Platform legal

The Full Squad — Acceptable Use Policy

Version: 1.1 Effective date: 6 September 2026 (the date this version was first published on thefullsquad.com)

Changes in 1.1: section 7.6 (Squad Assist and AI-assisted import mapping are not yet available; the rules in this section apply once each launches, decision 279 and decision 272). Applies to: every Club and every User of The Full Squad

1. Who we are and what this Policy does

1.1 The Full Squad is a software platform for football clubs, provided by Reload IT Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 10106178) with its registered office at Moor Park House, Bawtry Road, Wickersley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S66 2BL ("Reload IT", "we", "us", "our"). The platform is available at thefullsquad.com and thefullsquad.app, including club subdomains in the form {club}.thefullsquad.app and any custom domains a Club connects (together, the "Platform").

1.2 This Acceptable Use Policy (the "Policy") sets out what you may and may not do when using the Platform. It exists to keep the Platform safe and lawful for everyone who uses it — and in particular to protect the children whose information Clubs manage through it.

1.3 This Policy applies to:

(a) every club, team, league or other organisation with a Platform subscription or account (each a "Club"), whether incorporated or an unincorporated association; and

(b) every individual who accesses or uses the Platform in any capacity — including club administrators, managers, coaches, volunteers, staff, safeguarding/welfare officers, parents and guardians, players aged 13 and over with an active account, and visitors to Club sites hosted on the Platform (each a "User").

1.4 This Policy forms part of, and should be read together with:

(a) for Clubs — the Platform Terms of Service; and

(b) for individual Users — the End User Terms of Use.

If this Policy conflicts with either of those documents, the Terms of Service (for Clubs) or the Terms of Use (for individuals) take priority.

1.5 By using the Platform you agree to follow this Policy. If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform.

1.6 Plain-English note. We have written this Policy so that volunteer club officials and parents can understand it without a lawyer. Where a word is capitalised it has the defined meaning given to it in this Policy or in the Terms of Service / Terms of Use.

2. Some important context

2.1 Reload IT provides software only. We provide the tools; the Club runs the club. Reload IT does not provide footballing, coaching, childcare or safeguarding services, and nothing in this Policy makes us responsible for how a Club operates or transfers any of the Club's operational or legal duties to us.

2.2 Clubs control their members' data. Each Club is the data controller for its members' personal data on the Platform; Reload IT processes that data on the Club's behalf. Rules in this Policy about member data exist to support the Club's legal duties as controller — they do not transfer those duties to us.

2.3 Content on Club sites belongs to Clubs. The public websites and member areas the Platform hosts are populated by Clubs and Users, not by Reload IT. This includes any terms, conditions, policies or onboarding documents a Club uploads for its own members: those are the Club's sole responsibility — the Platform hosts them, versions them and records acceptance of them, but Reload IT does not review, approve or warrant them. We do not, and are not obliged to, review any Club or User content before it is published (see section 8).

2.4 We do not vet people. Reload IT does not carry out, verify or monitor DBS, PVG or AccessNI checks, football-governing-body safeguarding qualifications, or any other vetting of Club officials, volunteers or Users. Deciding who may act for a Club, and what access each person is given within the Club's tenant, is entirely the Club's responsibility.

3. The golden rules

Do not use the Platform, or allow anyone else to use it through your account, to do anything that:

(a) breaks the law of England and Wales or any other law that applies to you;

(b) harms, endangers or attempts to make inappropriate contact with a child;

(d) misuses personal data held on or exported from the Platform.

Sections 4 to 7 spell these rules out in detail. If something is not listed but is obviously in the same spirit, it is still prohibited.

4. Prohibited content

4.1 You must not upload, post, publish, send, store, generate or share on or through the Platform any content that:

(a) is unlawful, or promotes, facilitates or instructs unlawful activity;

(b) is defamatory of any person, club, league, official or organisation;

(c) infringes any copyright, trade mark, database right or other intellectual property right, or breaches any duty of confidence — this includes match footage, photographs, badges, logos and kit designs you do not have the right to use;

(d) is obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit, or sexualises or exploits children in any way (content of that last kind will also be reported to the authorities — see clause 9.5);

(e) is discriminatory — content that attacks, demeans or incites hatred against any person or group on the basis of race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability, age, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, or nationality, including discriminatory chanting, imagery or "banter";

(f) is threatening, abusive or harassing, or promotes violence against any person — including referees, match officials, opposition players, volunteers and children;

(g) is deliberately false or misleading in a way likely to cause harm — for example fake fixture, safety or medical information;

(h) discloses another person's personal data without a lawful basis — including "outing", doxxing, or publishing a child's personal details, image, school, medical or safeguarding information without proper authority and any required consent; or

(i) advertises or promotes anything unlawful, or promotes gambling, alcohol, tobacco, vaping or age-restricted products in areas of the Platform directed at or accessible to children.

4.2 Clubs are responsible for all content published on their Club sites and within their tenant, whoever within the Club uploaded it, and must remove content that breaches this Policy promptly on becoming aware of it.

5. Harassment and behaviour towards others

5.1 You must not use the Platform to harass, bully, intimidate, stalk or victimise any person. This includes:

(a) repeated unwanted contact or messaging;

(b) abusive, degrading or humiliating messages, comments or posts, whether directed at adults or children;

(c) using Platform communications to pursue personal disputes, feuds between clubs, or campaigns against officials, volunteers or parents; and

(d) encouraging or coordinating any of the above by others.

5.2 Communications tools on the Platform exist to run football activities. Use them for that purpose.

6. Safeguarding - zero tolerance

6.1 The Platform's age and messaging controls exist to reduce avoidable risk. Under-13s have no independent login. A 13-17-year-old account cannot activate until a linked parent/guardian has accepted the link.

6.2 Adult Club officials must not use the Platform to establish private one-to-one contact with an under-18 player. Communication must include the linked parent/guardian or use a supervised group. A group containing under-18s must include at least one additional responsible adult or linked parent/guardian.

6.3 Users must not attempt to circumvent those controls by misstating age, creating false accounts, moving contact to another channel using details obtained from the Platform, sharing credentials, creating hidden groups, or otherwise defeating the parent/supervision model.

6.4 Users must not access medical, safeguarding, disciplinary or criminal-record-check information beyond their legitimate role. Access to sensitive records is restricted and audited.

6.5 Message attachments must not be used to share unlawful, abusive, sexually explicit, exploitative, malicious or otherwise prohibited material. The Platform may restrict file types and sizes, scan files for malware, quarantine or remove files, and preserve/report evidence where lawfully required.

6.6 Safeguarding breaches are treated as the most serious category of breach. We may immediately restrict content/features or suspend an account, notify the Club's safeguarding contact, preserve evidence, and make any report to a competent authority required by law.

6.7 These are software controls. They do not replace the Club's safeguarding policy or reporting routes and do not make Reload IT the Club's safeguarding body.

7. Data misuse, security and technical abuse

7.1 Member data. The Platform lets authorised Club officials export member data (for example for league registration) and lets individuals export their own data. You must not:

(a) export, copy or extract personal data from the Platform except as needed for the legitimate running of the Club and in accordance with the Club's own data protection obligations;

(b) use exported member data for marketing, sell or share it with any third party without a lawful basis, or retain it after the purpose for which it was exported has ended;

(d) access personal data of members, children or families beyond what your role in the Club legitimately requires.

Responsibility for what happens to personal data after it leaves the Platform sits with the person who exported it and, where they acted for a Club, with that Club as controller — not with Reload IT.

7.2 Security. You must not:

(a) introduce or transmit malware, viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware or any other malicious or harmful code;

(b) probe, scan, penetration-test or attempt to breach the security or authentication of the Platform, or of any other Club's tenant, without our prior written permission;

(d) interfere with or disrupt the Platform, including denial-of-service attacks, flooding, or deliberately excessive load; or

(e) remove, obscure or tamper with any security, audit-logging or access-control feature.

7.3 Scraping and automated access. You must not scrape, harvest, crawl or bulk-download content or personal data from the Platform (including public Club sites) by automated means, or use robots, spiders or similar tools against it, except for ordinary search-engine indexing of public pages.

7.4 Impersonation. You must not impersonate any person, club, league, governing body (including The FA, FAW, Scottish FA, Irish FA or another relevant football body), or Reload IT; misrepresent your role, affiliation or authority; or register a Club tenant, subdomain or custom domain that misleadingly suggests it belongs to someone else.

7.5 Spam. You must not use the Platform to send spam, chain messages, or bulk unsolicited messages; to send marketing messages without the consents the law requires; or to operate mailing lists unrelated to legitimate club business. Clubs are responsible for ensuring their use of Platform communication tools complies with direct-marketing law (UK GDPR and PECR).

7.6 AI features (Squad Assist). Squad Assist is not yet available; the rules in this section apply once it launches. Where the Platform offers AI-assisted features, you must not use them to create or attempt to create content prohibited by this Policy; attempt to bypass, "jailbreak" or manipulate their safety controls; use them to extract personal data, other Clubs' data or Platform internals; or enter medical data, safeguarding records, criminal-record-check information or other highly sensitive Member Data into AI features. The person import ships with manual, admin-driven column mapping first; if an AI-assisted import mapping accelerator is added later, it must use column headings only or anonymised/redacted sample values and must not include identifiable Member Data or Special Category Data. AI-generated output can be wrong: it is provided as a convenience, you must check it before relying on or publishing it, and it creates no advice, recommendation or duty on the part of Reload IT.

7.7 Other restrictions. You must not resell, sublicense or make the Platform available to any third party except as the Terms of Service allow; frame or mirror the Platform; reverse engineer it except to the limited extent the law permits despite this restriction; use it to build a competing product; or use it to conduct transactions it does not support — for example, the Platform displays match-ticket information only and must not be used or presented as an online ticket-sales channel.

8. Our approach to moderation

8.1 Moderation and statutory safety duties. Reload IT does not promise that every item of Club Content, User Content or communication will be reviewed before it is posted, sent or encountered. We operate the reporting, moderation, safety and technical systems and processes that we consider appropriate to the Service and that applicable law requires. We act on reports and on content or conduct that comes to our attention, and where the law requires proactive or proportionate safety measures we will operate those measures accordingly.

8.2 Except for duties imposed by applicable law, nothing in this Policy creates a separate contractual duty of care requiring Reload IT to detect every breach, prevent every misuse or continuously inspect every item of content or communication. Nothing in this Policy excludes, restricts or disclaims any statutory online-safety duty that applies to Reload IT, including any duty under the Online Safety Act 2023. Any monitoring, automated detection, review or investigation we carry out may be proportionate and risk-based and may change as the Service, applicable law and regulatory guidance develop.

9. Reporting abuse

9.1 If you see a message, attachment, content or behaviour that may breach this Policy, use the in-app Report route. Reports normally go to the relevant Club administrator/safeguarding contact. Where the report concerns the Club itself, serious Platform misuse, or the ordinary Club route is inappropriate, use the Reload IT escalation route at info@thefullsquad.com.

9.2 A useful report tells us: where the content or conduct is (a link or description of the page/message), what the problem is, and — if you are asserting rights (for example copyright or defamation) — who you are and the basis of your complaint. You must not make reports you know to be false or misleading; knowingly abusive reporting is itself a breach of this Policy.

9.3 Safeguarding emergencies come first. If a child is at immediate risk, contact the police (999) before or as well as reporting to us. Concerns about a child's welfare within a Club should also go to that Club's safeguarding/welfare contact and, where appropriate, the relevant national or regional football safeguarding body or statutory authority. The in-app reporting route is a way of telling us about Platform misuse — it is not an emergency service, a safeguarding service or a substitute for either.

9.4 We aim to handle reports confidentially so far as we reasonably can, but we may need to share a report with the relevant Club (as controller of its tenant content) to resolve it.

9.5 We will make any report to the police, the National Crime Agency, the ICO, a local authority or another competent authority that applicable law requires. If the Platform, or a relevant part of it, is a regulated user-to-user service under the Online Safety Act 2023, this includes complying with any applicable mandatory reporting duty for detected and unreported child sexual exploitation and abuse content. We may also make a report where the law permits and we reasonably believe content or conduct is unlawful or puts a child at risk, and may disclose associated account information where the law permits or requires. We may do so without notice to you where appropriate.

10. Notice and takedown

10.1 Standard process. When we receive a report or otherwise become aware of content that may breach this Policy:

(a) we aim to review the report within a reasonable time of receiving it;

(b) where the content sits in a Club's tenant, we will normally notify the Club and ask it to remove or amend the content within a stated period, since the Club controls its own content; and

(c) if the Club does not act, or where the breach is clear, we may remove, disable access to, or restrict the content ourselves.

10.2 Immediate removal. We may remove or disable access to content, or suspend accounts or features, immediately and without prior notice where we reasonably consider the content or conduct:

(a) creates a safeguarding risk to any child;

(b) is unlawful or exposes Reload IT, a Club or any person to legal liability or regulatory action;

(d) is the subject of a court order, or a request from the police or another competent authority, that we reasonably consider valid.

10.3 Counter-notice. If your content is removed or disabled and you believe the removal was mistaken — for example, you hold the necessary rights or the report was wrong — you may submit a counter-notice via the in-app support route or info@thefullsquad.com, explaining who you are, identifying the content, and setting out why the removal was wrong. We will review counter-notices in good faith and may restore content where we are reasonably satisfied the complaint was unfounded. We are not obliged to restore content, and our decision on restoration is final for the purposes of this process — it does not take away any legal rights you may have against us or against the person who complained, and if you are a consumer it does not affect any right you have to bring a claim.

10.4 No liability for takedown. To the maximum extent the law allows, and provided we act in good faith, Reload IT is not liable to any Club or User for removing or disabling content, suspending features or accounts, or declining to do any of those things, under this Policy. Subscription fees remain payable during any suspension arising from a breach of this Policy. Nothing in this clause excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded (see clause 11.6).

10.5 We may preserve copies of removed content, related account records and audit logs where reasonably necessary for legal, safeguarding or evidential purposes, even after removal or account termination.

11. Consequences of breach

11.1 If a Club or User breaches this Policy, we may take any action we reasonably consider appropriate and proportionate to the breach, including one or more of:

(a) a warning;

(b) removing or disabling content (section 10);

(d) suspending the User's account or the Club's tenant;

(e) terminating the account or subscription in accordance with the Terms of Service or Terms of Use;

(f) notifying the Club (where a User within its tenant is in breach), a governing body, or the authorities (clause 9.5); and

(g) taking legal action, including seeking recovery of losses we suffer because of the breach and, where a court awards them, our reasonable costs of investigating and enforcing it.

11.2 Repeat breaches lead to suspension. A Club or User who breaches this Policy repeatedly, or fails to remedy a notified breach, may have their account or tenant suspended and ultimately terminated. Safeguarding breaches under section 6 may result in immediate suspension on the first occasion.

11.3 No getting round a suspension. If your account or tenant is suspended or terminated for breach, you must not register a new account or tenant, use someone else's account, or otherwise attempt to regain access without our written agreement. Doing so is itself a breach of this Policy.

11.4 Cooperation. Clubs and Users must cooperate reasonably with any investigation we conduct into a suspected breach of this Policy, including providing information we reasonably request about content or conduct within their control.

11.5 Clubs remain responsible for the conduct of their officials, staff, volunteers and members on the Platform, and for the consequences under the Terms of Service (including the Club's indemnity) of content and conduct within their tenant. A breach of this Policy by a Club or by anyone acting through its tenant may trigger that indemnity.

11.6 For individual consumers, nothing in this Policy removes or limits rights you have under consumer law that cannot lawfully be excluded, and nothing in it excludes or limits Reload IT's liability for death or personal injury caused by its negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

12. Changes to this Policy

12.1 We may update this Policy from time to time — for example to reflect new features, new legal requirements or new patterns of misuse. We will publish the updated version on the Platform and, for material changes, give Clubs and Users reasonable advance notice through the Platform or by email.

12.2 Continued use of the Platform after a change takes effect means the updated Policy applies to you. If you do not accept a change, you must stop using the Platform (and a Club may exercise any termination rights it has under the Terms of Service).

13. General

13.1 Governing law. This Policy, and any dispute or claim arising out of it or its subject matter (including non-contractual disputes or claims), is governed by the law of England and Wales.

13.2 Jurisdiction. The courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any such dispute or claim. If you are a consumer resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your local courts, and you keep the benefit of any mandatory consumer protections of the law of the part of the United Kingdom in which you live.

13.3 Severability. If any part of this Policy is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest of it continues in full force, and the invalid part is treated as replaced by the closest valid wording that achieves its purpose.

13.4 No waiver. If we do not act on a breach straight away, we are not giving up our right to act on it, or on any later breach.

13.5 Contact. Questions about this Policy: via in-app support or info@thefullsquad.com.

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