Thursday night, and the grid is a mess
Your junior section has teams from under-7s playing small-sided games on mini pitches to under-16s on a full-size pitch. On Saturday morning, eleven teams are at home. You have one full-size pitch, which can be split into two 9v9 pitches, three mini pitches on the side field, and the 3G for an hour before the adults need it.
The volunteer who does the allocation, often the junior section chair, sits down on Thursday with a piece of paper. Under-11s need a 9v9 pitch for about an hour and a quarter. Under-8s need a mini pitch but only for fifty minutes. The under-14s' opposition asked for a later kick-off. Two of the fixtures are still unconfirmed. After an hour it works, until Friday lunchtime, when a cup game is added and the whole thing has to be redone.
Why the puzzle never solves itself
- Different age groups need different pitch sizes, marked differently, and some pitches convert between formats.
- Match length plus warm-up plus changeover decides how many games fit on each pitch.
- Fixtures are confirmed late, so the plan changes after it is published.
- Some teams always end up with the early kick-off, and parents notice.
- The only copy of the plan is a photo of a sheet of paper in a WhatsApp group.
Pitch sizes and match formats come from your league and governing body's rules. We make sure the grid follows them; we do not set them.
What the weekly puzzle costs
Hours of one volunteer's evenings, every week of the season. Games overrunning into the next slot, so the next teams stand around. Opposition clubs arriving at the wrong pitch because the plan changed after they saw it. And a sense of unfairness when the same teams get the worst slots, which causes more friction among parents than most clubs expect.
There is a safety and welfare side as well. Junior games running late means children waiting around on the touchline, parents parking on the grass, and the adult team warming up in the same space as the under-8s. Your welfare officer will have views on how matchday should run. A plan everyone can see, and that actually holds, makes those arrangements far easier to keep.
And there is succession. When the volunteer who does the grid steps down, the knowledge of which pitch converts to what, and which opposition clubs always ask for late kick-offs, goes with them.
A matchday grid that does the fitting
We build a matchday planner for your junior section, used by the allocator and read by coaches and visitors.
- Each pitch is set up with its sizes and formats (for example, full-size or split into two 9v9, or mini), and any times it is unavailable.
- Each age group is set up with its format, match length, and the warm-up and changeover time your section wants.
- Confirmed home fixtures come from the fixture list, with any kick-off requests noted.
- The planner suggests an allocation that fits every game, respects format rules and changeover time, and rotates early kick-offs fairly across teams over the season.
- The allocator adjusts by dragging games, and the planner warns of any clash or overrun.
- The published grid goes to coaches, the opposition and a matchday page on your website, and updates everyone if it changes.
| Age group (example) | Format | Slot length incl. changeover |
|---|---|---|
| Under-7 and under-8 | Mini pitch | Short slot |
| Under-9 and under-10 | Small-sided pitch | Medium slot |
| Under-11 and under-12 | 9v9 pitch | Longer slot |
| Under-13 and above | Full-size or 11v11 | Longest slot |
The actual formats and match lengths are your league's; the table above shows the kind of rules the planner holds, not the rules themselves.
Thursday night, reworked
The allocator opens the planner once fixtures are mostly confirmed and accepts the suggested grid, moving a game or two. When a late cup tie arrives on Friday, the planner re-fits the morning around it and shows what changed. Coaches get the update; the opposition gets a message with the new pitch. On Saturday, a matchday page on a phone shows every game, pitch and kick-off.
Is your matchday plan on paper?
- One volunteer allocates pitches by hand each week.
- The plan is a photo shared in a WhatsApp group.
- Games overrun into the next team's slot.
- The same teams always get the early kick-off.
- Late fixtures mean redoing the whole plan.