Insurance

Disclaimer: This information is intended purely for guidance. Please note that the Amateur Football Combination does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or truthfulness of any statements or representations made by companies who offer to sell these products. All such statements or representations are the responsibility of the companies concerned and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Amateur Football Combination.

Public Liability Insurance

Public Liability Insurance (PLI) covers clubs against the actions of their members affecting the third party (full back lumps the ball out of play, ball hits granny walking by the pitch, etc). It is a mandatory requirement of the Football Association that from season 2007-08 all clubs are covered by Public Liability Insurance, and clubs are now required to demonstrate that they have Public Liability Insurance as part of the County Affiliation for season 2007-08.

The good news is that in many cases this will already be done for you. If your club play on a council ground, then the council should have Public Liability Insurance already arranged (and probably factored into the hiring fee you pay, for example if you hire a ground from London Borough of Enfield, they charge an extra £22 per season, or £4.64 per single game, to include Public Liability Insurance unless you already have your own policy) and this will apply to many grounds. However, if in doubt, check.

Typically Public Liability Insurance will cost £14 to £25 per team per season, perhaps less.

Referees are covered for Public Liability Insurance by the Amateur Football Alliance, under whose sanction the Amateur Football Combination is played.

Personal Accident Insurance

Personal Accident Insurance (PAI) generally covers individuals who might suffer injury during a game, and as a consequence have to have medical treatment or take time off work (or more dramatically, the policies tend to emphasise loss of limbs and/or life!). Whether to take PAI is much more of an individual decision for clubs and players. Many people have it through work, or personal policies of their own.

However, you should be clear that Personal Accident Insurance remains optional.

For more information about Personal Accident Insurance we recommend clubs contact their County Football Association. For example we the Amateur Football Alliance has negotiated bulk cover with two different insurers and can arrange for a policy for you.

Typically Personal Accident Insurance will cost in excess of £100 per team per season.

How to Get Public Liability Insurance

If you do decide you want/need to get Public Liability Insurance, the advice from the AFA is that it needs to satisfy the following minimum requirements:-

The minimum cover you will need is £5million and it needs to cover anyone on your ground. You would need to consider that you cover the following (if relevant):

            ·          All employees who receive, for example, honorary fees/expenses/fee payments

            ·          Officers, directors and officials

            ·          Volunteers

            ·          Players

            ·          All functions [including but not limited to]:-

            Training for and playing of football

                        Training for and playing of other sports

                        Social/fundraising

                        Sanctioned Tours [domestic]

                        Commercial activities

                        Competitions

                        Development and coaching

For details of two insurance policies which are recommended by the Amateur Football Alliance, please click on the links below (note that these policies deal mainly with Personal Accident Insurance, but Public Liability Insurance is included within the documents). If you wish to have more information, or wish to take out one of these policies, please contact Mike Brown, Chief Executive of the Amateur Football Alliance (020 7359 3493).

League Insurance

The Amateur Football Combination has Public Liability and Personal Injury Insurance policies which covers the League Representative Team only.

The league has looked at whether a "leaguewide insurance policy" could be taken out to cover all clubs, but the costs of this would be prohibitive (in excess of £6500, which would obviously have to come out of increased club subscriptions). Given that this would duplicate many club policies anyway, the league has not pursued this.