Anyone run a football team?

vanbasten said:
OP are you the guy who runs the find a player app, is it still going and does it get updated much as never have any response through it looking for players and have only ever been replied to once for a game that I showed interest in?
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Aye mate, thats me. Have PMd you.

We're doing weekly updates at the moment. All the content on there is user generated so we cant MAKE people respond, but we are currently in the process of trying to identify and remove all the dead wood plus upgrade the notifications and messaging.

We're only a small team though so its a fucking mission.. looks like we might be doing something with the world cup 2022 right enough, were out there a lot last year (also ended up joining the Qatar loyal and blue!! :)) )
 
GEODGC said:
Some people just appeared to see it as a glorified babysitting service.
The very same people would be posted missing when any fundraisers were on. I remember sitting at a parents meeting just before the boys were due to travel down to a tournament in Preston. They had bus travel, three nights accommodation, entry to the tournament, all their food and drink paid for and a day out at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. All the club had asked for was £80 per player to help with costs and one parent actually asked “what do they actually get for the £80 though?” :D Totally clueless.
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£80?! you got any spaces next year?? :D
 
justice said:
What are the biggest problems you'd face to get a club set up and keep it going?.

Finding players? Money? Sponsorship? Admin?
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If it’s kids football (primary school age)...... parents are your biggest problem.

They’re wary (don’t know you),
then love you,
then they hate you!

....all within 12months of starting. :))
 
GEODGC said:
Seen plenty incidents over the years when my two boys played boys club football. Some of the parents are an absolute disgrace, the woman are worse than the men at times.
At the other end of the scale, you have parents that just drop their kids off for games and don’t stay to watch them play. I always found that incredibly sad and felt sorry for those kids.
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Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have easier political jobs than kids football coaches.
 
woodfernnz said:
I run the Kiwi True Blues FC .

We began with players purely form the supporters club in Auckland playing 7s together.

We then made the move into 11s and entered the local sunday league . A few players brought friends form work along and we quickly had a squad of 18 with the majority being rangers fans .

Over the years it grew and grew - we won each league in the sunday league - with new players ( usually arriving for 1-2 years on holiday visa helping us keep the squad healthy and blue.

After winning 4 tittles in a row - and taking out the Auckland Sunday Premier League - we made the move to Saturday football . We now play in what is basically the 5th tier of NZ football .

The squad has taken on more of a ex-pat feel to it - still got a ranger core - but we now have boys form all over the UK coming to us. Most of them lean our way and come to events ran by the supporters club and watch old firm games with us .

Biggest thing for us is money. We are solely amateur but now play in a league were boys are getting their fees paid for them and a small backhander each week . We cant compete with that atm.

We have a sponsor who gives us a brand new kit - H and A every two years. And a pub who hosts social events for us give us some money as well.
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That’s a great success story mate, fair play. I do hope you play in Rangers colours though?
 
As a parent to an 08's goalkeeper - I'll tip my hat to those involved in coaching grassroots. It's an awfully time consuming task. What you do does not go unnoticed or unappreciated (certainly not from the parents in our group)

Even as a Da' running to training, getting him up and out for 0830 on a Saturday for a 30 minute drive up to the Ardoyne or Mallusk is a nightmare. "Where's ma gloves Dad.....:D"

Keeper especially is tough at that age, everything is taken so personally.

I love it though, it's brilliant when they win. We have a real good bunch of parents as well as kids but %^*& me, some of the behaviour and language from 11 year olds is beyond the pale.
 
GEODGC said:
That’s a great success story mate, fair play. I do hope you play in Rangers colours though?
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woodfernnz said:
Biggest thing for us is money. We are solely amateur but now play in a league were boys are getting their fees paid for them and a small backhander each week . We cant compete with that atm.
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My amateur club had a team in the first division of the main league here. As in your experience, other teams were not only paying players' fees but were paying them per games.

A lot of the teams are run along ethnic lines (Greek, Cypriot, Croatian, Haitian etc) so local business/restaurants would be contributing. We eventually had to stop. Now we have a team in the 3rd and a team in the veterans division.

Congratulations - a great story!
 
Ran a kids team from 8yrs old to 18
In the early days it’s tough dealing with parents who moan about game time their wean, despite they being shite and dropping the moral of the good players, to parents who just dropped their kid off and never gave a %^*&, all the way through up
the ranks you’d then get grief from other teams and coaches, to boys getting cheekier and cheekier... by the end it was getting that murder was becoming an option, kids,parents opposition, league. Anyone lol
 
Manage a reserve team (1st team in tier 3) Biggest problem is financial as all the money goes to first team wages.
 
Took a boys team from when they were seven to fifthteen. Had a great time, met some life long friends found some good players too. I set up a tournament in Holland and then had to sell it to the parents. I decided that if the parents committed to £250 a boy we would fund raise to get their cash back, which we did. Flew from Prestwick to Holland and bussed to p. The boys had games on the Saturday, tour of Ajax Stadium, more games on the Sunday and go-karting and medal presentation on the Sunday evening. When I was explaining the itinerary one parent said “we don’t get much time to ourselves”...bizarre. Anyway, nearly won the Sunday tournament. The driver (Belgian) was clueless, on the return journey nearly drove into Germany, the result we missed our flight home. The Tour Company eventually agreed to get us to Calais and bus us up the road. We arrived home a day late and the kids got an extra day off school. Loved it and had a great bunch of boys. Made the big mistake of trying to get my better players to Pro Youth football, resulted in ripping the spine from my team and It faded away. Great boys who I now and then but have yet to buy me a pint!!!!!
 
I considered trying to join an amateur team 2 years ago but didn't get round to it really, felt at 30 and having not played since school I wouldn't get a look in. Looking at this thread it seems there might have been teams jumping at a player.
 
Run a saturday morning amateur team. Fortunate enough that my work have sponsored us the last two seasons for strips, although costs still mount up with the league/safa fees along with the costs of training and playing facilities. The hardest part is getting enough players to field a team every week. There is always one thing or another stopping a number of them turning up.

As much as myself and the lads who help me run it moan about it, we would be lost without football on a Saturday. If you think you could get a team going then give it a try, if it works out it will be the best part of your week every week.
 
justice said:
What are the biggest problems you'd face to get a club set up and keep it going?.

Finding players? Money? Sponsorship? Admin?
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Done the lot from kids to amateur to pro club

my advice would be

go into a set up already there and take an age group
Loads of clubs looking for. Inches to take teams

once u take an age group you are literally running that team
 
Into my 8th season down in Manchester. Started at under 6's, was part of a big boys club until under 8s, got tired of the politics and the boys not playing due to crap facilities so set my own club (Bury Rangers) up for my age group. Only got 1 team but life so much easier. We have a 3G pitch so game on every week, plenty of sponsorship from local connections, boys get great facilities to train and play and have excellentl match day kits and training kits. We will play our 27th game since end of August tomorrow while some teams in our league are still in single figures. We go on an end of season trip every year and this summer going on our 2nd trip abroad. In summary me and my 2 fellow coaches love it and put a lot of time and energy into making sure our lads make life memories from their grass roots football
 
moiphy said:
I considered trying to join an amateur team 2 years ago but didn't get round to it really, felt at 30 and having not played since school I wouldn't get a look in. Looking at this thread it seems there might have been teams jumping at a player.
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All you have to be is commited and you will get a chance at some point.

I help run my side. The think the hardest is dropping players. It's a relatively new phenomenon as this season we've somehow got a 20 man squad of commited players. People are giving up thier Saturdays and they deserve as much game time as possible.

I play South Wales church league tho so the guys are all tidy and pay thier dues ect.
 
El Toro said:
I've just started my boys 2010s team. The hardest part so far is the syfa system which is a joke to use. Also the coaching badges and first aid take up a few days have to manage it all round Rangers games.
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Coached at boys club from 4 a side through to 19,s. So time consuming, worst part was the parents, thought their kids should be playing every week. Better when it got to 11 a side, game time was based on performance, easier to justify your choice. Folk think it's just turning up and picking a team on match day. I was out most days of the week doing something related to the team. Training sessions, my coaching badges, meetings. But all worth it when we produced the best team and won the league.
Also went on to coach Scotland boys club squad and had great success there to. Would recommend it to anyone thinking of getting into it.
 
Craig Skinner said:
Can 100% relate to this mate. Coached a youth team for a good few years.

It virtually leaves you with no spare time whatsoever, can be very very frustrating as well especially with youths when you can see the ability and potential but the lack of attitude and commitment determine their fate.
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Had to raise a smile at your profile pic given your last sentence :))
 
Running a team is very rewarding - used to run my kids teams for many years. The worst thing is dealing with the parents. Get a team manager in place to interface with parents ( if possible ), certainly for youth football
 
justice said:
What are the biggest problems you'd face to get a club set up and keep it going?.

Finding players? Money? Sponsorship? Admin?
Click to expand...
Run a Sunday league team mate 4 years now it’s a pain in the arse at times but wouldn’t change it

Main issues for me are keeping it affordable for players with rising costs and retaining players is harder each year
 
China Bear said:
Running a team is very rewarding - used to run my kids teams for many years. The worst thing is dealing with the parents. Get a team manager in place to interface with parents ( if possible ), certainly for youth football
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Would certainly agree with this 100% mate. Not just to develop them as football players but into fine young men who contribute to the community. Had as much joy taking boy's up to pro youth level (don't get me started) than I did seeing a young man take control of his own destiny and life and become a valuable member of society.
 
Other parents. When my son was playing we had a head coach, me and two other dads helped out. Beyond that, we struggled to get a club secretary, treasurer, fund raiser, or first aider.

Some parents would help giving players lifts on matchdays, put goalposts and nets up, or wash strips. The majority didn’t bother though, and some expected the coaches to take their kids to training and games.

That was ultimately part of what caused the club to fold. We had seventeen kids in the team and maybe five parents out of the whole lot helped.
 
I'm our clubs secretary and a 2008's coach, have days where I'd love to chuck it for various reasons, mainly the parents, either not having the decency to let you know their boy wont make training/matches or them not doing their but when it comes to fundraising but they'll quite happily take new kits and jump on any tournaments away, lots of things the parents do piss you off. Also as Discodale said some are fly and ask if you can collect their boy, you dont want to but if your short if players you end up having no choice, can't let the rest miss out.

There is also the hassle of ensuring everyone involved with club has their PVG's and qualifications, it's a lot of commitment. Sometimes I just want to go back to being the Dad on the sidelines just enjoying watching my boy play.
 
FullTimePint said:
Getting a regular squad of players you can rely on to turn up (and pay their club dues) is half the battle, you need as wide a network of players as possible. I would recommend tying in with a Saturday team if you play sundays. See if they have any boys needing game time that could turn out and boost your squad
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I was involved with a Sunday pub side down in the midlands.we picked up a young lad ,17 ,who wasn't getting a game at Pelsall Villa.I had a mate helping manage it with Steve McKenzie(man city).The lad did great for us.The older ones are usually tied up with the top Sunday teams.That is if course they are not on any sort of contract.Any contract and you can't play Sundays here.
When I was just a player a team mate was a graphic designer and he designed a program where the outer pages stayed the same as they had adverts on them but the insides could be changed with match reports and general crap from the pub.as I was on the bevvy bad then I filled a few pages over the year for them!made us a few quid off the adverts and away teams loved the banter in the program.
Race nights were a good earner .Dear game with home games to pay for and refs .kits(we had a sponser )and insurance
Nearest I get to it now is giving a pal a ton a year for his team.consumes a lot of time.when things are good we,d have a full squad but when things were going poorly it's amazing how many players can't come because of sickly kids!
 
jtc said:
I was involved with a Sunday pub side down in the midlands.we picked up a young lad ,17 ,who wasn't getting a game at Pelsall Villa.I had a mate helping manage it with Steve McKenzie(man city).The lad did great for us.The older ones are usually tied up with the top Sunday teams.That is if course they are not on any sort of contract.Any contract and you can't play Sundays here.
When I was just a player a team mate was a graphic designer and he designed a program where the outer pages stayed the same as they had adverts on them but the insides could be changed with match reports and general crap from the pub.as I was on the bevvy bad then I filled a few pages over the year for them!made us a few quid off the adverts and away teams loved the banter in the program.
Race nights were a good earner .Dear game with home games to pay for and refs .kits(we had a sponser )and insurance
Nearest I get to it now is giving a pal a ton a year for his team.consumes a lot of time.when things are good we,d have a full squad but when things were going poorly it's amazing how many players can't come because of sickly kids!
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Can anybody help me decipher this jibberish?
 
Ran a fives team for a few months. Not worth it. Constantly chasing people for money, people pulling out last minute, giving you grief over getting subbed etc
 
My brother used to organise a 5 a side team and that was a pain.
Players pulling out at the last minute etc.
It must be worse for 11's.

Why not go to a local team and find out if you can help out. Going by the replies on here I'm sure they will welcome the help.
This will give you an idea what's involved without taking all the responsibility.
 
jtc said:
I was involved with a Sunday pub side down in the midlands.we picked up a young lad ,17 ,who wasn't getting a game at Pelsall Villa.I had a mate helping manage it with Steve McKenzie(man city).The lad did great for us.The older ones are usually tied up with the top Sunday teams.That is if course they are not on any sort of contract.Any contract and you can't play Sundays here.
When I was just a player a team mate was a graphic designer and he designed a program where the outer pages stayed the same as they had adverts on them but the insides could be changed with match reports and general crap from the pub.as I was on the bevvy bad then I filled a few pages over the year for them!made us a few quid off the adverts and away teams loved the banter in the program.
Race nights were a good earner .Dear game with home games to pay for and refs .kits(we had a sponser )and insurance
Nearest I get to it now is giving a pal a ton a year for his team.consumes a lot of time.when things are good we,d have a full squad but when things were going poorly it's amazing how many players can't come because of sickly kids!
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It would appear no
jtc said:
I was involved with a Sunday pub side down in the midlands.we picked up a young lad ,17 ,who wasn't getting a game at Pelsall Villa.I had a mate helping manage it with Steve McKenzie(man city).The lad did great for us.The older ones are usually tied up with the top Sunday teams.That is if course they are not on any sort of contract.Any contract and you can't play Sundays here.
When I was just a player a team mate was a graphic designer and he designed a program where the outer pages stayed the same as they had adverts on them but the insides could be changed with match reports and general crap from the pub.as I was on the bevvy bad then I filled a few pages over the year for them!made us a few quid off the adverts and away teams loved the banter in the program.
Race nights were a good earner .Dear game with home games to pay for and refs .kits(we had a sponser )and insurance
Nearest I get to it now is giving a pal a ton a year for his team.consumes a lot of time.when things are good we,d have a full squad but when things were going poorly it's amazing how many players can't come because of sickly kids!
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An hour after your post and it would appear nobody is able to decipher your ramblings!
 
justice said:
What are the biggest problems you'd face to get a club set up and keep it going?.

Finding players? Money? Sponsorship? Admin?
Click to expand...
I'm involved with a youth team, 2 nights and a Saturday, takes a lot of commitment and takes over but enjoyable also
 
The hardest part is keeping a squad together and happy. You need 14-15 players in case of injuries and work commitments but can only play 11, the extra players aren’t happy standing on the sideline on a cold day. Different when they are getting paid but not so much fun when y not.
 
I have ran a boys club team for the last five years from under 11s to 17s currently, we won our first couple of trophy's last season which was great for the 3/4 boys who have been here since day one. Biggest issue in the early years where parents thinking their kids where too good for the team, funny thing is alot of these kids and parents all come full circle with their tails between their legs and end up back after these top teams all end up folding.

Been great to see the boys grow and develop from wee characters to now moody teenagers another thing that annoys me is the kids who fall away from football, loads of talent but they maybe don't come from the best backgrounds or have any positive role models at home and they fall into the drinking, smoking hash or just general antisocial behavior, a total waste.
 
It does take up so much time in the last two weekends alone I've spent a day doing a coaching badge and a day doing first aid training. Now I need to book myself on another all weekend training course.
 
jtc said:
I was involved with a Sunday pub side down in the midlands.we picked up a young lad ,17 ,who wasn't getting a game at Pelsall Villa.I had a mate helping manage it with Steve McKenzie(man city).The lad did great for us.The older ones are usually tied up with the top Sunday teams.That is if course they are not on any sort of contract.Any contract and you can't play Sundays here.
When I was just a player a team mate was a graphic designer and he designed a program where the outer pages stayed the same as they had adverts on them but the insides could be changed with match reports and general crap from the pub.as I was on the bevvy bad then I filled a few pages over the year for them!made us a few quid off the adverts and away teams loved the banter in the program.
Race nights were a good earner .Dear game with home games to pay for and refs .kits(we had a sponser )and insurance
Nearest I get to it now is giving a pal a ton a year for his team.consumes a lot of time.when things are good we,d have a full squad but when things were going poorly it's amazing how many players can't come because of sickly kids!
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Wtf????

Thought I was reading my 5yr old sons homework there!
 
Was tempted to get involved in my boys 2012’s team but my dad used to run our team from u10’s to u 14’s and we hated each other during that time. Want to just let my boy enjoy his football but sometimes you do get frustrated with levels of coaching when you are on the sidelines.
 
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