How to get sponsorship for a grassroots football club

What you cannot put on a children's kit

Take this first, because it decides which businesses you can approach. Signing a sponsor and then finding out the kit cannot carry their logo is an expensive way to learn it.

The FA's kit and advertising regulations (opens in a new tab) set a specific rule for a team where every player is under 18 on 31 August of the current season. Any reference at all to a product, service or activity that the FA considers detrimental to the welfare, health or general interest of young people, or otherwise inappropriate given the age of the players, is prohibited on clothing, boots or equipment.

The regulations give age-restricted products as the examples, naming alcohol and gambling. They go further on those two: alcoholic drinks, breweries, and products, services or activities related to gambling are described as unlikely to be permissible under any circumstances.

There is a nuance on pubs and restaurants. A reference to one may generally be permissible, unless the establishment primarily or exclusively exists for the supply and consumption of alcohol, which the regulations note is likely to be reflected in its alcohol licensing conditions. So the village pub that serves food is a different question from the bar that does not, and it is a question for your County FA rather than for the club.

Some rules apply whatever the age group. Tobacco advertising is prohibited. So is any message that is distasteful, threatening, abusive, indecent, insulting, discriminatory or otherwise offensive, and any political or religious message. Clubs are also required to observe recognised advertising standards, and the regulations name the Advertising Standards Authority.

If the sponsor could be inappropriate for young people, get approval before you commit

The regulations say that, before entering into a contractual agreement with a product, activity or service that may be considered detrimental or inappropriate to young people, a club should seek approval from the FA or the Affiliated Association from which it seeks sanction. For a grassroots club, your County FA is the practical starting point.

That requirement is about the sponsor, and it does not mean every ordinary sponsorship needs approval before signature. It is separate from any permission your County FA or competition requires for the advertising itself. Where permission is required for the advertising, two timing points apply.

• Get it before manufacture. The regulations remind clubs and manufacturers to obtain the necessary permissions before the kit is made.
• Make a fresh application each time the advertising changes. A new sponsor next season is a new application, not a continuation of the old one.

Where a club is unsure which side of the line a business falls, our suggestion, rather than a rule, is to ask the County FA before opening the conversation with the sponsor, so you are not withdrawing an offer you have already made.

What you can actually offer

Shirt advertising is one of the main assets a club may consider offering, and the regulations set out where it may appear and how large it may be. Those measurements sit in the current Handbook (opens in a new tab), and your competition may require you to apply for permission before using any of them, so take the figures from the edition your competition works to rather than from a guide.

Three parts of the regulations matter for how a grassroots club can structure this.

• A club with more than one team may conclude separate shirt advertising agreements for each of its teams. One sponsor for the whole club is not the only model, and for a club with several age groups it may not be the practical one.
• A club may conclude sponsorship arrangements with different companies for its home and away strips. A third strip, where competition rules allow one, may carry an alternative sponsor with the permission of the competition.
• A club outside the Premier League, the EFL, steps 1 to 6 of the National League System, the Women's Super League, the Women's Championship and The FA Women's National League may include a sponsor's name in its playing name with the prior written consent of its Affiliated Association. Where that consent is given, advertising on behalf of one company only may be carried on the club's match shirts.

Beyond the match kit, only offer assets the club actually controls or has permission to use. Depending on the venue and the competition, that might include pitchside signage, training wear, the club's own website or social channels, or a presence at a club event. A club that hires its ground may not control what is displayed there, and clothing worn in the technical area can fall within the kit regulations. Check venue, competition and safeguarding requirements before promising any of them, and only offer benefits the club can reliably deliver.

How to make the approach

Once you know the business is suitable, prepare a short outline before you contact anyone. Say who the club or team is, what the sponsorship would pay for, how long the arrangement would run, and exactly what you can offer in return.

• Do not promise a particular shirt position, image use or event presence until you know you have the necessary permissions.
• Approach businesses through a business contact route, and make the ask specific.
• If you quote audience, membership or social media numbers, use figures the club can actually evidence.

The first conversation is to find out whether there is any interest. The written agreement comes once both sides know what is being offered.

Photographs, and what the sponsor wants to do with them

If a sponsor wants to use pictures of the team in the kit, the safeguarding guidance matters, and it is worth settling before the money changes hands rather than after.

FA guidance (opens in a new tab) requires written parental consent before a player's photograph or film is used in the public domain. It also says an image should not be used for something other than what was initially agreed. A photograph taken for the club's own website was not consented for a sponsor's advertising, so a sponsor using it is a new use that needs its own permission.

• Agree in the written agreement what the sponsor may and may not do with images of players, and say that any use needs consent obtained by the club first.
• Do not hand over a folder of photographs and leave the sponsor to decide.
• Tell your welfare officer what has been agreed.
• If consent for one child is refused or withdrawn, the club needs to be able to act on that, which is easier if it never gave away control of the images.

There is a further restriction where the sponsor has any connection to alcohol or gambling. The same FA guidance says not to include advertising relating to alcohol or gambling in photographs or film footage of children. So even where a pub or restaurant reference has been approved for the kit, how team images may be used in that sponsor's publicity is a separate question, and one to put to your County FA.

Specific consent for the specific use, the club keeping control of its images, and the welfare officer involved. Parental consent is what the FA guidance requires. It is not the whole of what governs a business using a child's image in its own advertising, and a sponsor should be taking its own advice on that. Our guide to recruiting players covers what a club's own adverts may show.

The same applies to a sponsor wanting to attend, film or photograph at a session or a presentation. That is a conversation with the welfare officer before it is an offer to the sponsor.

Put it in writing

A grassroots sponsorship does not need a long contract, but it needs to exist in writing, because the people involved will change. Cover these.

The money side

Route sponsorship payments through the club's normal banking and accounting arrangements, not through a volunteer's personal account. A sponsor should not be asked to pay an individual.

Sponsorship can have tax consequences for the club and for the sponsor, and the position depends on how the club is constituted. That is a question for whoever does your accounts or for an accountant, not for a football website. If sponsorship is one part of a wider plan, our guide to grassroots football funding and grants covers the others.

Renewals

• Set a renewal reminder early enough to allow for any kit change and approval process.
• Ask early whether they intend to continue, and tell them what changing the shirt would involve.
• Tell them what they got: what the team did, where the logo appeared, what the club is doing next.
• If the sponsor changes, remember the permission point. A new sponsor means a new application where your competition requires one, and approval before manufacture.
• End the arrangement professionally even when the sponsor is not renewing.

Elsewhere in the UK

The kit and advertising rules on this page are FA regulations and apply in England. Each nation sets its own, so check with the association that covers you.

• England: the Football Association (opens in a new tab).
• Scotland: the Scottish Football Association (opens in a new tab).
• Wales: the Football Association of Wales (opens in a new tab).
• Northern Ireland: the Irish Football Association (opens in a new tab).

Claim your club listing

If your club is listed on FindMeFootball, claiming the listing lets you keep your age groups and contact route accurate. There is no charge to claim a listing. If you are setting a club up from scratch, our guide to starting a grassroots football club covers the order to do it in.