Starting A.. Soccer Team or Soccer Club

Starting a soccer team / club is a commitment that needs to be thought through very carefully in order to avoid both disappointment for yourself and heartbreak for youngsters.

What questions should you ask yourself before taking any action?

• Is there enough demand for another team in your vicinity or are you going to swamp an already saturated market?
• Are there enough players willing to play on a regular basis?
• Are you willing to give up your free time on weekends as well as during the week?
• Have you discussed the implications with your husband / wife / partner / children etc and made them aware of the possible new obligations you may have to face up to on a regular basis?
• Have you sought out any other committed personnel who are willing to support you with the organisation / training / transport etc?

IF THE ANSWER TO THESE QUESTIONS IS YES THEN …….read on

Initial steps to starting a successful team/club:

• Pool of players.
• Officials for the club (Can be viewed elsewhere on this site).
• Pitches and Training facilities for coaching sessions and matches.
• Competitions to be entered or friendly games.
• Affiliation to local County or Area.
• Finance which includes fund raising and Insurance.
• Name of club.
• Kit and equipment.
• Policies / Codes of Conduct to protect the players / parents / officials.

Players for your team

Many people create teams because their own children or their friends have nowhere to play. If adults set up teams to offer their own children the opportunities of playing they are expecting a level of commitment which needs to be mirrored by the adults involved. If you or other adults involved decide to set up a team there is a level of commitment expected from all not just parents, this commitment may be influenced by a number of things. Friends of friends will want to join because football is a social sport. Careful consideration must be given to your club ethos, is it to start and build a social yet competitive side or is winning more important to you? These are factors which may well influence players (and their parents) as to whether they join you or not. Advertising at schools or in local papers will naturally enough promote a response so are you going to limit your numbers (this would ensure that each player could get a regular opportunity of football) or will you allow your squad to grow to encourage players to compete for places. Both these approaches have been successful in the past, however players getting regular games are generally much happier players than those who only playing every second week or so who may become disgruntled and leave.

Officials for the Club

Your club will need the commitment of a number of officials to help it run smoothly but also to prevent one individual having to run the entire setup. Many successful clubs start with a single club official but as the club grows so will the need for support and active involvement of club officials. If you are able to enlist the support of parents or like minded adults you may be able to form a committee. Any committee will require a minimum of 3 - or a larger odd number to ensure that any situation can be handled as a majority decision and not a split vote of 2,2 or 3,3. which would leave any problem unresolved. Further information on specific duties of club Officials can also be found elsewhere on this site.

Pitches and Training Facilities

Pitches and Training Facilities are hard enough to get at the best of times so you will need to get onto this task as soon as you can. There are a number of sources for Pitches and Training Facilities but they are often in short supply. Your Local Authority, Council, Schools or private grounds are all sources for hire. These days many Schools that have their own pitches may be willing to hire out to junior clubs but they may well be selective and wanting to know that your club is well run, with a code of conduct for parents and players. After all they need to be confident that any group using their grounds will not cause problems for staff or pupils after the weekend.

You may often find that many pitches will have limited changing facilities and often poor toilet facilities, try to take these things into consideration before committing to a yearly booking. You will need to do a bit of investigating to ensure that the pitch does not flood easily during rain, any roads or paths are passable during inclement weather, showers and toilets always function and neighbours can be approached about footballs being kicked into their gardens. Is the general upkeep of the pitch good with basic goal posts and line marking maintained and do dog walkers have access to these pitches on a regular basis.

Competitions to be entered and/or friendly games

Children will want to compete against other players to test their own ability and also to emulate their heroes from the professional game. Many teams have made the mistake of entering their teams into Leagues without researching the background fully and have discovered that the standard of opposition is too great for them (or too easy) and players become quickly disillusioned and reluctant towards playing. Research has to be done to ensure that your team enters a league that offers you the type of competition and sporting play that you want for your team. Many teams decide to play friendly games, or enter festivals or tournaments against sides that they may be playing the following season to give them a clearer idea of the standard they will face. If your side fails to win a game all season but loses close matches then the morale of the side can be maintained however to suffer crushing defeats week after week will require a stout resolution from the manager / coach and the parents to keep the motivation and optimism levels high.

Affiliation to Counties or Local Leagues

This is vitally important if you want to enter a league or competitions, non affiliated teams are not allowed to enter such affiliated competitions, so unless your team is happy playing friendly matches and not having the backup of a league for officials etc you will need to affiliate.

Finance which includes Fund Raising

Finance will always continue to be the biggest problem area for a new team unless they have a high level of commitment from parents or a wealthy sponsor who will meet any monetary needs without question. Annual subscription for teams is often very high with parents also expected to pay weekly subs as well.

For many families such a financial drain is too much for them and they are unable to join as a result. Will your team have a sub committee that deals with such cases as hardship or welfare and will they have the power to make allowances for such players to enable them to play? Is this committee bound by confidentiality and information on individual parents kept securely so as not to embarrass anyone?

Insurance is one of the first tasks that should be undertaken. You have to be sure that all your players are insured whenever they play or train with your team. Insurance is definitely not an area to be ignored or avoided. There are a number of well respected Insurance Companies that deal with Youth teams insurance and they will provide peace of mind for you and your players families.

Fundraising would appear to get harder each year as more teams seem to come up with more ideas, however some of the ideas are nothing short of genius. Race evenings, adults only disco / dances / karaoke / players only disco / weekly raffle / auctions / sponsored walks or matches are among the ideas that have been used to raise finance for teams. Whatever event is chosen a team should have an agreed group of volunteers with an agreed strategy for order of the day/evening, who can collect money, who pays whom and for what, who invites the press etc.

Naming a Team

Naming a team may seem an easy task but certain issues have to be considered. Is your name the same or very similar to another local side – could this add confusion especially if other sides identify you as being connected to them. If the names are similar do people get confused over home venues, if the other side disbanded due to disciplinary reasons are you going to be considered their newly formed side with possible the same problems!

If there was a poor history connected to the other club and sponsors do not wish to be linked or local halls or venues for functions have had a bad experience and will have nothing to do with you. These attitudes may completely undermine your good work and good intentions. The key to success is research the proposed name.

Kit and Equipment

This is always a major concern for a new team. We can break this down and deal with different aspects.

Who buys what and do you expect a person (or persons) to buy all the teams kit and equipment and then be reimbursed when the annual subs come flowing in.

What do you buy? Is it just shirts and shorts and expect parents to supply socks? What will be the teams priority in terms of players kit? Is having a shirt and shorts enough or will your players expect to have a tracksuit to wear when attending games? Will players be expected to wear the team training kit for their weekly training sessions?

Who has responsibility for the footballs ? – Are they all size 5 when they should be size 3, Who looks after them? Who looks after the match balls?

Who washes the kit? Is it shared among the parents / players (I myself have played in a Sunday league for over half a season with pink shirts that should have been white due to a lack of familiarity with washing machines.

How many kits do you buy ? Should you have a back up set of shirts for the games where the colours clash and you have to change?

Policies / Codes of Conduct to protect the players / parents / officials

• Child Protection Policy.
• Anti Bullying Policy.
• Equality Policy.
• Code of Conduct for Parents.
• Code of Conduct for Players.
• Code of Conduct for Officials.
• Code of Conduct for staff / associates