Every season your club will need to affiliate to your County FA, this is processed via. Whole Game System. Amongst other benefits, affiliation allows you access to County FA services, allows you to play against other affiliated teams and play with registered referees.


Firstly, go to "wholegame.thefa.com" log in to Whole Game System, click your role along the top (you'll need to be Club Secretary, Treasurer, Welfare Officer or Chairman to access affiliation). 


Then click "affiliation" from the list on the left-hand side


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Stage 1 - Club details

The first stage of the affiliation is to confirm that you agree to the FA terms and conditions, all details relating to your club can be edited within the new "My Club" tab, guidance is here - https://grassrootstechnology.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/folders/48000679146

Please note: When editing the information, you are not able to change the club name. If your club name has changed then you need to contact your County FA.


After you have completed each section, you will need to click "Save and Continue" at the bottom of the page


Stage 2 - Club officials

This section is all about making sure all league officials are recorded on the system so that your County FA can help and support you.

You must make sure the club chair, secretary, treasurer is listed. For clubs with teams under 18 they must also include the club welfare officer.


Removing officials
If someone is named incorrectly, click the dropdown next to their name, then the "Bin" icon.


Adding officials

To add any official click on the “Add Official” button.

Enter the details of the person you are wanting to add – you can either search by FAN & Date of birth, Name & Date of birth or create a new contact.


You will then see the person on the system and you can now add them to a role. Use the middle drop-down box to select the person’s role for this league and then the date they are starting in that role. Once those details are added you can select the “OK” button


Club volunteers number

In order for the County FA to better serve your club, they will also want to know an approximate number of volunteers, please make the best guess at how many volunteers are involved within your club and type it into the box at the top.


Once all of your details are correct, please click "Save and continue".


Stage 3 - Club grounds

This section helps to inform your County FA where you are playing and training - this can help with local pitch improvement plans as well as help direct players if they are looking for a new club


Add a new ground

To add a new ground, type the name of the ground (we would recommend using postcode) into the search bar at the top of the page. Please then click on the ground you wish to add which will then add it to your page



If your ground doesn't show under the search, please click the "+" icon in order to create new ground. It might be worth trying a different search first as the majority of grounds should already be created.


If when generated, the number of pitches is incorrect - please inform your County FA who will be able to assist. This is not a major problem and will not stop your affiliation progressing, so please feel free to "Save & Continue" before the "Pitches" number is updated.


Marking grounds as main or training ground

You can mark each pitch as either your "Main ground" or "training ground" by clicking the "check box" within the table

Please note: Only one ground can be marked as "Main" we would recommend this being an "Owned" facility or the ground that you use most often.



Stage 4 - Adding your teams, team officials, leagues, and county cup entries

Stage 4 is the largest part of work within your club affiliation. This allows you to add all of your teams that will be playing in the following season and select which leagues/county cups they will be playing in


Reviewing your teams

The first job will be to review the teams which are already in the system, noting if they will be playing next season and noting any teams which still need to be added to the system.


From the homepage of stage four, you can see if the team is listed in any County Cups/Leagues from underneath the team's name.


Reviewing/changing team details

To review your team officials, click "Edit"


From the top of the page, you can edit any specific team details including the category of football they play, the suffix of the team, and other key details.


Please note: "Suffix" is the name of your specific team, you do not need to add the team age group in the suffix as this will be added automatically. An example of a Suffix for an U14 team would be "Red" to make it Test Club U14 Red within your system


Adding/removing team officials

Please note: All teams will need a manager or coach named. For youth teams the official will need to have completed a DBS check and have it logged on the system.


To add or remove a team official, please scroll down the page. 

To remove an official, please click on the dropdown next to their name and then click the "bin" icon.


To add an official, click "Add official" at the top right of the page. 


Enter the details of the person you are wanting to add – you can either search by FAN & Date of birth, Name & Date of birth or create a new contact.


You will then see the person on the system and you can now add them to a role. Use the middle drop-down box to select the person’s role for this league and then the date they are starting in that role. Once those details are added you can select the “OK” button


Adding/editing league and county cup entries

You will need to ensure your teams are added to the correct league or else their player registrations may not go through. Scroll down to the "Leagues Section" of the affiliation form. You can then type in the name of the league, this may take 30 seconds to search the database



To add a county cup, please click the "Drop down arrow" and click on the cups you wish to enter that team for.


Folding a team

We would advise doing this just before you are progressing to the next page. If you need to fold a team, go back to the home page of stage 4 and click "Team folded" you will then need to click "save" at the bottom of the page in order for this to save & continue. You can only do this once you have ticked the two checkboxes at the bottom of the page.


Finalising details

Once you are happy with your team details, check that you have reviewed both your entries and then click "save & continue"


Stage 5 - Club insurance

This stage is all about ensuring you have the correct insurances in place in order to play football. Every club will need one public liability policy for the club and a personal accident insurance scheme in place for each team


This page will give you an option to upload any existing insurance you may have purchased ahead of the season, this will be reviewed by the County FA when you submit to ensure it matches their criteria. You can upload by clicking "choose file" and then selecting a file from your computer.


Please note: Insurance changes between different County FA's so if you are in difficulty, please contact your local County FA who will be best placed to advise



Stage 6 - Additional Products

This stage allows you to purchase some additional products from your County FA. Each County FA will have different products available to its clubs such as First Aid Kits, Public Liability Insurance or football kits. If you have any difficulty or cannot see something you was expecting, please contact your local County FA.


In order to add a product to be invoiced for, please click on the "+" arrow or type in the quantity you wish to be invoiced for within the box, once you are happy with your purchase, please click save and continue.

Stage 7 - Reviewing your affiliation

Stage 7 allows you to review your affiliation. Please look at this closely as once you press "submit for approval" you will need to contact your County FA if you need to make any further changes.


Once you are happy, click "Submit for approval"


Stage 8 - Approval

Once submitted, you should be provided with invoices which you can pay by the deadline shown on the form, some County FA's may invoice you at a later date.


If you have any further queries with your affiliation from this point, please contact your County FA who will be able to help.


Each affiliation will be processed differently and approval times will range from a few days to a few weeks, for an update please contact your County FA.