Learn more about The FA's role as a governing body

Thursday 09 Feb 2017

Today’s Parliamentary debate questions The FA’s governance and our ability to comply fully with our duties as a governing body.

We accept that our governance needs reform and that many of the points to be raised in today's debate are valid. We are working hard to meet the Government’s new code for sports bodies and are committed to following their process.Our Chairman, Greg Clarke, has recently given his view on this.

But we strongly reject the allegation that we are not performing our duties.

In fact The FA is a not-for-profit organisation that successfully generates enough revenue to support investment of well over £100m a year into football. No other organisation in the world directs that level of annual investment back into one single national sport.

We believe The FA not only complies fully with its duties as a governing body, but it is comparable with the best governing bodies in the world. This is why:

We promote football

Football is by far the most popular team sport in the country; our research shows that almost 12 million play the game. Men’s football is the most popular team sport in England, with women’s football the third most popular - men’s cricket splits the sports for now, but The FA aims to double female participation by 2020.

New flexible formats of the game, such as 5-a-side and walking football, are growing.

In the 2016-17 season, The FA invested £65 million into the grassroots game; dwarfing any other governing body investment. Mini soccer (played by under 10s) has seen the number of teams grow by 11 per cent over the past two seasons.

Female football has seen the number of teams across the country grow by seven per cent over the past two seasons.

Disability football has seen the number of teams across the country grow by 14 per cent over the past two seasons.

The FA People’s Cup is the UK’s biggest 5-a-side tournament with around 5,000 teams and 30,000 players. It’s now in its third season, having seen almost 70,000 players taking part in the previous editions.

We govern the game with integrity

We govern the game with integrity and enforce the rules and regulations of the game.The FA invests approximately £6 million each year in the areas of corruption, on-field regulation, anti-doping and safeguarding as well as prosecution and judicial services.

We perform more anti-doping tests than any other sport in the country- and the requirements are tougher than athletics and cycling.

We have a sophisticated regulatory system in place to carefully monitor financial transactions in the game.

Following discussions with supporter groups in the Government’s Expert Working Group on Supporter issues, The FA introduced a club licensing system in the National League System covering the areas of legal; ownership and control; integrity; finance; and grounds and security of tenure.

It should be noted the Premier League and EFL take responsibility for these matters for clubs in their own competitions.

We ensure the compliance of participation

We have a range of sanctions available to us including the ability to fine participants, ban participants from the game and impose mandatory education courses.

We carry out 55,000 criminal record checks every year and, following the child abuse disclosures at the end of 2016, our action was swift and decisive, auditing the 8,000 clubs with youth teams and suspending the handful that didn’t renew their safeguarding commitments.

We work to address discrimination

We work to address discrimination on the basis of disability, race or gender in the game of football

Football’s Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Action Plan is a comprehensive plan supported across football to tackle discrimination in our game - it is being updated for the start of next season.

More needs to be done in this area, that’s why The FA has its own Inclusion Advisory Board and, new from this year, each County FA has its own Inclusion Advisory Group.

In fact, The FA is the first body in the world to achieve the Equality Standard in all its regional bodies.

We develop England and grassroots teams

The FA’s National Football Centre in Staffordshire, St. George’s Park, is a state-of-the-art training and coaching facility and the home of our England teams - the best teams in the world come to St. George’s Park to use the England team’s facilities.

St George’s Park is also a home for FA Education and delivers all FA national coach education courses- delivering 150,000 FA Level 1 coaching courses since 2010.

At a grassroots level, The FA invests £22m per year in facilities via our delivery agent, the Football Foundation. The Premier League and Government also invest in the Foundation.

By FA Staff

What are The FA's duties?