Northants FA – Cold Weather Advice
Weather Advice from Northants FA
Over the upcoming week, the weather is scheduled to reach low temperatures, impacting Football and physical activity. Northants FA would like to issue guidance that you should consider below. If a weather warning changes from an amber alert over the upcoming weeks, you must follow the government’s advice, but please use the common-sense approach if the alert changes but also throughout the time. The Met Office’s cold weather alerts warn about cold weather conditions in advance – so you can take extra precautions to keep safe and well. They operate in England from November 1 to March 31 every year in association with the UK Health Security Agency.
The cold weather alerts are issued by the Met Office when the winter weather is most likely to significantly impact people’s health. At this time, the Met Office has realised that East Midlands has an amber alert, which is in effect between 28/11/2023 until 05/12/2023. You can check the cold-health alerts via this link Met Office Cold-Health Alerts however, this means when one of the following happens:
- The average temperature falls below 2°C for 48 hours or longer.
- There’s heavy snow and/or widespread ice.
Guidance
- Clubs/Team Coaches/managers have a duty to ensure that U18 players’ welfare is considered when it comes to extreme weather, heat or cold, and on that basis, a club may provide advice around clothing: caps, long-sleeved shirts, base-layers, training jackets/coats and track-suits/hoodies etc.
- Additionally, there are specific IFAB/FA rules around the wearing of base-layers /gloves etc, within the competition.
- As long as a child is wearing the minimum correct kit that The FA rules require, the parent/carer is responsible for ensuring that their child is appropriately dressed for the conditions, whether playing/training or on the side-lines.
- However, within a training session/game, a coach/manager is able to substitute/remove players if they are not adequately dressed for the conditions or are visibly cold/wet and unhappy/distressed, as this may potentially impact their health/well-being.
- A club would be well within their right to provide advice and guidance for parents/carers, and ultimately if there is a club rule around the wearing of long sleeve tops which has been ratified by the club’s committee and has been communicated to parents prior to their child’s registration or renewal, then this is a club matter and any parental concerns around this should be formally made to the committee if no reasonable changes have been made due to the weather.
- Parents/Carers will know their child best, and therefore, I would advise clubs to make parents aware of the need to ensure that their child has adequate/appropriate clothing /equipment for the presenting or foreseen weather conditions and leave the decision to them – with the understanding that club officials have the right to refuse or remove any child from activity if they arrive for training/matchday and they are not appropriate dressed for the session and/or weather conditions.
- Communicating with the officials; inspect the ground prior to the game to assess the playing conditions. There is a higher chance of accidents and injuries due to cold weather.
- Decide with enough time prior to the fixture to prevent unnecessary travelling for everyone involved.
- Listen to your players and parents/guardians’ concerns about the weather conditions – it is a good chance to make sure you are updated with the players’ medical conditions which the cold weather can impact.
Event organisers (Clubs and Leagues) are to monitor the weather conditions before and throughout the event, tournament, training and matches and act accordingly. This should be considered if this is to cancel the event/fixtures in the best interest of health and welfare. The recommendation to start accessing any cancellation of events/fixtures should be done in line with the weather guidance, for the anticipation of the temperature reaching freezing point or below 2 degrees.
Helpful Resources
- Cold-Health Alert action card for the voluntary and community sector – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Cold weather and health: supporting vulnerable people – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- How cold weather affects your health – Met Office
The FA do not issue any Recommendations or Guidance regarding extreme weather; therefore, the club is responsible for its decisions; decisions must be in the best interest to protect the Health and Welfare of everyone involved in football. Northants FA are not responsible for any club’s decision to participate or hold events in extreme weather and cannot make decisions regarding the cancellation of events and fixtures on behalf of Clubs and the Leagues.
If you have any questions please email safeguarding@northantsfa.com.
