All friendlies must be sanctioned by Northumberland FA prior to the match taking place. Matches will only be sanctioned if they are being officiated by an FA Affiliated Referee and both teams are also correctly affiliated. This is to ensure FA Affiliated teams are only playing other FA Affiliated teams, to ensure a teams' insurances aren't invalidated by playing un-affiliated and unsanctioned football. In youth football, it also ensures participating teams are affiliated and meet safeguarding requirements as well as ensuring the match official has the required DBS and qualifications to officiate in youth football.

It is the responsibility of the home team to submit a Friendly Sanctioning Form.

Open-age friendly fixtures are auto-approved, however it is the competing teams' responsibility to ensure they are affiliated and the referee is FA Registered. Checks take place and teams found playing unaffiliated will be charged.

All Youth Football friendly sanction requests are checked by Northumberland FA.

Due to the volume of sanction requests you must submit your sanction at least five working days before the fixture. Please be aware, any requests after this time may NOT be sanctioned. You will receive a confirmation email when your friendly has been sanctioned.