Registering Your Child With The FA

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   Bury Rangers FC — One club. Every player.

   Every player at an affiliated club must be registered with The FA. This is separate from your TeamFeePay membership — TeamFeePay handles your fees, The FA handles your child's registration to play. Your coach will send you an invitation by email. Follow it, and the whole thing takes about ten minutes.
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   What's changed

   The old Whole Game System has been retired. Registration now happens through the England Football Portals, using an FA Account. If you set up your account recently, you sign in with your email address, not your FAN. Your FAN (FA Number) still exists — it's the unique number attached to every player, coach and referee in English football — but it's no longer your login.
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   Create or sign in to your FA Account

   Go to myaccount.thefa.com. Already have an account? Sign in with your email. New? Click Create account, enter your email, and The FA will send you a verification code. Enter the code, add your name, date of birth and postcode, then set a password.
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   Confirm you're registering on behalf of your child

   When you follow the coach's invitation link, you'll be asked whether you're signing on yourself or a child. Choose child/dependant. If your child is already linked to your account, select them. If not, you can link them using their FAN if you have it. If they've never played before and have no FAN, you can add them as a new person — a FAN will be created for them. Please search before you create. Duplicate FANs are the single most common problem at registration and they take days to untangle. If your child has ever played for another club, they already have a FAN.
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   Check the details

   You'll be shown your child's record. Read it properly rather than clicking through. Make sure these are correct and complete: Your email address and mobile number — this is how The FA, the league and the club reach you Your child's address You, linked as parent/guardian — mandatory for all under-16s Name, date of birth and gender are locked once set. If any of these are wrong, you cannot fix them yourself — contact Hertfordshire FA and we'll help you do it.
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   Give consent

   The final step is consenting for your child to play for Bury Rangers. Give consent online, through the portal. Online parental consent lasts up to five years. Consent given offline lasts a single season and has to be redone every year — more admin for you and for our volunteers. Once submitted, we sign your child on and the league approves the registration.
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   Don't forget your emergency details

   Your FA record proves your child is registered. It is not what a coach reaches for on a Saturday morning when something goes wrong. That information lives with the club, on TeamFeePay: Emergency contact — at least one number that will actually be answered at 9am on a Saturday A second contact — in case the first can't be reached Medical conditions — asthma, allergies, epilepsy, anything a first-aider needs to know Please keep both records current. If you change your mobile number, update it in both places. A registration record with a dead phone number on it is the one thing we can't work around when it matters.