This community is a fun, inclusive and safe place for daily discussion for all FA Community members. To keep it this way, we ask that all of our members follow these simple guidelines.
Every time you use this community, you are agreeing to our Community Rules, Code of Conduct, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, so you should make sure that you understand these documents fully.
If you have any questions about anything included in these rules, or would like us to explain anything in further detail, please contact us and we’ll do our best to answer you.
How we moderate
Anything you publish to the community (for instance, a forum post) appears almost straight away and is not screened before it goes live.
If you find anything in this community offensive or inappropriate, please contact us immediately by clicking on the ‘More’ icon and selecting the 'Report as abusive' icon under the forum post and we will take appropriate action as soon as we reasonably can.
Moderating content in this way means that we are able to keep our community running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that support is available whenever our members need it. We do however reserve the right to change the way we moderate the community or take steps or implement measures that we think will benefit the whole community and its users.
Respect others
We ask you to be tolerant and respectful of other members’ beliefs and opinions at all times. We understand that people often have strong feelings about the topics addressed in this community, but personal attacks or promoting or inciting racial, religious, ethnic or national hatred are never justified and will not be tolerated. It’s your right to disagree with an opinion, but do not attack the person or people who hold it and please make your point respectfully.
We may remove any posts, including but not limited to comments, pictures, images and video, that others find offensive or threatening and ban users who persistently or significantly breach these Community Rules.
Swearing and abusive language
Offensive, discriminatory, sexualised or abusive language is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in this community. You should avoid using swear words or words that others may find offensive. We may censor and replace any such words, and we will also check for forbidden words and automatically remove any content, informing the user who can appeal.
We do not tolerate bullying/trolling, racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism or other forms of hate-speech or content that could be interpreted as such. Harassment and threats of physical or sexual violence will be treated very severely and may be reported to the relevant authorities.
No adverts, promotions or spam
The FA Community should not be used to sell or promote services to our members. We consider any commercial solicitation in the community to be spam, including promoting web addresses, products or services. [We reserve the right to remove any such posts.] Action will be taken against any company found to be passing themselves off as an individual.
Report it, then ignore it
Not everyone on the internet behaves as you may want or expect them to. Some individuals enjoy riling people up online by posting inflammatory comments designed to provoke a response (often known as trolling or flaming). Although it is often difficult, if this occurs in our community the best way to deal with this sort of behaviour is to report it, and then ignore it.
If anyone posts something that you feel violates our Community Rules, Code of Conduct, Privacy Policy or Terms Of Use, please let us know immediately by reporting the post as abusive (as set out above), and then ignore it.
Personal information
Please remember that any information that you post on our community is in the public domain. Do not post your own or other people's personal information such as home addresses, date of birth, telephone numbers and email addresses, or other sensitive personal data.
We have a Privacy Policy explaining how we handle personal information.
Keep it relevant
Most of the conversations in this community relate to football. We know that some conversations can be wide-ranging, but if you post something that is completely unrelated to the original topic then it may be removed or moved to a more appropriate area.
Keep it legal
Posting content that may put you or us at risk of prosecution, such as defamatory or violent posts or content that glamorises illegal activity/abuse or breaches someone else’s intellectual property rights, is against our Community Rules. We reserve the right to remove any such content, delete accounts and ban members who engage in this activity.
Impersonation and imitation
Imitating other members is a form of harassment and we take this very seriously. We reserve the right to remove any such content, delete accounts and ban members who engage in this activity.
Protecting our community
This is a caring and supportive community, and we have these Community Rules to keep it that way. We understand that we can all make mistakes, and we therefore seldom ban members for first offences unless they are particularly severe.
However, if it becomes clear that someone is unwilling to follow our Community Rules, they will be banned permanently. We issue permanent bans only as a last resort to protect our community and its members.
Please remember
Views expressed in this community are purely the views of the member and should not be construed as views of any other members of the community nor The FA.
We have the right to update and change our Community Rules, Code of Conduct and Terms and Conditions at any time. If you have any questions about these rules, or anything on the site at all, contact us and we will do all we can to help.
Child protection
This community does not support members under 16 years of age. However, 16- and 17-year olds are able to access the community and are, in most cases, legally considered to be children. All members are therefore required to maintain the highest standards of behaviour when contributing to discussions and content in this community.
Community members must not put children at risk of abuse or encourage anyone else to do so. Child abuse is an offence and will be dealt with seriously.