[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":277},["ShallowReactive",2],{"site-config":3,"post-how-to-start-a-grassroots-football-team":129},{"success":4,"data":5},true,{"site":6,"features":10,"stripe":12,"bridalfile":13,"navigation":14,"branding":112,"footer":117},{"id":7,"name":8,"domain":9},"49f21346-cf36-4218-89c8-0b70f6252527","Trac","tracbac.club",{"products":11,"bookings":11,"event_capacity":11,"ugc":11},false,{"enabled":11,"test_mode":4},{"enabled":11},{"footer":15,"header":48},{"id":16,"name":17,"items":18},"fca9ef82-96bf-4a85-88c1-ed41a7402e9d","Footer Navigation",[19,24,28,32,36,40,44],{"id":20,"url":21,"label":22,"target":23},"trac-footer-features","/coaches","Features","_self",{"id":25,"url":26,"label":27,"target":23},"trac-footer-pricing","/pricing","Pricing",{"id":29,"url":30,"label":31,"target":23},"trac-footer-about","/about","About",{"id":33,"url":34,"label":35,"target":23},"trac-footer-help","https://app.tracbac.club/help-faqs","Help & FAQs",{"id":37,"url":38,"label":39,"target":23},"trac-footer-contact","/contact","Contact",{"id":41,"url":42,"label":43,"target":23},"trac-footer-privacy","/privacy-policy","Privacy Policy",{"id":45,"url":46,"label":47,"target":23},"trac-footer-terms","/terms","Terms",{"id":49,"name":50,"items":51},"418b3097-634e-4944-829d-24b59fa2c36a","Header Navigation",[52,83,99,103,105,107,110],{"id":53,"url":54,"label":22,"target":23,"children":55},"trac-nav-features","#",[56,59,63,67,71,75,79],{"id":57,"url":21,"label":58,"target":23},"trac-nav-coaches","For Coaches",{"id":60,"url":61,"label":62,"target":23},"trac-nav-ai","/ai","AI Features",{"id":64,"url":65,"label":66,"target":23},"trac-nav-training","/training","Training",{"id":68,"url":69,"label":70,"target":23},"trac-nav-parents","/parents","For Parents",{"id":72,"url":73,"label":74,"target":23},"trac-nav-season-archive","/season-archive","Season Archive",{"id":76,"url":77,"label":78,"target":23},"trac-nav-fa-import","/fa-full-time-import","FA Full-Time Import",{"id":80,"url":81,"label":82,"target":23},"trac-nav-club","/club","For Clubs",{"id":84,"url":54,"label":85,"target":23,"children":86},"trac-nav-compare","Compare",[87,91,95],{"id":88,"url":89,"label":90,"target":23},"trac-nav-vs-teamstats","/vs-teamstats","vs TeamStats",{"id":92,"url":93,"label":94,"target":23},"trac-nav-vs-spond","/vs-spond","vs Spond",{"id":96,"url":97,"label":98,"target":23},"trac-nav-vs-pitchero","/vs-pitchero","vs Pitchero",{"id":100,"url":101,"label":102,"target":23},"trac-nav-playbook","/playbook","Playbook",{"id":104,"url":26,"label":27,"target":23},"trac-nav-pricing",{"id":106,"url":30,"label":31,"target":23},"trac-nav-about",{"id":108,"url":34,"label":109,"target":23},"trac-nav-help","Help",{"id":111,"url":38,"label":39,"target":23},"trac-nav-contact",{"logo":113,"logoDark":114,"favicon":115,"tagline":116},"https://sktegczfmabucrnpgrvp.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/49f21346-cf36-4218-89c8-0b70f6252527/2026/06/1781685688946-Trac-crop.webp",null,"https://sktegczfmabucrnpgrvp.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/media/49f21346-cf36-4218-89c8-0b70f6252527/2026/06/1781685671484-favicon.ico","Football Coaching Software for Grassroots Teams",{"summary":118,"copyright":119,"address":120,"contact":122,"socialLinks":123,"openingHours":128,"logos":114},"Trac is football coaching software that helps grassroots coaches organise fixtures, track matches, and keep parents in the loop. No fuss, no jargon - just everything you need to run your team.","Trac Football. All rights reserved.",{"line1":114,"line2":114,"city":114,"state":114,"postalCode":114,"country":121},"United Kingdom",{"phone":114,"email":114},[124],{"url":125,"label":126,"platform":127},"https://x.com/tracbacapp","Twitter","twitter",[],{"success":4,"data":130},{"id":131,"slug":132,"title":133,"excerpt":134,"content":135,"content_format":267,"featured_image":268,"published":4,"published_at":269,"meta_title":133,"meta_description":270,"fields":271},"dc79d3fe-ff54-4a6f-8deb-51b2466b51d2","how-to-start-a-grassroots-football-team","How to Start a Grassroots Football Team","A plain-spoken guide to starting a grassroots football team, from affiliating with your county FA and sorting DBS checks to picking an age group and getting organised before the season.",{"type":136,"content":137},"doc",[138,144,151,155,159,164,168,172,177,181,185,190,194,198,203,216,228,233,245,263],{"type":139,"content":140},"paragraph",[141],{"text":142,"type":143},"Starting a grassroots football team sounds like a coaching job. It mostly is not. The coaching is the easy part. What actually gets a team on the pitch in August is a pile of admin, a handful of willing parents, and a few decisions made early so they do not bite you in October. I have set teams up from scratch and helped others do the same, so here is the order I would do it in.","text",{"type":145,"attrs":146,"content":148},"heading",{"level":147},2,[149],{"text":150,"type":143},"Start with your county FA, not the football",{"type":139,"content":152},[153],{"text":154,"type":143},"Before you book a pitch or pick a name, talk to your local county FA. Every youth team that plays in an organised league in England has to be affiliated, and the county FA is who you affiliate through. They will point you at the right league for your age group and area, tell you what insurance you need, and explain the FA accreditation process that most leagues now expect. Do this first because everything else has a lead time. Leagues fill up over the summer and registration windows close, so a phone call in June is worth a fortnight of chasing in August.",{"type":139,"content":156},[157],{"text":158,"type":143},"While you are at it, ask which league actually has space. There is no point building a team for a division that is already full. The county FA deals with this every year and will save you guessing.",{"type":145,"attrs":160,"content":161},{"level":147},[162],{"text":163,"type":143},"Pick one age group and stick to it",{"type":139,"content":165},[166],{"text":167,"type":143},"New teams try to take everyone and end up with sixteen kids spread across three school years. Pick a single age group, the one you have the most genuine interest in, usually because your own child is that age or you coach at that level already. Youth football in England runs by school year, so an Under 8s side is built from children in that school year band. Keep it tight. A clear age group makes recruiting, training and fixtures all simpler, and it keeps you on the right side of the FA rules for that age, including the small-sided formats and the rules on heading that apply to the younger groups.",{"type":139,"content":169},[170],{"text":171,"type":143},"On numbers, aim for a few more than the format needs. Under 7s and Under 8s play 5v5, Under 9s and Under 10s play 7v7, so a 7v7 squad of around ten gives you cover for the inevitable holidays and birthday parties without leaving kids on the side every week.",{"type":145,"attrs":173,"content":174},{"level":147},[175],{"text":176,"type":143},"Sort the people: coaches, DBS and safeguarding",{"type":139,"content":178},[179],{"text":180,"type":143},"You cannot run a youth team on your own, and you should not try. You need at least one other adult at every session, and anyone in a regulated role with children needs an in-date FA DBS check and the safeguarding children certificate. The FA Playmaker course is a sensible free starting point for a new coach, and most leagues will expect at least one qualified coach per team within the first season. Get the DBS and safeguarding done early because the checks take time to come back, and a coach who cannot be cleared in time is a real problem the week before the season starts.",{"type":139,"content":182},[183],{"text":184,"type":143},"Find a welfare officer too. Even a small club needs someone whose job is the children's wellbeing rather than the football, and your county FA will tell you exactly what that role has to cover.",{"type":145,"attrs":186,"content":187},{"level":147},[188],{"text":189,"type":143},"A pitch, a kit and a bit of money",{"type":139,"content":191},[192],{"text":193,"type":143},"You need somewhere to train and somewhere to play home games. Council pitches, school fields and 3G centres all work, and they all get booked up, so sort this alongside the league registration rather than after it. Expect to pay for pitch hire and match officials, and budget for a basic set of kit, balls, bibs, cones and a first aid kit.",{"type":139,"content":195},[196],{"text":197,"type":143},"Money makes new coaches nervous, so be plain about it from day one. Most grassroots teams charge a yearly registration fee plus monthly subs, and parents are fine with it as long as they can see where it goes. Pitch hire, referees, league fees, kit. Write it down and share it. The trust you build in that first conversation about money is worth more than the few pounds you might be tempted to absorb yourself.",{"type":145,"attrs":199,"content":200},{"level":147},[201],{"text":202,"type":143},"Get organised before the whistle, not after",{"type":139,"content":204},[205,207,214],{"text":206,"type":143},"The teams that have a good first season are the ones that got their organisation sorted in pre-season. You will be collecting registration forms, medical details and consent, building a fixture list, and trying to tell twelve sets of parents where to be on Sunday morning. A group chat covers the very early days, but it falls apart fast once you are juggling availability, payments and last-minute pitch changes. This is the point where a proper team app earns its place, and it is worth reading our take on ",{"text":208,"type":143,"marks":209},"WhatsApp versus a dedicated team app",[210],{"type":211,"attrs":212},"link",{"href":213},"/playbook/whatsapp-vs-team-app",{"text":215,"type":143}," before you decide.",{"type":139,"content":217},[218,220,226],{"text":219,"type":143},"Once your league publishes fixtures, get them into one place everyone can see. If your league runs on the FA Full-Time system you can pull the whole season in at once rather than typing it out, which I have written up in our guide to ",{"text":221,"type":143,"marks":222},"importing FA Full-Time fixtures",[223],{"type":211,"attrs":224},{"href":225},"/bulk-uploading-fixtures",{"text":227,"type":143},". One job done properly in August saves a weekly headache for the rest of the year.",{"type":145,"attrs":229,"content":230},{"level":147},[231],{"text":232,"type":143},"The first few weeks",{"type":139,"content":234},[235,237,243],{"text":236,"type":143},"Keep early sessions about touches on the ball and kids enjoying themselves, not drills off a coaching badge. A simple plan helps, and our ",{"text":238,"type":143,"marks":239},"Under 9s training session plans",[240],{"type":211,"attrs":241},{"href":242},"/playbook/u9-training-session-plans",{"text":244,"type":143}," are a fair starting point you can adapt down or up an age. Send parents a short welcome message before the first session so they know kit, timings and what to bring. Expect a few no-shows and a bit of chaos. That is normal. The team that looks settled by Christmas almost never looked settled in week one.",{"type":139,"content":246},[247,249,254,256,261],{"text":248,"type":143},"Once you are up and running and the admin is under control, you can start thinking about the things that make a coach's life easier across a whole season, from match reports to keeping parents in the loop. If you want to see how Trac handles that side of it, the ",{"text":250,"type":143,"marks":251},"coaches page",[252],{"type":211,"attrs":253},{"href":21},{"text":255,"type":143}," walks through it, and the tools are free to start with on our ",{"text":257,"type":143,"marks":258},"pricing page",[259],{"type":211,"attrs":260},{"href":26},{"text":262,"type":143},".",{"type":139,"content":264},[265],{"text":266,"type":143},"Starting a team is more phone calls and forms than anyone tells you. Do them in the right order, be honest about money, and get organised before the season rather than during it. The football, in the end, really is the easy part.","tiptap","","2026-07-13T08:00:00+00:00","A plain guide to starting a grassroots football team: county FA affiliation, DBS and safeguarding, picking an age group, kit, subs and pre-season admin.",{"tags":272,"author":276},[273,274,275],"getting-started","coaching","grassroots-football","Adam Jackson",1783929700026]