Club Licensing aims to promote good governance and bring structure to football clubs.It is a tool that elevates the standard of leagues and clubs. The National Club Licensing System was introduced in 2021 to ensure that clubs participating in Top National Leagues were upholding a certain standard.
The BFF Club Licensing System
The BFF has adopted the National Club Licensing regulations from 1st September 2021. It was introduced with a set of criteria to be fulfilled for the clubs to be eligible to participate in National Competition (Bhutan premier League & Women’s National League).
The regulations have five criteria- Sporting; Infrastructure, Personnel & Administrative, Financial and Legal criteria (please refer to the below-attached regulations for detail). These criteria have been graded into 3 sub-criteria (A, B & C):
- A- Club Licensing Criteria Gradation : These mandatory criteria are to be fulfilled by the license applicant. If the license applicant does not fulfill any of the criteria, then they shall not be granted a license to enter the National Competitions organized by Bhutan Football Federation.
- B- Club Licensing Criteria Gradation: If the license applicant does not fulfill any B- club licensing criteria, then it shall be sanctioned as specified by the licensor for non-fulfillment of these criteria, however, the license applicant may still receive a license to enter the National Competitions.
- C- Club Licensing Criteria Gradation: These Club Licensing Criteria are best practice recommendations
(For now, BFF has regulated only the A criteria)
Overall, Club Licensing has an Objective to:
- Establish reliability, credibility, and integrity of the National League and BFF Club Competitions along with the clubs participating in those competitions.
- Promotion and continuous improvement of standards of all the aspects of football.
- Ensure qualified coaches are engaged in training the players in each participating club with the overall aim to improve the standard and quality of the matches.
- Ensure development of youth teams.
- Ensure adequate and good quality match and training facilities for the clubs participating in those competitions.
- Improve the overall administration and management organization of the clubs and make them more efficient, productive, and transparent.
- Improve the economic and financial standings of clubs and generate revenues through effective marketing and commercial exploitation by the clubs.
The Men's Clubs that obtained AFC Club license for season 2021
The Men's Clubs that obtained BFF Club license
The Women's Clubs that obtained AFC Club license
