Discipline Investigations – Sport Integrity Matters

Norfolk County FA are delighted to announce a new partnership with Sport Integrity Matters, who for the 2023/24 season will conduct all disciplinary investigation on behalf of the County FA.

Sport Integrity Matters (SIM) was founded by former FA Head of Judicial Services, Mark Ives, and provides support and independent advice to a number of County FAs on a range of disciplinary and governance matters.

Norfolk FA are committed to providing the highest levels of service to our stakeholders, and as such SIM will be working with us to conduct all disciplinary investigations on our behalf. 

The partnership will see SIM carrying out all disciplinary investigations, which will include liaising with the relevant parties to gather evidence. They will then undertake a review of the evidence and provide a recommendation to Norfolk FA with regards to the next steps, which may include charge(s) to be raised, no further action or alternative action.

As part of the process, Norfolk FA retain overall responsibility over discipline within the County, which includes the final say over whether a charge is to be raised and appointing commissions to hear cases.

Matthew Lemmon, Head of Football Services at Norfolk FA, said: “We are delighted to announce this new partnership with Sport Integrity Matters. SIM have an experienced team of investigators, many of whom have previous experience of working in the County FA environment, and we strongly believe that the dedicated service that they will provide during the investigation stage will help us to turn cases round in a timely and efficient manner. This in turn will free up a significant amount of resource for our Football Services Team to ensure a high standard of service in all other governance matters.”

In the unlikely event that you are contacted to provide statements to support an investigation, we ask all our Club and Match Officials to assist SIM with their investigation as if you had been contacted directly by a member of County FA staff.

If you have any questions regarding disciplinary cases within Norfolk, please contact Discipline@NorfolkFA.com or visit www.NorfolkFA.com.