Ballarat Football League co-chairman Robert Allan says the competition is committed to playing senior representative football next year.
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As far as he is concerned this is non-negotiable.
His first priority is to have AFL Victoria continue with a program, but if it pulls the pin on the community championships Allan says the BFL is determined to press on.
AFL Victoria is expected to announce the future of the statewide country and metropolitan carnival this week, with speculation that the inter-league competition will be axed.
Allan said the BFL remained in the dark as to what AFL Victoria had in mind.
He said all anyone could do at the moment was wait, although he expected the issue to be discussed in some form at BFL board meeting on Monday night.
Allan said the BFL had everything in place - including a budget - other than a coach in readiness for an inter-league program in 2020.
A search for a coach to replace Shaun Grigg, who had to withdraw from the role after being appointed to a development coaching role with Geelong in AFL, has been put on hold until after the AFL Victoria announcement.
Allan agreed with a suggestion of a mature under-age competition being the future of representative football.
He said if the BFL needed to go alone, it would have no hesitation in approaching other major leagues for a match-up.
Allan said it was important to end the speculation as soon as possible to allow the BFL and other leagues to get on with planning.