NEW PLAYER REGISTRATION SYSTEM RESOUNDING SUCCESS FOR LONDON FA 

Ahead of the 2016/17 football season, the FA decided to introduce a new online player registration scheme, to replace the old paper system. Although not brought into immediate effect across all leagues in the country, this system was piloted with two local London leagues at the beginning of the 2016/2017 season.

A further three leagues affiliated to the London FA have since begun piloting the system from the beginning of the 2017/2018 season.

The London FA has been working with the two original pilot leagues, Southern Sunday Football League and the Woolwich and Eltham Sunday Football Alliance, to fully incorporate the new online system, which has proved hugely successful. The London FA hopes to shine a light on benefits of the online system, which is 100% compliant with GDPR, with the aim of encouraging all leagues across London to adopt the system over the next couple of seasons.

With such a large volume of players governed by county FA’s and leagues, the new system has been designed to streamline the registration process. With the online system, leagues and clubs are able to accept player registrations at all times, avoiding backlogs and delays, meaning clubs can register new players much quicker. The new system also saves leagues money as there is no need for paper or printing.

Additional benefits include reducing pressure on grassroots volunteers, secure storage, annually updated records creating a lasting history for each player, integration with Full-Time, no more Late Response fines, increased grants for IT equipment, more efficient club discipline management and fewer ineligible players.

SOUTHERN SUNDAY FOOTBALL LEAGUE

The new registration system has been subject to a rigorous trial period. The Southern Sunday League, which adopted the system in 2016, is made up of seven divisions, broken down into 67 teams with a total of 1,880 players, all of whom were registered through the new system. 

Southern Sunday League Chairman, Graham Rodber praised the ease of the new the system following its trial period. He said: “The new online system is incredibly efficient and easy to use and, as a result, has made the jobs that we had to complete much simpler.

“The system has benefitted the league greatly during its incorporation as it has provided a fully up to date database with players’ personal data along with photo ID’s which can be used to identify players who may have committed fouls or more serious infringements.

“The system also collates all the match cards through a simple entry system that can be filled out by teams, which in turn provides a more efficient experience for anybody looking for details of the matches.”

The new system has also gone down well with the clubs associated with the Southern Sunday Football League. Dean Banks, manager of AFC Hammersmith Town, comments: “When the new player registration scheme was first introduced we were skeptical. However, since we incorporated the system we have found the process to be extremely easy and straight forward. We as a club are not the most tech savvy, but with its step by step guide and easy to understand instructions we can now upload and register a player in a matter of minutes.

“Having used the system for the past two seasons, we would confidently endorse the use of the online player registration process to any league looking to update and streamline their registration process and hope to see it incorporated into the FA Fulltime system in the future.”

HACKNEY MARSHES SATURDAY YOUTH FOOTBALL LEAGUE

The Hackney Marshes Saturday Youth Football League took up the opportunity to trial the system during the 2017/2018 season. The league accounts for 15 divisions, which includes 135 teams and over 2,000 players who were previously registered through a paper-based system.

Michael Cole, Chairman of Hackney Marshes Saturday Youth League, said of the new system: “The ability to record all the data in one secure location is a real benefit. It also negates the use of paper which was often long winded and error strewn. Without a doubt, we will continue to use the new system; we couldn’t go back to using our previous system now we have this in place.”

If you have any queries or questions about the new online player registration system, please contact Becky Greaves at the London FA: Becky.Greaves@londonfa.com / 020 7610 8360