Applicable to: Club Administrators, Association Administrators and Participants
Applicable to: Organisations whose sport has season permits enabled
Application(s): >Admin Portal > Transfers & Permits
This article will cover the following:
- What a season permit is and why it's used
- Global and local season permits
- Eligibility criteria for a season permit request
- Who decides whether a club or player can submit a request, and who approves it
- What happens once a season permit is approved
Related articles:
Overview
A season permit lets a player take part in an additional club's competition, over a set date range, without changing their home club of affiliation.
Season permits exist for players who regularly play for more than one team: representative carnivals, state or country championships, social tournaments, or simply filling in for a short stretch. Rather than transferring a player's whole registration, a season permit gives the destination club and association temporary access to that player's profile for just the dates they need.
Season permits can be requested in two ways:
- By the destination club, directly in the Admin Portal
- By the participant, as part of registering to a new club
Which of these is available depends on how the association running the competition has configured it — see "Who decides whether a club or player can submit a request" below.
Either way, the request must be reviewed and approved by every organisation involved before the player can play.
Important: Season permits aren't enabled for every sport. If your organisation doesn't see this feature in the Admin Portal, contact your sport's support team to confirm whether it applies to you.
Global and local season permits
How season permits behave depends on how player affiliations are set up for your sport in PlayHQ:
Global permits — used by sports including AFL, Cricket Australia, New Zealand Cricket, Hockey New Zealand, Rugby Canada and Cricket Scotland. Each player has a single affiliated home club across the whole sport. Permit settings — such as how many days each approving organisation has before a request is auto-approved — are set once for the entire sport and apply the same way across every competition.
Local permits — used by some other sports, including Football Australia and select Basketball associations. Each player can have a separate affiliated club for each competition they play in. Local permits can only be submitted by players during registration.
Because of this, the exact rules and options an admin or participant sees when requesting a season permit depend on whether their sport uses the global or local model. If you're not sure which applies to your competition, check with the association running it or contact your sport's support team.
Eligibility criteria for a season permit request
PlayHQ runs a number of automatic checks when a season permit request is submitted. If any check fails, the request can't go ahead and the admin or participant submitting it will see an explanation of what needs to change.
A player is eligible for a season permit when:
- They don't have a life ban recorded against their profile
- They aren't already registered to the destination club for that competition season
- They aren't already permitted — or waiting on a pending permit request — to the destination club over the same or overlapping dates
- They have an active registration in the same season, or (for global permits only) in a season their governing body has configured as an eligible "additional season"
- They have an affiliated club recorded on their profile
- For global permits: a permit agreement is in place between their affiliated association and the association they're being permitted to (where permit agreements are enabled for that sport)
- For local permits: they hold a valid membership for the entire permit date range
Tip: Requesting for multiple players at once Club administrators can raise season permit requests for up to 20 players in one go by searching and selecting a whole team, rather than submitting requests one at a time.
Who submits and approves a season permit
Who decides whether a club or player can submit a request
Whether a season permit request can be started by a club administrator, by the participant, or by either, is set at the competition level by the association running that competition. This means the same sport can behave differently between competitions — one competition might only allow club-initiated requests, while another run by the same association allows participants to request their own permit during registration.
Club-initiated requests
The destination club (the club the player wants to join) submits the request from Transfers & Permits > New Season Permit Request in the Admin Portal. The request must then be approved, in sequence, by the source club, the source association and the destination association before the player can participate.
Participant-initiated requests
Where a competition allows it, a participant can start the request themselves. During registration to a new club, they're shown a Request to Play option and can choose a season permit instead of a transfer. Their request goes through the same approval chain — source club, source association, destination association and destination club — and once every organisation has approved, the participant receives an email to complete their registration.
Organisations can turn on email notifications for pending approvals from Transfers & Permits > Settings in the Admin Portal, and some organisations may have automatic approval configured so a request isn't held up if nobody actions it in time.
What happens once a season permit is approved
Once every organisation in the chain approves, PlayHQ creates a season permit participation record in the destination club's season participant list. This gives the destination club and its association access to the player's profile so they can:
- Add the player to a team and line-up for games that fall within the permit's date range
- Record scores and stats against the player in the Admin Portal and the Electronic Scoring application
- View and update custom field values for the season permit participation record
Permitted players also appear in the destination organisation's participation report for that season.
:warning: Important: A season permit is only valid between its From and To dates. If a game is rescheduled to a date outside that range, the permitted player is automatically removed from that game's team and line-up.
Important considerations
Permit agreements between associations
For global permit sports, a permit agreement needs to already exist between the source and destination associations before a request can be submitted. If your association doesn't have an agreement with another association, contact your sport's support team to have one set up.
Concurrent permit limits
Some sports limit how many season permits a single player can hold at once. If a request is rejected for exceeding this limit, check with your association — some competitions may be excluded from the limit.
Approving on behalf of another club or association
Because a season permit needs approval from up to four organisations, delays at any one step will hold up the whole request. Turning on notifications in Transfers & Permits > Settings helps make sure your organisation doesn't become the bottleneck.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a season permit and a transfer? A transfer permanently changes a player's home club. A season permit lets them play for an additional club over a set date range without changing their affiliated club.
Who can request a season permit? It depends on how the association running the competition has configured it — some competitions only allow the destination club to submit a request in the Admin Portal, while others also let the participant initiate their own request during registration. Check with the relevant association if you're not sure which applies to a competition.
Does every organisation have access to season permits? No. Season permits are only enabled for sports that have turned the feature on — currently including AFL, Cricket Australia, New Zealand Cricket, Hockey New Zealand, Football Australia and select Basketball associations, with more sports being rolled out over time. Contact your sport's support team if you're not sure whether it applies to you.
What's the difference between global and local season permits? It comes down to how your sport manages player affiliations. Global permits (AFL, Cricket Australia, New Zealand Cricket, Hockey New Zealand) give each player one affiliated home club across the whole sport, with permit settings applied consistently sport-wide. Local permits (Football Australia and select Basketball associations) let a player have a different affiliated club per competition, with permit settings — including who can submit a request — configured individually by the association running each competition.
How many organisations need to approve a season permit request? Up to four: the player's current (source) club, the source association, the destination association and — for participant-initiated requests — the destination club. Every organisation in the chain must approve before the permit becomes active.
What happens if my organisation doesn't respond to a request? Some organisations may have automatic approval configured so a request isn't held up if nobody actions it in time. Check Transfers & Permits > Settings to see whether this applies to your organisation.
Can a season permit be cancelled once it's approved? Yes — an approved season permit participation record can be cancelled. A pending request currently can't be withdrawn once it's been submitted, so check the details carefully before submitting.
Will a season-permitted player show up in reports? Yes. Permitted players appear in the destination organisation's participation report for that season.
What stops an ineligible player from being permitted? PlayHQ automatically checks things like life ban status, existing registrations and permits, and whether a permit agreement exists between the two associations. If any check fails, the request can't be submitted and an explanatory message is shown to the admin or participant.