From the start of 2011-12 all "open aged" football (i.e. adult) in England is moving to match based discipline, moving in line with the professional game, so a player will for standard misconduct (denying a goalscoring opportunity, serious foul play) receive a match ban (1 match, 3 matches, etc) rather than a time based suspension.

Clubs and players are reminded that discipline is handled and run by the County Football Associations, which in the case of the majority of AFC clubs means the Amateur Football Alliance. Any queries on match based discipline should be sent to them at discipline@amateur-fa.com.

There are a number of resources which have been provided by the Football Association to assist clubs with Match Based Discipline, including Guides for Members Services, the FA Match Based Suspension Guides and the 2011-12 FA Handbook. We also have a copy of the standard FA Match Based Discipline Presentation, which was given to all clubs on 9th September 2011. There is also an option to see the web-stream of the Match Based Discipline launch at Wembley in June 2011.