Club Affiliation
Online Club Affiliation 2023/24 is Now Live
Gloucestershire FA announces that Clubs can start their affiliation for the 2023/24 season using FA Portal
WHAT IS AFFILIATION?
Affiliation is an FA process through which clubs “register” with their local County Football Association, allowing them to enter affiliated league and Cup competitions in the season ahead. It involves confirming which teams will be operating, where they play as well as naming the key officers and team officials involved in running the club.
WHY DO CLUBS AFFILIATE TO THEIR COUNTY FA?
Affiliation acts as a quality assurance to ensure safeguarding standards are maintained, appropriate Club insurance policies in place and acts as a safety net to help protect and support participants, match officials, club officials and administrators throughout the game.
AFFILIATION REQUIREMENTS 2023/24
Gloucestershire FA’s Club Affiliation window opens on 19th June 2023. The FA has standardised the affiliation process and all Clubs now need to affiliate their teams through the FA Club Portal instead of using the whole game system.
Club Ground – It is a requirement for clubs to state their main home ground. You can do this ahead of affiliation through the ‘My Club’ tab. You can find guidance on how to complete this here.
Key Officials – Clubs are required to record their key officials. You can find guidance on how to add your key officials here.
Team Ground - It is a requirement for all teams to state their home ground. You can do this ahead of affiliation through the ‘My Club’ tab. You can find guidance on how to complete this here.
Named Manager or Coach – Every team must have a minimum of one Manager or Coach. This can be completed ahead of affiliation through the ‘Officials’ tab. You can find guidance here.
Welfare Officer (NEW) - Clubs with adult teams require a named ‘Welfare Officer (Adult Teams)’. For the 2023/2024 season only, no qualifications are required for this role.
Safeguarding Declaration - Every club will be required to accept a Safeguarding Declaration. Where clubs have teams that play at different levels of the game, more than one declaration will need to be accepted.
Keep reading to see all the requirements for this season.
national game Insurance scheme
Gloucestershire FA continues to partner with Marsh Sport (formerly Bluefin Sport), the provider of the National Game Insurance Scheme. To find out more information on legal liability and personal accident insurance policies please click here.
Legal Liability Insurance – All clubs are required to have Legal Liability Insurance that provides £10m cover. The two options are:
- County Cover Plus (includes £10m player to player liability cover) - £64.00 per Club
- County Cover (minimum cover) - £32.00 per Club
Clubs with Open Age (adult) teams
Personal Accident Insurance – Each team is required to have Personal Accident Insurance.
• New - Minimum cover can be purchased via the FA Portal. Clubs can purchase cover from other providers if they wish.
• New – Minimum cover level required for open age 11v11, non NLS teams is now ‘Superior 120’ at £68.00 per team. This provides a significantly enhanced range of benefits including temporary disablement payments.
• Optional top-up / enhanced cover available via the Marsh Sport website
• Minimum cover for NLS Step 5-6 teams remains ‘Superior 200’ - £106.50 per team.
Clubs with Youth Teams
Personal Accident Insurance – Every team is required to have Personal Accident Insurance, including development teams.
• New - Minimum cover can be purchased via the FA Portal. Clubs can purchase cover from other providers if they wish.
• Youth team minimum level of cover is ‘Superior Gold’ at £24 per team.
• Optional top-up / enhanced cover available via the Marsh Sport website
Named Manager or Coach – Every youth team must name all managers and coaches assigned to each team. This can be completed ahead of affiliation through the ‘Officials’ tab. You can find guidance here.
Safeguarding Children Course (NEW) - All managers and coaches require an in-date, accepted DBS and to have completed the Safeguarding Children Course. During May, June and July 2023, The FA is offering clubs a 50% reduction for coaches taking the Safeguarding Children Course, bringing the cost down to £15.
AFFILIATION FEES 2023/24
Changes to the FA’s Affiliation model required the replacement of Club based affiliation fees with team-based fees. The fees for the 2023/24 season are as follows:
| Team Category / Age | Fee per team |
| Development (U5-U6) | £3.00 |
| Mini-Soccer 5v5 (U7-U8) | £5.00 |
| Mini-Soccer 7v7 (U9-U10) | £7.00 |
| Youth Football 9v9 (U11-U12 | £9.00 |
| Youth Football (U13-U18) | £11.00 |
| Disability (youth) | £5.00 |
| Futsal (youth) | £9.00 |
| U19-U23 11v11 | £25.00 |
| Adult 11v11 | £25.00 |
| Small Sided | £10.00 |
| Veterans’ | £15.00 |
| Disability | £10.00 |
| Walking Football | £10.00 |
| Adult Male 11v11 (Step 5-6) | £50.00 |
| Adult Male 11v11 (Step 3-4) | £125.00 |
| Adult Male 11v11 (Step 1-2) | £150.00 |
| Women's Tier 3-4 | £75.00 |
| Women's Tier 5-6 | £150.00 |
| Premier League | £150.00 |
| Football League | £150.00 |
| Women's Super League | £150.00 |
| Women's Championship | £125.00 |
Benevolent Fund
When affiliating, Clubs are able to donate to the GFA Benevolent Fund. The recommended voluntary contribution donation is £10 per adult team and £10 per youth Club and can be made at the final stage of the on-line affiliation process. Please consider donating as each year we receive several applications to support injured participants, but sadly have to decline as their Club has not made a contribution in that season.
County Cups
COUNTY CUP COMPETITIONS - 2023/24
- All open age (adult) teams must enter the appropriate County Cup competition as this enables entry to other Cup competitions, including League and FA competitions.
- County Cup entry is restricted to Gloucestershire FA affiliated teams unless approved by the County FA and the team’s parent County FA.
- Youth Cup competition entry is optional for youth teams.
- All Clubs must seek Gloucestershire FA approval to enter a team in a County FA competition outside of Gloucestershire.
County Cup Entry Fees
Senior Challenge Cup (Steps 1 to 4) - £110.00
Challenge Trophy (Step 5 and 6) - £55.00
Adult, Open age (all other competitions) - £27.00
Youth (All age groups) - £22.00
Please note that youth cups are played on Sundays and require teams to be classified with the correct format and gender as follows:-
U12 Boys – 9v9 & ‘boys’ or ‘mixed’
U13 Boys – 11v11 & ‘boys’ or ‘mixed’
U14 Boys – 11v11 & ‘boys’ or ‘mixed’
U15 Boys – 11v11 & ‘boys’ or ‘mixed’
U16 Boys – 11v11 & ‘boys’ or ‘mixed’
U18 Youth – 11v11 & ‘boys’ or ‘mixed’
Saturday and mid-week Youth teams will need to apply to support@gloucestershirefa.com to enter the Sunday competitions.
U12 Girls – 9v9 & ‘girls’
U13 Girls – 11v11 & ‘girls’
U14 Girls – 11v11 & ‘girls’
U15 Girls – 11v11 & ‘girls’
U16 Girls – 11v11 & ‘girls’
U18 Girls teams (non-mixed) are permitted to enter the GFA Women's Challenge Cup.
Safeguarding requirements
Clubs with Youth and/or Wheelchair teams should note the following mandatory FA Safeguarding criteria for Club Affiliation:-
- Club Secretary, Chair, Treasurer and Welfare Officer must all have completed the FA Safeguarding for Committee Members (SCM). This free course can be accessed through the following link https://falearning.thefa.com/course/view.php?id=77.
- The Club Welfare Officer must also hold an in-date enhanced FA DBS check and have attended and completed the FA Safeguarding Children Course and FA Welfare Officer Workshop.
- Information for Clubs and individuals to follow to obtain DBS checks is published here.
- An individual cannot be a named manager/coach/assistant manager/assistant coach for more than four different youth teams within the same or different clubs.
For more information about FA Safeguarding requirements, please refer to guidance published by The FA at //www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/safeguarding
Stay up to date with all things football in gloucestershire
Follow us on our social media 👇
