, and hopefully it won’t be the last.”

League chairman Williams added: “It was a target that at one stage that we weren’t even going to attempt to achieve.

“But having been encouraged by the county FA, we very quickly found that the standard of football we were already providing was pretty much to the standard that they were looking for.

“With some fine tweaking and some extra pointers, we’ve been lucky enough to be the first league in the county to pick up the award, and one of only a few in the country, so we’re more than pleased.”

Williams added that he hoped all of the league’s member clubs would be Charter Standard clubs by the start of the 2010/11 season.

Two other leagues in the county are currently in the process of attempting to attain the award, which are the Wiltshire League and the Mid-Wilts Youth and Minor League.

The Football Association, in partnership with McDonald’s, is aiming to ensure that 75 per cent of all youth clubs possess Charter Standard status by the end of 2014, which will in turn help deliver 150 Charter Standard leagues.