As part a commitment by The FA and County FAs to improve the administration experience for grassroots football volunteers, new online player registration functionality has recently been introduced into the Whole Game System (WGS).

Following a successful six month pilot programme during which over 130,000 players were registered across 50 participating leagues, the new functionality is now to be made available to all grassroots leagues and clubs in England.

Whilst some leagues may initially decide not to use WGS for player registration purposes, all clubs will still benefit from using the system to maintain and manage their players' records. Amongst these benefits are;

•  Secure storage of player records
•  Records updated annually, creating a lasting history for each player
•  Club and Team records available for league registration processes (where appropriate)
•  More efficient club discipline management
•  Use of the FA number (FAN) to create a single player view – particularly for clubs using Full-Time
•  Providing your club with better player information to help you plan for the future

Clubs are invited to start entering players' details into WGS. Clubs within leagues who are using Full-Time to manage fixtures and competitions administration will be able to match player records between that system and WGS.

This will save them from having to duplicate effort and will ensure that, for the first time, they will have a single view of players in both Full-Time and Whole Game.

Any players not already in Full-Time can be searched for and added directly into WGS using the FAN search function. This allows clubs to easily and securely identify players from across the national database.

Once they have found and attached players they can then assign them to the appropriate team. At this stage the process is then complete and records are up to date and ready to be presented for league registration for season 2017/18.

Guidance

The full guide to registering club players in Whole Game System can be viewed or downloaded by clicking HERE.

To access the online player registration functionality you must be a Club Secretary or Player Registration Officer and start by logging in to: wholegame.thefa.com

Forgotten or don't know your FAN Number or Password?

Click HERE for information on how to retrieve your key information.

Further Information

We have a dedicated member of staff who will be managing the player registration process which is Damon Traverse, Cheshire FA Registration & Regulations Support Officer.

If you have any queries regarding player registration please contact Damon at wgs@cheshirefa.com or on 01606 871166.