The FMHA

The FMHA The Grassroots Mental Health Vault
FREE Mental health support tools for ALL in grassroots football.

A young player struggles when instructions contain five separate actions.Another becomes distressed when the session cha...
02/07/2026

A young player struggles when instructions contain five separate actions.

Another becomes distressed when the session changes without warning. Someone else appears inattentive during meetings but can explain everything afterwards.

None of this gives a football club permission to diagnose a condition. Nor should it.

But staff can still notice patterns, ask sensible questions and adjust how they work.

The danger comes when every difficulty is interpreted through character. The player becomes “lazy”, “disruptive”, “too emotional” or “not coachable”. Those labels are quick. They’re also occasionally spectacularly wrong.

Player Passport records the practical information around the player: communication preferences, difficult environments, recurring triggers, helpful adjustments and the player’s own account of what they experience.

That gives coaches something usable without asking them to become clinicians.

A diagnosis may explain a player’s needs. It shouldn’t be the entry ticket for thoughtful coaching.

Less labelling. More curiosity about what helps the player learn and perform.

https://www.playerpassport.uk/professional-academy-football

Reference: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/equality/equality-act-2010/your-rights-under-equality-act-2010/terms-used-equality-act

Most training licences make you count heads.You buy 10 seats and someone leaves in March. Do you reassign the seat? Do y...
02/07/2026

Most training licences make you count heads.

You buy 10 seats and someone leaves in March. Do you reassign the seat? Do you go back to procurement? Who tracks it? The admin alone is a reason some academies just don't bother.

The FMHA annual academy licence doesn't work like that. Unlimited staff access for 12 months. New coaches joining mid-season are covered. Staff moving into different roles within the academy are covered. Nobody's checking headcount. Nobody's going back to procurement.

The practical effect: once the licence is in, neurodiversity training is just available. It's not an event you have to schedule. It's not a finite resource. It's there when someone needs it.

That's a different relationship with CPD than most academies have.

Full details: https://assets.thefmha.com/pro-academy-nd-training

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺?Not diagnosed. Not disclosed. Not always obvious. But t...
01/07/2026

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺?

Not diagnosed. Not disclosed. Not always obvious. But there.

We’ve built a simple calculator for professional football academies to help put some numbers around this.

You enter the number of players in your academy, and it gives an estimated range of how many may be neurodivergent.

Why does this matter?

Because if even a small percentage of your academy players are autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, dyspraxic or have other neurodevelopmental differences, then the way sessions are delivered, instructions are given, behaviour is understood, and support is documented really matters.

This isn’t about labelling players. It’s about helping academies ask a better question:

Are we recognising the players who may need support, or are we only reacting when things start to go wrong?

A player who struggles with late changes, noisy changing rooms, verbal-only instructions, cold or wet kit, transitions, emotional regulation, or perceived criticism might not be being “difficult”.

They might be telling you something.

The calculator is a small tool, but the conversation behind it is a big one.

Professional academies need to move beyond good intentions. They need to 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗲, 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱.

https://vault.thefmha.com/professional-football-academy-neurodiversity-calculator/

The Equality Act 2010 doesn't care that you can't get all your staff together in one room at one time. Professional foot...
01/07/2026

The Equality Act 2010 doesn't care that you can't get all your staff together in one room at one time.

Professional football academies have legal obligations to make reasonable adjustments for neurodivergent players. That duty is there whether your staff has had the training or not. "We couldn't fit it in this season" isn't a defence if a parent files a complaint and asks what adjustments were made and how staff were equipped to make them.

The obligation is continuous. The training should be too.

The FMHA online ND programme covers the legal landscape in section 5 - what the Act requires, what "reasonable adjustment" actually looks like in a football academy context, and how to document what you're already doing so it holds up if it's ever questioned.

Self-paced. Annual licence. Unlimited staff access.

The obligation doesn't move. The training format should work around you.

assets.thefmha.com/pro-academy-nd-training

Enough academies told us the same thing...Can't get the full staff into a room or Zoom window all at once. Can't hold a ...
30/06/2026

Enough academies told us the same thing...

Can't get the full staff into a room or Zoom window all at once. Can't hold a date when the season's running. By the time it's approved, three coaches have changed.

So we rebuilt the programme for how academies actually operate.

Same 10-section content. Legal obligations under the Equality Act. Identifying the players going under the radar. Practical coaching adjustments. Documentation. Working with parents. All of it. But each staff member works through it in their own time. No session to schedule. No dependency on everyone being free at once.

Annual Academy Licence. 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗳𝗳 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟭𝟮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀. Any coach and member of staff joining mid-season is covered automatically. No headcount. No going back to procurement every time someone new comes in.

If the live delivery version never quite happened for your academy click here:

www.assets.thefmha.com/pro-academy-nd-training

Corporate sponsorship of grassroots sport used to be straightforward.A local business puts their name on the kit. Gets a...
30/06/2026

Corporate sponsorship of grassroots sport used to be straightforward.

A local business puts their name on the kit. Gets a bit of visibility. Feels good about supporting the community. Everyone's happy.

That model still exists. But the businesses worth having as sponsors - the ones with real budgets and long-term commitment - are increasingly asking a different question.

What's the social return on our investment?

ESG reporting. Corporate social responsibility. Social value measurement. These aren't buzzwords in boardrooms anymore; they're requirements. Companies need to demonstrate community impact to their stakeholders, their investors, and their employees.

A grassroots club that can say "partnering with us delivers X in measurable community social value, calculated on HM Treasury methodology" is in a fundamentally different conversation to a club offering a logo on a shirt.

Your social value report is your sponsorship proposition. Know your number before you walk into that meeting.

Proof of Play calculates it in ten minutes: www.proofofplay.uk

30/06/2026

For young players to thrive, professional academy coaches need more than performance data.

Player Passport brings parent, school and Player Care insight into one coach-safe snapshot, so academies can support the person behind the player.

See it in action: www.playerpassport.uk

29/06/2026

At the beginning of a season, a parent tells the coach what their child finds difficult.

They explain that sudden changes can cause distress. They describe how the child responds to public criticism and what helps them rejoin the group after becoming overwhelmed.

The next season brings a different coach, so the parent starts again.

Sometimes the information travels through a hurried handover. Sometimes it’s buried in a message from eight months ago. Sometimes nothing moves with the player at all.

Player Passport gives the family and club a more reliable way to carry support information forward. The player’s needs don’t reset because the league table has.

Consent and appropriate access still matter. A support record shouldn’t become gossip with a login. But relevant information can be shared responsibly so a new coach isn’t starting from zero.

Parents should be able to update the picture, not repeatedly reconstruct it. And children shouldn’t have to struggle again before the adults remember what worked last time.

https://www.playerpassport.uk/grassroots-football

Reference:https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/what_equality_law_means_for_your_vol_or_community_sector_organisation.pdf

29/06/2026

Your academy might already be supporting neurodivergent players. The question is whether you can evidence it.

Assist helps staff recognise, respond and record before support gets lost in memory, messages and “someone knows about it”.

https://assets.thefmha.com/assist-academies

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