Message from Pete Ackerley

I want to provide you with an update on the situation with return to play, registrations and refunds.

We are obviously in a challenging period at the moment for British American football and sport as a whole, and the various rules across different parts of the country provide further complications.

While it’s impossible to have all the answers right now, I want to assure you that we continue to be in daily discussions with relevant authorities, including the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and we are currently investigating the possibility of adapted stages for our return to play roadmap.

As soon as there is more information to share, I will communicate with you.

2021 season and refunds
I think it’s important to stress that we are still planning to deliver a full 2021 National Leagues season for all our formats. We are investigating all possibilities to be able to do this.

I also want to assure everyone again that as part of our planning, we are factoring in the potential need for registration fee refunds if required. Should any planned competitions be cancelled or curtailed, for any of our formats, we will fully review the situation and advise any refunds due by category of membership or any other changes such as extension of membership expiry periods.

However, until the situation becomes clearer (particularly in England and what happens after 2 December) we are not in a position right now to provide specific details on refunds. I hope you can understand why this is the case, and it’s important we remain agile and continue to review the position across all three home nations that have BAFA clubs.

Registrations
Based on the above, and listening to your feedback, we want to be as flexible as possible with registrations too.

As you may be aware, we previously communicated dates for minimum numbers of players to be registered for our different competitions. We are continuing to take a flexible approach for each competition based on the current situation, and commission leads will be in touch with more information about requirements for our different competitions.

Of course it is important that when teams do return to training, players and coaches are registered in order to practice, and that’s why I would urge clubs and coaches to continue to complete the administrative actions they’ve been asked to undertake relating to documentation and qualifications – this will ensure that when practice and play is possible, we’re in the best possible shape as a sport to take advantage of that.

I would like to thank you again for your support and understanding during this period.

Pete Ackerley