The FA has launched a new, entry-level football course for both current and future volunteers in the grassroots game - The FA Playmaker supported by BT.

It’s open to anyone aged 14+, completely free to sign up, and requires no previous football experience or qualifications before signing up.

Over five modules, the course focuses on the brilliant basics of football providing a toolkit anyone can use to get involved and help create fun, safe and inclusive experiences in the game.

The FA’s Head of Education, Lucy Pearson, explains it’s important to offer a course like this to grassroots football: “As well as providing an exciting new entry-point into football education,The FA Playmaker marks an important new step in how The FA provides learning to volunteers across the grassroots game.

“Whether it's cost, time or aspiration, we’ve acknowledged that The FA Level 1 in Coaching Football isn’t always a realistic first step for everyone into football. So, we needed to look for a new option. Something more affordable, more flexible and better suited to the needs of volunteers wanting guidance, tips, and tools to contribute to safe, fun and inclusive football."

While The FA Playmaker is a football course, you don't need to have extensive football knowledge or experience of the sport to get the most out of it.

The focus throughout is about providing skills, guidance and tips so anyone can help create safe, fun, and inclusive football. The modules include:

• Creating fun sessions; a module focused towards FA session plans and ideas that anyone can pick up and use at training straight away;
• Connecting with your players; a module that explores motivation and communication techniques to help engage individuals and teams;
• Make football For All and Keep football safe; which provide guidance on concussion management, sudden cardiac arrest and safeguarding children.

“We’ve designed it with everyone in mind," explains Pearson. "It's for the mum who takes her daughter to a Wildcats session every week and wants to get more involved. It's for students looking to add new skills and experiences while at school, college or university education. And it's for anyone who just needs some tools to improve their weekly football experiences. It really is a course for all.”

The FA Playmaker has been developed in collaboration between The FA’s Education and Grassroots participation departments.

The FA’s Head of Grassroots Football Development, Steven Day, added: “This fantastic new course has the potential to make a significant difference to the way we support our football volunteers to support and drive our grassroots game.

“The fact it’s online, free and designed around the needs of current and prospective volunteers means it can be a realistic entry point into football education for a lot more people. We’re really looking forward to seeing a new community of FA Playmakers emerge and have an even greater impact on the quality of experiences for players up and down the country.”

If you would like to take The FA Playmaker course, you can sign up right now by clicking here.

You’ll need an FA number (FAN) to register. If you don’t have one, you can create one right now by clicking here. It’s free and only takes a couple of minutes to do.