What is Player Dispensation?

The Grassroots Service desk team are now operating as First Line Triage for all dispensation queries and applications. Therefore if you require any support or guidance please use the submit a ticket located top right. The Equality mailbox will no longer be accepting emails.

Full Video Guide How to Complete Dispensation - Click Here

Guide on How to Submit Further Evidence - Click Here

What Documents to use for support evidence -  Click Here

What is the dispensation application policy?

The Policy enables children with a disability, Significant Physical Development Delay (SPDD),Mental Health, 

Chronic illness or who are schooled no more than one year behind the age group prescribed by their date of birth (their “prescribed age group”) to play football outside of their prescribed age group.

Why is this policy needed? 

The FA’s Rules prescribe age groups for children to play in which are designed to ensure that they compete with peers of similar size and development. For some children however, playing in the prescribed age group would put them at a substantial disadvantage to their teammates, discouraging them from being involved or making it impossible for them to access football.

To apply for dispensation for your child to play outside of their prescribed age group, please fill out our dispensation application form along with supporting evidence to support the rationale for your application.

Who is covered by the policy? Any child who:

1. Has a disbaility
2. Has significant physical development delay ( SPDD)
3. Has mental health or Chronic illness
4. Is schooled no more then one year behind their prescirbed age group and would be be at a disadvantage if required to play to in their prescribed age group
5. Availability of Opportunity; Those who have no available opportunity within their permitted age group and chosen pathway (male, female, mixed, disability). You can find out more information around this new category along with further examples of who is eligible under availability of opportunity
6. Individual Needs; Those who have individual and specific needs, to play outside of their permitted age group provides them with either a) the opportunity to participate in affiliated football or b) the best opportunity to develop as a player that is within the talent system (girls) or has been recently released (boys).  You can find out more information around the new individual needs caterogy along with who is eligible – Click here

Examples:

• Claire, aged 12,has a  condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for Claire to do certain activities, (activity limitation) or interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).   Claire would be at a substantial disadvantage if she were required to play in her prescribed age group. Claire may request to play in the age group below her prescribed group.  
• Savita, aged 10, Delivered three months early, she was born in late July as opposed to October. It was deemed appropriate that due to her young age and development, she would delay her first year of schooling.
• Asma, Aged 7, currently plays mixed football but wants to play girls only football. She lives in a rural area and at present the only accessible opportunity to her is a girls under 10 team. She would apply for dispensation under opportunity of availability.
• Kate, age 13, Currently plays at an ETC club and is looking to play outfield for a grassroots team. It would be most appropriate for her development for her to play U12s, and thus would need to apply for dispensation under Individual needs.

How do I apply?

Please login or create an account here: https://myaccount.thefa.com/ (please note, you will be logging in or creating an account as a parent / carer – not as a child) 

• If you already have an account, and have forgotten your password, please reset it by following the ‘reset password’ flow 
• If your child is an existing player they will have an existing FAN – in this case, please login to your account to access this. If you are having account issues, please get in touch with our customer support team here 

When you login to my account, you will be in your profile as a parent / carer and you will see individuals linked to your account. If your child has never played football before, you can create a new account by using the ‘add individual’ feature 

If your child is an existing player, and you cannot see them on your account, please get in touch with our customer support team and submit a ticket above

Parent / Carer account showing linked children / individuals  

To access your child’s profile, and start the process of dispensation, simply select them from your list of linked individuals and scroll down to the ‘Player Dispensation’ section

 You will need to know the following information to complete the application for your child:

• First and last name
• Date of birth
• Sex (this will need to be inputted your child’s profile if it is missing ) for example:

• Once in the application you will need the following information to complete it: 
  1. Child’s Height in CM ( Disability & SPDD applications only)
  2. Child’s Weight in KG ( Disability & SPDD applications only) 
  3. Dispensation request type 
  4. A description of the nature of disability
  5. Supporting evidence
  6. Season you are applying for eg 2023/2024 season
  7. Age group you would like your child to play in 
  8. Age group they are prescribed by FA rules
  9. Your county FA
  10. The team your child currently plays for or NA if they are not currently playing for a team 
  11. The team you would like them to play for
  12. The club the team belongs to