Affiliation for Lincolnshire clubs will be open as of 12th June 2023, and club affiliation will be available in Club Portal instead of through the Whole Game System. 

The cost of affiliating will remain the same for next season.

Make sure you check out all the Affiliation Requirements for the 2023/24 season:

All clubs

• Public Liability Insurance – All clubs are required to have Public Liability Insurance covering the club for the upcoming year. This must be a minimum of £10million pounds.

• Club Ground – It is a requirement for clubs to state their main home ground. You can do this ahead of affiliation through the ‘My Club’ tab. You can find guidance on how to complete this here.

• Key Officials – Clubs are required to state their key officials. You can find guidance on how to add your key officials here.

• Safeguarding Declaration – Every club will be required to accept a Safeguarding Declaration. Where clubs have teams that play across different levels of the game, multiple declarations will need to be accepted.

Clubs with adult teams only

• Personal Accident Insurance – All teams are required to have Personal Accident Insurance.

• Team Ground (NEW) – It is a requirement for teams to state their main home ground. You can do this ahead of affiliation through the ‘My Club’ tab. You can find guidance on how to complete this here.

• Named Manager or Coach – Every team must have a minimum of one Manager or Coach. This can be completed ahead of affiliation through the ‘Officials’ tab. You can find guidance here.

• Welfare Officer (NEW) - Clubs with adult teams require a named ‘Welfare Officer (Adult Teams)’. For the 2023/2024 season, no qualifications are required for this role.

Clubs with youth teams

• Personal Accident Insurance – All teams are required to have Personal Accident Insurance, including U5 and U6 teams.

• Team Ground (NEW) – It is a requirement for teams to state their main home ground. You can do this ahead of affiliation through the ‘My Club’ tab. You can find guidance on how to complete this here.

• Named Manager or Coach – Every youth team must name all managers and coaches assigned to each team. This can be completed ahead of affiliation through the ‘Officials’ tab. 

• Safeguarding Children Course (NEW) - All managers and coaches require an in-date, accepted DBS & to have completed the Safeguarding Children Course. The FA is offering a 50% reduction for their coaches taking the Safeguarding Children Course bringing the cost down to £15 during the months of May, June, and July. You can find guidance here.

Open-Age Disability teams

All Clubs with Open-Age Disability teams must: name a Club Welfare Officer (Disability Teams) who has completed The FA’s free Safeguarding Adults Course as part of the 23/24 affiliation process. 

How should you get ready?

Before starting the affiliation process, all clubs should:

• Familiarise with using the Club Portal to process your club admin (apart from processing discipline).

• Ensure all outstanding invoices from this season are paid. You will not be able to complete your affiliation without these being paid.

• Ensure all player suspensions from last season have been assigned fixtures (unless the suspension is carrying over to next season). If you need any help, please click here or contact Discipline@LincolnshireFA.com  

• Once you have finished your season, we strongly encourage all clubs to access their Club Portal and detach any players that are no longer part of your club. Any questions or support please contact info@LincolnshireFA.com and we can help.

For further information on the affiliation changes, please click the button below.

FIND OUT MORE

For those interested in how affiliation will work in Clubs Portal, FA Grassroots Technology are hosting an online webinar on 15th May to walk through the new affiliation process. You can sign up for this here. 

We are here to help – so if you have any questions or need some advice, please email info@lincolnshirefa.com or call 01522 596580 and a member of staff will be happy to assist you!

To be one of the first to receive the latest grassroots football news from Lincolnshire, and to receive exclusive offers and discounts from Lincolnshire FA partners – click here.