Grassroots football guide
Apps and tools for grassroots football managers
Useful tools for organising training, fixtures, payments and parents, with practical advice from someone who coaches a grassroots football team.
Coaching a grassroots football team is incredibly rewarding. Watching children improve, grow in confidence and enjoy playing football makes it worthwhile. But coaching is only part of the job.
There's organising fixtures, planning training, checking availability, communicating with parents, collecting payments and handling last-minute changes.
I coach a grassroots youth football team. Like many volunteers, I got involved because I enjoy football and wanted to help the kids develop. I hadn't appreciated quite how much admin came with it.
Over time, I've found that a few useful apps can make the job easier. These are the tools I use, alongside other established resources worth knowing about.
Spond: Training, matches and payments
Best for: Team events, player availability and collecting payments.
Spond has become an important part of how we organise our team. We've used it for around two years, mainly for training, matches and payments.
We have a recurring event for weekly training, with automated reminders asking parents to confirm attendance. Knowing how many players to expect makes planning much easier. A session designed for twelve players might need changing if only seven turn up.
We also add weekend matches in advance, sometimes before the details are confirmed. That way parents can keep the date free. We then update the kick-off time, venue and kit information during the week.
After matches, we collect payments through Spond. I'd rather spend my time coaching than chasing match fees, so that helps too.
Where Spond could be better
The location search doesn't always recognise the exact pitches we play at, which makes sharing a precise meeting point difficult. I've also found bank payouts harder to reconcile with individual matches than I'd like. That can mean extra admin working out which events a payment covers.
Payment processing fees also apply. Depending on how the club handles them, either the club receives a little less or parents pay a little more.
My view: Spond is well worth considering if you want to make training, match organisation and payments easier.
WhatsApp: Quick updates for parents
Best for: Conversations and last-minute changes.
WhatsApp is already familiar to most parents, so it's an easy way to communicate when plans change.
And plans change regularly. Waterlogged pitches can mean a match is called off less than an hour before kick-off. We've also had councils close pitches during dry spells because the ground was too hard to play on.
WhatsApp works well for urgent updates, but important information can get buried in a busy group. We use it alongside Spond rather than relying on it for fixture details and attendance.
Team communications should also follow your club's safeguarding policies, particularly where children are involved.
My view: Great for quick updates, but keep structured fixture information somewhere easier to find.
Google Maps: Finding the right pitch
Best for: Accurate venues, entrances and parking.
Google Mapscan save plenty of confusion on away matchdays.
A postcode sometimes takes you to the wrong entrance, or a club has several pitches with parking somewhere else entirely. Where possible, I share the actual car park or entrance rather than just the ground's name.
My view: A small step that saves late arrivals and phone calls when you should be preparing the team.
The FA Full-Time and Matchday: League fixtures
Best for: Official league schedules, results and match reporting.
Our club uses The FA Full-Time, and I regularly use it to check fixtures and submit match reports. I also use The FA's Matchday app to see upcoming games.
It provides the official fixtures, results and tables we need, although I've never found Full-Time particularly intuitive. The interface feels dated, and some tasks take more effort than they should.
I've also tried checking other teams' league schedules to work out who might have a free weekend for a friendly match. But a team without a league fixture isn't necessarily available, interested or a good match for our players.
My view: Important for league administration, but finding friendly opposition is a different job.
Pitchero: Managing the wider club
Best for: Club websites, memberships, payments and administration.
Pitcherohelps clubs manage websites, memberships, payments, team information and communications.
I haven't personally used Pitchero to manage my team, but it's an established option for clubs juggling multiple age groups and volunteers. Before introducing another platform, it's worth checking what your club already uses.
My view: More relevant to club-wide administration than an individual coach's weekly tasks.
England Football Learning: Coaching ideas
Best for: Session planning and player development.
One of the biggest challenges of grassroots coaching is finding time to help every child improve. Players develop at different rates, and it's not easy to give everyone individual attention during a group session.
We often plan training around what happened in the previous match. Perhaps we need to hold our defensive line better, help forwards keep the ball, or make more use of the wings.
England Football Learning offers coaching guidance and session ideas to explore when planning activities.
I don't use a dedicated app to track individual progress. Much of that comes from observation and offering advice when the opportunity arises. Finding better ways to give each child feedback is something I'd like to improve.
My view: A useful source of coaching ideas and help developing your own skills.
MatchOn: Finding opposition for friendlies
Best for: Finding grassroots teams to play.
There's one problem I've encountered as a grassroots manager that these tools don't specifically solve: finding suitable opposition when we've got a free weekend.
The Sunday we couldn't find a game
On one occasion, we had a Sunday without a league fixture. The season had just started, our first two games had gone well, and everyone wanted to keep playing.
I checked FA Full-Time to find teams that might also be free. Working out who was available, close enough and of a similar ability was harder than expected.
I eventually tentatively arranged a friendly with a familiar team, although it wasn't a great ability match. They cancelled during the week, and by then it was too late to find suitable replacement opposition.
We didn't play that Sunday. It was frustrating for the coaches, and the children were really disappointed.
Why I created MatchOn
Most managers find friendlies through WhatsApp, Facebook groups, club contacts or other managers they know. Those networks are valuable, but they only reach so far. You can end up asking the same people and playing the same teams, even when the ability match isn't ideal.
That's why I created MatchOn. The idea is simple: give managers a dedicated place to post a fixture with their age group, location, date and requirements, and find other teams looking for a game.
MatchOn is free to use, with no app to download. It isn't trying to replace Spond, WhatsApp or club management software. Those tools help organise your existing team. MatchOn helps you find another team to play.
It's still a new platform, so building a useful network will take time. The goal is fewer missed matches and more opportunities for children to play.
Need a game? Get the match on.
See who's looking for opposition or post your own fixture.
Choosing the right tools for your team
You don't need every app available. For our team, Spond helps with events and payments, WhatsApp with quick updates, Google Maps with unfamiliar grounds and FA Full-Time with official league information.
England Football Learning is worth exploring for coaching ideas, while clubs with wider administrative needs might consider Pitchero. And when you need another team to play, that's what MatchOn is designed for.
The important thing is choosing tools that actually make your life easier. Most of us got involved to coach, help children develop and give them opportunities to play football.
Less unnecessary admin. More time for football.