Suspensions

Grassroots football discipline is divided into match-based categories depending on the level of football:

Saturday • Sunday • Midweek • Representative • Veterans • School • Friendly

Suspensions for red cards must be served in the category in which they were received.  When the player misses the relevant number of games for the team they were carded for, the suspension is served.

Red card suspensions start seven days from the date of the offence, regardless of whether you have received formal notification of the suspension from the County FA. 

Suspensions for misconduct cases are from all football and may be match-based or day-based.  When the player misses the relevant number of games for the team they received the charge for - or misses the required number of days - the suspension is served.

You will be notified of the start date of a misconduct suspension when the hearing result is issued. 

Transferring suspensions across different seasons

At the end of a season, any outstanding match-based suspension is automatically carried through to the beginning of the following season. The player is therefore eligible to play in pre-season friendlies and the suspension re-starts when the team the suspension was picked up for play their first qualifying fixture of the new season. Day-based suspensions continue throughout the off-season.

If a player moves to a new day of football and is suspended for a red card, they are eligible to continue playing on the new day of football.

Where a player moves to a new club at the same level of football, playing on the same day, the suspension is transferred to the new club and the County FA need to be informed of the change.

Where a youth player moves within youth football to a new age group, playing on the same day, the suspension is transferred to the new age group.

If a player moves from from non-Step football to Step Football (and vice versa), or to a new day of the week, there is no impact on red card suspensions. 

For misconduct suspensions there are two options:

1. The FA can approve for the suspension to move to the new level of football.

2. The suspension is served based on matches the previous club play. For a match-based misconduct suspension, this means that the player is eligible to play for their new team until such time as the team they were reported for start their season, at which point the suspension is applied to all football. 

More Information

If you need any further support on this topic, please contact us via the Support Hub.

For more information about discipline in grassroots football, please visit www.Berks-BucksFA.com. Alternatively, find us on socials @berksandbucksfa for the latest news and updates.