Back in March 2016 Caversham AFC was awarded Charter Standard Community Club status for another year, but why do we bother when it's so much work?

Well here's what The FA say about it...

http://www.thefa.com/charterstandard

However, with the criteria becoming ever harder to achieve year on year, I put the question to Liz Verrall, Chief Executive of Berks & Bucks FA.

The FA recognise that achievement of Charter Standard is difficult and expensive, but rather than being perceived as an admin chore, it is something that needs to be celebrated as formal recognition for the exceptional work being done by volunteers in grass roots football. For a club the size of Caversham AFC it is no mean feat to meet the criteria especially when you consider we are one of the few clubs in the local area to achieve the highest level of recognition as a Charter Standard Community Club.

So it's not just about free kit, free footballs and free England tickets. It's about having the ability to make visible the excellent work we have done as a club, to use it to make our club the obvious choice for local players and to use it as the foundation stone with The FA to execute our ambitious plans for the future development of Caversham AFC at Clayfield Copse.

So what's next...

By March 2017 the club must have:

Every affiliated team (that's 40 in total) with a FA L 1 qualified coach
50% of coaches licensed via The FA Licensed Coaches Club
Two FA L2 qualified coaches

In addition, by March 2018 the club must have:

10 FA L2 - Block 1 qualified coaches
8 FA L2 - Block 2 qualified coaches
1 FA L3 (UEFA B) - Part 1 qualified coach

...and by March 2020, 90% of coaches will need to be licensed via The FA Licensed Coaches Club

We are proud to be a FA Charter Standard Community Club so if we want to maintain this status we need to start planning now to meet these stretching requirements.