REGISTERING 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).

• 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 25^th 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 1^st 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 24^th August.
  For matches due to be played on Sunday 8^th 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 31^st August.
  After Sunday 8^th 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 1^st November and the 1^st March each season.
  The last date of the season for registering players is the 28^th 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.