The first Saturday of a new season has a particular feel. Somebody's shin pads are in the other car. A parent you have never met is asking which one is the coach. The league moved your kick-off, told the other team and not you. And somewhere in your bag is the size 4 ball you bought in July for an age group that, in England at least, is now supposed to be on a size 3.
None of that is football. It is the admin you did not get to in August, arriving all at once.
I have coached several age groups, boys and girls, and I still coach now. I built Squadd because the admin was eating the coaching. This is the checklist I actually use at the start of every season, in the order that matters. Most of it is one evening's work. If your season has already kicked off, nothing here is too late; it just gets more useful the sooner it is done.
The short version
If you only read one section, read this one. Twelve things, roughly in order:
- Every coach's DBS, safeguarding and first aid certificates are in date.
- Every player is registered with the league and eligible for the age group.
- You know this season's format and ball size for your age group. In England the whole pathway changed this summer, so check even if you think you know. In Wales the FAW sets its own formats and ball sizes, and they are not the same.
- The squad list is current: leavers removed, new players added, medical and emergency details fresh.
- Every parent, or every player on a senior side, is in the team app before the first fixture.
- Every fixture you know about is in the calendar, and training is set up as a repeating slot.
- Subs are decided: how much, when, and how you will track who has paid.
- You have held a ten-minute parents' meeting: game time, comms, touchline, photos, jobs.
- The kit bag is checked and the first aid kit restocked.
- Your match-day routine is written down: arrive time, team sheet, line-up, half time, report.
- Last season is closed off in the app so the stats start from zero.
- You have recorded your Time Capsule note (more on that at the end).
Everything below is the why and the how.
Paperwork first: the things nobody can play without
Certificates that lapse
Every adult with regular contact with the players needs an in-date DBS (Enhanced, for coaches), the FA Safeguarding Children certificate and a first aid certificate, and the lead coach needs a coaching qualification. The catch is that all of them expire, most on three-year cycles, and a certificate that quietly lapsed in July is the most common way a season starts badly. Check the dates now, put an expiry reminder in your phone for each one, and you will not think about them again until it matters. The FA Charter Standard record-keeping guide covers what to keep and where.
Player registration
Nobody plays until they are registered with the league, and leagues do check. In England that usually runs through the FA's Whole Game System via your club secretary; in Wales it is COMET. Do it this week, not the night before the first game. A missing signature or a photo in the wrong format takes days to sort out, and the player who cannot play is always the one whose parents drove furthest.
Age group and format
In England the age group is set by the player's age on 31 August, so a squad that was U9 in May is U10 now, whether or not anyone has updated the app, the kit or the ball bag.
This season the format changes too, and not in the way it used to. The FA's Future Fit pathway is mandatory from 2026/27: every format is now played a year later than before, 3v3 arrives as the entry format at U7, and 11v11 moves from U13 to U14. Ball sizes moved with it, so U10 and U11 stay on a size 3 rather than stepping up to a 4.
This table is England only. Future Fit is an FA programme. Wales has its own table below, and Scotland's formats come from the SFA, so Scottish coaches should use the SFA handbook.
| Age group (FA, England) | Maximum format | Ball size |
|---|---|---|
| U7 | 3v3 | 3 |
| U8 and U9 | 5v5 | 3 |
| U10 and U11 | 7v7 | 3 |
| U12 and U13 | 9v9 | 4 |
| U14 and up | 11v11 | 5 |
Two things follow from that. A squad that expected to move up to 9v9 or 11v11 this year probably has not, so re-read your league's handbook for the format you are actually playing before the first game rather than during it, and check the balls in the bag against the table. And County FAs are treating 2026/27 as a transition season, some with restrictions on teams moving between leagues to chase a preferred format, so if your league's provision looks different this year that is why. Match lengths are set by your league's handbook, with the FA's Standard Code of Rules for Youth Competitions behind it.
Wales (FAW). The FAW's Small-Sided Football Regulations and Junior Football Regulations for 2026/27 run a similar ladder, one format at a time, but the ball sizes are not the same. In Wales U10 and U11 play with a size 4, where England now keeps a size 3:
| Age group (FAW, Wales) | Format | Ball size | Match length |
|---|---|---|---|
| U6 and U7 | 4v4, no keepers | 3 | Up to 10 mins, no half time |
| U8 and U9 | 5v5 | 3 | Up to 15 mins, no half time |
| U10 and U11 | 7v7 | 4 | Up to 20 mins |
| U12 and U13 | 9v9 | 4 | 70 mins |
| U14 | 11v11 | 5 | 70 mins, 35-minute halves |
| U15 to U17 | 11v11 | 5 | 80 mins, 40-minute halves |
Small-sided football in Wales also caps how much a child plays in a day, 40 minutes at U6 and U7, 50 at U8 and U9, 60 at U10 and U11 and 70 at U12 and U13, with every squad member due at least half of it. There is no offside from U6 to U11. The FAW 50% rule post covers how to run that on the day.
The squad list
Get the squad right before you touch the fixtures, because everything else keys off it: availability, subs, stats, the team sheet.
- Who has left and who has arrived. Remove leavers straight away. A player who left in June but is still on the list gets chased for availability, counted in the subs total and shown as "not replied" for the rest of the year.
- Medical and emergency details. Allergies, inhalers, a second contact number. Ask every family to check theirs, including the ones who have been with you for years. Numbers change and nobody tells the coach.
- Photo consent. Decide it now so the first team photo is not the first argument.
- Shirt numbers, if you use them, so the team sheet and the kit bag agree.
In Squadd: paste the whole squad list straight from WhatsApp or an email into Paste a List and every name becomes a player in one go. Deactivate a leaver and they drop out of every count and reminder from that moment. Log a long absence (an injury, exams, a holiday) as an unavailability window and the app stops asking that family until the date passes. Medical notes and emergency contacts sit on the player's record where the coach can find them pitch-side. If you run an adult side, pick "Adults (senior)" when you create the team and the players get logins of their own and manage their own record.
Get the parents in before the first fixture
If you do one thing on this list, do this one. Every complaint a coach has in October (nobody replies, half the squad arrived at kick-off instead of half an hour before, the subs list is a mess) traces back to the squad's families never being on the same system as the coach.
The fix is a single message in the team WhatsApp group, once, with a link in it. In Squadd, go to Settings, then Invite members, then Create + copy WhatsApp message. It writes the message for you with the join link inside. Paste it into the group and every parent who taps it lands in your team. It takes twenty seconds and it replaces the Thursday-night chase for the whole season. Here is how invites work.
From then on, when you create a fixture, every family gets it on their phone, answers Yes, No or Maybe with one tap, and anyone who has not answered gets an automatic reminder 24 hours before kick-off without you sending a word. There is a longer piece on why the WhatsApp chase never works if you want the argument in full. On a senior side the same link onboards the players themselves, which is the whole point: adults can answer for themselves. The Sunday league version of this problem has its own post.
Fixtures and training
Put every fixture you know about into the calendar now, including the ones that will probably move. A fixture that is in early can be edited. A fixture that is in your head cannot be answered. Set the arrive time separately from the kick-off time, so "meet 9:30 for a 10:00 kick-off" is written down rather than assumed. Training goes in once as a repeating slot, and if the venue or the time changes mid-season you change the slot, not twelve individual sessions.
Two things worth doing while you are there. Share the calendar subscription so every fixture and session lands in each family's phone calendar on its own, and "I didn't know it was this Sunday" stops being a sentence anyone says. And if you play festivals or tournaments, build the match day as one event with all of its games inside it, rather than a string of separate fixtures.
If training attendance matters to you (and for the selection conversations later in the season it should), decide now how you will record it. A clipboard works. Tapping names on your phone works better.
Subs and money: decide the policy in week one
Money is where goodwill goes to die, and it only ever goes wrong slowly. Decide three things before the first subs are due: how much, when it is due, and what happens when someone falls behind. Then write it down somewhere parents can see it.
Then keep a record from the very first payment. Whatever you collect with (bank transfer, standing order, cash in an envelope), the record is what stops the "I paid you at the bar" conversation in November. In Squadd the Subs & payments module tracks a monthly amount and one-off charges (kit, tournaments, the presentation night), shows you who is paid and who is outstanding, and sends the reminder from the app rather than from you. It does not move money, on purpose. Here is how the tracking works.
The parents' meeting: ten minutes that saves the season
You do not need a hall. Ten minutes at the end of the first training session, parents on the touchline, covers it. Say these things out loud once and you will not have to have the same conversation privately fifteen times:
- Game time. What your policy is and where it comes from. In England the FA asks for a meaningful share of playing time across the season; in Wales the FAW requires every named player to play at least half of every match. Say which applies and how you will manage it. Our guides to fair-play rotation and the FAW 50% rule give you the words.
- Where things happen. Availability, fixtures and the squad in the app; the WhatsApp group for everything else. Split it this way on day one and the group stays pleasant.
- Touchline behaviour. The club's code of conduct, in one sentence, from you, before anyone has had a bad Saturday.
- Photos. Whether you take them, where they go, and that nobody posts other people's children.
- What you need from them. Nets, the line, half-time oranges, first aid cover. Post them as jobs that parents claim, rather than asking the same two people every week, and they get done. Squadd's volunteer tasks put the jobs on each fixture for parents to claim; the module is off by default, so switch it on in Settings.
If you want parents involved in something more fun than the oranges, the Parents' Player of the Match vote is the easiest win in the app.
Kit and gear
Boring, real, and forgotten every year:
- Match balls in the right size for this age group, plus a pump and a spare needle.
- Bibs in two colours, cones, and small goals or corner flags if your ground does not provide them.
- A first aid kit restocked since last season, with instant ice packs in it. Check who holds the first aid certificate and that they will actually be there.
- A spare pair of shin pads, spare socks and a spare shirt. Someone will forget.
- The Respect barrier or rope if your league uses one, and a name against putting it up.
- Water, a bin bag, and a pen that works for the team sheet.
Your match-day routine, decided now
Match day goes wrong when the coach is improvising. Write the routine down once, in the order it happens, then do it the same way every week until it is boring.
- Line-up the night before. Pick the team from the availability you already have, not from who turns up. Plan the substitutions at the same time, so playing time is fair by design rather than by memory.
- Team sheet. Who does it, and where. Welsh league sides submit it on COMET before kick-off, and there are fines for late team sheets and late results. Squadd sends COMET reminders on the morning of every league game if the team is set to FAW.
- Arrive time. Agreed and published, thirty to forty-five minutes before kick-off for youth football. Say it in every fixture, not just once in September.
- Warm-up. A plan you can run without thinking, because you will be talking to a parent while it happens.
- During the game. Somebody records the goals and the subs as they happen. Even on the notes app, the record is worth it. It is what the playing-time conversation and the match report both rest on.
- Half time. Two things, not ten. What to say at half time has the method.
- Full time. Result entered, score sent to the league if you are the home side, and a two-line report to the parents so they know what their child did well.
In Squadd, steps 1, 5 and 7 are the app's whole reason for existing: a line-up builder with fair-play rotation built in, live recording from the touchline that counts every player's minutes and warns you before anyone drops under the line, and a match report and a push to every family at full time. Those sit on the Pro plan once the four-week trial ends; the fixtures, availability, training and squad side is free for good.
Close last season properly
If you used an app last season, it is still holding last season's numbers. Start the new season in it so the stats begin from zero and the age group rolls over. In Squadd that is Settings, then Start new season: last season's stats are archived (not deleted), the season counters reset, the age group can be bumped in the same step, and the squad carries over as it is. Only a team admin can do it and it cannot be undone, so publish your last match report first, and if you want families to have their end-of-season Wrapped cards, turn Wrapped on before you press the button. The full walkthrough.
Two small things that pay off in May
Record a Time Capsule note. Squadd lets the coach, and every family, record a short voice note at the start of the season, a hope or a prediction, sealed until the season's done. Nobody can play them back until the capsule opens at the end. It takes thirty seconds now and it will be the best thing you listen to in May. It is on the home screen.
Tell the coach in the next age group. If you know a coach setting a team up this month, every Squadd team has a referral code in Settings under Refer a coach. Once three teams you referred are up and running, your team gets three months of Pro for nothing. How referrals work.
Questions coaches ask at the start of the season
When does the grassroots football season start in the UK?
Most youth leagues kick off in September once schools are back, and run to April or May with a break over Christmas. Adult Sunday leagues often start in late August or early September. Your league's handbook has the exact dates, and the fixtures usually arrive a week or two before the first game, which is why the rest of this checklist is best done in August.
What do I need to sort before my first match as a grassroots football coach?
In order: certificates in date, every player registered, the squad list current, every family (or every player) in the team app, the first fixture and its arrive time published, and the kit bag checked. Do those six and the rest of the season is about football.
What is the age cut-off for youth football in England?
Age groups are set by the player's age on 31 August, in line with the school year. A player who is 9 on 31 August is U10 for the whole season, even if they turn 10 the next day. Check your league's rules for how it handles playing up or down an age group.
What format does my age group play in England this season?
Under the FA's Future Fit pathway, mandatory from 2026/27: 3v3 at U7, 5v5 at U8 and U9, 7v7 at U10 and U11, 9v9 at U12 and U13, and 11v11 from U14. The ball is a size 3 up to U11, a size 4 at U12 and U13, and a size 5 from U14. Each of those is the maximum format for the age group, and match lengths are capped in your league's rules. Wales is different at U10 and U11, where the ball is a size 4; see the next question.
What format and ball size does my age group play in Wales?
Under the FAW's 2026/27 Small-Sided Football Regulations: 4v4 with no keepers at U6 and U7, 5v5 at U8 and U9, 7v7 at U10 and U11, and 9v9 at U12 and U13, then 11v11 from U14 under the Junior Football Regulations. The ball is a size 3 to U9, a size 4 from U10 to U13 and a size 5 from U14. Games are short and capped per day in the small-sided age groups, there is no offside from U6 to U11, and every squad member should get at least half of the playing time on offer.
What changed under Future Fit for 2026/27?
Future Fit is the FA's pathway for England; Welsh teams follow the FAW's own regulations and are not affected by it. In England, every format is now played a year later than it was, so 7v7 runs to U11, 9v9 to U13 and 11v11 starts at U14 instead of U13. A new 3v3 entry format arrives at U7, the size 3 ball is used all the way through primary school, and restarts have been changed so the ball is in play for longer. If your squad was expecting to move up a format this year and has not, that is the reason.
Do parents have to download an app?
Not to watch football, no. But a team where every family is on the same system as the coach is a calmer team, and the free organisers all work for families at no cost. With Squadd one subscription covers the whole team, so parents never pay, and the core (fixtures, availability, training and the squad) is free for the team too. If you are still choosing, the comparison of the main apps is honest about where each one is strong.
How much playing time does every child need?
In England the FA's guidance asks for a meaningful share of playing time for every player over the season, and some leagues write a minimum into their own rules. In Wales the FAW's regulations require every squad member on the team sheet to play at least 50% of every match. Whichever applies to you, decide your system before the first game and tell the parents what it is.
The one-evening version
Certificates checked, players registered, squad list updated, invite link sent, fixtures and training in, subs decided, routine written down. That is one evening with a cup of tea, and it is the difference between a season you run and a season that runs you.
Squadd is free to start, and every team gets a four-week Pro trial of everything, which is long enough to get through the first month of fixtures and feel the difference. Set it up tonight, send the link to the group, and by the first whistle the admin is somebody else's problem. Mostly the app's.