A football academy usually begins with a ground, a few coaches and a set of boys who want to play. HR comes last. By the time the academy has under-ten to under-eighteen groups, a goalkeeper coach and a fitness trainer, the lack of a system shows up on match days. This post sets out the order in which to put it right.
First: a record of who holds what
The lead coach for the under-sixteens holds an advanced licence. The assistant for the under-eights is working towards a basic one. The goalkeeper coach has a first aid course that expires after the monsoon. None of this is written anywhere. Start a single sheet: name, role, licence or badge, issue and expiry dates, first aid, and the age group each coach is cleared to lead. The competency and talent management approach for football academies builds a ladder on this record.
Second: match-day rules
Saturdays and Sundays belong to friendlies, leagues and away fixtures. Coaches leave at 6 am with the kit bags and the team bus. Nobody has said whether the day counts as extra, what is paid for travel, or whether the coach gets a meal. Write a one-page rule. Include departure and return times, how long a day is expected, what compensation applies, how fixtures are announced and who decides squad lists.
Fixture and venue:
Age group and squad size:
Coach and assistant on duty:
Departure and expected return time:
Transport and who is on the bus:
Kit, first aid bag and water checked by:
Meals or allowance for staff:
Compensation or time off for the duty:
Parent contact for the day:Third: one playing approach per age group
A boy moving from the under-twelves to the under-fourteens may meet a coach who plays out from the back, then another who plays long. A one-page playing approach for each age group, with the skills expected before promotion, helps. It also helps new coaches, who do not have to guess.
Fourth: how parents are spoken to
Playing time causes the loudest complaints. Give coaches a simple method: speak after the weekend, not at the touchline; have the age-group lead present; refer to the approach document. A short role-play in a staff meeting before the season is better than advice after a row. The learning and development page for football academies shows where this fits.
One more habit helps. At the end of each season, hold a thirty-minute review with the technical director: which age groups lost coaches, which licences lapse next, which match days overran. Note three changes for the next season and put them on the same sheet as the licences.
Pitch-side details
Goalposts that are anchored, corner flags that are replaced, a stretcher kept near the touchline, bibs sorted by colour, a cooler for water and a team sheet photographed before kick-off: the small things that make a match morning run. List them under the match-day note and assign each to a named person, so the kit manager is not blamed for a missing flag the coach never asked for.
Why the order matters
Licence records come first because they answer an external question: can this person coach this group. Match-day rules come second because the pain is immediate and weekly. Playing approach and parent method come next because they shape how boys and families experience the academy. The ladder comes last because it needs the earlier pages as input: it is hard to promote coaches when you cannot say what each holds or what each does on a Saturday.
Keep the pages short. A coach will read one side of A4. He will not read a policy file. If a rule cannot be explained in a sentence on the touchline, it is not ready.
The football bag and the touchline
- Whistle, stopwatch and clipboard with the lead coach.
- Cones, bibs, ladders and hurdles counted out and back.
- Goalposts, corner flags and touchline markers checked before every home match.
- Floodlights tested before the evening batch in the monsoon months.
- Stretcher, strapping tape, ice and the physio's number kept at the touchline.
- Team sheet, referee card and scorer's book photographed before kick-off.
Where to begin this month
Do not try to do all five at once. Spend week one on the licence sheet and the match-day note. Week two, write the playing approach for the two youngest and the two oldest groups, the ones where the gap is widest. Week three, agree the parent conversation method with the age-group leads. Week four, draft the coaching ladder and show it to the coaches for comment. Four short weeks, four pages, and the academy has the bones of a people system.
Watch for the quiet roles while you do it. The kit manager who washes bibs on Sunday night, the groundsman who lines the pitch before a league fixture, the video analyst who clips matches until midnight. They are on none of the sheets until you write them in.
Fifth: a ladder for coaches
- 1
Name the steps
Development coach, assistant coach, age-group lead, head of coaching, technical director. Add goalkeeper and fitness tracks.
- 2
Attach a licence level to each step
Say what is expected to move up, and what the academy will support, such as time off for a course.
- 3
Attach a pay range
Show where each step sits, even if only as a band.
- 4
Review once a year
Sit down with each coach to discuss progress, not just the pay.
The football academies page lists the roles and strains in more detail, and the HR for sports academies and clubs hub places football within the wider group. Do the licence sheet this week; the rest follows from it.
