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 DBS

Playmaker Qualification

An in date Safeguarding Children's Course

An in date FA First Aid Qualification

You cannot lead a session as a parent! A lead coach must take charge of every session. They must have:

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

Introduction to Coaching Football

England Football UEFA C Licence

England Football UEFA B Licence

Coach Development Programme

If you are interested in setting up disability football within your club, contact andrea.fyall@durhamfa.com

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:

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

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.

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. 

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.