All Leagues providing football for affiliated clubs and teams are required to sanction their competition(s) with the county FA or national FA each season. This can be completed using the Whole Game system.
League Sanctioning is comprised of three separate stages – Officials & Approval of Rules, Documents and Organisation of Divisions. Each of these sections will require some configuration prior to League Sanctioning being started.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- League Sanction – Getting Started
- Stage 1 – League Management
- Stage 2 – Documents
- Stage 3 – Structure, Purchases & Payments
League Sanction – Getting Started
To access the league sanctioning tab, click on your league roll and select Sanction from the left hand menu.
Key:
Available: This is shown once the County FA has opened up league sanction for the new season.
Not started: The league has not started any part of the league sanction process
In Progress: The League has started the league sanction process
Sanctioned: The league has completed the sanction process and it has been approved.
Please note: No league fixtures should take place until the league is showing as sanctioned
Once you click on the sanction link you will be directed to a new screen, this can take a couple of minutes to load up.
As you can see the process is broken down to 3 parts. Each part is separate and can be completed in any order. You can save the information and return to it later – so it does not all need to be done in one go. Once an area is completed the green tick will appear. Once all components of that section are completed, the “continue” button will change to “submit”.
Stage 1 – League Management
This section is about confirming your league details, league officers and your league rules.
League Details
The information in this part is important so that we know the league details and when you intend to start and have your season concluded by.
This section shows the details already on the system regarding the league. To update any of this information click on the pencil icon in the top corner.
Please note: When editing the information, you are not able to change the league name. If you league name has changed then you need to contact your County FA. If you are an FA Charter Standard League but this is showing as “None” please contact your County FA development team who will be able to assist. 
Make the changes required and then click the “save” button and you return to the league details page.
Tick that the details you have entered are correct and that you agree to The FA terms and conditions. If your league has a sponsor make sure that they are entered along with your season start and end date. Once all your details on this section are completed click the “save and continue” button.
League Officials This section will now be managed through the League Officials tab in Competition Portal.
League Rules
This is to make sure that your league rules can be checked and that they have been approved. This also allows your County FA to have a set of your rules should they need to refer to them.
Before this stage you must have a copy of your league rules, either as a Word document or a PDF. That document must be on the device that you can uploading the file from, so that it can be located. You also need to declare that the copy of the rules you are submitting has been approved at your league AGM.
Top tip: Your County FA will have a version of the Standard Code of Rules, Standard Code of Rules for youth competitions or standardised rules. The version required will be dependent if a youth or adult league and if a National League System competition.Once added click on “Save and Submit”
That is Stage 1 complete. You can now submit this stage to be reviewed by the County FA.
Stage 2 – Documents
This section is about submitting any documents that your County FA has asked for. This could be copy of your annual accounts, AGM minutes.League Sanction Documents
The same principle applies as for loading rules. On here if your County FA has asked for any documents this is where you load them to.
That is Stage 2 complete. You can now submit this stage to be reviewed by the County FA.
Stage 3 – Structure, Purchases & Payments
This section is about your divisions, cups and making any purchases that your county FA offers plus payment of your league sanctioning.
The County FA need to know the divisions and cups that you are going to be running. This also helps with the integration into FA Full Time.League Sanctioning Confirmation
You have to confirm that you have created all the divisions, development groups and cups in the Competitions tab within the Competition Portal and that you have correctly assigned all the teams.
Guidance on how to setup and edit your divisions can be found here: https://grassrootstechnology.thefa.com/support/solutions/articles/48001240428-league-structure-creating-editing-and-deleting-divisions
Guidance on adding and removing a team to a division can be found here: https://grassrootstechnology.thefa.com/support/solutions/articles/48001240433-league-structure-adding-a-team-to-a-division-removing-a-team-from-a-division
Products
Some County FA offer products to Leagues – this is an opportunity where these products can be purchased. The products available will depend on each County FA.
Summary
This shows an overview of the League
Payment
This will generate the invoice to pay. Once paid and your sanction approved your County FA will change the status on the system. If may be an idea to email your County FA once you have completed the process so that they are aware and are able to review.