Vol. 1, Issue 7 - Time to Relax

The summer holidays have arrived, so it is time to relax and enjoy the warm weather, and maybe cheer on the Team GB Women's Football squad as they tackle the Olympic Games!

Jul 24, 2021

Hello, and welcome to another bumper issue of the Barham FC newsletter.

We hope you are all enjoying the fine weather we have been experiencing over the last few weeks. As always, at this time of year, the club and its volunteers are working hard behind the scenes preparing for the upcoming season and getting things ready for our weekly Summer Holiday Football Fun Days.

ADULT SECTION NEWS

We have successfully enrolled the new adult squads into their respective leagues. Both the men and women will be playing at a high level, and as such, they continue with their rigorous training schedule down at the Brickfield pitches throughout the summer.

The BFC Women's team returned to training on Thursday evening following a well-earned break. Meet some of the all-new Barham Women's team. BFC Women will be playing in the South East Counties Women’s League against teams from across Surrey, Sussex and Kent, playing all of their home fixtures in Bridge.

We will introduce the Men’s team to you soon, but for now, we can tell you that the team is registered to play in the Canterbury & District Men’s Football League. We are certain that they will make us proud.

YOUTH SECTION NEWS

Some news hot-off-the-press, U13 player and long-term club member Chloe Davies was offered a trial with West Ham in June to join West Ham U14s!

Chloe booked a date for the 10th of July to take part in an hour of training and assessment. The trials went well, with Chloe giving her all competing against 40 other girls, all looking to impress. The family received an email on the 14th of July with an offer for Chloe to join West Ham's development squad starting in September. Not bad, considering that West Ham had held trials for two weeks with over 650 girls taking part.

After much deliberation, Chloe has decided not to accept the offer, opting instead to concentrate on improving a couple of areas of her game that the West Ham coaches had pointed out to her.

Chloe is determined to improve herself over the coming months and will look for trials with clubs that are a bit more local - as long as they allow her to carry on playing with her friends and teammates at Barham, that is.

BEARS - U15

Calling all Bears! Can you let us know what you would like from Barham FC regarding football for the upcoming season? You will know that Tony is sadly no longer part of the club, so we are connecting with members, old and new, to see what interest there is for various options. We are aware that some of you will be under more pressure at school, with most going into year 11, so we want to ensure that the club provides what would be most appropriate for members.

The options we are investigating are:-

Entering a team for the East Kent Youth League. The Bears were runners-up in their division last season - an outstanding achievement. We will be collecting the medals and will get them to the team. We still have time to get a U16 team entered if we have sufficient interest ASAP. Would you please reply by the 1st of August if you would like this option?
Resuming weekly training sessions with the occasional friendly arranged but no weekly requirement to field 11 players.
Weekly football sessions having a fitness/social orientation, with some sessions potentially even taking place indoors.

It would be great to hear from you about what kind of sessions you and your friends may like to attend, and when suits you best to do this. Please drop Katrina a line at katrina@barhamfc.com to discuss these options further.

FOOTBALL KIT RETURNS - URGENT

We are now in the process of topping up and replacing some of our older youth football kits. Would you please arrange to return any playing kits that you have been issued to your coach or a committee member ASAP? Once we have all of the kits back in the office, we can see what needs to be replaced and what can be recycled to other teams ahead of the new season. Rest assured, we will endeavour to make sure that each player has their own kits for the entire season. These will be distributed ahead of the first round of fixtures. Please email Michael at coaching@barhamfc.com to arrange kit drop off.

REMEMBER THAT ALL YOUTH TRAINING SESSIONS ARE ON A BREAK UNTIL SUNDAY THE 22ND OF AUGUST 2021

Details of our Summer Fun Days are available by clicking here. Places are still available, so book soon to avoid disappointment. We have received many booking forms already, but please remember to book & pay in advance where possible; this will speed up proceedings on the day.

VOLUNTEERS

As always, we’re on the lookout for volunteers to help run the club. We all have busy lives, and finding the time to help out with a community project like ours isn’t easy. We want to recruit volunteer coaches, first aiders, team helpers, grounds maintenance assistants and administrative assistants. Full training is provided, either in-house or via Kent FA. Even if you can spare a couple of hours per week, it would help the club immensely, so please, get in touch with Katrina (CWO) if you can help.

MEMBERSHIP

Adult membership forms are available to download by clicking this link. Please complete and return your forms as soon as possible? Without your details or your subs, you won’t be able to play.

Youth membership forms are available to download by clicking here.

Can you complete and return your form ASAP? Our bank details are at the bottom of the paperwork, and at the bottom of this email. Copies of our Club Rules and Codes of Conduct are also available on our website. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with those essential documents before the start of the season. Talk to your coach or our Club Welfare Officer (Katrina) if you have any queries?

Every one of our members must be registered with the FA. Next season we will move across to using the FA Match Day app and the FA Full-Time admin systems. ALL of our members and parents/carers must have a FAN number linked to their child. It is up to you to log in and fully update all of your details. Without completing these details correctly, you will not take part in league football or training. Firstly it is a welfare requirement; secondly, it is an insurance requirement; and lastly, it is an administrative requirement.

The following is everything that you need to get yourself set up. All members, youth and adults, require this. If you have duplicate FAN numbers, please contact the FA directly and request that the data be merged and corrected. Unfortunately, we cannot do this for you!

REGISTER WITH THE FA - FAN NUMBER

Here is how to get a FAN number.

An FA Number (FAN) is a unique identification number that holds all your details and qualifications on the FA administration system. You will use your FA Number to log in to book courses online, log into the FA Whole Game System, register as a player for leagues that use the FA Whole Game System, and register as officers/coaches of clubs and leagues.

Getting a FAN Number is simple.

Visit the FA registration webpage by clicking on this link.

It is best if you use a mobile telephone number for your contact phone number – if you are the manager/coach of a team, your league may well send you text messages to report/record scores in matches. However, if you use a landline telephone number, the league will not send you text messages.

Fill out the form with the required information and press submit details.

Your FA FAN number is generated by the system and emailed to your entered email address. Make sure your email address is correct; otherwise, the system will not be able to send your FAN Number to you.

You should keep a record of your FAN as well as the related email address and telephone number. These details are often also asked for as an additional security measure when using your FAN Number.

To update your contact details, if they change after getting your FAN Number, click on this Retrieve Information link and enter your new information.

DUPLICATE FAN NUMBERS

There may be times when a new FAN is created by you or for you even though you already have an existing FAN.

If you think that this has happened to you and resulted in you having more than one FAN, please get in touch with MyAccount@TheFA.com. Within your email, please include the following information so that any duplicate accounts can be merged, ensuring all qualifications are recorded under one FAN record:

Name
FANs that you aware that you hold
Date of birth
Correct email address
Full current postal address
Any old email and postal addresses that may be linked to old FANs

If you no longer have access to the email address used when you originally signed up for your FAN number, please follow the instructions below to help you gain access again.

If you know the password linked to your FAN, please visit https://myaccount.thefa.com, where you will be able to change your email address.

To do this, click on 'Sign in using FAN', where you will be re-directed to log in with your FAN and password. Once logged in, you will be able to change your email address. If you do not know your FAN, click on 'I don't know my FAN'.

You will then be asked to enter the required details, after which the system will show you part of the email address that you have registered, which you can then use to log in. If you do not know your password, click on Forgotten password? You will be sent an email to reset the password.

If you do not have access to that email address and cannot remember the password, please DO NOT create a new FAN. Instead, contact the My Account team (select PFF - My Account as the group).

THE FA MATCHDAY APP

The FA’s official Matchday app has been developed specifically to automate everything around your football life, and we are now using this excellent service.

Who’s in the team? Who are the opponents? Where’s the game? When’s kick-off? Is anyone currently suspended? With Matchday, all the answers are instantly available at your fingertips.

And it’s all in a safe and secure environment, backed by The FA. It also has up-to-date, comprehensive information on players, clubs, fixtures and leagues.

It’s often said that time is our most precious commodity. So the main aim of Matchday is to save you time, so you can confidently enjoy the game you love, knowing your football life is sorted. Oh, and we forgot to tell you – it’s free!

With Matchday, all the answers are instantly available at your fingertips. And there are lots more benefits:

Make yourself available and know immediately you’re picked;
View all future fixtures;
Stay across all past stats;
Keep an eye on the tables, fixtures, results and scorers;

To download the Matchday app, head to your app store and search 'Matchday'.

Players/Parents - Checking If You Can Sign In

You can always check if you can log in to Matchday by attempting to log in to myaccount.thefa.com. Enter in your email and password and click sign in.

The app will then take you to your My Account page, which gives you lots of information about your FA data, including your name, DOB and all the teams you have given consent to.

For Parents/Guardians: you will be able to see all of your linked children on the My Account page, as well as all of the consent you've given to thee club. If you cannot see your child/ren on this page you need to ask the club to link you and that child together.

If you can sign in to My Account, then, as long as we have added you to a team correctly and you see the club in the consent section, you will sign into Matchday with the same login details.

Players/Parents - Unable to Sign In

You may try to sign in to the Matchday app or myaccount.thefa.com and receive this error message:

As explained, please do visit grassrootstechnology .thefa.com or the myaccount.thefa.com page and click 'Sign in Using FAN'.

This will then take you through a process that will claim your FAN and email and make it unique to no longer duplicate accounts that share your email. A full breakdown of this process is here.

You can even access the 'Sign In Using FAN' flow directly from the app. Just select the corresponding option, and it'll take you through the same flow as you can access from nearly every FA login.

Please note, we will not be using the PayPal payments function.

BARHAM FC TEAM’S PHOTOSHOOT

A date for your diary, we want all club members that will be playing league football next season to join us at The Bear Trap on Saturday the 28th of August at 4 PM (not 6 PM as previously advertised). We will be taking photos of all of the teams in their playing kits. We will publish further details later in the summer.

BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS - SUBS & FUN DAY PAYMENTS

Diane (our Treasurer) has asked for the club bank account details to be added to this issue of the newsletter. We ask that, where possible, all subs and fun day payments are made via direct bank transfer using internet banking, banking apps or telephone banking. Please use the member/player name as the banking reference?

ACCOUNT NAME: BARHAM FC

SORT CODE: 23-05-80

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 27711812

That’s all for now, so please action as much of the items mentioned in this email as soon as possible. In the meantime, have a great summer.

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