All clubs and leagues should affiliate to their County FA. Affiliation enables the protection of players, clubs, officials and management committees.

The affiliation process can be broken down into four stages with clear procedures to be undertaken at each stage.

Application

To start the affiliation process, clubs are required to complete their affiliation application. This is completed through the Whole Game System and should be completed by either the Secretary or Chairperson of a club.

Within the application, clubs are required to check and amend information from the previous season. Age groups of teams up to U16 are automatically moved up to the next age band. After U16, clubs should check to see whether or not their team progresses to an U17 team or to an U18 team with their league. 

Insurance documents should also be uploaded during this stage of affiliation. For more information about insurance, please click here.

Review

Once you have submitted your affiliation application to us we will review it. When it has been reviewed, we will either submit the affiliation to the invoicing stage or go back to you with required amendments. 

Amendments can include, but are not limited to, adding a coach to a team, informing us of which league the team will be playing in, providing your insurance certificate and ensuring a coach has an in-date FA Criminal Record Check.

During this stage it is important that the club secretary monitors their emails as this will be how we contact a club regarding any amendments that need to be made.

Payment

Once all amendments have been made or are in progress, we will look to submit the affiliation for invoicing. Invoices will be sent to the club through the Whole Game System and should be paid within 14 days to avoid getting a late payment fee. 

Approval

When you have paid the affiliation invoice we will approve the affiliation. Once any required amendments have been completed and the invoice has been paid, the club will receive their affiliation number for the upcoming season.