Grassroots football leagues, clubs, referees and coaches can now keep a track of their involvement in the nation’s favourite sport via a range of online ‘Member Services’ at www.essexfa.com as the Essex County Football Association continues to develop the local game as part of their ambitious strategy for 2008-12.
Hoping to build on the excitement generated by Fabio Capello’s England stars during this World Cup year, ‘Shaping Football in Essex’ sets targets for the development of the game locally under specific categories. These include growth and retention, raising standards and addressing abusive behaviour, developing better players. The enhancement is one of many ‘key actions’ such as implementing a clear customer service policy.
Member Services is a free online facility for all affiliated leagues, clubs, referees and coaches with the aim of reducing the administrative burden on volunteers and providing up-to-date information instantly, whenever it’s required. The services are available from www.essexfa.com and users will need to know their FA Number (FAN, which used to be referred to as an NPD) as well as generating a password via the same means.
At present, Member Services are available to the chairpersons, secretaries and treasurers of clubs and leagues who can update their contact information, benefit from the ‘Find-a-Referee’ tool and keep up-to-date with their ECFA misconduct and financial records. Amongst other things, referees can maintain their match availability and enter weekly behavioural marks on the games they’ve covered, while coaches can display themselves on the Find-a-Coach listings and download The FA’s ‘Learning Coaching’ tool.
The service had been available through The FA for a short time and was first accessible in Essex after a website upgrade in September. Weekly suspension information is currently issued to leagues but the Member Services produce these details ‘as live’, with a number of benefits. There is also information on the progress of cases, so if a match is abandoned and a charge is raised the league will be able to learn of this. It will eventually display cases awaiting a hearing date and, once they have taken place, results will be added online.
Richard Mann, Secretary of Basildon United FC in the Essex Senior League, has seen the facility enhance his club’s efficiency and he explained: “I’ve definitely found the services have made my life a lot easier. I feel in touch the whole time and it helps to know what’s been paid and what’s outstanding. It’s also great to see clearly in front of you where your club stands and beats searching through lists for your suspended players! I’ve been using Member Services for six months and would recommend them to others for sure.”
Peter Godfrey is Secretary of the LFC Insurance Group Essex Olympian League, which operates seven divisions each Saturday, involving 86 teams. Although he is conscious the facility is new, Peter believes more volunteers need to get a feel for the system in order for it to progress, adding: “It’s useful and it’s nice to have it there as I occasionally look-up details of players’ suspensions on behalf of our league. The more people that use the service the more feedback can be gained to help it improve in the future.”
Users are advised that, each time they receive some form of paperwork from the ECFA, they make a note of their current FAN number. This unique code should be allocated for life, though there are rare occasions where more than one ‘record’ exists for an individual on The FA’s national database and, when these are identified and merged into a single entry, the FAN can occasionally change. This should only ever happen once.
Affiliated leagues, clubs, referees and coaches are advised to visit www.essexfa.com and ‘Request Access’ using the ‘Members’ tab to receive their login details via E-Mail, then to familiarise themselves with the new features available. Further assistance can be obtained through Greg Hart at the County Office in Springfield, who is available on (01245) 393078 or via E-Mail at greg.hart@essexfa.com.