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I know they're directly run by EBSL, but do they not have links with the FA which would make them count as having an affiliation to the FA? - 97rob (talk) 09:35, 21 June 2014 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Well, they are not affiliated to the FA, and they don't receive funding. Instead, they are run by a different organisation called England Beach Soccer, as you say. The key way of telling the difference in which organisation is responsible for which team is by looking at the badge on the shirt. If you go to one of the articles about one of the teams that play on a grass pitch, then straight away you will see the familiar three lions at the top of the page. The men's senior team first wore the current design against Slovakia in March 2009 at Wembley Stadium. The beach teams, however, do not wear this badge. Their one is similar in design, but still noticeably different (particularly as there is only one lion).
If you've seen the Centenary Shield, and noticed that the England team involved in that competition also wear a slightly different badge, then that is because that is the emblem of the English Schools' Football Association. They run that team, and they are different from the FA, just like England Beach Soccer.
Now, another thing that you may also possibly have seen is England's beach team playing matches wearing official England kit, including the badge of the three lions. Indeed, I must point out the fact that it is not strictly true to say that England's beach team never wear that badge. The FA has given the team permission to wear the kit in some matches, but not all the time. I think that it is only for FIFA matches which are World Cup qualifiers, and not competitions such as the Euro Beach Soccer League, which aren't sanctioned in the same way. Although this shows a level of awareness about beach football from the FA, it is important to note that occasional permission for the team to wear the kit is not the same as being able to say that they are one of the 'other FA teams'.
There is no mention of beach teams on the FA's England website. That used to be quite a good way of catching up on all the teams, as there was a section for each individual team (except the disability teams, which were grouped into one section). However, now it is a bit more difficult to navigate because they recently changed it so that most of the individual youth sides are in one section. There is still nothing about the beach teams, and they are also never mentioned in any of England's official match programmes or other communications from the FA.
The FA likes to brand all its official teams as 'Club England'. A few years ago I was a member of the official England supporters' club, and we were given an opportunity to send in our questions to Adrian Bevington, the Club England Managing Director. I sent in a question (actually two), and the email that I sent is still in my sent items. It's from 19th May 2011 and reads: "…why is the national beach soccer team not part of Club England? Are there any plans to include them in the future?". My questions were included in the article that appeared on the supporters' club website (although it was retyped, which included a spelling mistake). There were long answers to other people's queries, but the answer to mine was by far the shortest. You can see for yourself here.
So that is the confirmation required in this matter for this template. To be honest, I've always been rather uncomfortable with having the beach teams as one of the 'other FA teams'. As a result, I removed the beach team in 2011. It was put back, however. Therefore, as a compromise, a little over a year ago I added the note to say that they are "not FA affiliated".
The best criteria for inclusion in this list should be whether caps are awarded, I think. I remember in 2006 and 2007, when England B were playing, people were wondering whether caps were awarded for those matches. The correct answer is that the players get 'B caps'. This is because it is a national representative team in its own right, and so caps are awarded in the same way as they are for the other teams. I remember once hearing that David Clarke, the famous player from blind football, was said to be England's most capped player ever, from any team. I don't know if that was true, or is still true, but the reason that he gets the caps is because his England team is affiliated to the FA (obviously he doesn't get an England cap when representing Great Britain, though).
Hopefully that has cleared some things up. RedvBlue 23:59, 21 June 2014 (UTC)Reply[reply]
The colouring of the text in this navbox is confusing and seems to go against MOS:NAVBOXCOLOUR, which says:"In general, text color should not be anything other than black or white (excluding the standard colors of hyperlinks)" Using red text for links makes it look like a WP:REDLINK and I think should be changed. Spike 'em (talk) 14:47, 11 January 2019 (UTC)Reply[reply]
and WP:LINKCOLOR: "Links should clearly be identifiable as links to readers. Refrain from implementing colored links that may impede user ability to distinguish links from regular text, or color links for purely aesthetic reasons." Spike 'em (talk) 14:54, 11 January 2019 (UTC)Reply[reply]
No-one has made any comments, so I'm changing this for the standard template links, leaving the title text for now. Spike 'em (talk) 09:17, 15 January 2019 (UTC)Reply[reply]
Could the IP editor who keeps changing the link colour please discuss here? Spike 'em (talk) 09:54, 13 December 2019 (UTC)Reply[reply]
