We are delighted to announce that London FA has achieved The FA’s Code of Governance for County Football Associations.

London FA evidenced full compliance with the regional Code of Governance which sets a higher precedent than the current gold standard for sport and aims to provide support and guidance to those running the grassroots game up and down the country.

In January 2020, The FA became the first national governing body in English sport to introduce a regional Code of Governance, with several other sports now following the model which has been endorsed by Sport England. The Code itself represents a ‘Gold Standard’ of governance, made up of 65 requirements based on Sport England and UK Sport’s Code for Sports Governance.

The requirements within the code means each County FA can assess their current practices against the highest standard of corporate governance in football, supporting their development and ensuring they have the structures, functional operations and decision-making processes in place to offer the best possible service to the game at a local level. The code also includes provisions for gender diversity, ethnic diversity and youth representation across the County FA network.

All 50 CFAs have self-assessed against the Code and are committed to improving their governance, with London FA becoming the latest to be awarded the County FA Code of Compliance logo, which can be used on County FA external and internal communications channels.

Paul Bickerton, CEO at London FA said: “Achieving the FA’s Code of Governance is major milestone for London FA. This is recognition of lots of hard work carried out by staff, Board and Council members over several years to modernise the London FA and ensure we govern ourselves to the highest possible standards. Good governance underpins everything we do at London FA and I would like to particularly thanks Sir Simon Hughes, our recently retired Senior Independent Director, who led us through many of these changes”

James Middlehurst, Chair at London FA, said: We’re very proud to become one of a small number of County FA’s to currently be compliant with the FA Code of Governance. At London FA our vision is to harness the power of grassroots football to enrich more lives in London. The governance changes we have made have ensured that we have a Board, Council and staff team who are open, inclusive and fully representative of the diverse capital city we live and work in – putting us in a much stronger position to deliver on this vision.”

For further information on the Code of Governance for County FAs, please see here.