What is dispensation - this enables children with a disability, Significant Physical Development Delay (SPDD), or who are schooled no more than one year behind the age group prescribed by their date of birth (their "prescribed age group") to play football outside of their prescribed age group.

Affiliation is completed through the Club Portal. You must affiliate all teams playing competitive football in the county. Club insurance and team insurance is available for purchase through the portal and all fees are payable at the end of the process.  Please use the information and guidance below:

https://grassrootstechnology.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/48001239626-affiliation

https://grassrootstechnology.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/folders/48000690410

If you are a brand new Club you will need to complete an offline form first before being able to access Club Portal. Please email Info@DurhamFA.com to request a new Club Affiliation Form.

Contact our Designated Safeguarding Officer Neil.Churcher@DurhamFA.com

Player registration is completed using the Club Portal using the ‘Players’ tab. You will need the players full name, date of birth and email address. If it’s a youth player (under the age of 16) you will also need the parent carer details (full name, date of birth and email address).  The link below has all the information required to register: https://grassrootstechnology.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/folders/48000693860

By completing the Durham County FA Representative Request Form here - https://forms.office.com/e/pVYyE70fgT

If the request for a representative is agreed a fee of £20.00 must be paid to the Durham County Football Association before the game is to be played. 

Please email Info@DurhamFA.com with the following; home team, away team, date of friendly and Referee. Once we have verified that both teams are affiliated for the current season and the Referee is registered with all relevant qualifications up-to-date we will email back with confirmation that the friendly is sanctioned.

If you are hosting a tournament please complete the online form here - https://forms.office.com/e/YVhZ16Y0Qq

WE MUST RECEIVE YOUR TOURNAMENT INFORMATION AT LEAST 7 DAYS IN ADVANCE OF THE TOURNAMENT. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN SANCTION BEING UNABLE TO BE GIVEN.
Once we have reviewed your tournament information we will be in touch to request relevant sanction fees (£20 per age group for Durham County FA affiliated Clubs) (£40 per age group for private organisations)
Your tournament is NOT sanctioned until we have been in touch via email to confirm. 

Our region has a number of existing Clubs. If wanting to start a single ‘Team’ the first step would be to find local existing Clubs and offer your services as a Volunteer interested in supporting more people play football. This helps maximize facilities available in the area, supports directing funding to where it can have the best impact, and will help strengthen existing Clubs, making them more sustainable. It will also help you as an existing Club will have Club Officials already in place to help with Club administration, safeguarding and DBS checks, and potentially save money on kit and equipment or through support for coaching qualification.

If you still feel their is a need for a new Club, there are lots of resources on the England Football Club House. For more information, please email andrew.brown@durhamfa.com

The FA's Club House online community has a Workforce & Volunteer Toolkit which includes video and written versions of role descriptions. These can help with understanding of what work is required to run a grassroot club, as well as acting as useful tools when advertising and recruiting new volunteers.

Key officials required include: Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, Club Welfare Officer.

https://community.thefa.com/leagues-clubs/m/workforce-and-volunteers-toolkit

At Durham County FA we organise and administer a number of Leagues across the season therefore if you would be interested in refereeing in any of our Leagues could you please complete our online form here - https://forms.office.com/e/yntJGwitU1

Please ensure you read through each leagues information before confirming your interest (full details are via the above link).

Once you have submitted the form you will be added to our Referee Mailing List and we will be in touch on a weekly basis.

Your help and support to the County FA Leagues is very much appreciated. 

If you are a brand new team, you may be eligible for assistance with funding, please email Kerry.Topping@DurhamFA.com to request a start-up grant form.

Sanctioning from England FA is required. To do this, email sanctioning@thefa.com

If you are interested in setting up disability football within your club, contact Andrea.Loynes@DurhamFA.com

Public Liability Insurance (per club)

Personal Accident Cover (per team per league)

Affiliation (per team per league)

Is there any support for clubs/coaches? Yes!

Journey to Inclusion Workshop

FA Dispensation Policy - July 2024

There are no mandatory requirements however, we would advise the following online courses:

Introduction to Disability Football

Public Liability Insurance (per club)

Personal Accident Cover (per team per league)

Affiliation (per team per league)

All friendlies including disability football must be sanctioned by Durham County FA. Please complete the form before playing your game.

Sanctioning from England FA is required. To do this, email sanctioning@thefa.com

All tournaments must be sanctioned by Durham FA. Please complete the form before running your tournament.

Red cards can be appealed UNLESS it is for offensive, insulting, abusive language, or receiving two cautions in the same fixture.

When parents wish to provide statements they need to be submitted through a Club Official

To enable statements to be used as evidence, we must be given permission to share.

If timescales are given to respond they MUST be adhered to.

Complaints can be submitted on the link below:

No. Any player who is shown a red card is suspended 7 days from the date of the fixture regardless of the report showing on the system. Any discipline not received should be reported to Durham County FA which will be chased up with the match official.

7 days from the day the player is sent off.

Intention to appeal must be made by 5.00pm on the second business day following the incident, and all evidence the appeal is based upon should be submitted by 5.00pm on the fourth business day following the incident:

Waiting for the referee to submit a report cannot be an excuse to go outside the above dates. 

If bank holidays fall within this period, the appropriate number of extra days will be made available, but claims will always be heard before any sanction commences.

For a claim to be upheld you need to prove that the referee made an “obvious error”.

All details can be found in the Grassroots Discipline guide – pages 17-19, on the link below:

You may be eligible to claim from the County FA Benevolent Fund, please complete and return the attached form if eligible. You must return the application form within one month of the injury, with as much supporting evidence, GP fit note, hospital letter/s, last two wage slips, and marriage certificate if married.

If you require further information, please email Kerry.Topping@DurhamFA.com

Application Form - Benevolent Fund

If you have purchased Personal Accident Insurance with Sportsguard, when affiliating, the contact number for Sportsguard is 01604 644 277. Also please inform Kerry.Topping@DurhamFA.com as you may be eligible to claim from the County FA Benevolent Fund.

Please note there is a strict deadline with claiming. You can read the Sportsguard document below.

Club Information Document - Durham FA

If you have paid for this with your affiliation through Durham County FA, please email Info@DurhamFA.com

Please use the link below for information and guidance on England Football Accreditation:

To be a two-star Accredited Club, you must offer a complete full player pathway for either male, female or disability plus a minimum of 1 Team from either of the other Player Pathways, all playing within FA sanctioned League competitions.

To be a three-star Accredited Club, you must offer a complete accredited player pathway for male and female plus a disability football offer, all teams must be playing within FA sanctioned League competitions.

Affiliation is completed through the ‘Club Portal’ via a club committee member. You must affiliate all teams playing competitive football in the county.  All teams are added to the portal using the ‘teams’ tab and ‘affiliate teams’. Club insurance and team insurance is available for purchase through the portal and all fees are payable at the end of the process. Please use the information and guidance below:

https://grassrootstechnology.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/48001239626-affiliation

https://grassrootstechnology.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/folders/48000690410

Player registration is completed using the ‘Club Portal’ using the ‘Players’ tab. Any player under the age of 18 will need the player's name, DOB, the parent carer details including e-mail address. They will also need their own e-mail address and telephone number if they are 16-18 years old. The link below has all the information required to register:

Our region has a number of existing Clubs. If wanting to start a single ‘Team’ the first step would be to find local existing Clubs and offer your services as a Volunteer interested in supporting more people play football. This helps maximize facilities available in the area, supports directing funding to where it can have the best impact, and will help strengthen existing Clubs, making them more sustainable. It will also help you as an existing Club will have Club Officials already in place to help with Club administration, safeguarding and DBS checks, and potentially save money on kit and equipment or through support for coaching qualification.

If you still feel their is a need for a new Club, there are lots of resources on the England Football Club House. For more information, please email andrew.brown@durhamfa.com

The FA's Club House online community has a Workforce & Volunteer Toolkit which includes video and written versions of role descriptions. These can help with understanding of what work is required to run a grassroot club, as well as acting as useful tools when advertising and recruiting new volunteers.

Key officials required include: Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, Club Welfare Officer.

https://community.thefa.com/leagues-clubs/m/workforce-and-volunteers-toolkit

To become a coach, you need the following:

A valid DBS - Please contact your Club Welfare Officer or our County FA Designated Safeguarding Officer Neil.Churcher@DurhamFA.com

Introduction to Coaching Football

An in date Safeguarding Children Course

An in date FA First Aid qualification

You can help to coach your child's team. However you must have:

A valid FA DBS

An in date FA Safeguarding Children's Course

An in date FA First Aid Qualification (Recommended)

Introduction to Coaching Football

England Football UEFA C Licence

England Football UEFA B Licence

Coach Development Programme

You must be at least 14 years of age to become a referee

To be eligible to book a place on a Durham FA Referee Course you will need to have first completed the FA Online Laws of the Game Modules and FA Safeguarding For All course.

Once you have done this, check when the next available referee course is taking place and book a place.

Contact our Designated Safeguarding Officer Neil.Churcher@DurhamFA.com

To renew you registration, go to referees.thefa.com

https://www.the-ra.org/find-your-lra/

Northern League - refereeing@northernfootballleague.org

Wearside League - stevenfuters@gmail.com

At Durham County FA we organise and administer a number of Leagues across the season therefore if you would be interested in refereeing in any of our Leagues could you please complete our online form here - https://forms.office.com/e/yntJGwitU1

Please ensure you read through each leagues information before confirming your interest (full details are via the above link).

Once you have submitted the form you will be added to our Referee Mailing List and we will be in touch on a weekly basis.

Your help and support to the County FA Leagues is very much appreciated.

We have several clubs offering playing opportunities in our county for women and girls whether that be recreational or competitive football. To locate your nearest opportunities use The FA's Find Football Tool or contact Amy.Richardson@DurhamFA.com or Helen.Edwards@DurhamFA.com.

England Football offers the opportunity for grassroots clubs and organisations to offer recreational (turn up and play) football in the local area. There are 3 main programmes: Wildcats (5-11 years), Squad Girls (12-14 years) and Just Play (16+ years). To find out more please contact Amy.Richardson@DurhamFA.com or Helen.Edwards@DurhamFA.com

3G Pitch Register

Enhance - for pitches with a Performance Quality Standard (PQS) of 'basic' or below:

Grant value (per pitch)*

• 11 v 11 - £3,200 per pitch
• 9 v 9 - £2,560 per pitch
• Mini soccer (7v7 and 5x5) - £1,920 per pitch

*all grant values include VAT

Sustain - for pitches with a PQS of 'good' or higher:

Grant value (per pitch)*

• 11 v 11 - £960
• 9 v 9 - £640
• Mini soccer (7v7 and 5v5) - £384

*all grant values include VAT

The above are year 1 amounts at 100% funding. Grants will be tapered down every two years by 33% (years 1 & 2 = 100%, years 3 & 4 = 67%, years 5 & 6 = 33%).

Partnership funding is only required on the pitches that need enhancing to ‘Good’. The total partnership funding required is 33%. A calculator will be provided which will work out funding amounts for any type of site layout. Funding towards ‘sustaining’ your pitch is in recognition of your hard work in getting it to the ‘Good’ standard and to help you keep it there.

You need to either:

• Own the freehold
• Have an uninterruptible lease of 10 years,
• Have a licence for 10 years
• Have the written consent of the landowner using either the Landlord and Tenant Form (if you have a lease or licence less than 10 years) You still need to send us a copy of your lease/licence here though.
• or the Grass Pitch Maintenance Agreement pro forma (if you have no lease or licence).

• Slitting – contractor works 
• Scarification – contractor works 
• Decompaction – contractor works
• Selective herbicide (weed treatment) – contractor works
• Fertiliser – contractor works and/or purchase of materials (fertiliser) 
• Overseeding – contractor works and/or purchase of materials (seed) 
• Top dressing – contractor works and/or purchase of materials (topsoil) 
• Soil Sampler – purchase of a soil sampler

Football Foundation Funding

Please click the link above for all of the Football Foundation's funding pots. 

Only the chairman, secretary, or treasurer can apply for funding.

Email Daniel.McElhone@DurhamFA.com or Joseph.Dredge@DurhamFA.com for support on applications.

Clubs cannot for their stadia pitch. The Football Foundation are unable to fund grass pitches that are used for football at Step 1 to 6/Tiers 1-4. This is still the case even if the pitches are accessed by grassroots teams. If there are other grass pitches at the site that are used for community football, the club could apply for funding for those pitches. Clubs within the National League System are eligible to apply for maintenance machinery and capital improvements to a first-team pitch via the Premier League Stadium Fund and should contact a member of the Football Foundation’s Technical team to discuss further.

Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund Criteria

Email Joseph.Dredge@DurhamFA.com for further information or queries

When you accept the grant on your Football Foundation Account, you'll be able to claim your first payment. Log in to your Account and follow the step by step guide on how to make your claim.

Before you can claim your first payment, a minimum of two representatives from the organisation must complete a Grounds Management Association Level 1 Football Groundsmanship course (ONLINE) and evidence of completion is provided to the Foundation, before any payments are released. The cost of the course can be claimed back within your year 1 claim submission which is £71 per person.

After 12 months has elapsed from your last claim and you have submitted your two PitchPower assessments, you will be prompted to submit your second (third, fourth, fifth and sixth) grant claim.  You will be required to evidence the total spend for works completed at the site, this includes your partnership funding contribution.

Typically, claims will be submitted annually, but the Football Foundation allow projects more time (up to 18 months) to spend their total project cost for any particular claim period should they require it. Please note again, that all works carried out should match what has been detailed in your PitchPower report, and meet the eligible items listed. All ineligible items will not be considered as part of your claims. Once this information has been checked, it includes eligible items and approved, your next payment will be made.  Should there be any anomalies or queries regarding your grant claim, a member of our Grant Management Team will be in touch to discuss.

Clubs on the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund must complete 2 Pitch Powers per year. They need to be in the following windows.

1 x Pitch Power Assessment 1st November - 31st March

1 x Pitch Power Assessment 1st April - 31st October

Pitch Finder

Local Football Facility Plans