International Clearance process
This process is FIFA mandated and applies to clubs playing within all elements of Scottish Football, including players attempting to sign for Scottish Amateur FA Clubs.
If you wish to register a player from outwith Scotland, international clearance must first be obtained from their originating country. The only exceptions to this rule are players aged under 10, or players aged 18 + who have never been registered outwith Scotland.
In those cases, the Scottish FA has a dedicated mailbox set up for dealing with International Clearance. Clubs should send their information directly to the mailbox, where it will be picked up and actioned accordingly.
The email address is amateuritc@scottishfa.co.uk.
Players Requiring International Clearance
Clubs should provide the following to amateuritc@scottishfa.co.uk :
• Player’s full name and DOB
• Previous club and association
• Scan of photo ID
• Status of player at last club (amateur or professional)
Players who have never been registered outwith Scotland
Any players aged 18+ who have never been registered outwith Scotland can provide a signed statement confirming this. A copy of this statement should then be emailed to the above inbox for review.
Scottish FA COMET
If a player’s nationality is not Scottish or a player was born outwith Scotland, and they are aged 10 + with no previous registrations, COMET will flag that International Clearance may be required. If a player has dual-nationality and one of these nationalities is Scottish, by selecting Scottish at the point of registration, International Clearance will not be triggered.
Player appearing as ‘Submitted (Int)’ in error
On occasion, COMET will flag a player as requiring an international clearance review when this is not required.
This is usually caused when the ‘clearance type’ field is completed even though no clearance is actually required.
We would ask clubs to please ensure that they do not complete this field when submitting their registrations.
If a player’s registration is appearing as ‘Submitted (Int) when they do not require clearance, please send their details to the mailbox above for review.
Please note that a player who has previously sought International Clearance will have to repeat this process should they have a break in Registration History. Trialist registrations do no count towards this history.
A player currently seeking international clearance is NOT ELIGIBLE to be registered to play as a trialist during this period.
