Grassroots clubs face being docked points next season as the FA look to clamp down on serious misconduct.
Clubs found guilty of repeated offences — involving players or coaches — will be hit by points deductions under new FA powers.
Deductions will range from three to 12 points, depending on the number of breaches within 12 months of the first offence and the severity of cases.
The move has been championed by many in the area, including the Nottinghamshire FA.
“The Nottinghamshire FA welcomes the news from the national FA released on May 30 regarding points deductions for grassroots clubs who are found guilty of repeat serious offences,” said a spokesman.
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“Alongside the recent national and local initiatives to improve behaviour within the game, we can start to see a positive change on and off the field of play.”
The new rules will apply to clubs at Step Seven and below in the men’s game and clubs across tier three and below in the women’s pyramid.
Examples of serious misconduct include acts of discrimination and assault or attempted assault, and physical conduct or attempted physical contact against a match official.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “This is a significant step for grassroots football in England, and clearly outlines our commitment to tackle incidents of serious misconduct
“We frequently hear from grassroots participants that player behaviour is a growing issue and we’re determined to change this.
“So from the start of the 2023-24 season, players and coaches who repeatedly offend will hurt their team by losing points.
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“Unacceptable behaviour towards other players and officials will not be tolerated.
“We hope this proves to be a strong deterrent that helps to improve the culture within the grassroots game.
“We are also working with the professional leagues and other stakeholders to tackle poor behaviour in the professional game and will provide an update on this ahead of next season.”
FA senior discipline manager Fraser Williamson said: “We care deeply about ensuring everybody within grassroots football has a good experience and can enjoy the game in a positive environment.
“We’ve acted on the feedback that we’ve received and it’s great to see this important step come to fruition.
“Our County FAs work very hard to bring local communities together through the love of football and we hope this will help to make our grassroots game more inclusive and welcoming for all.”
Back in December, Nottinghamshire FA chief executive Elaine Oram told the Advertiser that it was an issue county FAs were seriously discussing at a national level.
“There was a lot of discussion around referee abuse and there is an appetite for making clubs more responsible for these individuals,” she said at the time.
Oram added that there had been a noticeable deterioration in behaviour since covid.
Since the meeting, there have been several examples of long bans being handed out in Nottinghamshire against players who assaulted referees. The issue of referee abuse and assault has created a climate of fear, causing referee numbers to drop.
This has hurt the game and impacted on league’s capabilities to source qualified referees for grass roots football.
The resulting domino effect has seen several negative outcomes such as clubs having to pay more for referees due to increased travelling costs and teams having to provide their own referees — often with troubling results.
“Anything the FA can do to curve the current open season on match officials is a positive,” said Darrell Parkes, an official with the Nottinghamshire Se-nior League.
“We see the same names offending time and again, some of them have been around for over 20 years.
“It has been proven that sanctions and fines don’t work so hopefully this action of deducting points off clubs does create change.”
He added that most of the clubs were not to blame but that there were a handful that fostered a toxic culture of closing ranks and protecting culprits.
“Results will be shown when they manage to get these unpleasant people out of the game, if they don’t rectify their behaviour,” he said.