The FA Group Privacy Policy

Welcome to The Football Association (“The FA”, “us” or “we”) privacy policy.

Key Updates to Our Privacy Policy – 5 March 2026

We updated our Privacy Policy on 5 March 2026 to provide clearer information about how we handle personal data. The main updates are:

• More transparency about third-party data – We’ve added more detail on when we may receive personal data from third parties and the types of organisations involved.

• Clearer explanations of how we use personal data – We’ve expanded some sections to explain how data may be used in specific situations, such as CCTV use or disciplinary processes.

• New section on marketing and social media advertising (opt-ins only) – We’ve added information about how personal data may be used for marketing and social media advertising, where individuals have chosen to opt-in.

OVERVIEW

This policy will inform you about how The FA collects and uses your personal data.

It applies to personal data provided to us, both by you and by third parties and supplements any other privacy policies provided by The FA which may apply.

ABOUT US

The Football Association Limited (a company with registered office address at Wembley Stadium, Wembley, London, HA9 0WS and incorporated under company number 00077797) is a “Controller” of your personal data, which makes us legally responsible for the personal data we collect and hold about you.

As a Controller, it’s our responsibility to tell you about the different ways we use your personal data and how we will protect it. For example, what information we collect (and our legal basis for doing so), why we collect it, where we collect it from and whether (and with whom) we will share it. We also need to tell you about your rights in relation to your personal data. This policy should be read in conjunction with any other privacy notices you are given from time-to-time by The FA relevant to any specific data collection.

WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU PROVIDE TO US?

The terms “personal data” or “personal information” are used to describe any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you in order to communicate with you, or to provide you with services or information. We may also collect data about you as part of your role in football. Depending on the nature your relationship with us, this may include:

CATEGORY OF DATA	TYPE OF DATA
Identity Data	such as your first and last name, data of birth and gender;
Contact Data	such as your billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone number(s);
Profile Data	such as your FAN number and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests, marketing preferences, feedback and survey responses;
Image Data	such as a photograph or video you are featured in;
Financial Data	such as your bank account and payment card details;
Football Data	such as your football club, your role within a club and performance data;
Discipline Data	such as intelligence or evidence gathered about integrity or disciplinary matters, internal records of decisions and written reasons in respect of disciplinary matters;
Health Data	such as medical conditions, injuries, allergies and medical records;
Safeguarding Data	such as completion of mandatory or recommended checks or training, including DBS checks and any safeguarding investigations that may have been conducted;
Education Data	such as your coaching/refereeing qualifications and courses you have taken;
ED&I Data	such as your ethnicity, your religion and your sexual orientation (we call this equality, diversity and inclusion data); and/ or
Technical Data	such as your internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and information about how you use our website, products and services.

In the event that you choose to provide us with unsolicited personal data, this personal data will be handled with the same care as any other personal data we process and in accordance with data protection legislation as laid out in this notice.

We will also collect personal information about website usage through cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA AND WHERE WE OBTAIN IT FROM

We will only use your personal data to the extent which is permitted by law. The drop-downs below show some examples of how might use your personal data, and how we have a lawful basis for those uses. We may also receive data from third parties to support us in any of these activities, with specific examples included below.

- General

We will only use your personal data to the extent which is permitted by law. The tables below show some examples of how might use your personal data, and how we have a lawful basis for those uses:

Use	Lawful bases
To help you with your enquiry or request or to communicate with you.	Performance of a contract and legitimate interest.
To carry out The FA’s governance and disciplinary role in enforcing The FA’s rules and regulations.	Legitimate interest (to ensure participants’ compliance with our rules and regulations).
To manage the relationship with our suppliers and partners.	Performance of a contract, legitimate interest (as it’s necessary to ensure our suppliers and partners carry out their tasks appropriately).
To enable your organisation to receive FA accreditation.	Legitimate interest (to ensure individuals are protected from harm and to increase participation in football).
To comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.	Legal obligation.
To enable us to provide you with a product, facility, promotion or service we offer. This may also include receiving information from third parties to support these purposes. For example, we sometimes receive relevant information from third party ticketing sites, such as Ticketmaster, to manage your purchases. We may also obtain information about you from third party demographics providers, which we may use to help us better understand our users and send them appropriate offers and information.	Performance of a contract and legitimate interest.
To process feedback and improve our services.	Legitimate interest (to develop and improve our services).
To manage and improve the web system and troubleshoot problems.	Legitimate interest (to protect and improve the running of The FA, our IT services and network security).
For the purpose which we explain at the time, on other occasions where we ask for consent.	Consent.
In response to requests by legal advisers, government or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation.	Legal obligation and legitimate interest.
For monitoring of our stadium and events and to ensure your safety, we will carry out CCTV and body-worn camera monitoring. We may also receive information from the police and other intelligence providers on individuals who are banned from attending football matches, or who might otherwise pose a risk.	Legitimate interests
If you share information about a matter or incident that may involve a breach of FA rules and regulations, your identity and any evidence you provide may be used during our investigation and in any subsequent proceedings.	Legitimate interests

- Participant in Grassroots Football

This section applies to you if you are involved in grassroots football (i.e. the non-pro game) as a player, manager, coach, relative, intermediary, match official, owner, director or any other individual who may be subject to The FA’s rules and regulations in a grassroots football context from time to time.

Use	Lawful bases
To administer the registration of various Participants, and to administer and manage FA competitions in which you are participating, including individual and team awards. We may receive information from third parties such as club officials, your existing and previous clubs, leagues and other governing bodies.	Legitimate interest (carry out our role as the governing body of English football).
To enforce The FA’s rules and regulations, including carrying out appropriate investigations into possible breaches of our rules and sharing information with relevant third parties as necessary and described below. We will receive information from witnesses and from other individuals involved in any relevant incident.	Legitimate interest (carry out our disciplinary role as the governing body of English football, maintain intelligence in respect of integrity matters).
Publishing our decisions in appropriate disciplinary cases and sharing information and decisions with others such as leagues, clubs and County FAs.	Legitimate interest (carry out our role as the governing body of English football, ensuring transparency in accordance with our rules and regulations and to ensure suspensions are upheld).
Using information such as photos and footage collected in our competitions and at other events.	Legitimate interest (promote The FA and football in England) and consent (where indicated).
To carry out appropriate research (e.g. the views of Participants in the game).	Legitimate interest (to develop and improve football in England) and consent in respect of any special-category data.
In connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory and investigative purposes as necessary (including disclosure of such information in connection with legal processes or litigation or to other relevant regulators, such as the Gambling Commission or other governing bodies, law enforcement bodies or to clubs and other employers where appropriate).	Legitimate interest (to bring or defend legal claims). Comply with a legal obligation.
To carry out appropriate monitoring of equal opportunity and analysis of participation in the game.	Consent.

- Participant in Professional Football

This section applies to you if you are involved in professional football as a player, manager, coach, match official, owner, director, intermediary or any other individual who may be subject to The FA’s rules and regulations in a pro-game football context from time to time. Please note: this section does not apply to a role you may have with the England National Team, where a separate and specific policy will be provided if you are selected.

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To administer the registration of various Participants, and to administer and manage FA competitions in which you are participating (such as The FA Cup), including individual and team awards. We may receive information from third parties such as club officials, your existing and previous clubs, leagues and other governing bodies.	Legitimate interest (carry out our role as the governing body of English football, run our competitions).
To enforce The FA’s rules and regulations, including carrying out appropriate investigations into possible breaches of our rules and sharing information with relevant third parties as necessary and described below. We will receive information from witnesses and from other individuals involved in any relevant incident. We will involve your club and often your league as a matter of course. As part of our integrity activities, we also actively gather intelligence from relevant sources, such as betting providers, other governing bodies, the Gambling Commission, the media and members of the public. Where you choose to involve a third party, for example, the PFA, LMA, other trade union representative, lawyer or relative, we will receive and share data with this person.	Legitimate interest (carry out our disciplinary role as the governing body of English football, maintain intelligence in respect of integrity matters).
Publishing our decisions in appropriate disciplinary cases and sharing information and decisions with others such as leagues, clubs and other governing bodies (such as UEFA).	Legitimate interest (carry out our role as the governing body of English football, ensuring transparency in accordance with our rules and regulations and to ensure suspensions are upheld).
Using information such as photos and footage collected in our competitions and at other events, including the broadcasting of competitions.	Legitimate interest (promote The FA, our competitions and football in England).
To carry out appropriate research (e.g. the views of Participants in the game).	Legitimate interest (to develop and improve football in England) and consent in respect of any special-category data.
In connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory and investigative purposes as necessary (including disclosure of such information in connection with legal processes or litigation or to other relevant regulators, such as the Gambling Commission or other governing bodies, law enforcement bodies or to clubs and other employers where appropriate).	Legitimate interest (to bring or defend legal claims). Comply with a legal obligation.
We will maintain footage, images, records of results and on-field conduct.	Legitimate interest (maintaining a record and history of the game).
To carry out appropriate monitoring of equal opportunity and analysis of participation in the game.	Consent.
Where you are a player eligible for an England national team, we may carry our talent identification activities where we monitor your progress and potential for international call-up. This might include receiving data from third-party data and analytics providers.	Legitimate interest.

- Intermediaries

This section describes how The FA will make use of your data when registering and regulating intermediaries in English football. Please note that the Participant sections (as relevant) above will also apply, as well as the Safeguarding section when you interact with young players.

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To communicate with you or about you where necessary, including advising you of renewals and informing clubs of registered status.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game and enforce The FA’s rules and regulations).
To administer the systems holding intermediary data, including WGS and IMS.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game).
To enforce The FA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries, including the processing of criminal offences and potentially sensitive data provided by you or by GB Group.	Legitimate interest (to protect the integrity of the game and maintain appropriate standards of behaviour).
To publish details of registered intermediaries as required by The FA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game and enforce The FA’s rules and regulations).
To act as a clearing house for payments to intermediaries, and processing payments due to you as a result of your involvement in a player’s transfer.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game).
As part of your registration and involvement in transfers, information may be shared between The FA, Clubs, leagues (e.g. EPL and EFL), UEFA, FIFA and other governing bodies.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game).
In response to requests by government or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation.	Legal obligation and legitimate interest.
In order to meet requirements to ensure the safeguarding of young people through carrying out enhanced DBS checks, which may include the processing of criminal offence data.	Legal obligation and legitimate interest.

- Match Officials

This section applies to you in your role as a match official when interacting with The FA and its systems. Please note that the Participant sections above (as relevant) will also apply, as well as the Safeguarding section when you interact with young players.

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To administer the game by collecting information on your qualifications, officiating preferences, availability and contact details.	Legitimate interest.
To administer and assess the fitness, competence and performance of match officials, making decisions on progression and providing appropriate training and coaching to improve match official performance, including sharing and receiving that data with third-parties (where necessary), such as PGMOL, County FAs, leagues, clubs and other governing bodies.	Legitimate interest (to administer and improve the game, carrying out our role as a governing body) Where that includes health data, where processing is necessary for the assessment of working capacity of referees.
To maintain records of the game as regulated by The FA, in particular details of discipline and misconduct in games you officiate and report on, and which matches you have officiated in.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game and enforce The FA’s rules and regulations).
To monitor use of Whole Game System, Platform For Football and investigate any complaints received from you or from others about either system.	Legitimate interest (to improve and protect The FA’s content, services and sites).
To communicate with you to ask for your opinion on FA initiatives.	Legitimate interest (to develop and improve football in England).
In response to requests by government or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation.	Legal obligation and legitimate interest.
To fulfil a contract in which you have entered, or process payment for registration.	Legitimate interests (to administer the game), Performance of a contract.

- Directors and Owners

This section describes how The FA will make use of your data when you submit an owners’ and directors’ test declaration. Please note that the Participant sections above (as relevant) will also apply, as well as the Safeguarding section when you interact with young players.

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To carry out an owners’ and directors’ test on you and in order to keep a register of Officers at a particular Club. The owners’ and directors’ test is carried out to establish an individual’s suitability to act as an Officer (as defined in The FA’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test Regulations) of a Club (as defined in The FA’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test Regulations). Where relevant, we may receive information from third-parties when conducting the Test.	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, conduct our business and carry out our role as the governing body of English football).
To respond to any comments or complaints you may send us.	Legitimate interest (to conduct our business and carry out our role as the governing body of English football).
To investigate any complaints received from you or from others about you.	Legitimate interest (to conduct our business and carry out our role as the governing body of English football).
To ensure compliance with applicable league and FA rules by sharing data with clubs, leagues (e.g. EPL and EFL) and other relevant third parties as necessary.	Legitimate interest (to conduct our business and carry out our role as the governing body of English football).
In response to requests by government or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation.	Legal obligation and legitimate interest.

- Research and Survey Participants

This policy describes how The Football Association Limited and other companies in The FA’s group (also referred to as "The FA", "we" or "us") will make use of your data when you respond to one of our surveys.

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To provide customer services and arrange the delivery or other provision of products, prizes or services.	Legitimate interest (to improve our services and the game of football in England).
To assemble focus groups.	Legitimate interest (to improve our services and the game of football in England).
To conduct analysis (including socio-demographic), obtain insights and segment our fans and participants based on their responses and interactions with us.	Legitimate interest (to improve our services and the game of football in England). Consent where special category data is provided.
To help us monitor, improve and protect our products, content, services and websites, both online and offline.	Legitimate interest (to improve our services and the game of football in England).
We may use data from some individuals to invite them to participate in further research so we can improve our product experience.	Legitimate interest (to improve our services and the game of football in England) and/or consent
Where you give us consent, we will send you direct marketing in relation to our relevant products and services, or other products and services provided by us, our affiliates and carefully selected partners.	Consent.

- Safeguarding

This section describes how The FA will make use of your data when you have been or are involved in grassroots and professional football in any capacity – whether as a child, adult at risk, their parent or carers or as someone who interacts with such individuals – in order to carry out its Safeguarding and Child Welfare functions.

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To administer its systems holding safeguarding data, e.g. Whole Game System which holds details of which individuals have a current DBS check in place.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game and implement The FA’s Safeguarding and Child Welfare Policies, and relevant regulations in place to ensure the welfare of children and individuals at risk).
To collect, share and retain evidence and intelligence in relation to safeguarding and enforcing applicable FA rules and regulations regarding safeguarding, including the processing of criminal offence and potentially sensitive data provided by you or by First Advantage Europe Limited. We may retain details of allegations as intelligence or to detect patterns of behaviour, even if we decide that further action is not warranted in the circumstances.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game and implement The FA’s Safeguarding and Child Welfare Policies, and relevant regulations in place to ensure the welfare of children and individuals at risk, to prevent and detect unlawful activity). For criminal offence data, where processing is necessary to safeguard children and individuals at risk.
Information may also be obtained from third parties who report alleged behaviour of concern or harm that involves you (either as an alleged victim or alleged perpetrator or witness). This can arrive from a wide range of third parties, such as County FAs, Local Education Authorities, the police, charities like the NSPCC, ChildLine and directly from other participants in football. We may retain details of allegations as intelligence or to detect patterns of behaviour, even if we decide that further action is not warranted in the circumstances.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game and implement The FA’s Safeguarding and Child Welfare Policies, and relevant regulations in place to ensure the welfare of children and individuals at risk, to prevent and detect unlawful activity). For criminal offence data, where processing is necessary to safeguard children and individuals at risk.
Information may be passed to First Advantage Europe Limited, leagues, clubs, County FAs, Local Education Authorities, charities such as the NSPCC, the police and other sports governing bodies, or any other relevant third party, including legal advisers, where this is necessary and appropriate to ensure that The FA meets its safeguarding obligations.	Legitimate interest (to administer the game and implement The FA’s Safeguarding and Child Welfare Policies, and relevant regulations in place to ensure the welfare of children and individuals at risk, to prevent and detect unlawful activity). For criminal offence data, where processing is necessary to safeguard children and individuals at risk. Legal obligation.
To ensure that enhanced DBS checks are conducted where individuals will interact with children or adults at risk. Information is obtained through DBS checks for individuals who have been or are involved in grassroots and professional football in any capacity where this is relevant for their role. This involves the use of First Advantage Europe Limited, which is an umbrella organisation contracted by The FA to carry out DBS checks. The content of a disclosure certificate obtained from a check is shared both with The FA and with County FAs where relevant.	Legal obligation and legitimate interest. For criminal offence data, where processing is necessary to safeguard children and individuals at risk.

- Education

This section describes how The FA will make use of your data when collected on The FA’s educational administration systems. This section will apply to you if you have booked onto an FA educational course (e.g. a coaching course).

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To process your application and ensure the eligibility of course attendees, which may include special-category data related to racial and ethnic origin. This may also include the receipt of and provision of limited amounts of sensitive data in relation to attendees with any learning difficulties or attendees with disabilities.	Legitimate interest (to administer the educational courses). Consent for any special-category personal data requested or provided.
To communicate with you where necessary, including about other education courses that may benefit your learning.	Legitimate interest (to administer the educational courses and provide you with support). Consent.
To administer and assess the performance of course attendees, make decisions on progression and provide appropriate training and courses to improve performance. Depending on the course you undertake, information may be shared between The FA, County FAs and/or your club in order to facilitate your learning. Data may also be shared with 1st4Sport Qualifications, your tutors, other associations and other relevant partners including, without limitation, parents and clubs. Further, in the case of the Level 5 medical course, your information is shared with the Royal College of Surgeons.	Legitimate interest (to administer the educational courses and provide you with support).
To maintain records of the courses undertaken and qualifications gained.	Legitimate interest (to administer the educational courses and carry out The FA’s role as the governing body of English football).
To check the validity of your credit card details you submit through a third party.	Legitimate interest (to prevent fraud).
To ensure compliance with any league rules on education requirements.	Legitimate interest (to comply with the FA Handbook and County FA rules and regulations on education requirements).
To monitor and increase diversity among coaches in England, including through analysis of the effectiveness of our bursary schemes and wider Grassroots diversity strategies	Legitimate interest (to improve The FA’s or a County FA’s services and the game of football in England). Consent for any special-category personal data requested or provided.
To monitor use of The FA’s web-based educational administration systems, and use your data to help monitor and investigate any complaints received from you or from others about how the systems have been used.	Legitimate interest (to improve and protect FA content).
To communicate with you to ask for your opinion on FA or County FA initiatives.	Legitimate interest (to improve The FA’s or a County FA’s services and the game of football in England).

- Anti-Doping

This section describes how The FA will make use of your data that it has collected under its Anti-Doping Regulations and Social Drugs Regulations. In the case of the Anti-Doping Regulations, The FA is a joint-controller with UKAD which carries out testing and sample analysis, and which is the national anti-doping organisation. A summary of how UKAD use your data is set out below, and more detail is given in UKAD’s own privacy policies (available on doping control forms and on UKAD’s website).

The FA’s Whereabouts system collects information in relation to a number of different types of participant. If you are a club official or FASO, you can find a specific privacy policy on the Whereabouts system that describes The FA’s use of your data.

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To communicate with you or about you where necessary to administer the game and enforce The FA’s Anti-Doping Regulations and Social Drug Regulations, including informing you and your club of any positive test and responding to any questions you send to the Anti-Doping Team.	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, enforce our rules and regulations and carry out our role as the governing body of English football and UKAD’s function as the UK NADO).
To maintain intelligence we receive on Players and Player Support Personnel to assist UKAD/The FA carry out intelligence led testing. We will receive intelligence on doping matters from UKAD, from the media, from members of the public, the police and other third parties such as other governing bodies, leagues or competition organisers.	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, enforce our rules and regulations and carry out our role as the governing body of English football and UKAD’s function as the UK NADO).
To carry out and enforce The FA’s Anti-Doping Regulations and Social Drug Regulations, including sharing and/or receiving relevant data from UKAD, WADA, FIFA, The FA’s social drug testing provider and other relevant third parties. Where you undertake an evaluation by Sporting Chance under the Social Drugs Regulations, we will also receive information from Sporting Chance. We will receive information on your whereabouts from your club (unless you contradict this information) and we will liaise with your club in the event of a positive test. UKAD may provide us with details of any approved Therapeutic Use Exemption that you have.	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, enforce our rules and regulations and carry out our role as the governing body of English football and UKAD’s function as the UK NADO).
To maintain records of educational activity for Players/Player Support Personnel which may be shared with UKAD, UEFA and any other relevant third party.	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, enforce our rules and regulations and carry out our role as the governing body of English football and UKAD’s function as the UK NADO).
To maintain records of The FA’s anti-doping/social drug testing missions and test outcomes. This information may be shared with your current club.	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, enforce our rules and regulations and carry out our role as the governing body of English football and UKAD’s function as the UK NADO).
To maintain records of players who have failed to adhere to their whereabouts requirements under the Anti-Doping Regulations e.g. missed test strikes. This information may be shared with your current club.	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, enforce our rules and regulations and carry out our role as the governing body of English football)
To provide your details to a specialist in drug misuse and addiction where you have agreed to submit to an assessment and evaluation (where failure to agree to an assessment and evaluation may result in a charge under our Social Drugs Regulations).	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, enforce our rules and regulations and carry out our role as the governing body of English football and UKAD’s function as the UK NADO).
To publish our decisions in anti-doping and social drug cases in accordance with and for the purposes set out in our Anti-Doping Regulations and Social Drugs Regulations respectively.	Legitimate interest (to ensure the integrity of the game is upheld, enforce our rules and regulations and carry out our role as the governing body of English football and UKAD’s function as the UK NADO).
In response to requests by government or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation.	Legal obligation and legitimate interest.
Where you have given your consent, we may share and receive information from other third parties you wish to involve in any investigation or charge, such as the PFA, an expert witness, a lawyer or relative.	Consent.
All of the above purposes may require the processing of special-category personal data as an inherent element of enforcing the Anti-Doping Regulations and Social Drugs Regulations.	Substantial public interest, namely eliminating doping in sport and, in the case of social drugs testing, protecting the integrity of the game.

- Marketing and Social Media

USE	LAWFUL BASES
To provide you with marketing communications, including partner offers, where you have opted in or otherwise given your consent.	Consent.
When you engage with us on social media, we may use your personal data to monitor engagement and send you information about FA offers and initiatives that may be of interest to you. Where you’re opted in to FA marketing, we may also share limited identifiers (such as your email address) with social media platforms so they can match you to their users and help us deliver relevant advertising to you. Where you have consented, we may also receive information about you from social media platforms. You can opt-out of any of the above at any time, by contacting us or updating your preferences in your FA account settings.	Consent and/or legitimate interests.
App Tracking (iOS and Android): If you use our mobile app, we may use third-party advertising and analytics technologies to help us deliver relevant ads and measure campaign performance across other companies’ apps and websites. Where required, we will ask for your permission before we use these technologies for tracking. On iOS, this is managed through Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework. You can change your advertising and tracking preferences at any time in your device settings.	Consent and/or legitimate interests.

HOW DO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION?

We might have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for some of the purposes outlined in the section above:

• Online payments: if you decide to make online payments to The FA, some information will be disclosed to The FA’s service provider for validation purposes.

• External third-party service providers: there may be times when external organisations use your personal information as part of providing a service to us or as part of checking the quality of our service, such as our auditors

• Sponsors: we may share personal data with our sponsors, for promotional purposes, or to administer a particular campaign or project with a partner

• Football bodies: we may share personal data with other governing bodies (such as FIFA or UEFA), County FAs, clubs and/or leagues where necessary for any of the purposes set out above

• Sporting bodies, gambling operators and regulators: we may share personal data with these bodies to uphold our rules and regulations, their rules and regulations, and for safeguarding purposes. This could include UKAD, the Gambling Commission, governing bodies in other sports

• Law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies: we may share personal data where required by law or on the request of the police or another relevant authority in circumstances where we consider it necessary to share the information (e.g. to assist a criminal investigation or where you or someone else is at risk of harm).

We may also receive requests from third parties requesting the disclosure of personal data. We will only fulfil such requests where we are permitted to do so in accordance with applicable law or regulation.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes (unless you have provided your consent) – we only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

WHAT ABOUT INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS?

Occasionally we may transfer personal data outside the UK where necessary to provide you with a service or to fulfil one of our functions. Whenever we do this, we will ensure that the transfer is compliant with UK data protection laws and that your personal data is treated securely and transferred via a legally approved mechanism. In the case of transfers to UEFA and FIFA, personal data is transferred to a country considered to adequately protect personal data under a UK adequacy decision.

A copy of the relevant transfer mechanism can be provided for your review on request by contacting us using the details set out below.

HOW WILL WE PROTECT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU?

We take the protection of your privacy extremely seriously and do our utmost to ensure that our security systems are able to protect your personal data. Data protection laws require us to ensure that we have effective security procedures in place regarding the storage and disclosure of personal data to guard against unauthorised loss or access.

Your data is protected by industry-standard security and procedures to protect it from unauthorised misuse and loss. We have an established set of protocols to respond to suspected personal data breaches and will notify you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (or any other applicable regulator) of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN YOUR DATA FOR?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary for the purpose we collected it for, or where we’re required to keep it for any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. We retain your personal data as follows:

CATEGORY	DURATION
General policy	As long as you are an active user of our sites and for 5 seasons after this. For recorded calls, we hold this for six months from the date of the call, unless we extract information from calls to provide evidence in relation to any membership disputes or complaints in which case this is held for 5 years from the date it is extracted. We hold information relating to visitors to our venues for one (1) month.
Participant Data	Disciplinary information (including referee reports) reviewed every 7 years to consider justification for continued retention. Data relating to serious cases, or where you have a continued role in football, may be held indefinitely to ensure this data is retained should you return to football. Decisions taken on charges and cases for 5 full seasons following the decision, unless any ban or suspension imposed is longer than this period. Information related to anti-doping matters reviewed every 7 years to consider justification for continued retention. Information relating to a negative test will be retained for 11 seasons (beginning with the season after the season in which the negative test occurs). Information, statistics images and footage of matches will be retained indefinitely to keep a record of the match.
Intermediary Data	The FA retains all information relating to intermediaries for as long as you remain registered as an intermediary. The FA will also retain information after your registration lapses or is rejected for a minimum of 5 full seasons, or in accordance with the retention period for the reason of rejection (e.g. safeguarding retention periods apply to removal for safeguarding reasons).
Image Data	4 years from the date of the image, or longer as indicated. For CCTV footage, we hold this for one (1) month, unless we have been asked to extract footage, in which case this is held for 10 years from the date it is extracted. Footage and images captured during an FA competition, such as The FA Cup), maybe retained indefinitely for historical records of the match.
Safeguarding Data	In accordance with NSPCC guidelines, as there is no normal retirement age to be involved in football, safeguarding concerns are retained indefinitely.
Education Data	As long as you are enrolled on a course and for 7 years after this. Details of qualifications gained are retained indefinitely.
Match Official Data	Information relating to inactive officials (i.e. not registered for 2 seasons) will be removed after 5 seasons. Information about a match official's appointments, fitness tests and performance during appointments will be held for a minimum of 7 seasons. Information about discipline you have administered, and the fact of your appointment, may be held indefinitely in order to maintain a record of the game.
Research	3 years from the date we end the relevant survey.

Where your data is held on FA systems, then at the end of the retention periods set out above, we will not irrevocably delete your information for another 3 months – your data will be held in an inactive form for this time to ensure that any consequential links across our systems remain intact in the event that your data is removed in a particular location.

WHAT RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE IN RELATION TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

Under certain circumstances, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

Right	What does this mean?
1	A right to access the personal data we hold about you (known as a "data subject access request").
2	A right to request that we rectify any inaccurate personal data we hold about you. This right is qualified and we will need to verify the accuracy of any new data you provide.
3	A right to request that we erase personal data we hold about you where we no longer need to process it. This right will only apply where, for example, we no longer need the personal data we collected; or where we collected data based on your consent and you withdraw that consent. Please note: we may not be able to comply with your request for legal reasons. Where these apply, we will explain them to you when we respond to your request.
4	A right to restrict processing of personal data we hold about you. This right allows you to limit the way that we use your data and is an alternative to requesting the erasure of your data. You have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data for a particular reason. This may be where you have issues with the content of the information we hold or how we have processed your data. In most cases we will not be required to restrict our processing of your personal data indefinitely, but will need to have the restriction in place for a certain period of time. If there are legal reasons that mean we can’t comply, we will explain them to you when we respond to your request.
5	A right to receive personal data you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format. You can also require us to transfer this personal data to another organisation.
6	A right to object to our processing of personal data we hold, which applies when we use your data for marketing, or where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party), and you object as you feel it impacts on your rights and freedoms. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have legitimate grounds to continue processing your data which override your rights and freedoms.
7	A right to withdraw your consent, where we are relying on it to use your personal data. We will advise you if withdrawal of consent means that we are unable to provide certain services to you.
8	A right to ask us not to make automated decisions about you.

HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US?

If you wish to make a request, you can do so via our online form, which can be found here. If you have any questions or queries about how we process your data, you can get in touch at dataprotection@thefa.com or by writing to: Data Protection Officer, Wembley Stadium, PO Box 1966, London, SW1P 9EQ.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office and details can be found here. The ICO recommend that you should first discuss any concerns with the organisation before going to them, so please do contact us in the first instance to see if we can help to put things right.

WHAT OTHER FA GROUP PRIVACY POLICIES ARE IN PLACE?

Full-Time	click here
England Online Store	click here
Matchday	click here
Platform For Football	click here
HR Privacy Policy	click here
Recruitment policy	click here
Referee body camera trial privacy policy	click here
Children's Privacy Policy	click here

Last updated: 5 March 2026

Privacy

The FA Group Privacy Policy

County and League Appeals - February 2026

Palace and Blackburn progress

Watch the FA Youth Cup Quarter-Finals live

Perfect penalties send West Ham into quarter-final