Sports club constitution template

What’s in the template

• Name, objects and membership. Open membership, membership categories, and fair reasons to refuse or remove a member.
• Committee and meetings. Officers, co-opting, conflicts of interest, quorum and voting.
• AGM and special general meetings. Notice, nominations, business, quorum and how members call a special meeting.
• Finance and property. Two signatories, the financial year, examined accounts, expenses, and custodian trustees for property.
• Discipline, safeguarding and equality. Complaints, appeals, a welfare officer and criminal records checks.
• Changes and dissolution. How to amend it, and where assets go if the club winds up.

Check your governing body first

Many national governing bodies publish a model constitution for affiliated clubs, and some require particular clauses. Swim England, for example, publishes one for unincorporated clubs (Swim England model club constitution). If yours does, use it, and use this template only to compare.

Sport England’s free club support service explains what a constitution should cover (Buddle: developing a constitution).

Unincorporated or incorporated?

Most small clubs are unincorporated associations: a group of members who agree to a set of rules. It is simple and cheap, but the club has no legal identity of its own, so it can’t own land or sign contracts in its own name, and its members, especially the committee, can be personally liable for its debts (gov.uk).

Clubs that employ staff, lease or own a ground, or take on large contracts often become a company limited by guarantee or a charitable incorporated organisation, which limits members’ liability. Those need a different governing document, so take advice first (Buddle: legal structures).

CASC and charity clauses

Registering with HMRC as a Community Amateur Sports Club brings tax relief, Gift Aid on donations and 80% mandatory business rates relief. To qualify, the club must be open to the whole community with affordable membership, run on an amateur basis, and have a formal constitution with the right clauses (gov.uk: register a CASC). The clauses marked CASC in the template follow HMRC’s model clauses; HMRC warns that small wording changes can make a clause fail.

A club must choose between registering as a CASC and registering as a charity: a registered CASC can’t become a charity without winding up and transferring its assets. If charity status is a possibility, read the Charity Commission’s guidance before you adopt the constitution.

How to adopt it

1. Fill in every blank

   Club name, sport, area, membership categories, numbers for the committee and quorum, notice periods and the financial year. Delete the guidance notes and any CASC clauses you don’t need.

2. Check it against your governing body’s rules

   Make sure nothing conflicts with the rules you affiliate under, particularly on discipline, safeguarding and membership.

3. Adopt it at a general meeting

   For a new club, the founding members adopt it at the first meeting. For an existing club, follow the amendment clause in your current constitution, with notice of the full text.

4. Sign and share it

   The chair, secretary and treasurer sign and date it. Give every member a copy or put it on the club website, and keep the signed original with the club records.

Common mistakes

• Copying another club’s constitution without checking it fits how your club actually runs.
• Setting a quorum so high the AGM can never make decisions.
• No dissolution clause, or one that would hand assets to members, which rules out CASC status.
• Forgetting to update it when the club changes: new membership categories, a new governing body, or a move to online meetings.

Questions

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