Club Support Package
Club Affiliation 2020/21 and County Cups Update
Club Affiliation Fees Slashed
We hope that you and your families are safe and well as we collectively battle the Covid-19 pandemic. Our thoughts are with those that have been affected as in these unprecedented times, people’s health and well-being is paramount and sport has quite rightly, taken a back seat.
As we’re all acutely aware, football remains suspended until further notice and we know that all grassroots Clubs are facing a very difficult period. As we begin to look forward to the next football season, we recognise that offering financial support to Clubs will be vital to help grassroots football recover.As a result, Gloucestershire FA is injecting more funding into grassroots football to reduce the affiliation fee for 2020/21 by up to 75% and continue subsidising the cost of personal accident policies purchased under the National Game Insurance Scheme.
Gloucestershire FA will also extend the due-date of affiliation invoices so that Clubs have a chance to generate some income before being asked to pay their affiliation fee. This means that together with the support being offered by some leagues, overall pre-season costs incurred by Clubs in 2020 should be significantly reduced.
Personal Accident Insurance
We will again provide a subsidy for open age football of £5.00 per team and £3.00 for youth teams. In addition, Bluefin Sport is expected to reduce the cost of personal accident policies for 2020/21.
County Cups
When football ceased in March, the competitions had either reached the semi-final stage or in the case of several competitions, the Final itself. Based on feedback from Clubs and volunteers, we will look to complete these open age County Cup competitions when it’s considered safe to do so and hope that they will be completed early in the new season. We are currently consulting youth leagues for their feedback on the youth Cup competitions and a decision will be made in the coming weeks. Cup Finals are equally important to match officials and anyone previously appointed will retain the appointment, subject to their availability.
For 2020/21, we will remove County Cup entry from the affiliation process, further reducing up-front costs to Clubs. Anyone involved in grassroots football knows how important County Cups are to participants, but we will delay a decision on running competitions next season until we know when football can resume and when the 2019/20 competitions will be completed.
Further Support
This initial package of support will be broadened over the coming months as our focus for 2020/21 will be to help rebuild grassroots football, working closely with affiliated leagues. We will also be supporting referees, coaches and volunteers as they are the people that really make grassroots football happen.
Contacts
As most Gloucestershire FA staff are likely to remain on furlough until the end of June, please send any queries or requests to Support@GloucestershireFA.com and we will respond as soon as we can.