Managing Club Names & Team Names (Suffixes)

Your Club’s name is the base for all of your team’s names on all FA Systems. Team Name previously known as Suffix is the text added to the name that individually identifies each team. 

Club Names

Ensuring that your Club’s name is inputted correctly and clearly, ensures that your team names are consistent, concise and clear on all FA Systems. 

Club Name + Team Name (Suffix) = Teams Display Name on FA Systems

Things to check?

1. Does our Club name include any days of the week? (If that forms part of your name e.g Sheffield ‘Wednesday’ it is fine)
2. Does your Club Name contain a gender identifier? e.g. men’s/boy’s/women’s/girl’s

If the answer to either of the above questions is yes, you may consider adjusting your club’s name to remove these. Days of the week cause an issue if your club then has a team that plays on different day. See Example 1. Gender identifiers can cause an issue if your club then has a team from a different pathway or if for example a ‘boys’ club then begin to host mixed teams, see example 2.

Example 1

[Club Name] Dog & Duck FC (Sunday) + [Team Name/Suffix] Saturday 1^st = [Team name displayed] Dog & Duck FC (Sunday) Saturday 1^st

Example 2

[Club Name] Dog & Duck (Boys) + [Team Name/Suffix] Girls Red = [Team name displayed] Dog & Duck (Boys) Girls Red

There are many other permutations, but these are just 2 examples of how a club name can make team names in short, a mess!

You now have the option to 'Edit' teams on the club portal. Click Here for a step by step guide.

Our Recommendations 

Remove any reference to days of the week, genders and other identifying factors within the club’s name and ensure it is simply showing the club’s actual name, for example Dog & Duck FC, and then allow the Suffixes to define each team. 

Team Names (Suffixes)

If your Club name is neutral and inputted correctly, your Team Names (suffixes) will be the text after the club name that will individually identify your teams. Examples of these may be distinguishing words such as colours or animals. Other examples may be gender identifiers, day of play or the ranking of open aged teams- some examples below, with the suffix in bold. 

Dog & Duck FC U13 Black

Dog & Duck FC U13 Red

Dog & Duck FC U13 Girls

Dog & Duck FC Sunday

Dog & Duck FC 1^st

It is important to note here that not all teams require a Team Name (Suffix) to individually identify them. If you only have one team at each age group you can leave the Team Name (Suffix) blank, or, remove it if the team already has one. If you have multiple teams at one age group, each team will need a Team Name specific to that team such as a colour, animal or gender, you then you DO NOT need to enter the age group into the Team Name (suffix) box, the system will do this automatically.

For open aged teams without specific age groups, you must enter a Team Name (suffix) such as ‘1^st’, ‘First team’ ‘Men/Women’ ‘Firsts’ etc. See Examples below. 

Other important things to note, DO NOT enter the club’s name again or this will be repeated. Finally, for youth teams you are not allowed to rank teams such as A/B or Firsts/Second etc

[Club Name] Dog & Duck FC + [Team Suffix] U13 = [Team name displayed] Dog & Duck FC U13

[Club Name] Dog & Duck FC + [Team Suffix] under 13’s = [Team name displayed] Dog & Duck FC U13 under 13’s

[Club Name] Dog & Duck FC  + [Team Suffix] 1^st = [Team name displayed] Dog & Duck FC 1^st

Suffix Recommendations 

1. Continue where applicable to use colours/animals etc to differentiate between teams of the same age group.

2. For those clubs with female teams, we recommend adopting ‘Women’ as opposed to ‘Ladies’

3. For those clubs that have teams from both pathways. We recommend but do not mandate where there is no current suffix such as colour/animals using gender suffixes for both the boys and the girls teams not just as in some cases only the girls teams. This is also the case for Open age Men’s and Women’s Teams.  For those with mixed teams you may decide that the mixed team can remain with no gender suffix. 

4. Ensure that you standardise your suffixes, don’t for example have one team as ‘Firsts’ and then another team as ‘2^nd’

Use capital letters where appropriate, the system will not auto correct. 

If you require any support managing your club name or team suffixes please contact us at [email protected] or visit our support page https://sheffieldfa.freshdesk.com/support/tickets/new