Promoting positive behaviours for the 2026-27 grassroots season

This season, we will build on the successful initiatives that we have introduced in previous years, which have had a positive effect on behaviour. Our updates for the 2026-27 season aim to recognise best practice, ensure strong deterrents and sanctions are in place to tackle unacceptable behaviour, and drive a positive culture throughout grassroots football. 

They also form part of our ‘Love Football. Protect The Game’ campaign, which was introduced to enhance measures and bring in tougher sanctions across the game, so that everyone can enjoy the game in a positive and enjoyable environment.

Key updates for the 2026-27 season include:

New sanction guidelines for discrimination

We have implemented strengthened sanction guidelines for any ‘aggravated breaches’ by individual participants, with a standard suspension of at least 10 matches introduced.

An ‘aggravated breach’ is defined in FA Rule E3.2 as any misconduct that includes an express or implied reference to any one or more of the following characteristics: ethnic origin, colour, race, nationality, religion or belief, sex, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, or disability.

The full guidelines can be seen here.

Behaviour Improvement Programme

Our Behaviour Improvement Programme will continue this year following strong results in the 2025-26 season. Teams on this programme saw a 7% increase on average in ‘good’ respect scores (from 75% to 82%) as a result of their involvement.

The programme identifies teams that need support to address poor behaviour and enables County FAs to provide targeted guidance and help create more positive cultures.

This year, the programme aims to build on that progress, ensuring more teams benefit from early intervention and consistent behavioural support. The national average for good respect scores was 90.56% in 2025-26.

Positivity Champions

From the 2026-27 season, we will launch a national campaign to recognise and reward positive behaviour in grassroots clubs. With serious misconduct occurring in just 0.09% of 1.2 million total grassroots fixtures, it’s important to highlight the positive work happening every week.

Each month, following County FA nominations, a grassroots club will be selected for demonstrating exceptional good practice. This could include targeted interventions with players, coaches or spectators, or wider community impact.

Monthly winners will have the Community Shield brought to one of their matchdays or training sessions, and winners will also receive a Respect the Standard bundle from the Respect Shop.

Brand-new Behaviour Hub

From the 2026-27 season, we will relaunch the Behaviour Hub onto a new platform, giving players, officials, referees, leagues and spectators a simpler, more accessible way to find support around poor behaviour. The updated platform brings guidance, interactivity and regularly updated content together in one place, helping volunteers get the right support quickly.

The refreshed Behaviour Hub aims to help clubs address issues earlier, reduce pressure on volunteers and promote a more consistent approach to behaviour across grassroots football.

Respect Marks revamp

Respect marks are being revamped for the new season. One of the key changes is an updated set of questions that will allow users to score players, coaches and spectators separately, with each group rated from 1–5 (five being the highest).

Leagues will have improved visibility in Full Time, enabling them to see how teams within each division compare. This will support more targeted interventions, delivered in collaboration with the local County FA.

Clubs will also receive bi-monthly email updates showing their average mark and how it compares with national averages.

Respect Shop

We have partnered with Team Grassroots to launch the Respect Shop, offering resources such as A-frame boards, posters and high-visibility bibs.

The Respect Shop gives clubs and leagues easy access to FA approved materials that help promote a positive matchday environment.

They can also purchase vouchers which offer a 10% discount on the cost of Respect equipment, providing an affordable way to introduce impactful matchday resources.

Silent Support Weekend

We will deliver two national Silent Support Weekends for youth football during the season. The dates are:

• 14-15 November 2026
• 13-14 March 2027

In addition, several leagues will join a pilot during the 2026-27 season, trialling more frequent Silent Support Weekends to help identify the most effective frequency for maximising impact.

Over 1 million players took part in the most recent Silent Support Weekend in March 2026, setting a new high. 97% of participants said behaviour either improved or stayed the same, demonstrating how this initiative contributes to a positive matchday environment.

Surfacing Monthly Sanctions

Throughout the season, we will continue to publish monthly sanctions to demonstrate the firm action being taken against the small minority of participants who behave poorly on matchdays.

Sharing these sanctions provides transparency, reinforces expectations across the game, and highlights the consequences of unacceptable behaviour. It also helps reassure the grassroots community that poor conduct is being addressed consistently and decisively.

Cooling off periods

Following a successful pilot, ‘cooling off periods’ are set for a national roll out to help prevent the escalation of poor behaviour and discipline during grassroots matches. If the referee feels the game is becoming unsafe, they can pause play and send all players to their penalty areas. The referee will then meet with coaches and captains in the centre circle to discuss the issue and help calm their teams and any off-field spectators. Other players must stay in their penalty areas during the break, and anyone who leaves without permission will receive a sin bin (a 10-minute temporary dismissal from the pitch). After a short timeout, with the length determined by the referee’s judgment of the situation, the match will restart.

A maximum of two cooling-off periods may be called per match and if a third becomes necessary, the fixture will be abandoned. While all cooling-off periods must be reported directly to the league or cup sanctioning the fixture, formal FA disciplinary action will not be automatically applied as a result of the referee initiating the pause.

Fast-track process for grassroots discipline

Following feedback from the grassroots game, a fast-track process is being introduced for certain misconduct cases.

This process is designed to provide earlier clarity on sanctions and ensure the prompt resolution of cases.

Ongoing initiatives

Following a range of successful introductions over previous seasons, the following initiatives will continue in 2026-27:

Captains Only protocol

Captains Only applies across all levels of English football and means that only the team captain can approach a match official to discuss a decision after it has been made (unless the team captain is the goalkeeper, in which case a nominated outfield player will play this role). A ‘captain-only zone’ extends four metres around the referee, and only the captain can enter this space. Other players are not permitted to enter this space and will receive a caution for dissent if they do. This protocol is intended to reduce wider incidents of dissent and intimidation of match officials.

Under-18 referee armbands

All youth referees (those under the age of 18) have the option to wear a yellow armband, which signifies they are not an adult. This will add further protection to our U18 referees, serving as a visual notice to players, coaches, and spectators to treat them with an extra level of respect and patience. These armbands will be distributed to all U18 referees via their respective County FAs, and while not mandatory, we encourage those eligible to wear them.

Penalty point charges

Penalty points will continue to be attributed to teams for offences that are behaviour-based, such as violent conduct, dissent, or threatening behaviour. When a threshold of accumulated penalty points is reached, bespoke support will be provided to the club, and they will be asked to evidence steps that are being taken to tackle their poor behaviour.

Ultimately, ongoing accumulation of penalty points can lead to removal of England Football Accreditation or even the removal of a team from a competition. Last season, 15 teams either had their affiliation immediately removed or affiliation for 2026-27 was made subject to the CFA agreeing an action plan with them ahead of the start of the season.

League point deductions

Following on from the introduction of league points deductions in grassroots football in 2023, we are committed to tackling repeat offenders. Points deductions can be applied to clubs where there are repeated incidents of serious misconduct, such as discriminatory abuse from spectators.

Mandatory minimum fines for aggravated charges

A key part of our work is the continued focus on addressing the most serious of cases. These include offences aggravated by reference to a protected characteristic, threats, physical contact or assaults on match officials and player-on-player assaults. Whilst these offences only occur in 0.09% of all grassroots football annually, we know the serious impact these incidents have on those within the game.

The FA’s Director of Football Development, James Kendall said: “Promoting positive behaviour at all levels of grassroots football is of paramount importance to us and one of the key priorities outlined in our Grassroots Strategy.

“Creating safe, respectful, enjoyable and inclusive environments for players, match officials, spectators, coaches, and all others involved in the game is vital to ensuring the grassroots game continues to thrive.

“Through our proactive initiatives, we have made good progress in recent years, with incidents of serious misconduct occurring in less than 0.1% of matches and general misconduct in just 1.14%. However, we recognise there is still more to be done and, by introducing our latest initiatives for the 2026-27 season, we hope to reduce this number further and ensure that the grassroots game provides a positive experience for all.”