Transcript
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Governance Department: 0113 282 1222, option 2
[email protected]
2 Introduction Welcome to the West Riding County Football Association’s guide to processing club discipline through the Whole Game Portal. If you have any questions or queries about anything in this guide, please feel free to contact the Governance department using the contact details at the bottom of this page. Alternatively, please refer to http://www.westridingfa.com/services/whole-game-system. For general information, including links to the FA Handbook and Sanction Guidelines, please refer to: http://www.westridingfa.com/fagovernance.
Section Dashboard & Basic Navigation Responding to a Caution Responding to a Dismissal Responding to a Misconduct Charge Claims of mistaken identity/wrongful dismissal/excessive sanctions Invoices/Payments Granting Access to Discipline Functions Managing Notifications Managing Player Records
Page numbers 3-5 6-7 8-12 13-18 19-20 21-26 27-28 29-30 31-33
3 Dashboard and Basic Navigation Once a standard or misconduct charge is brought against your club or a player in your club, you will receive an automatic email from The FA WGS alerting you to changes in your Whole Game records as seen above. You will no longer receive paperwork in regards to discipline once live through WGS.
After you sign into the Whole Game System at the following address www.wholegame.thefa.com/Account/Login please ensure you click on the relevant ‘Club Secretary’ section utilising the tabs at the top of the page. Without doing so, the system will not show you the relevant discipline actions for your club. Please contact the Governance team if you believe that you should be able to view the Secretary tab but are unable to do so.
4 Scroll down the page to the section entitled ‘Notifications’, here you will find information related to the discipline cases that have been added to your club. Typically, this will alert you to the adding of discipline to your records or will notify you of an invoice which is now available to pay. Please ensure that you utilise the ‘Mark as Read’ button so that you don’t receive a further email alerting you to notifications that you are already aware of.
To view all current discipline cases open for your club please select ‘Discipline’ from the tool bar on the left hand side of the page.
5 The discipline summary page will allow you to access all of the information you need in relation to discipline cases applicable to your club, both past and present.
To access player information click on the offender’s name.
The response due date is calculated by reference to the offence type. Standard lead times are 7 days for a red card and 14 days for a caution.
To respond or acknowledge a case, please select the relevant case by clicking on the Case ID.
6 Responding to a Caution Once you have selected the case that you are responding to, the full case details will open. To respond to the case, please select the ‘Acknowledge’ button. The process explained below is for a caution.
If you receive the following message when trying to acknowledge a case, the County does not currently hold any information about the player in question. To enter this information, please click on the player’s hyperlinked name at the top of the case details section.
7 This will then open the details that the County currently holds for the player. If these details are empty, as seen in the example given, please select ‘Update Details’ as seen below.
A page entitled ‘Update Participant Details’ page should now open, allowing you to enter the current home address and date of birth for the player in question. These are the only mandatory fields needed for the discipline process, however please feel free to complete the rest of the form if you wish, before clicking save. You should now be able to acknowledge the discipline case as instructed above
8 Responding to a Dismissal The only difference when it comes to acknowledging a red card is that you will be required to allocate the matches that your player will miss as a result of the sanction imposed on them, through being dismissed from the field of play. Once logged in, you will be required to click your club tab:
Immediately you will see “Current Suspensions” and “Pending Suspensions”. Any suspension showing here without an end date requires suspension information. “Current Suspensions” are suspensions that are currently active, “Pending Suspensions” are suspensions due to start in the future:
9 To enter suspension information click on the case number:
This will then take you into that individual case. You will be able to see the sanction issued and suspension period required:
10 If you scroll down when in the case, you will then see the match information. You will also see the add match button. It is not the choice of the club which games the participant misses, it is the first available relevant games following the start date:
If you click add match, you will see the screen below. As you enter the information, additional fields will open. Firstly, select if you were home/away and then select the date of the game. To search the league, please type the first 4 letters of the league which will then search the database. Please wait until the results are returned and select the correct league, followed by your division. If you cannot find the opposition in your division, choose the drop down ‘select all teams in league’. Finally, select your opponent and click add.
11 This will then show in the case as below. Please repeat this for the required number of games. If all games are not known at this stage, please return to the system and enter the remaining games once known:
Once all required games are entered, you will note as below that the add match button is no longer available. This is because the required number of matches have been entered. If you wish to amend the matches, you need to delete the match no longer required by clicking the bin next to the match. This will then make the add match button available for you to add a new match.
12 If you click “dashboard” once all games are entered you will note there is now an end date. If this end date is in the past then the suspension will disappear as it has already been served:
Please note games abandoned, cancelled, postponed or re-arranged do not count towards a match suspension. The game must be completed with a result. If a game does get abandoned, cancelled, postponed or re-arranged you would need to delete the game and add the next available match as a replacement. We suggest that all clubs login to Whole Game and check for outstanding suspensions. Any player found to be playing under suspension will face a charge from the association as will the club he/she played for. It is important to ensure that relevant fixtures are entered to clear players of suspensions. Any failure to do so leads to unnecessary administration time.
13 Responding to a Misconduct Charge A misconduct charge will detail the relevant ‘Public Notes’ in relation to the case. Generally, this will be the notes entered by the Match Official deemed serious enough to bring about a charge of misconduct. In addition, you will note any documents forming part of the evidence against you. Misconduct charges do not need acknowledging; instead they require a response from the club to the applicable charge. If a case is not responded to within the required timeframe, then the case will be heard by a commission without your response or plea. Please click your discipline section on the left hand side:
You will then see any cases that require acknowledgment. You can also view old cases by using the subtotal numbers at the top. If you have any misconduct cases, you will see these here. Any misconduct cases will have an M at the end of the number:
14 Firstly, please ensure that the player details are correct. To do this, click the players name. This will bring up the player profile as below. If the details are correct, you do not need to complete the next two steps. If the details need updating, please select the “update details” button on the bottom right. The address, post code and date of birth fields are compulsory, any further information will be gratefully received. If the player’s name is incorrect please contact a member of the discipline team to update this for you:
Once the players details appear you can update the required fields. Once these are correct, you can click save:
15 Click back to discipline on the left hand side and you will see the cases as earlier stated. Now you have confirmed the player(s) details ,you can respond to the case(s). Firstly, click the case id:
This will open the case. Here, you can see the information for this case including the offence charge code, date, response due date and public notes, which will include more information relating to the charge. On the bottom of the page, you will be able to download a copy of the referee report, copy of the charge letter and the county FA evidence. In the top right hand corner you will see respond, you now need to click this.
16 You now need to provide a response to the charge raised. If you are responding on behalf of a player/coach, then it is your responsibility to advise the participant of the charge. The response provided must be the agreed response between the participant and the club. You have two options for the plea which are guilty or not guilty. A guilty plea means you are pleading guilty to the whole charge, if you dispute any part of the charge then you should plead not guilty. You also have two options for a hearing, which are a personal hearing or non-personal hearing. A personal hearing will mean you attend in person to give your evidence or mitigation. A non-personal hearing will be dealt with in your absence using written submissions. The response is completed by selecting the relevant plea and hearing from the drop down menus.
You can now upload documents to your response. For any not guilty pleas, you must upload evidence to support this plea. For guilty pleas, you can upload any mitigation that you wish the commission to consider when deciding a sanction. To do so please click the “browse button”
17 This will open up a dialog box for your pc to locate the file. Locate the file you wish to upload and press open
This will then insert the document into the misconduct response. Repeat this process if you have numerous documents to upload.
Once you have provided the response and all supporting documents, please tick the disclaimer box and press submit.
18 You will then receive the message below confirming a fee, which will be added to your next invoice:
You will note from the response button being grey that the case is now responded to. No further action is required, until you receive your next discipline invoice.
If you wish to pay the administration fee immediately as opposed to waiting for the invoice however, you can do so. Remain in the case and scroll down until you see the payment information as below. Tick the box and select pay. This will then take you to BarclayCard Smartpay to make payment; your next invoice will show this case has been paid:
Following the hearing the results will be available via WGS and these will also be emailed to you.
19 Claims of mistaken identity/wrongful dismissal/excessive sanctions The discipline section of the whole game system allows for claims of mistaken identity or wrongful dismissal. Please use the ‘Intention To Claim’ button to begin proceedings.
For further information about the relevant terms of appeal, please refer to the FA Discipline Handbook through http://www.westridingfa.com/fagovernance. Please note that these claims have strict timeframes which must be adhered to.
20 Please ensure that the relevant section is completed with full details, to allow for a claim to proceed. Claims of mistaken identity must be received within THREE working days of the fixture with written evidence from both players and the club provided. A decision will be made within FOURTEEN days, before any automatic sanction is due to take place. The cost of a mistaken identity claim is £30 for non-national league system clubs and £50 for clubs operating at steps 5-7.
For full terms of appeals against excessive sanctions please refer to The FA Discipline Handbook 2015-2016 through http://www.westridingfa.com/fagovernance
Intention to appeal wrongful dismissal must be received within TWO working days of the fixture. Evidence must be received within FOUR working days of the original fixture date. A decision will be made no later than EIGHT working days of the original fixture. The cost of a mistaken identity claim is £30 for non-national league system clubs and £50 for clubs operating at steps 5-7.
21 Invoices/Payments Payments for all discipline cases can be made through the Whole Game System via Barclays Smartpay. To make a payment, you must first find the relevant invoice. This can be done through the ‘Club Invoices’ section of the website. Alternatively, ‘Outstanding Invoices’ will be displayed on your club dashboard. When a new invoice becomes available, you will receive a new notification:
If you open the notification you will see as below a new invoice has been created:
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You can then view this invoice by clicking your club secretary tab:
Then, select club invoices on the options on the left:
23 In the ‘Club Invoices’ section of the Whole Game System, all outstanding, pending and paid invoices will be stored and displayed for you to access at any time. To make a payment, ensure the ‘Tick to Pay’ box is selected for the invoice that you wish to pay. Then, select the blue pay box down the right hand side of the page. The payment due date is also displayed on this page, for your information.
24 In this menu, you can see any outstanding invoices as well as any paid invoices. These invoices are never removed and you will be able to see all invoices since the start of 2014/15 season:
Any invoices within the outstanding invoices require payment. You can see the payment due date for the invoice on the menu bar:
25 To make a payment, simply tick the box next to the invoice and select the blue payment box, which will take you through to BarclayCard Smartpay:
If you wish to make a part payment you can deselect certain cases/produces by unticking their line item. This will amend the total payment being made:
26 Once payment is made, the invoice will move into the “Paid Invoices” section below. You can also download an invoice before payment if you wish, or after payment as a receipt. This is done by clicking the invoice number, which will download the PDF for you.
When trying to make a payment, if you receive the following message then you will not be directed to Barclays Smartpay. This occurs because the details (DOB and home address) of the player are not currently stored in our systems. To make a payment and close the case off completely, both the payment and player details must be present. To fix this, click on the Case ID number and enter the relevant player details through the process explained on page 14.
27 Granting Access to Discipline Functions Through the club home dashboard, you can adjust the privileges of Club Officials to allow colleagues to utilise the discipline functions of the Whole Game portal, effectively allowing you to spread the workload. In the first instance, only the club secretary will have full discipline privileges available. Select ‘Club Officials’ from the left hand panel, this will open the relevant page to edit discipline permissions. Alternatively, select ‘Manage Discipline Permissions’ as circled below
Once in the correct screen, select ‘Add Official’ as circled below
28 Once you have clicked ‘Add Official’, search for the relevant official through either the FAN/DOB search or by clicking the ‘Search by Details’ tab and entering the required information. Once you have found the relevant official, ensure the box next to their FAN is ticked, select the ‘Select Role’ drop-down and then select ‘Discipline Officer’, then select a start date for the role.
To provide an individual with discipline privileges, please ensure they are given the title of ‘Discipline Officer’. They will then be able to access discipline facilities.
29 Managing Notifications Below, you can see a login page that has new notifications:
If you click the bar of the notification, you will see what this relates to. In this instance, it is a new discipline case that requires action. You may also receive notifications relating to discipline invoices being available, a new player/team suspension, late response reminders, and CRC expiry dates, amongst others:
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You then need to click the individual notification to show full information of the update. You will see “mark as read” on the right hand side. Click this for all notifications, once you have read them:
Once you have marked all notifications as read, you will see the screen below:
31 Managing Player Records As a matter of good practice, the ‘Club Players’ section of the website makes the discipline process much easier to operate. Maintaining an up-to-date list of players at the club ensures that Match Officials, when entering discipline through their section of the Whole Game System, will only have the correct players at your club open to them to assign discipline too. This avoids errors. This page will also alert you to the current suspension status of your club players. To add new players to your club players list please select the ‘Add Player’ button.
To view/update the details of players listed on your club players list, please use the link provided through the individuals FAN number. This should then allow you to update the player’s details, as explained earlier in this guide.
If you find that a player who is no longer playing at your club is still listed in this section, it is important to select ‘Detach’ from the ‘Action’ menu and set an end date for the player to be detached.
32 Searching to add a new player to your club players list can be done in two ways, either by searching using the players unique FAN ID and date of birth, or simply by using the player’s full name, along with date of birth. If you are unsure of a player’s FAN number, then please get in touch with the Governance department and we will be happy to provide it for you.
Once the correct player has been located in our systems, add them using the check box provided and press ‘Select’
If the player you require to add is not listed, then please click ‘Create New Player’. If you are not sure as to whether the required player exists in the system, please contact the Governance department before creating a new player.
33 To request a FAN to be created for a new player, complete the ‘Add Player’ using as many details as you have available for the player.
Click ‘Save’ once the form is completed to add the player to your ‘Club Player’ tab.
