Following successful use by over 90% of club secretaries last summer, details and instructions will be sent to secretaries of all adult and youth clubs affiliated to Gloucestershire before the end of May 2017.

The facility allows club secretaries to change details about their club, teams, ground and kit without the need to use the historic paper affiliation form.  Entry to county cup competitions and the purchase of Legal/Public Liability Insurance is included.  Importantly, payment of affiliation fees can be made by credit or debit card to complete the process.

Video tutorials are available to view as you work through each stage of the on-line affiliation process.

When club secretaries have worked through the affiliation form, the information is submitted to Gloucestershire FA for review in order to check that the purchased products and cup entries are correct.  Clubs are asked to ensure this stage is reached as soon as possible and no later than 30 June 2017. 

Once Gloucestershire FA has verified the information submitted, invoice(s) will be generated on the Whole Game System (WGS) which will allow clubs to complete the affiliation process by paying fees electronically using Barclaycard’s Smartpay gateway, by BACS, via cheque or cash as in previous years.  All affiliation invoices require payment by 31 July 2017.

In addition to Legal/Public Liability Insurance that can be purchased through Gloucestershire FA, all football clubs will be required to demonstrate that their teams have adequate Group Personal Accident Insurance in place for their players and officials for the 2017-18 season.  Bluefin Sport can provide instant quotations and cover and their National Game Insurance Scheme website can be accessed by visiting www.bluefinsport.co.uk/ngis 

Youth Clubs are asked to note the mandatory FA Safeguarding criteria for Club Affiliation:-

• Club Secretary, Chair and Welfare Officer must have completed the FA Safeguarding for Committee Members (SCM).  This free course can be accessed through the following link https://learning.thefa.com/enrol/index.php?id=308

• All youth team (Under 18 and below) managers and coaches are required to have an in-date, FA accepted, Criminal Records Check (CRC) (within three years of issue date) at the point of affiliation.  Managers and Coaches can be submitted without an in-date, CRC check, but affiliation cannot be approved by the County FA until they have an in-date CRC check (in line with FA regulations).

• An individual cannot be a named manager/coach for more than four different youth teams, although they can be named as assistant manager/assistant coach for more than four teams.

For more information about FA Safeguarding requirements, please refer to the easy-read CRC leaflets for Referees, Coaches and Clubs along with the rest of the CRC guidance which can be found on TheFA.com Safeguarding pages found here: //www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/safeguarding

All new clubs will need to complete and return a paper affiliation form but once their details are registered on FA Whole Game they will be able to access the facility. 

More information about club affiliation can be found at http://www.gloucestershirefa.com/clubs-and-leagues/affiliation

To access the Whole Game System go to https://wholegame.thefa.com