Dear colleagues, 

I hope that you are all safe and well in these difficult times.   

The devastating impacts of the coronavirus continue to be felt by families, communities and frontline services across the country, and our thoughts remain with those most affected. We recognise that many of you are facing your own challenges during the current situation and are fully aware of the financial implications the situation presents the game at all levels. Whilst we do not have all the answers right now, I would like to reiterate the Association’s commitment to the game and retaining its infrastructure for the future.   

As such the Lincolnshire FA announce that club affiliation, referee affiliation, league sanction fees and entry to County Cups for the 2020/21 season will be FREE for ALL clubs, referees and leagues across Lincolnshire. 

This investment, aimed at reducing the costs of returning to football, has been assisted by funding provided by The FA and Sport England, which has been matched by the Lincolnshire FA. The Lincolnshire FA encourage all organisations involved in the delivery of football across the county, to show their commitment to their stakeholders by where possible, also removing financial barriers that may affect players returning to the game. 

This announcement is strictly related to Lincolnshire FA Affiliation & Sanction fees for the 2020/21 season and does NOT include Personal Accident and Public Liability Insurance. Clubs and Leagues will need to purchase this through the Whole Game System during the period of Affiliation and Sanctioning. 

We are currently working on the final details of Affiliation and Sanctioning for the 2020/21 season and the details of both processes including the launch date will be announced in due course. 

We are in a time of great uncertainty and understand that you, like us, will have concerns about how and when it will be feasible to get back to playing the game that we all love. Simply put we don’t know at this point. The 2020-2021, season is likely to be different to the traditional format that we are all used to. We are desperate to be able to provide you with further information about when and how football can resume. We are awaiting further information from the Government and The FA on this matter. Please be assured that when we have any updated information available to us, we will notify all involved in grassroots football in Lincolnshire as soon as possible. 

We would encourage all clubs to review all of the financial support options being offered by various bodies such as the Government, Sport England, Local Authorities and the Football Foundation to help ease the financial burden and to contact us if we can be of any assistance with any of these. We are continuously updating our website and releasing updates/reminders for our members on our social media channels and focusing our efforts on being ‘Football Ready.’ 

We are here to support our football community through this crisis and our reduced team remains ready to support where we can. If you require further assistance, then please do not hesitate to contact us at info@lincolnshirefa.com  

Stay safe and best wishes, 

Grahame Lyner 
Chair 
Lincolnshire Football Association