FIFA Circular No. 1794 officially announced the publication of the new and comprehensive Guide to Club Licensing in Women’s Football. FIFA’s objective to professionalize and further develop women’s football is fundamental for Goal 8 of FIFA’s Vision 2020-2023 - “Accelerating the Growth of Women’s Football”.
The Guide complements FIFA’s report “Setting the Pace: FIFA Benchmarking Report Women’s Football” and the FIFA Women’s Development Programme, and further demonstrate FIFA’s commitment to raising the standards of women’s football clubs and the leagues they are part of.
The Guide is designed to be used as a tool by FIFA’s member associations to support the implementation of a club licensing framework for their women’s football competitions. It consists of 10 steps that member associations can follow in setting up their club licensing systems. The guide also contains additional steps aiming to empower leagues to maintain their club licensing structures on a season-by-season basis.
To have a clear understanding of the importance of such a guide, we must first focus on what exactly is club licensing. Essentially, it is a tool used by member associations to raise standards in key strategic areas of football clubs. These areas most commonly include sporting, infrastructure, administration, legal and financial. Clubs have to meet a set of criteria in order to then receive a licence and in turn, be able to participate in a given club competition.
The benefits of club licensing are numerous, of course, if member associations implement it properly. Amongst many other, some of these include:
promoting and improving good governance at clubs
increasing the trust and integrity of clubs
enhancing the integrity of competitions
increasing clubs’ financial stability
increasing the level of professionalism in club management
increasing the number of youth development teams and players
promoting financial transparency in clubs
While the implementation of a club licensing system does not have a ‘one size fits all’ strategy and approach for all member associations, the guide contains an illustration of the ideal administrative structure of how the system can be operated inside the MAs.
Generally, the creation of such a system is comprised of two fundamental parts – setting up the system (Part 1) and then consequently, implementing it (Part 2); and within these two parts there are numerous small steps to be followed in ensuring that everything functions smoothly.
PART 1: SETTING UP THE SYSTEM
The guide goes on to provide recommendations all the steps contained under Part 1. For example, it lists a template for a basic budget for setting up the system, it lists the key responsibilities and attributes of a club licensing manager and the areas in which club licensing criteria experts should be appointed.
Within Part 1, MAs are also advised to ensure they understand the reality of clubs and establish realistic criteria and in doing so, they should analyze several areas for each club participating in women’s competitions: infrastructure, sporting, administration, finance and legal.
In addition to these areas, the Guide provides recommendations for MAs to follow four phases in order to fully understand the reality of the clubs. For example, under Phase 1, MAs are advised to create an online survey that would reflect the type of criteria that it is hoping to implement in the club licensing system. Consequently, in Phase 2, the survey is distributed to the clubs that the MA wishes to study. In Phase 3, MAs are encouraged to visit clubs and meet the people working there, while also observing the facilities. Lastly, Phase 4 focuses on analysing the responses from the clubs together with the criteria experts and creating a report that informs the MA of each club’s current position on the areas analyzed mentioned above.
The next step of Part 1 is of great importance and is exploring club licensing criteria. In exploring these and considering best practices from other MAs across the world or those in the region, it is important to keep in mind the principles that are fundamental to the MA wishing to implement a club licensing system and that criteria can be developed to achieve these principles. There is not a specific and strict limit on the type and number of criteria, whereas these can be as simple as requiring clubs to have a logo or a website or be go more in-depth and include sustainability as a criteria for club licensing (e.g. Germany will soon be implementing such a criteria). For such criteria often times a great starting point would be taking a look and considering the criteria established by the confederations.
The seventh step of Part 1 focuses on the legal basis for the club licensing system and establishing the regulations. The legal basis of such a system can be found within the statutes of the member associations and it describes the objective of the system, the relevant authority and makes reference to further, more detailed national club licensing regulations. As an alternative option, a club licensing system may find its legal basis in a contract between clubs and the MA. Consequently, FIFA recommends the inclusion of several “standard” sections in the MA’s club licensing regulations such as:
Once the MA club licensing regulations are established it would definitely be helpful for the parties involved that these are reviewed by FIFA or the corresponding confederation and then, of course, be approved by the MA’s relevant body and enter into force.
Turning to the eight step of Part 1, MAs are encouraged to set up an online club licensing platform in order to make the whole process more efficient for the stakeholders involved.
To better visualize how a club licensing platform could look, in the Guide FIFA has included a screenshot of the one established by the Chilean FA.
The nineth step is crucial for ensuring that the club licensing system functions independently and justly, and this is the creation of a First Instance Body (FIB) and an Appeals Body (AB). The FIB would hold the function of determining whether to award or deny licences, based on the established criteria and documentation provided by the clubs, while the AB would be in charge of reviewing and deciding on appeals against the decisions of the FIB.
The composition of these bodies is fundamental for their proper functioning and operating. Therefore, they must each have a minimum of three members, and these should not be associated with, or connected to, any club affiliated to the MA. Moreover, no individual can be a member of both FIB and the AB. Of course, members should have relevant knowledge of one or more club licensing criteria areas and FIFA also strongly recommends that at least one member is a qualified lawyer, at least one is a qualified accountant/auditor or with financial background and at least one that is an architect or someone with expertise in infrastructure. Nonetheless, confederations establish the relevant qualifications requirements for members of FIB and AB.
The tenth and last step of Part 1 (setting up a system) is centered around the organization of workshops with the clubs when the MAs are ready to introduce the clubs to the new system. Such workshops could focus on discussing topics related to the general aspects of the new club licensing system, as well as giving an overview of the online platform and application submission.
PART 2: IMPLEMENTING THE SYSTEM
The recommended steps for the proper implementation of a club licensing system are eight. Firstly, MAs are encouraged to establish and approve a budget for the implementation of the system which has to be managed as a well-structured project. Budget is often a topic with which many MAs across the world struggle. This is also why the Guide provides some general ideas regarding the so-called “must-have” aspects to be considered when implementing the budget and a few strongly recommended aspects:
Once a draft budget has been created it should be approved by senior management and then MAs can move onto the second step of Part 2 which is the organization of a club licensing launch meeting with clubs. It is recommended that this meeting is held annually right before the start of the licensing process. In this meeting the corresponding MA and the club licensing administration should inform clubs about how the system will be implemented in that particular season and provide clubs with guidance as to how to use the online platform.
The third step is concerned with the initiation of the core process. During this core process, the club licensing manager sends a letter to all clubs that need to apply for a licence, outlining the competitions which require a licence for participation and inviting the clubs to submit their licence application. The following illustration shows a sample core process that is most commonly followed by MAs:
Of course, once all applications have been sent within the pre-determined deadline, the fourth step of Part 2 is reviewing these applications and visiting clubs. One of the most important tasks of the club licensing manager after the applications have been submitted is to verify the information provided by the clubs and this can be done through visits at the clubs’ headquarters, stadium, facilities, etc. Once all documentation has been checked, clubs are informed that all information and documents submitted are correct. This is where the MA should organize an FIB meeting to, consequently, award or deny licences. Once the FIB has reviewed each club’s application, a decision will be taken, and this will be later on communicated to the clubs. If a club is awarded a licence and has qualified for a given competition based on sporting merit, that club will be eligible to participate in the designated competition. In contrast, if a club is denied a licence, that club will becomes ineligible to participate in the designated competition.
The sixth step of Part 2 concerns the implementation of the appeals process in case a club does not agree with the decision of the FIB. Such an appeal can be lodged by the club within the specified deadline, while stating the reason(s) for the appeal. The CLM will then inform the club whether the request for appeal has been granted based on adherence to the appeals process, and if yes, it will indicate the date by which the AB will render a decision. If the appeal is not upheld by the AB, the club will not receive a licence. However, if the appeal is upheld, the club will receive a licence and be eligible to participate in the designated competition.
The seventh step of Part 2 concerns the creation of the benchmarking report and a roadmap for each club. If MAs would like to create a benchmarking report, this may provide stakeholders with useful and detailed insights into the reality of women’s football in the country of that MA. The report may cover areas such as youth football, coaching, stadiums and fans, players, administrative staff, finance and sponsors, ownership, etc.
The last step of the implementation part of the club licensing system is the organisation of workshops with clubs and review of the system with all stakeholders. Workshops with experts can be created to assist clubs in any challenges encountered regarding the club licensing criteria, for example, sporting, infrastructure, legal and finance, etc. In the same way, information and feedback can be collected from the clubs during such workshops that can then be discussed amongst stakeholders with the idea to make the system function better.
While FIFA has continuously been working on improving the existing club licensing systems in mens football, this new and unique guide to club licensing in women’s football is a key step in making sure member associations can get help and accelerate the growth of women’s football.