The Joys of Organising Grassroots 5 A Side Football

• By Sam Parton
• In Blog
• Jan 18, 2015

The Joys of Organising Grassroots 5 A Side Football

If you have ever had the thankless burden of organising football, you are probably familiar with the following sequence of events in the lead up to your 5 a side football game:

 96 hours before kick off

- You send the weekly 'who wants to play' email out with all the details. Even though the time, venue and pitch has never ever changed.

- You've got a dilemma on your hands as 15 people reply saying they only want to play but you only have 10 spots. As part of this thankless task, five are going to be left disgruntled and obviously it is all your fault.

48 hours before kick off

- Three players have dropped out for no apparent reason, but you've still got some back ups on the table who take ages to respond to your emails.

24 hours before kick-off

- A further three players drop out but your original reserves are now unavailable. You are now three short and it looks you are going to have to cancel. You start emailing friends of friends, brothers of friends girlfriends, your local plumber, or anyone who could be a lead.

12 hours before kick off

- Someone announces they are ill or they 'forgot' that they had a really important meeting an hour before kick off. Almost certainly the champions league is on TV and you start asking around the office.

3 hours before kick off

- Someone sends you the inevitable 'stuck at work' email which is a completely unapologetic, I'm definitely more important than you, 'can someone replace me' email. This roughly translates as "I can't be bothered to play, find someone else you idiot"

2 hours before kick-off

- Abdul from the staff canteen has agreed to save the day

1 hour before kick-off

- Someone else is 'stuck' at work

5 mins before kick off

- John hasn't turned up and no one can get hold of him - Abdul has gone rogue and can't find the pitch

2 mins before kick off

- You've roped in a couple of stragglers and they are at least 10 years younger than everyone else

Kick off

- Some how you have enough players, but you look around and realise you have absolutely no idea who you are playing with.

- You find yourself in goal, no one else has volunteered

- You're thinking to yourself where the hell is Abdul?

End of the game

- Half the people have buggered off without paying and guess who's lumped with the bill...

 * OpenPlay is working to help ease the above scenario by taking away the hassle of finding and booking football pitches whilst also offering a free football player finder via OpenPlay Connect.