User:Senya/FMF regulations
Background
The FMF, as the governing body for association football across Micras, acknowledges its role in ensuring that venues for holding matches played under its jurisdiction, meet the requisite safety and functionality requirements necessary to hold matches played at the highest level of the game. Therefore, to ensure the safety and welfare of players, staff, match, club and stadium officials and spectators, the FMF will introduce a new set of regulations that it expects all grounds to meet and all associations and clubs to adhere to ahead of the 2023–24 football season.
Jurisdiction
The following regulations will apply too all matches held under the governance of the FMF and its regional confederations (AEFA, CTFA, EMUFA and WMFA). Meeting the ground grading regulations will be necessary for a venue to host matches at the FMF World Cup, the FMF World Cup qualification rounds, Confederation Championships (Copa Apollonia, CiboTap Championships, EMU Championships and the Benacia Cup) and their qualifying tournaments, the FMF Confederations Cup, the FMF Champions' League and the Confederational club competitions (AEFA Champions' League, CTFA Champions' League, EMUFA Champions' League, WMFA Champions' League, AEFA Cup, CTFA Cup, EMUFA Cup and WMFA Cup) and any qualifying matches for those tournaments.
In addition to the above listed tournaments, the FMF and its four confederations retain the right to add any new tournaments, and any such additions will automatically require venues, associations and clubs to adhere to the rules set out in the FMF Ground Grading Regulations.
The FMF retains the right to amend these regulations through a vote of its executive committee at any stage.
Glossary of terms
- Block: A section of a seating area/standing section with a designated vomitorium (or entrance/exit for smaller venues)
Regulations on the venue
Capacity
Every venue must be able to accommodate a
| Competition | Minimum capacity (Qualifying) |
Minimum capacity (Tournament) |
Minimum capacity (Final venue) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMF World Cup | 5,000 | 30,000 | 60,000 |
| Confederational Championships | 5,000 | 20,000 | 50,000 |
| FMF Confederations Cup | 5,000 | 30,000 | |
| FMF Champions’ League | 5,000 | 5,000 | 50,000 |
| Confederational CLs | 5,000 | 5,000 | 30,000 |
Seating/Standing areas
The FMF permits the use of both seating and standing areas for use in its competitions, so long as they meet required safety standards
Away areas
Every venue in use for FMF competition must have a designated area, segregated from the rest of the stadium, which is for the exclusive use of away supporters. This area must be at a minimum of 5% of the stadium’s capacity, or 500 (if stadium capacity is less than 10,000). Tickets for this area must be priced equal to that of the lowest priced ticket bracket for home supporters. Tickets for this area must be sold through the away team, or on the day of the match at the relevant ticket desk/gate if tickets are still available.
The area of the stadium used must be continuous, and at least one block must be pitch-side. Whilst upper tiers of stadiums can be used to house visiting supporters, they should be located directly above a lower tier block that is also being used to house visiting supporters.
It should not be possible, without special permission, for spectators to pass from the away section to the home section (or vice versa), including within the stadium itself. Venues must provide separate bathrooms, food and merchandise vendors and concourse space for away supporters that cannot be accessed by home fans.
Venues must prevent home supporters from entering the away end, and away fans from entering the home end, unless special permission is granted.
Returns/Requests for larger away areas
Whilst every club must offer the minimum amount of away tickets, a venue may offer a larger allocation for away supporters if they so wish, with their being no upward limit. A team may place an official request for more tickets with the home team should they sell out their allocation quickly, or experience a higher volume of request for tickets than has been already allocated. However, home teams are under no requirement to accept these requests.
In the case that an away team believes that it will not sell out its allocation, it may request to send tickets back. In this circumstance, the home side may only agree to this if it is possible to keep home and away fans apart. Furthermore, once this has been agreed, the away side will have waived the right to those tickets, and cannot reclaim these.
Games played at neutral venues
If a club cannot provide a venue that meets the FMF's ground grading criteria, they may play their home fixture at another venue that does. The new venue should be located as close as possible to the actual home venue of the club in question, and must be on the territory of the association from which the club is from. The fixture will then be treated as a home game for the purposes of ticketing.
Whilst the FMF requires all member associations to have at least one venue that meets the FMF ground grading criteria, smaller associations with populations below 50,000 may be given an exception by the FMF president. In such a situation, the smaller association must nominate another association with multiple compliant grounds to host their fixtures. The other association must be within the same confederation as the smaller confederation.
The FMF may require a game be played at a neutral venue if it is not possible for players and officials from the visiting country to enter the territory of another. In this case, the home team may nominate a venue within the same confederation to utilise as a home stadium. In this scenario, no away fans will be permitted, and the FMF may reserve the right to designate the game as being behind closed doors, if it views that to be a necessary measure.
Bans on away fans
In rare circumstances, the FMF may prohibit away fans from entering a stadium for a fixture. This will only be done on the following conditions;
- The safety of away fans cannot be guaranteed.
- Nationals of the away team are prohibited from travelling to the territory of the home team.
In all situations where away fans are prohibited, the arrangement must apply to both legs of a fixture, including in group stage play, regardless of if issues resolve themselves/improve, in order to maintain fairness.
Games behind closed doors
The FMF reserves the right to designate a fixture to be played "behind closed doors", banning an association or club from selling any tickets to a fixture, including tickets for away fans. This measure will only be put in the following circumstances;
- Punishment issued by the FMF.
- The safety of fans cannot be guaranteed.
Accessibility
All venues used in official FMF competition must make a considerable effort to be accessible to all supporters, and must abide by any laws and regulations regarding this issue within their home country.
Additionally, the FMF requires all stadiums to have a designated area for disabled supporters, with one wheelchair position being available per 1,000 capacity, or 10 wheelchair positions for venues with a capacity of less than 10,000. Of these positions, 5% (or 2 spaces, whichever values is higher) must be reserved for the use of away fans. Whilst the FMF encourages wheelchair spaces for away fans to be located within, or adjacent to, the away end, if this is not possible it may be acceptable for wheelchair-using away supporters to be housed in a “general” wheelchair user area. Each wheelchair user may be accompanied by one other, non-wheelchair-using person, who should be accommodated for with a seat, within the wheelchair use area.
Wheelchair areas must be located sensibly, where going from outside the stadium to inside, and accessing in-stadium vendors and bathrooms should be available either through a level ground, a gentle wheelchair friendly slope, or a lift, and areas for wheelchair users must have accessible bathrooms that are well signed and are for the exclusive use of wheelchair users, that can be used and accessed by a wheelchair user without assistance. Furthermore, the location of wheelchair areas must not be in a place that could put fans in danger (for example, in front of a section designated for an ultras group).
All venues must have a named disability officer who is responsible for the welfare and assistance of all disabled fans at the venue, and who will liaise with the FMF about disability requirements when needed.
Behaviour of spectators
Whilst the FMF acknowledges that fans are the lifeblood of the sport, and encourages positive displays of support, the FMF may punish teams and/or associations if fans commit the following offences;
- Enter the field of play at any point during the match
- Block access points/emergency exits
- Display offensive banners
- Sing or chant offensive slogans
- Engage in hooliganism
- Throw objects onto the field of play, at other supporters, coaches, players or officials
- Cause damage to the venue
- Attacking, hurting or causing injury to another person
- Physical or emotional intimidation of supporters, coaches, players and officials, beyond what would be expected of a football crowd.
The FMF retains the right to punish these offenses in any way it deems appropriate. The FMF does not tolerate racist, sexist and homophobic abuse, and in situations where this occurs, the referee retains the right to pause the game, or suspend it if incidents keep taking place.
Ticketing
All FMF matches, unless have been designated otherwise, must be ticketed events. Tickets for away sections must be sold under the requirements laid out in the section on away supporters.
Whilst the FMF does not issue guidance for teams on selling tickets, it encourages teams to set prices that are affordable, and to make acquiring a ticket a fair process.
Ticketing for Confederations Cup and Champions’ League finals
For the FMF Confederations Cup, FMF Champions’ League and Confederational Champions’ League finals, as well as the FMF Confederations Cup third-place play-off, which are all held at neutral venues, each team shall be awarded 40% of the venue’s capacity for use of its supporters. Each team will be given a designated "end" of the stadium, centred behind one goal, with seats expanding outwards in both directions until the 40% threshold is met. The remaining 20% of tickets will be sold by the FMF, although clubs may apply for more tickets (upto 45% of stadium capacity should they sell out their end quickly).
For the FMF World Cup and Confederational Championship competitions, each nation will be given "Follow Your Country" tickets, with 10,000 per country issued for the FMF World Cup and 6,500 per country issued for the Confederational Championships. These tickets will be sold at a price determined by the FMF through the member association, and will only be able to be sold to citizens and permanent residents of the country participating. The remaining available capacity at each venue will be split into three, with each participating team receiving an additional 25% of the remaining capacity as tickets, whilst the remaining 50% of spare capacity will be put on general sale for all fans to be available to buy. Once again, each team will be given a designated "end" of the stadium.
For games involving the host nation, all matches will be treated as though they were a home fixture, with the exception of the minimum away capacity being that of the Follow Your Country tickets.
The FMF demands a VIP section, complete with security, to be available for the hosting of Champions' League final matches and any match at a World Cup or Confederational Championship finals tournament, that has enough room to accommodate 100 people. These places will be awarded by the FMF for the use of its executives, dignitaries, officials and sponsors.
