Summary of MWFA Borrowing Rules
The following is a summary of the borrowing rules from the MWFA. For more detail please consult the MWFA Playing Rules document.
Main Idea Behind Borrowing Rules
Don’t borrow players unless you need to and if you do, don’t use them to the disadvantage of your own players. Especially don’t borrow players just to win games. That said, if your goalkeeper is injured and you don’t have an alternative, borrowing a keeper and using them for the whole game is OK.
Number of Borrowed Players
You can only borrow four eligible players from other teams in normal season games. You can only borrow two players in a finals series game including a round robin, knockout semi-final.
Borrowing Limit
You can only borrow a particular player a maximum number of times. Except for U16 and U18 being borrowed by WPL, PL and AL1 which is unlimited, a player can only be borrowed four times in a season.
For a player to play more than four times for a borrowing team the player must be re-registered in the borrowing team. If the player changes teams in this way just before the finals, even though the player can play for the new team they count as a borrowed player in the finals series.
If a player changes teams due to being borrowed more than four times they may not be borrowed by the originally registered team no matter if allowed by the rules.
Borrowed Team on Match Sheet
The registered team of a borrowed player must be noted on the Match Sheet.
Duty of Care
You have to make sure players in your team or that you borrow are capable of playing in the age group, especially for players playing up more than two years above their age group.
Women Playing in Other Competitions
A player in Women’s Competition can’t be borrowed by another competition (eg. Youth ) without the player being registered in a team in the other competition and having a separate ID card for that competition.
First & Reserve Grade
Where a Division is played as first and reserve grade, both teams are regarded as having the same division for the purposes of the Borrowing Rules. For the purposes of games played for a team the first grade and reserve grade are considered separate teams. So a player may be borrowed four times by the first grade and four times by the reserve grade,
Borrowing Eligibility Rules
This table shows the age borrowing options and maximum number of times for different age groups.
The table above lists the different age goups which a team in a particular age group can borrow. In addition to age group restrictions, there are restrictions based on the division of the borrowing team.
U12 to U18 Age Groups
Where a Club has more than one team in a First Division Competition, the MWFA will label the teams ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ etc in order of the strength of the team. A first division team may only borrow from another team in the same first division if it is of lower strength. Thus ‘A’ can borrow from ‘B’ but ‘B’ cannot borrow from ‘A’.
U11 teams are graded into divisions which determine which divisions of U12 they may be borrowed. Players wishing to act as substitutes will have player ID cards issued based on this initial grading. This initial grading will determine the borrowing eligibility of the players into the U12 age group, irrespective of any regrading of teams during the season.
U10 players graded in a Red team are only eligible to be borrowed to play in the U11/1, U11/2. Players in all other U10 Team Groups are eligible to substitute in any Division of the U11 Age group.
Any U10 player must have an ID card before they can be borrowed by an U12 team. .
Open Competition
Teams in Open Competitions may borrow players from teams in the same or lower division than the borrowing team. Teams in Open Competitions may borrow from O35 Competitions provided they play in an O35 team in the same or a lower Division than the Borrowing team’s division in the Open Competition.
Where a borrowed player is from a team in an U16 or U18 competition, that player must meet be at least 15 years of age during the football year.
O35 Competition
Teams in O35 competitions may borrow players in other O35 competitions provided players are registered in the same or a lower division than the borrowing team.
Teams in Women’s O35 competitions may borrow players registered in Open Competitions provided that such players are registered in the same or lower Open Division than the borrowing team.
Teams in other O35 competitions may borrow players registered in Open Competitions provided that such players are registered in a lower Open Division than the borrowing team.
Borrowed Players from teams in Open Competitions must be O35 age qualified and must have their ID card endorsed as an O35 reserve before they play as a borrowed player.
No Teams to Borrow From
Sometimes a team may have no borrowing options in the same or two age groups down. When this is true, a player may be borrowed from a team registered in the next Age Group below in which the Club has a team. Particular attention needs to be paid to the ability of the player to cope in the age group. This option should be used sparingly.
If a team has borrowing options under the table above and cannot borrow players from any teams due to a clash of games etc then no players can be borrowed for that game.
Further Eligibility Restrictions
The MWFA may impose restrictions on the number of players who may be in a single team based on certain criteria. These number restrictions cannot be circumvented by borrowing players from other teams who meet the criteria. In any game the number of players used by the team including borrowed players cannot exceed this number. An example is the limit of three ex Representative players.