Grassroots Technology Support Hub
Suspension Management FAQs
Context: The Digital Technology team at the FA have been working on migrating suspensions into PFF in line with the rules we determined and shared with the County FA network previously. To date over 33,000 suspensions have been migrated from WGS into PFF and just under 80,000 suspensions have been closed due to either not meeting the requirements agreed or due to bad data.
We are aware via tickets into IT Support and the Grassroots Service Desk there is still some confusion and/or uncertainty, on where to manage suspensions now they have been migrated over to PFF, and this document will help to answer those queries, either by way of advice and guidance, or our FAQs.
1.
You must use PFF and the England Football Portals for master data on suspensions, master data on DBS, adding suspension matches, manually raising suspensions etc. If you do this within CRM, it will NOT show within PFF. Our only exception is adding results to open cases from 2024/25 which are open, which will be picked up in a bi-daily migration to PFF, or if you need to edit an individual for example, amend name, add an email, this can be done in CRM.
2.
Since migrating suspensions, all suspensions have been lifted and closed in CRM with a closed date after 1st July 2025. Do not expect to see the same data within CRM, as your master source is now within PFF, where the suspension will remain open and in place. You will see mismatches in suspension data if you choose to look at CRM, due to the above, so please refer to PFF for correct data and maintain any suspensions here.
3.
Any DBS suspensions are built to flow from Know Your People, with other non-compliance suspensions being mastered in Clue. Only your local suspensions for non-compliance should be added manually within PFF.
4.
Where a non-compliance suspension is issued by a County FA, this will appear in Club Portal as Other FA Suspension. When checking in County Portal, you will see more information and suspension status due to being a County FA Admin.
5.
Within the work on PFF and DBS, we have built the logic to allow matches to be added to a safeguarding suspension, where a player is able to play open-aged football, but has a sine die from U18 activities, this will avoid you having to ask IT to lift temporarily and re-impose, saving much time and effort.
6.
WGS & CRM had a hierarchy which was incorrect and has now been revised within PFF. You will see Sine Die>Days>Matches as the ordering, with a match-based suspension put on hold for example, where a day-based suspension is imposed. This prevents matches being added which are not counting and it will be shown as active not serving until completed.
7.
Further to this, active not serving suspensions will not allow a match to be added, until the suspension is shown as serving. This protects and validates that only correctly counting matches are added to a suspension, again a change from the logic within WGS and CRM.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: I have a match-based suspension that has been transferred into PFF from WGS and matches still need to be added where do I update the suspension?
A: The suspension matches need to be updated in PFF now that the suspension has been migrated. This is completed within Club Portal when managing the suspension, under the suspensions tab.
Q: I have cases from the 24/25 season which are still to be heard that will result in new suspensions being created in WGS. What will happen to these suspensions?
A: Any new suspensions that are being created in WGS are being migrated over to PFF on a bi-daily migration.
Q: A team/club/individual had a sine die in place for unpaid debts in WGS. The debts have now been cleared in WGS, but the suspension is still showing in PFF how do I remove this?
A: Once the debt has been cleared in WGS, the suspension needs to be cancelled manually in PFF, as mentioned above, as there is no integration now from CRM to PFF, since mastering of suspensions was moved to PFF on 1st July 2025.
Q: Where should we now be creating County FA non-compliance suspensions?
A: This is created in the County Portal in the individual or club, via the suspensions tab, using the create suspension button. You will need to manually lift this as previously in CRM once resolved, to remove the suspension.
Q: I have a suspension I need to transfer to another team, I cannot seem to do so currently in PFF? How would I do this?
A: We are working on the edit suspension process, once released, you will be permitted to transfer a suspension which is allowed under FA regulations, meaning the matches can be served with the new club once completed. Further details on the date for this will follow ASAP
Q: Where can I find our any known issues or defects, to avoid logging a ticket/issue?
A: This can be found under the Connect & Serve channel, with a tab for Peak Season Tracker at the top of the page, which has updated on all issues across GRF Discipline and other PFF modules.
Q: I can see under the suspensions tab, a person is suspended, however; when I find them in the Officials tab, they are not showing the alert for suspended?
A: This is a known issue, see the tracker via the link in the previous question, for further updates. Please note however, the suspension can still be seen via the suspensions tab and if linked to a case, via the case, it is solely the flag/alert which is not showing and a known issue being investigated.