FA 2026/27

Effective
15 June 2026

Can you actually sign him?

Since Brexit, no non-UK, non-Irish player can be registered by an English club without a Governing Body Endorsement. Plenty of shortlists still carry players who would never get one.

Run a check See a worked exampleFree and ungated. Branded reports from £15.

Pass mark: 15
Panel range: 10–14
Leagues rebanded: 4

Exceptions Panel territory

10/ 15

15 points required for an automatic grant

10 points falls in the 10–14 range. A club can request an Exceptions Panel, but it must evidence that exceptional circumstances — injury, suspension, paternity leave, illness, international duty, bereavement or family crisis — prevented the player reaching 15. The panel costs £5,000 plus VAT and is genuinely discretionary.

010 · panel15 · pass

5 points short of an automatic grant.

Ruleset 2026/27 · effective 15 June 2026 · source document

An estimate, not a decision. Only The FA can grant a Governing Body Endorsement. Not affiliated with The Football Association. Not immigration or legal advice.

Panel evidence

The FA will consider Injury, A period of paternity leave, Serious illness or other legitimate medical reasons, Suspension, International duty, Bereavement, Family crisis. A panel costs £5,000 plus VAT, and the club must evidence that one of those circumstances cost the missing points.

Where the points come from

Ranked by contribution. Every line cites the FA table and paragraph it derives from.

Awarded / max

Table 6, para 45
Current club's league quality
EFL Championship is a Band 2 league.
10 / 10
Table 1, para 34
International appearances
No senior competitive international appearances in the reference period.
0 / 2
Table 2, paras 35–37
Domestic league minutes
0% of available minutes is below the 30% floor, which scores nothing in any band.
0 / 10
Table 3, para 38
Continental minutes
No continental competition minutes in the reference period.
0 / 0
Table 4, paras 40–41
Last club's final league position
Mid-table in a Band 2 league.
0 / 5
Table 5, paras 42–44
Last club's continental progression
No continental competition to progress in.
0 / 0
Total
10 / 15

Work out whether the panel is winnable

A panel costs £5,000 plus VAT and the club must evidence that something outside his control cost him those points. Before anyone commits to that, get the breakdown showing exactly which criteria fell short and what evidence the FA will consider.

What the panel considers

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The player's record

Change anything below and the assessment above updates immediately. Nothing is stored and nothing is sent anywhere — the calculation runs entirely in your browser.

International record

Share of his national association's competitive matches he featured in over the last 24 months. Check this first — it is the only route to an automatic pass.

Nation's FIFA ranking

The FA uses an aggregated ranking across the reference period, not today's snapshot.

Share of competitive internationals

Current club

The band drives two separate criteria — minutes and league quality — which makes it the biggest single lever in the calculation.

League

Share of league minutes

Below 30% scores zero in every band — there is no partial credit.

Youth player senior debutBorn on or after 1 January 2005 and made a senior debut in the last 12 months. Awards 5 points in Band 2 if that beats the minutes total.Named in a matchday squad for this club at least once (or played 1%+ of domestic cup minutes). Required for the league-quality points.

Continental football

Champions League and Copa Libertadores minutes are worth up to 10 points. Outside the top two tiers it is worth almost nothing. Group stage onwards only — qualifying minutes do not count.

Competition

Last season

Where the player's club finished, and whether he was involved.

Final league position

Named in a matchday squad for last season's club at least once (or played 1%+ of domestic cup minutes). Required for both last-club criteria.

The bands moved this season

A league's band drives three separate criteria. When the FA reshuffles the bands, an identical playing record is suddenly worth more or less — and a player who passed last summer may not pass this one.

See all six bands

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
Brazil
Band 3Band 2
Süper Lig
Turkey
Band 2Band 3
J1 League
Japan
Band 5Band 4
PrvaLiga
Slovenia
Band 5Band 6

A shortlist that ignores GBE is a shortlist of players you cannot register

Check the band before the trip
A full season of minutes in a Band 5 league pays four points. League quality pays another four. Unless he is a first-choice international for a top-50 nation, there is nowhere to find the other seven — however he looks on the live view.
A panel is not a recruitment plan
Ten to fourteen points buys the right to ask. The club pays £5,000 plus VAT and must evidence that injury, suspension or another listed circumstance cost the missing points. Nobody should plan a window around it.
ESC places are scarce and earned
Four places in the Premier League and Championship, two in League One and Two — and only if enough minutes went to England-qualified players. Below 20% EQP minutes, none at all.

Bands

A score is a snapshot, not a fixed attribute

The reference period rolls. European minutes drop out of it. The FA moves the bands every June. A player who cleared the mark in July can sit below it in January without kicking a ball differently — which is fine when you are checking one name, and a problem when you are running a shortlist.

See how that plays out for a real player

The five ways a GBE check goes wrong

One email, straight away, with the mistakes that cost clubs a signing: dual nationality missed, last season's bands used, minutes counted instead of shared, the loan rule ignored, a panel treated as a plan. After that, only when the FA moves the bands.

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