For all our tournaments we believe in the following key principles
- During football tournaments – waiting time for each team between games should be kept to a minimum – otherwise players lose interest.
- Parents do not want to spend a whole day at a pitch and watch their son/daughter only play 2 or 3 games in 3 hours then get knocked out.
- Knock out tournaments do NOT promote development, “round robin” formats are preferred and also avoid penalty shoot out heartbreak.
- All teams in a tournament should play an equal number of games given all teams have paid the same registration fee.
- Tournament duration for a given age group should be no more than 2 hours – enough time to keep parents interested and enthused.
- Schools, Academies, Community Centre Clubs would like to have all their teams at the same venue to facilitate coach logistics but not necessarily at the same time (hence allowing a coach to manage multiple teams sequentially).
- Tournaments should take place on Astro turf, given clubs have spent time organising players/parents and to have a rained off tournament is a huge disappointment for all concerned.
- League tables, results should be available REAL TIME during the tournament and importantly accessible by everyone on their smart phone.
Noting of course 5, 6 and 7 a side tournaments are far more beneficial for development than larger sided events as recognised by National Football Associations all over the world, especially in the younger age groups.
