2022/23
clubs checklist
WHOLE GAME SYSTEM (WGS) SET-UP
All clubs playing in the League this season must firstly ensure that they are affiliated to a County Football Association (either London, Middlesex, Hertfordshire or the AFA) and have been set up by their County for their appointed Club Secretary to have a login to WGS where they can then access their club’s ‘Dashboard’. The following link will take you to the Whole Game System login page: https://wholegame.thefa.com/Account/Login
Once you are logged in as the Club Secretary, you should see a page similar to the one below where you then click on the ‘Club Officials’ section and ensure your Chairman & Treasurer are also entered as current ‘Key Officials’ and are registered with FAN numbers. This is a mandatory requirement. Please contact your County FA for guidance if necessary.
Once you have entered your ‘Key Officials’, you then need to click on the next section down for ‘Team Officials’ and use the blue ‘Add Official’ button to enter your Team Manager(s), your Team Secretary(s) and Coaches, making sure you also set up the relevant persons to receive e-mails and text (SMS) messages from Full-Time for confirming County Cup matches and receiving texts for you to reply to with results of your matches. This will also apply to League & League Cup matches.
See the graphic below for an example. Use the ‘Search’ function first before entering your officials as ‘New Contacts’ as they may already be on Whole Game and have a FAN number. You will need to have their date of births and postcodes to hand in order to search for them. If you run more than one team in the League, you will have to do this for each team.
PLEASE NOTE: It is VERY important that if your e-mail and/or SMS contacts registered on WGS (normally the Club Secretary and Team Manager) change their e-mail addresses or phone numbers…or somebody else replaces them as those contacts…, that the Club Secretary logs in to WGS and changes that information on there IMMEDIATELY. This is because the League no longer have access to do that due to GDPR regulations, so it will then subsequently mean Full-Time is not updated for the right persons to receive e-mails and text messages, thereby causing huge problems for fixtures.
Please also note that Team Secretaries do not have access to login to the FA Matchday app. They will need to be set up as a Manager, Assistant Manager or Coach in addition to the Team Secretary role.
SEASON STARTING DATE
The first official Sunday of the League season will be the 8th September, although teams with pitches available for Sunday 1st September will be allowed to start on that date instead if they inform the League Fixtures Secretary at least a week in advance. This is subject to there being opponents available who are also willing to start on that date.
REGISTERING YOUR PLAYERS
The F.A.’s WHOLE GAME SYSTEM (WGS) will be used this season for all player registrations.
Players will be registered by the clubs themselves, and that can be done from as soon as the Club Secretary has a WGS login and access to the 2019-2020 Season on the Player Registration section of their club’s dashboard.
The easiest way to register players is to firstly get the players themselves to use the Whole Game signup page at https://www.thefa.com/account/wholegame/signup? and enter their details to generate a FAN number (if they do not already have one):
IMPORTANT !: Please make sure the players enter their name in all lower case apart from the first letters of their names (e.g. Laurence Hughes / Alex Clayton / Rob Brassett / David Cross) instead of all in BLOCK LETTERS or as Laurence HUGHES, laurence hughes or any other mobile-phone predictive text anomaly !
Once the player has their FAN number, they can then text or WhatsApp that number, along with their full name, date of birth and postcode to their Club Secretary, who then logs in to WGS and chooses the ‘Player Registration’ tab on the club’s ‘Dashboard’. They then search for the player they want to register by using the details given to them and add them to their squad for the 2019-2020 Season.
A ‘mugshot/selfie’ ID photo of the player (without wearing baseball caps and/or glasses !) must also be uploaded to WGS during the registration process, either by the Club Secretary or the player himself.
The Club Secretary must also be given proof of ID (in the form of a passport, driving licence or birth certificate) by each new player they are signing up, particularly if the player has joined without knowing anybody. That can be done by sending a WhatsApp photo of one of those documents for the Club Secretary to save in the event of a request from the League to check a player’s ID. Failure to produce player ID’s when requested shall result in a fine under Rule 18A.
Once all of that is done, the Club Secretary can send each player an ‘Online Consent’ e-mail from WGS asking them to confirm that they wish to join the club by way of clicking on a link, then the ‘Submit To League’ button is used to alert the League Registration Secretary, who will then authorise the player to play in the League.
Please note that once a player is registered and approved by the League, that player’s name, date of birth or his photo cannot be changed. If the spelling of the player’s name is incorrect or is displayed on Full-Time in block letters instead of lower case, the Club Secretary has to inform their County FA, who will then correct it.
Only the player himself or the Club Secretary will be able to change the player’s address, mobile number or e-mail address (using their WGS/FAN number logins).
PLAYER REGISTRATION DEADLINES
All teams must have at least 11 players registered before Sunday 25th August. (If a Club is running three teams in the League, they will need to have 33 players registered by that date).
For matches due to be played on Sunday 1st September, all players due to be playing in those matches (apart from an Emergency Registration…see below) need to be registered by 23:59 on Saturday 24th August.
For matches due to be played on Sunday 8th September, all players due to be playing in those matches (apart from an Emergency Registration…see below) need to be registered by 23:59 on Saturday 31st August.
After Sunday 8th September, new players can be registered up until 24 hours before a match. (i.e. 10.30 am on a Saturday morning).
One EMERGENCY REGISTRATION player is allowed per team per match as per Rule 18A (ii). This is where a previously unregistered player can play ‘at the last minute’ by printing his name and entering his date of birth and postcode on the teamsheet with the opposing Club Secretary signing the form as a witness, but this is done at the club’s own risk as there may not be time before the kick-off for the player to be registered on the Whole Game System beforehand. The player must then be registered by the club on the Whole Game System within 24 hours of the match finishing, otherwise the club will be penalised for playing an ineligible player. Similarly if it turns out that the player used was already registered with another club in the League.
Existing teams from last season will have up to 20 player registrations free of charge. Extra registrations are then £5.00 per player. All new teams to the League have to pay £5.00 per player for all registrations.
All teams are invoiced twice for player registrations on (or shortly after) the 1st November and the 1st March each season.
The last date of the season for registering players is the 28th February.
TRANSFERRING PLAYERS
If clubs wish to sign a player during the season who has already registered for another club in the League for that season, the Club Secretary must enter the new player’s details for their club into the Whole Game System and then follow the online instructions to request permission from the existing club for the player’s transfer. The player will then be eligible to play once the transfer has been authorised by the League Registration Secretary, who should be informed in advance that a Transfer request is taking place.
PLAYER ELIGIBILITY (For League & League Cup matches)
Apart from Emergency Registrations, players will be eligible to play in any League or League Cup match as soon as their name appears on both the FA Matchday app (if used) and the Full-Time system under the club’s name. (See below).
All players will have FAN numbers which confirm their registration (as opposed to League registration numbers which have previously been used). If players have forgotten their own FAN number (which they will need to login to the FA Matchday app), the Club Secretary can view them under ‘Registered Players’ on the Whole Game System.
DOWNLOADABLE PDF ID-PHOTO SHEETS of each club’s squad of registered and eligible (i.e. not suspended) players will also be available from the Whole Game System. Each team (i.e. Club Secretary or Manager) must ensure they have a downloaded up-to-date PDF photo sheet of all their registered players saved on their phone before each match to give to the opposing Club Secretary/Manager on request before the kick-off, either via WhatsApp or as a print-out. Failure to do so will result in a £25.00 fine under Rule 18A.
PLAYER ELIGIBILITY when a Club has more than one team in the League
A club’s Second/Third team shall not include more than two players who have taken part in two or more senior competition (i.e. higher division or ‘senior’ Cup) matches during the current season unless a period of 21 days has elapsed since they last played.
This is Rule 18(M) in the League’s Standard Code of Rules and it is a bit complicated, but our League Records Secretary (Rob Brassett) will advise Second & Third teams of who they can and cannot play (on request).
PLAYER ELIGIBILITY for League Cup Semi-Finals & Finals
Players need to have played in at least TWO League and/or League Cup games for their team during the current season in order to be eligible to play in a League Cup Semi-Final or Final.
PLAYING UNREGISTERED OR SUSPENDED PLAYERS
Any team found guilty by the League Management Committee of playing an ineligible player will be fined and have the match awarded to their opponents. They will also have three points deducted if it is a League match.
Please note that photographic or video evidence of ineligible players will be required for the League Management Committee to take action once a player has already started the match. It will be up to the clubs themselves to stop ineligible players from playing in the first place by making use of their copy of the triplicate teamsheets given to them by the opposing team Manager/Secretary and the downloaded PDF player photo sheets from the Whole Game System.
CONFIRMING YOUR FIXTURE
The F.A.’s FULL-TIME system will continue to be used for all Fixtures.
All teams who have a fixture arranged for a particular Sunday will receive an automated e-mail from Full-Time at 10.00 am the preceding Monday morning giving details of the fixture and who the appointed Referee is.
The Home team Secretary (Team Administrator) must then contact both the Away Team and the Referee by e-mail, text or WhatsApp by the Tuesday evening beforehand at the latest to confirm the time of kick-off, the venue and the colours they will be wearing. If the Away Team and/or Referee’s contact details are not on the e-mail, the Home team should be able to find them on the League website. Please make sure that the Away Team and the Referee reply to your message in confirming arrangements with you. If you are the Away Team and you have not received confirmation of the match from the Home Team by a Wednesday morning, please contact the Home Team and also inform the League Fixture Secretary.
Please note that if there is a clash of colours, the Away Team will be expected to change as is normal at most levels of football, but if the Away Team do not have a change of kit, then the Home Team must change colours as per Rule 19.
NOTE: To find out your other forthcoming Fixtures, click on your team’s name in the League Tables on Full-Time and they will appear straight away under your own Fixtures and Results tab.
KICK-OFF TIMES
In general, all Barnet Sunday League and League Cup match Kick-Off times are 10:30 am unless both teams and the Referee are happy with kicking-off at an alternative time between 10:00 am & 1:30 pm. These alternative times are chosen by Home teams and are mainly due to pitch availability, particularly where 3G ‘Astroturf’ pitches are used.
Kick-Off times for each match will be indicated on Full-Time (and the FA Matchday app). If an Away team is unwilling to Kick-Off at a time other than 10:30 am, they must give the Fixture Secretary 14 days notice of such refusal.
REMEMBER TO BRING THE FOLLOWING ITEMS TO MATCHES
All Teams must remember to bring: A CAPTAIN’S ARMBAND, Properly NUMBERED SHIRTS as part of your kit, which needs to be different to the colours your opponents are wearing.
You will also need to make sure you bring the same coloured sock tape for the socks you are wearing.
(These are all Football Association rules & regulations).
HOME TEAMS must additionally bring: GOAL NETS & CORNER FLAGS (If neither are supplied by the groundsman at their Home Ground) and TWO MATCH BALLS…together with a pump to inflate them with !
REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR TEAMSHEETS TO MATCHES
BOTH TEAMS must bring their triplicate carbonated A5-size teamsheets pad to EVERY League & League Cup match (both at Home and Away). These will be distributed to clubs before they play their first matches.
These forms are for listing your team’s line-up and substitutes only, together with the players shirt numbers. This must be done before the kick-off (as it is in most County Cup matches). Player signatures and registration numbers will no longer be required. The top copy is then kept by your team for photo-scanning & WhatsApping to the League Records Secretary (Rob Brassett) straight after the match. The middle copy is given to the Referee before the kick-off and the bottom copy is given to the opposing team at the same time (so that they can study your line-up for alleged ineligible players…and vice-versa for you when they give you their teamsheet in return). The match will not kick-off until these teamsheets are completed and handed over, with Referees being advised to report clubs who cause a late kick-off.
After the match, your top copy of the teamsheet then has the final score, your goalscorers, the Referee’s marks and the sportsmanship marks you give for your opponents inserted onto it before you send that copy to the League Records Secretary within 24 hours of the match finishing. Failure to provide a teamsheet, illegible writing on the teamsheet (such as players full names not being entered in block letters), missing names on the teamsheet and failure to enter Referees marks, goalscorers and other required information either on the teamsheet or by logging in to Full-Time and/or using the FA Matchday app will result in a fine in accordance with the fines tariff. (Rule 21A).
IF YOU ARE THE HOME TEAM AND YOUR PITCH IS DECLARED UNFIT BY THE LOCAL COUNCIL, THE REFEREE OR YOUR OWN GROUNDSMAN ON THE MORNING OF THE MATCH:
You MUST contact your Opponents and the Referee IMMEDIATELY (if they are not already at the venue).
Also, you must inform the League Fixtures Secretary before 4.00.p.m. and inform him that your match was postponed because of the weather. (This also applies to postponements where your opponents or the referee have failed to turn up on the day of the match).
IF YOU ARE THE HOME TEAM AND YOUR PITCH IS DECLARED UNFIT BY THE LOCAL COUNCIL OR YOUR OWN GROUNDSMAN BEFORE THE MORNING OF THE MATCH (e.g. on a Friday or a Saturday):
You must inform the League Fixtures Secretary and if possible, a replacement pitch will be found.
FIVE SUBSTITUTES ARE ALLOWED TO BE USED FROM FIVE NAMED (AND ‘ROLL-ON, ROLL-OFF’)
This applies to all Barnet Sunday League & Cup matches. The names of all substitutes must be entered onto the teamsheet and given to the Referee before a game commences. Please note that different rules may apply for County Cup matches.
SUPPLY A CLUB ‘LINESMAN’ (Assistant Referee)
The use of Club Linesmen in League & League Cup matches is at the discretion of the Match Referee. However, all clubs are urged to provide a competent Club Linesman if they possibly can.
IF A REFEREE FAILS TO TURN UP ON THE MORNING OF A MATCH
If this happens, both Clubs MUST agree on finding a replacement Referee so that the match takes place.
HOME TEAMS MUST PAY THE REFEREE HIS £40.00 MATCH FEE WITHIN 15 MINUTES OF THE MATCH FINISHING
Please note that the Away Team pays the Home Team £20.00 for all League and League Cup matches.
Please note that Referees are now allowed to be paid before the match if they request it. (This is because they no longer have to fill in a shared teamsheet after the match as a provision for getting paid).
Please note that different rules may apply for County Cup matches.
TEXT IN YOUR MATCH RESULT
For all League & League Cup games we use the same system as many County Football Associations do for their adults Sunday Cup matches whereby the Club Secretaries of BOTH teams receive a text from Full-Time during the match asking them to reply with the final score as soon as possible after the match finishes. For example, if you are the Away Team and you win 2-1, you reply by just texting ‘1-2’….the same way round as the Home Team would be texting. The Home Team’s score is always first. Although it asks for your team’s four-digit code (e.g. EDM1 in the example below) the result normally displays without entering that code anyway.
Once Full-Time has received the same score from both teams, it displays the result on the Results page straight away and also automatically updates the League Tables. If it displays with the score the wrong way round, just send another text with the score typed in correctly.
If you text in things such as ‘Lost 2-1’, ‘Won 2-1’ ‘Won 4-3 on pens – 1-1 FT’, ‘Match Abandoned/Postponed’ and a reason for that, that is good information for us, but it will not display on Full-Time until the League Results/Fixtures Secretary logs in after 6.00 pm to check for missing or incorrectly-entered results and then adds them onto the system.
All results MUST be texted in by clubs (or entered into the FA Matchday app or Full-Time using your login) within three hours of the match finishing, otherwise they may be liable to a fine. (See below for instructions regarding Full-Time and the FA Matchday App).
USING FULL-TIME and/or the FA MATCHDAY APP (for post-match reporting)
In addition to using the triplicate teamsheets, Club Secretaries and Team Managers can also use Full-Time and/or the FA Matchday App as a means of reporting match stats to the League.
All new Club Secretaries (and/or an alternative designated club member such as the Team Manager) who have been set up in the Whole Game System to receive e-mails and texts will be sent two e-mails from Full-Time before the season starts which will ask them to firstly verify their e-mail address and then to login to Full-Time and save a username & password. Here is the link to Full-Time’s login page: https://fulltime-admin.thefa.com/gen/Login.do
PLEASE NOTE that this is a different login to the one you will be using for the Whole Game System and for the FA Matchday App. You will NOT be using your FAN number as the Username for the Full-Time login and you will need to choose a different password.
Under a Results/Stats section (See Below), you then need to click on the dark blue ‘Statistics’ button and then the ‘FA Marks’ tab. If the Referee’s marks were not entered on the photo-scanned teamsheet sent to the League Records Secretary, then this option MUST be used, especially if a report for a total mark of 60 or less is required, as that cannot be done on the teamsheet. Referees marks must be given within four days of the match being played, otherwise clubs will be fined as per Rule 23H, which is £8.00 a time.
If the Referee listed on Full-Time for the fixture was replaced on the morning of the match, please inform the League Referees Secretary as soon as possible after the game so that the correct name can be inserted for the marks to be given.
(If you are the Home Team, you may be able to enter the replacement Referee’s name yourself, but it MUST be correctly entered as the Referee’s full name with the correct spelling).
TO ENTER YOUR TEAM LINE-UPS, GOALSCORERS & OTHER STATS INTO FULL-TIME, you can either wait for the League Records Secretary to input the information from the WhatsApped teamsheets, you can login to Full-Time yourself, or you can use the FA’s Matchday App on your smartphone.
Here is the link to the F.A.’s Matchday App information page: http://www.thefa.com/get-involved/matchday
The FA Matchday App is supposed to populate Full-Time with live updates from your phone during the match, but there have been a lot of problems with that up until now, so we recommend you login to Full-Time directly to enter your team stats correctly. (See the graphic below).
Doing that yourself as soon as possible straight after the match will save our League Records Secretary a lot of work.
You will also be able to enter goal times by clicking on the dark blue buttons from the Player Statistics tab and finding Team Sheet Wizard – Switch To Simple View.
Goalscorers MUST be entered if you did not enter them on your teamsheet.
Sportsmanship Marks for your opponents must also be entered (using the ‘League Team Marks’ tab) if you did not enter them on your teamsheet.
PLEASE NOTE: Failing to submit a teamsheet to the League and failing to use Full-Time or the FA Matchday app to supply all the required stats by a Thursday evening after a match will be deemed a serious offence and will be punishable with a £25.00 fine for each offence as per Rule 21A. (i.e. £50.00 in total if you fail to do either).
COUNTY CUP MATCHES (& Other external Cup competitions)
All clubs (whether at Home or Away) who are playing in a County Cup match on a particular Sunday MUST text their result in to the League Fixtures/Results Secretary in the normal manner in addition to texting it in to their County F.A.
It is vital that the League Fixture Secretary knows as soon as possible whether a team has progressed in these competitions so that forthcoming League fixtures can be arranged or not.
PLEASE NOTE (Regarding County Cup matches)
Our own triplicate teamsheets do not get used for County Cup matches. The County FA’s supply their own.
Also, Referee’s marks for County Cup matches are NOT entered onto Full-Time. They are given to the County FA on their own teamsheet or by other means.
ATTEND LEAGUE MEETINGS
League Meetings at which all clubs MUST attend are normally held three or four times a year, including the A.G.M.
Dates and venues for these meetings are normally announced two weeks in advance.
ENSURE CLUB SECRETARY CONTACT DETAILS ARE CORRECT
All official communication from the League to Club Secretaries is done by e-mail. Club Secretaries therefore MUST ensure their e-mail address (and other information) is correct for the Club Directory on the League Website. This is now done using your Whole Game System login and using the ‘Club Officials’ and ‘Team Officials’ tabs, but If an amendment is being made, please also inform the League General Secretary by sending an e-mail from the address you wish to use for League business.
All Club Secretaries should ideally be set up on Full-Time as the ‘Primary Contact’ for their club. This can be done using your Full-Time login.
COUNTY F.A. AFFILIATION
Each club playing in the League must affiliate (or re-affiliate) to a County F.A. at the start of each season. This is now done online using the Whole Game System and you cannot play a match until: a) The online form has been completed, b) You pay the affiliation fees and c) You receive your affiliation number for the season..
Player Injury Insurance and Public Liability Insurance are all also dealt with online via the Whole Game System as part of the County FA Affiliation process. The League are now able to check online that all these processes have been completed.
INFORM THE LEAGUE OF YOUR PITCH DATES
All clubs are responsible for finding a Home ground for the season.
The Pitchfinder website is a good place to start… https://pitchfinder.org.uk/
Clubs MUST then inform the League Fixtures Secretary as soon as they know the first Sunday they can use their Home pitch and the pitch availability thereafter. (e.g. Alternate weeks).
RELEASE DATES
All clubs may seek permission to postpone one League fixture before Christmas and one after Christmas providing 28 days notice is given to the League Fixture Secretary.
Other than that, teams will not be forced to play on the first Sunday of September (due to holidays & lack of pitches), the Xmas holiday period (a two-week break) and Easter Sunday.
Teams who require the Greek Easter Sunday off will have to play on the UK Easter Sunday if a game is arranged for them.
All other Sundays will result in clubs being penalised for a non-fulfilment of fixture (with a fine up to £25 and the match being awarded to their opponents) if they cannot field a team because of Stag Do’s, Managers going on holiday, boxing on TV at 5.00 am, key players out injured, etc.
‘DOUBLE-HEADERS’ & MIDWEEK MATCHES
‘Double-Header’ Fixtures and Midweek Matches are often arranged towards the end of a season when bad weather or teams progressing in County Cup competitions cause a backlog.
For Double-Headers (2 x 60-minute matches played one after the other), the named Home Team in the first match pays for the pitch, but both teams share the Referee’s fee, which is £50.00. (£25.00 per team).
Separate teamsheets have to be completed by both teams for each match. Teams can field a completely different squad of players in the second match to that which was fielded in the first match.
NO EXTRA-TIME IN LEAGUE CUP MATCHES (APART FROM SEMI-FINALS & FINALS)
All League Cup matches will go straight to a Penalty Shoot-Out (Best of five, then sudden-death) if the scores are level after 90 minutes…APART from Semi-Finals and Finals (which will have 30 Minutes Extra-Time as normal, followed by a Penalty Shoot-Out if necessary). Please note that different rules may apply to County Cup matches.
PITCH EXPENSES IN LEAGUE (and County) CUP MATCHES
Pitch expenses for League Cup matches this season will continue to be shared by both teams (up to a limit of £50 per team).
Please note that different rules may apply for County Cup matches.
DEALING WITH CAUTIONS & DISMISSALS
If a player is booked or sent-off (‘Cautioned or Dismissed’), the Club Secretary will receive an e-mail from the Whole Game System asking them to login and deal with the paperwork and pay the fines online. Failure to do so can result in your club being suspended and having matches awarded to your opponents. For further guidance, please contact the County F.A. that your club are affiliated to.
ABANDONED MATCHES
Please note that a mark out of 100 for the Referee is still required in the event of an abandoned match whatever the reason for the abandonment and the length of time that the match was played.
