Codes of Conduct

The Scottish Football Association is justifiably proud of the long history that the game had played in this Country. The past 130 years have witnessed significant achievements and created lifelong memories for hundreds of thousands of people. To ensure that Scottish Football plays a significant part of our future for the next 130 years we need to be smarter about the way we preserve the traditions and values of our game.

One of the critical components of our game is the passion that people show for the team & club that they support. Whilst this passion is usually harnessed and used to support our game, it sometimes can boil over to create negative situations. We must all work together in the attempt to eliminate this negative passion. Codes of Conduct are an integral component of footballing activities and the following codes compliment the good work of the many football bodies in Scotland.

All Members of your club must adopt Member specific codes and the SFA encourages Members to be vigilant in enforcing such codes whether via support for those who constantly abide by the codes and / or penalties for those who fail to act in accordance with the codes.

Note that a Code of Conduct should support a club’s constitution and may be used to replace what some clubs refer to as club rules. Secondly, Fair Play must be fundamental to the aims and objectives of the club, where it is crucial to ensure that all members, officials and volunteers abide by the rules, respect everyone and maintain high standards of sportsmanship at all times.

In ensuring that all members of the club are aware of the Codes of Conduct the club should promote the Codes by including them in club handbooks, welcome packs and newsletters where appropriate. It may also be useful for the club to produce separate codes of conduct for different target groups within the club, an example of which may be:

- a) coaches
- b) players
- c) officials & volunteers

Link to SFA Quality Mark website for more information