What the new youth formats mean off the pitch

From this season, youth football looks different. The FA's new framework runs 3v3 at under 7s, 5v5 at under 8s and 9s, 7v7 at under 10s and 11s, 9v9 at under 12s and 13s, and the full 11v11 from under 14s. Roughly speaking, every format now arrives a year later than it used to. The youngest players get a game built for them instead of a shrunk version of the grown-up one.

On the pitch it is a good change. There are more touches, more involvement and fewer children stood on a wing waiting for the ball. Off the pitch it is a lot of admin nobody has mentioned, and it lands on the secretary, the treasurer and the parents who run the age groups.

Smaller sides means more teams

This is the big one. Thirty under 9s used to make three 7-a-side squads. In 5v5 they make four or five squads, each needing a manager, a kit, a pitch slot and a fixture list. The children have not multiplied, but the teams have, and everything that hangs off a team has gone with them.

So the age group that ran off one manager and a group chat now has four managers, four groups and four sets of parents who need to know where to be. That is four people who need access to their own squad's details and nothing else. It is four people who need a DBS check and a welfare briefing, and four fixture lists that have to reach the right families every week. The club's job has not changed, there is simply more of it.

Pitches, goals and the booking sheet

A 3G that hosted two 7v7 games on a Saturday morning is now hosting four or five 5v5 games, with smaller goals, different markings and a different slot length. That is a conversation with whoever you hire the pitch from, and probably with the club you share it with.

It is also a kit list: mini goals, more balls, more bibs, more cones. Check now that every pitch you have booked for the season is the right size for the format that will be played on it. The leagues will be checking too.

Records that move with the child

With more teams in an age group, children move between them more often. A player who starts the season in the under 9 Blues might be in the Reds by Christmas. Every time that happens their details, their emergency contacts and their medical notes have to move with them. If those live in a spreadsheet per team, or in each manager's phone, that is where things get lost.

The fix is dull: one record per child, held by the club, with the teams as labels on it. Move a child and nothing gets re-typed. Move a child up an age group in the summer and nothing gets re-typed then either.

The date of birth on that record decides which format they play. It is worth making sure it is right, held securely, and out of reach of whoever happens to have the spreadsheet open.

Keep the youngest results off the website

The framework keeps its focus on development in the youngest age groups, and part of that is leaving their results and league tables unpublished. If your club website has a results page that a keen parent updates every Sunday, make sure the under 7s to under 11s are off it. It is a small thing, and the club website is the public face of how seriously you take the rules.

Three things to do this month

• Count the teams. Write down every squad the club now runs, with a named manager beside each one, and look at the gaps. Recruiting a manager in September is easier than in November.
• Check the pitches. Set every booking against the format that will be played on it, and the goals you own against the goals you will need.
• Sort the records. You want one list of children, held by the club, that a manager can be given access to for their squad and nothing else. If that is not what you have, fix it before the next wave of new managers arrives.