What We Do

It's What We Do...

Looking back on the last 10 years and ahead to the next!

As we enter the new year, another decade commences in 2020 and we believe it is the perfect time to reflect on another significant 10 years continuing to make Sussex Football For All.

As of this season, we are made up of 476 clubs and 2399 teams, with the number of team increasing season on season. Many of these teams have helped us contribute to our long-standing charity, Sussex to Africa, where endless amounts of unwanted football kit and equipment has been donated to help keep football in Africa thriving. 

Players from those teams have contributed to our successful Representative Squads, we run Under-16s and Under-18s, and we re-introduced our Women’s team. In 2017 we became the first County FA to introduce a Disability Representative Squad.

Our Football Services team oversaw The FA pilot of Sin Bins, which has now been implemented across the country! The number of County Cups we run have increased, and our goal for this decade is to introduce even more competitions to cater for Walking Football and Disability categories.

We’ve also seen the introduction and adoption of new grassroots technology such as the Whole Game System, Matchday App and the new Full-Time, to which there is a goal to be fully utilised in the future. Due to significant process in these areas, it has seen us expand our Football Services team to further to assist and support our leagues. 

A strong and diverse Independent Disciplinary Panel was introduced in 2016, with over 20 members which, as a result, creates a fair and transparent disciplinary process. There are plans to expand this further to have a larger and even more diverse panel.

Safeguarding has really come to the forefront in the past decade and last year we teamed up with the NSPCC to host our first ever Online Safety Workshop for parents and carers, as well as launching a brand new Kidzone page on our website. What’s more, we became the first County FA to introduce a pitch-side advertising boards carrying the Childline message. 

The number of Safeguarding Children Workshops we hold across the county have more than doubled, and we have introduced club safeguarding visits to check safeguarding children compliancy, meeting with coaches’, players and parents.

Our Safeguarding team have future goals to look for different and more efficient ways to communicate with Club Welfare Officers which will help in raising awareness of the safeguarding and reporting process. Furthermore, reducing the occasions of poor practice in youth football. We also want to find ways of providing further safeguards for 16/17-year-olds who are playing in open-age football as well as adults who are at risk. 

YT Still
What We Do...
Find out more about our work to make Sussex football a safe, fun and inclusive environment For All!

In our Football Development team, we have recently made a big step towards equality in Sussex football by achieving the Foundation Level of Equality Award. As well as this, we have seen the introduction of an FA Level 1 in Coaching Football Inclusive Course for those with a disability or additional needs.

Over 8,500 individuals have attended the Introduction to First Aid in Football workshops with over 6,000, qualifying as Level 1 Coaches and currently in Sussex we have 2,500 qualified coaches actively operating in football.

Following the Equality Award, we hosted our inaugural Equality Engagement Evening at Crawley Town where we invited key people in the industry to guest speak such as Hope Powell, Ryan Atkin and Martin Sinclair. The evening also gave us the opportunity to showcase the introduction of Sunflower Lanyard Project which is aimed at helping identify those with a hidden disability, so they can receive additional support. 

Over 20 Wildcats centres have been introduced across Sussex to help inspire girls aged between 5-11 to be involved in the sport. We also launched our Women’s Recreational Festivals in 2017 for the ‘missed generation’ who are now enjoying the opportunity to play.

Across the county we worked together with the Football Foundation to help support the development facilities, enabling more players to access high-quality pitches and changing rooms. We’ve also educated more coaches through our expansive coach education programme to help develop the players of the future.

Training and development of our match officials is now more professional than ever, with promotions across all levels including some of our officials going on to reach the top of the game, officiating on the Premier League. We have also seen an increase in the percentage of matches taking place across the county that are officiated by a qualified match official.

Going forward in the refereeing world we are very keen to increase the number of female match officials, and actively support the implementation of The FA’s Respect campaign.

Our Headquarters at Culver Road saw a major transformation in 2015 with a 3G Artificial Turf Pitch installed at a cost of £406,000. This change of surface has enabled us to open our facility to over 6,000 players since then and that figure is rising every year. 

Talking finances things have changed dramatically over the last decade, with the introduction of online banking as opposed to cheques, and our financial year now reflects the football season of July to June rather than the calendar year. 

As we enter another decade we are determined to make football as safe, fun and accessible for all as we possibly can, none of our past achievements could be have been realised without our committed and determined staff and the legions of volunteers across the county who without we couldn’t do what we do to make Sussex football great! 

For more information about our past work and visions for the future please contact: 

Football Services
T: 01903 753547
E: Info@SussexFA.com

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