FA POSITION STATEMENT  

FA Regulations prohibit competitive football until U7s.

However, It is legitimate to work with children who are u/4, u/5 and u/6 but the programmes offered to these groups needs to be age specific and not just a version of older age group provision. The focus needs therefore to be on play and technical / skills-based training games rather than matches. This in turn requires a focus on the quality, suitability and specialism of coaches working with these younger age group.

An example session for instance might involve some ABC movements and games, FA Introduction to Coaching Football Practices and a series of 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, 3v2, 3v3 games set up in a Carousel and differentiated to provide a variety of challenges for players at various stages of development. 

As a consequence any requests for games to be affiliated which involve children under the age of 6 will be rejected.