England Football Accreditation

The short version

• Accreditation is for eligible non-professional clubs, and for non-professional leagues.
• The stars recognise how much football you offer to how many people, not how good your club is.
• You apply through the accreditation dashboard in the Club Portal, and the apply button only appears once you meet the minimum criteria.
• Affiliation already brings safeguarding and governance responsibilities. Accreditation tests those alongside additional criteria covering the club, its officials, its documents and its football provision.
• It renews each season. Moving up a star is separate: contact your County FA rather than assuming renewal will upgrade you.

What the stars actually mean

This is the misunderstanding worth clearing up first. England Football's own wording, carried on County FA pages including Cheshire (opens in a new tab) and Suffolk (opens in a new tab), is that all accredited clubs offer a consistent standard on and off the pitch, and that stars are used to recognise clubs that provide more opportunities for more people to play.

So a one star club is not a worse club than a three star club. All accredited clubs meet the core England Football Accreditation standards; the stars then recognise the breadth of football opportunities and player pathways they provide.

The difference between the levels is player pathways. At one star, the pathway criteria do not apply: the requirement is at least one affiliated male, female or disability team at any age group playing in an FA sanctioned competition. From two stars upwards, pathway criteria come into play. FA-hosted accreditation guidance (opens in a new tab) sets them out as a complete accredited player pathway for either male, female or disability football plus at least one team from an alternative pathway at two stars, and the complete accredited pathway for both male and female plus at least one disability team at three stars.

In short: one star is about offering football, two and three stars are about offering a route through it, and three star clubs provide the broadest range of opportunities. For your club's current position, use Club Portal; if you want to move up a star, contact your County FA.

You will see the stars described elsewhere as quality tiers with names like foundation, development and advanced. That is not what they are, and a parent choosing between a one star and a three star club on the assumption that one is better run has misread it.

On planning, be careful with older County FA pages that distinguish a season plan at one star from a club development plan at two and three. England Football's current position (opens in a new tab) is that you complete a Club Development Plan and upload a copy to the Club Portal to meet your accreditation application or renewal requirements.

Who can apply

Accreditation is for eligible non-professional clubs and leagues, and a club needs at least one team playing in an FA sanctioned competition. Rather than working through pyramid boundaries here, the Club Portal (opens in a new tab) and your County FA determine whether your club is eligible, and the dashboard appears for eligible clubs.

Leagues apply differently from clubs. A club starts in the Club Portal; a league contacts its County FA.

What the criteria cover

Rather than reproduce a checklist that will go out of date, use the live accreditation dashboard (opens in a new tab). Eligible non-accredited clubs can see where they meet or miss the application criteria. Accredited clubs use the dashboard for renewal and also have a Player Pathways tab showing how their teams contribute to star status.

The core checklist covers Club, Officials and Documents (opens in a new tab). For accredited clubs, Player Pathways is added. In shape, that means:

Safeguarding. A welfare officer, and committee members with the right courses. The FA requires every affiliated club to have a safeguarding children policy and a DBS-checked, safeguarding-trained welfare officer, and requires the chair, secretary, treasurer and welfare officer to complete Safeguarding for Committee Members. Our guide to the club welfare officer covers that role properly.

Criminal record checks. In-date FA-accepted checks for the people who need them. Our coaching guide covers what that means for an individual.

Officials and qualifications. The FA's Officials checklist (opens in a new tab) says all youth teams within a club must have at least one coach or manager with Introduction to Coaching Football, in-date Safeguarding Children and Introduction to First Aid in Football. This is not youth only: adult teams need a named individual who has completed Introduction to First Aid in Football, and if that person is a player an additional person is required.

Policies and governance. The club has the documents it should have, and has accepted them, rather than having them in somebody's inbox.

Football provision. For accredited clubs, the Player Pathways tab shows what you offer, to whom, and how it contributes to the star criteria.

How you apply

Accreditation is applied for in the Club Portal. The FA's own guidance (opens in a new tab) describes it plainly: the accreditation dashboard is available to non-accredited clubs that are eligible, it shows where the club does not yet meet criteria under each tab, and an Apply for Accreditation button becomes available once the minimum criteria are met and the checklist is complete.

In other words you cannot apply early and hope. The button appears when you are ready, which makes the dashboard a to-do list rather than a form.

1. Log into the Club Portal and open the accreditation dashboard.
2. Work through the tabs and clear the incomplete items.
3. Contact your County FA early about anything you cannot resolve.
4. Apply when the button appears.

Staying accredited

Accreditation is not permanent. Renewal happens each season through the same dashboard and has replaced what used to be the Annual Health Check (opens in a new tab). England Football says clubs renew during the renewal window in November (opens in a new tab).

Moving up a star is a separate thing rather than part of renewal. England Football's instruction (opens in a new tab) is to contact your County FA if you want to improve your accreditation, so do not assume a renewal submission will upgrade you.

The practical risk is drift. Checks expire, a qualified coach leaves, a policy is not re-accepted, and a club that was comfortably accredited in September finds a list of orange items in the spring. Looking at the dashboard once a term is easier than fixing it all at once.

Is it worth doing?

That depends what you want from it, and it is worth being clear-eyed.

• A good deal of the safeguarding and governance ground is already covered by affiliation. Accreditation tests it in one place and adds criteria on officials, documents and provision.
• It gives a committee a checklist that does not depend on one person remembering.
• It is visible to parents, who will not know what the stars mean unless somebody explains, which is a reason to explain it on your own club page.
• Accreditation can matter for funding and facilities, but the rule belongs to the individual programme. Our funding guide covers how to check what a specific fund actually requires rather than assuming.

If your club is not accredited and has youth teams, the gap between where you are and the minimum criteria is a more useful thing to look at than the badge itself. The dashboard shows the outstanding criteria directly.

Elsewhere in the UK

England Football Accreditation applies in England. The other associations run their own club development schemes, so start with the association that covers you.

• England: the Football Association and your County FA.
• Scotland: the Scottish Football Association.
• Wales: the Football Association of Wales.
• Northern Ireland: the Irish Football Association.

More help

• The club welfare officer
• How to start a grassroots football club
• Safeguarding in grassroots football
• Grassroots football funding and grants
• England Football, leagues and clubs (opens in a new tab)