Rights of a parent for child's football team

jonnyb1978

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but hopefully a few football managers in here.

Child is in a kids football team affiliated to the FA.
There are several teams of different age groups all headed by the chairman.
However, a couple of teams seem to be forgotten about and our subs money plus other money raised looks like is going to other teams rather than shared equally. Most parents now are not happy with the running of the team. What are our rights regarding this.
I was thinking of officially asking for a full breakdown of all money gone in and out of the club over the last year. Failing to receive this to put in an official complaint to the FA and even threatening with a small claim to refund subs, donations since the end of last season.

Do the chairmen have any responsibility towards it's team members, parents etc

Valli

Suggest you go to a meeting of the committee and ensure you get a copy of the treasurer's report, in the first instance. This should clearly set out income and expenditure.

Meetings should be properly convened with an agenda. As a minimum there should be a chairperson, treasurer and secretary.

The FA website might give you some idea of what they require of their affiliated clubs,

yes, they do

here

jonnyb1978

Thanks.
What if they don't have a report. The teams committee are all members of the same family. I don't even think they will have a report. I can request one but then what?

daivid

Sorry if this post is long, and trust me my aim is just to give a perspective from the 'other' side: I am involved heavily in the running of a sports club (but not football - so can only give some general comments).

To me there seem to be two issues that may be separate or overlapping.

The first been the "poor running" of one or more teams - now is this due to a lack of coaches (very common problem in amateur clubs), the relative keenness, commitment and attitude of the players in those teams, oversight by the clubs management, or wilful neglect of their needs. Whilst all are possible the last in general would be the least likely, many clubs struggle to cater for all the young participants all the time and need dedicated coaches to commit to longer term development and not just coach for the season their child is in the team which is often the case.

The second relates to the money being payed in, what is it going towards, what do you think it goes towards? If it pays for facility hire, training equipment and match shirts that your child has access to then you have no grounds for complaint in my opinion. If on the other hand people involved are making money, and coaches are being payed etc then all players should be benefiting from their investment.

In our club no-one gets payed, not even expenses (this may not be the perfect way but it seems to work for us). We also rely on a small number of volunteers who may well do 3or 4 jobs and not through choice - no-one wants to be secretary or treasurer... but our coaches do get a lot of enjoyment/satisfaction from their contributions.

If you were an unhappy parent linked to us, sensitively raising your concerns would be no problem, more likely welcomed - e.g. "jimmy would really like more matches" or "I'm not sure the U14s training is preparing them for their league fixtures".

Jumping in demanding breakdowns of spending is likely to ruffle many feathers especially if the treasurer is a volunteer who doesn't enjoy giving up his free time prepare end of season accounts let alone a mid season request.

If a softly softly approach does no good then yes you could go to the FA- you may even get good specific advice without having to lodge a formal complaint. As for small claims to get your money back that would probably depend on the amounts and what it is supposed to be for - in our club training/match fees cover the venue hire, membership covers insurance and national governing body registration and as all members will by nature have received what they pay for I cant see how it could be reclaimed. Even if another team had a better coach, or got to play more games. If however coaches are payed and I gather in many even amateur football clubs they are then maybe you could get back money paid for coaching that wasn't delivered.

Again sorry this is long and I hope it is of some use.

Valli

jonnyb1978 wrote: »

Thanks.
What if they don't have a report. The teams committee are all members of the same family. I don't even think they will have a report. I can request one but then what?

Well ask first - and if they don't have one then come back. This shouldn't be something prepared just for you though, but a proper report which they should be keeping, showing income and expenditure throughout the year.

If they aren't running the club as they are required to by the FA, to whom they are affiliated, then follow FA procedures for complaining.

Please be aware though that clubs like this DO rely on the goodwill of parents who form the committee. If they aren't running the club properly perhaps they need some more committee members willing to give up a little time for the benefit of ALL the kids. The fact that the committee are all related isn't necessarily an issue - but is possibly an indicator that they are desperate for new blood on the committee!

Reggie_Rebel

It is a requirement of all affiliated clubs that accounts are lodged with the County FA, so if the club won't provide you with a set the County FA should do.

As a general rule of thumb the older the teams get the more it cost to run. Pitch hire, referee fees and kits are more expensive for Under 16's than they are for Under 7's so it could be that the younger age groups are subsiding the older ones.

I've run a club for ten years and the way we have always done it is that subs and registration fees go into the pot to provide pitches, coaches courses, equipment and kits. If teams want extras then we expected them to raise the money themselves.

pelirocco

We had this problem years ago , club refused to hold an AGM , basically ran by 2 parents who forced people out if they didnt agree

we eventually broke away , its not uncommon in boys football sadly ( we have even had it happen recently with a local boys rugby club )

BTW the FA werent in the least bit interested

and if you see what happened here makes you wonder

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/11366928.Former_youth_football_officials_appear_in_court_over___200k_fraud_claims/?ref=var_0

Ant555

I realise that this post is a few days old but I am interested to hear what the OP has decided.

I have a couple of questions for jonnyb1978.
How much do you pay for the season and does that include the loan of the kit, astro hire, games at the weekend and trophies/medals at presentation day?

Like poster 'david' and others above, I have experience in junior sports (a football club) so would be able to offer appropriate advice, or further insight, if required.