Sideline Help Open Sideline

Add your coaches

A team opens for registration when its head coach has accepted the invite and given their phone number, date of birth and an emergency contact. The FA FAN number is not needed. The Coaches tab shows each team in your season and its head coach.

Before you start

Add your teams to the season first.

Check each team

Each row on the Coaches tab has a status:

  • Ready. The head coach has a Sideline One account and full details.
  • Invite not accepted yet. The coach does not have a Sideline One account yet. The row says, for example, "Gary Walsh has not accepted the invite yet." Select Send the invite again. If no invite was sent, the row says Not invited yet and has Send an invite.
  • Details to come. The coach has an account, but some details are missing. The row names them, for example "Gary Walsh still needs to add: date of birth."
  • Waiting for your approval. A coach signed up for the team with your shared link.
  • No coach yet. The row has Invite a coach and That's me.

Paste your coaches from the FA Club Portal

An owner can do this. It is the first choice when no team has a coach yet.

  1. Open the Officials page on the FA Club Portal.
  2. Select everything on the page and copy it.
  3. In Sideline, select Paste your coaches and paste the text.
  4. Sideline puts each coach on their team. Tick the coaches to invite.
  5. Select the button to confirm.

Sideline sends the invitations after 10 minutes. If you made a mistake, undo it first and nobody gets an email. Sideline adds a person with no email on the page without an invitation, and adds a to-do to add an email.

  1. Select Copy link under Or share one link with all your coaches.
  2. Send the link to your coaches.
  3. Each coach signs up, picks their team and gives their details.
  4. Approve each coach.

Add one coach at a time

On a row with No coach yet, select Invite a coach. If you coach the team yourself, select That's me.

To take a coach off a team, select Remove coach. The person stays in your club.

Fill in details you already have

You can fill in details you hold for a coach, for example their FA FAN number. On the coach's row, select the button with their first name, for example Add Gary's details. The coach still has to accept the invite before the team can open.

The invite email tells the coach what to give before the team can open: phone number, date of birth and an emergency contact. It asks for the FA FAN number only "if you know it". The coach signs in to the FA website with their email address and looks in their account details. If they cannot find it, you can look it up from their name, email and date of birth. A missing FAN number never stops the team opening. The coach's row says FAN number to look up until you add it. DBS, safeguarding, first aid and coaching qualification are optional. If your club has no policies online, the coach is not asked to accept policies.

Common questions

Why does the team still not show as ready?

There are two reasons, and the row says which:

  • The coach has not accepted the invite. A coach counts only when they have their own Sideline One account, even if you filled in all their details. Select Send the invite again, and ask the coach to open the email.
  • The coach's details are not complete. The row names what is missing. The coach can add it, or you can fill in what you know.

What if the paste leaves someone out?

Sideline leaves out a person with no role on the page, because they may be a player. Add that person by hand.