We’ve talked a little bit in the past about the pains of rustling up a kickaround with your work colleagues or mates.
I organise drinks at work, and I once allowed Cosby, Jumbo and Frodo to take ownership. Biggest mistake of my life. P*ss up, breweries, were words I could use with this lot. They had managed to set it all up at a bar, only to give everyone the wrong name. Yep, that’s what I’m working with.
When it comes to organising a game, just a one-off, can be a chore, to then try to get some routine to your schedule, can almost be impossible. At this point it’s easy to lose your way and finally give up.
We want to help you out at FC7, so here’s an invaluable review of some tools that will aid you in your efforts. Some are quite basic, some more complex and some may not even cover your needs, but it’s all about trial and error and what your comfortable with. Personally, I think you can use a combination of the below, as I don’t think there’s 1 app that ticks all the boxes. Time is a factor too, and how many players you have, so think about all that!
At the end I’ll let you know how we use the various apps to organise our games, promote our team and get on the pitch.
If it works, makes life easier, then go for it!
This has become the new norm, taking over from SMSing. What’s good with What’s App….(get it?) is that you can create groups. It’s a really simple way of getting everyone in 1 place for comms and it’s instant too. That’s all it does however, so it’s probably a mandatory requirement. You can’t do it all via WhatsApp however, so make use of the other apps below.
Outlook
If you are organising on behalf of your work crew, then speak to your IT department about creating a football distribution list, it takes a minute to do, and you add new joiners to the list when required. It’s another way of communicating to people, and sometimes near the end of the day, it can be a better way of getting a reminder out.
It’s also useful way of adding a bit of colour to bigger events, as you can embed flyers/posters/graphics etc. It’s also useful to have Outlook to integrate your personal accounts. Think about setting up a specific email address for your footy team, I have an footballclubse7en@gmail.com address that is built into my personal Outlook, so I can keep all the Instagram, blog and other app registration details to hand.
Yammer
Some companies who use Office365 may have Yammer setup. It’s like a corporate version of Facebook. It’s a great way of show casing your team with photos and events etc. Less useful for organisation, but you should be looking at a complete solution at this point. So not just setting up a game but demonstrating what happens when you play, upcoming events. You want to be able to attract new players as well as catering to your current roster.
Teams
Again, focusing from a work environment, Microsoft Teams, is a multi-platform instant comms channel. During the lockdown it’s been highlighted as a great tool, so knock up a Footy Teams Channel, again, it’s a useful and instant way of comms for your teams members, you can add newbies instantly, add tabs for directions to your games, websites, the players who have signed up for the weeks games. Whenever you use any application, try to research it so you make the fullest use from it. Check out the screenshots below, to see how we at FC7 have squeezed out the most from MS Teams.
TeamApp ( https://www.teamapp.com/?_detail=v1)
This is probably the closest we have to an all-in-one solution to all your organising needs. Sign up, its all free, it has a web interface and there’s a mobile app too. It’s quite cool as you can configure the appearance and colour scheme with your own and add your logo too. But its features are killer. It’s lets, you add players yourself, or they can do that themselves.
The app has a simple scheduling system for when you organise games, and you can see who’s in and who’s out. You can even integrate payment systems for free, so you can have your team kit and accessories available for purchase for new members if required. It’s quite a heavy app, but it delivers a lot of ticks. If you’re looking to streamline your whole approach, and keep it simple, you should def check this app out.
ToePoke (https://toepoke.co.uk/)
Where TeamApp, takes a one size fits all approach, ToePoke, really focuses on you the organiser, and taking the pain out of it. ToePoke shares a lot of similarities with TeamApp, but where it lacks in some features, it makes up for in automation.
You put a little groundwork, in creating a few template messages, but after you whack in the players names, it takes over. It sends emails out; it automatically sends reminders at set times and collates people’s responses into a tidy spreadsheet so you can see everyone who is all setup to play. It’s a tough one whether you pick ToePoke or TeamApp……I get the impression that TP is a good start and is scaled for a smaller amount of users, but if your team grows in size, then you’d probably graduate to TeamApp, I know the GoalDiggers use this app, and they have several Sunday League, and 5-a-side teams.
ImIn (https://imin-app.com/)
There’s a simple premise behind this app, people say yay or nay. But as a result, doesn’t have much scaling for anything more. You use it to ping a message to members, and like a calendar event, people either say “I’m In” or not. If you’re just starting out, it can be really useful and one of the best features is that your team members don’t have to sign up or register to the app, so this is more for the organisers. You’d be using this as a tool in collab with other apps I’d say.
Findaplayer (https://www.findaplayer.com/)
This site/app has grown loads from my experience. It’s another slant and is more for beginners and people looking to get into a game if they are on their own. But they have basic organisation and you can even scale up so you can integrate your team into league systems. It covers you from a personal level and from the organiser’s perspective. You need to test this out, and it’s not 100% clear what they are trying to achieve.
FootyAddicts (https://footyaddicts.com/)
We did an article full of praise for FootyAddicts, so we won’t go into much detail regarding them. It’s not as automated as all the above apps but I quite like that side of things. It give you a bit more control. In the early days of setting up your team, this is exactly what you need. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about automation and making things easy, but at the beginning it helps’ to be quite hands on, as you will learn what needs to be done. From here, you can then decide what chores will be best upgrading, get a gauge on how your players work, what modes of comms they are more receptive too etc.
Couch to 5k (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/get-inspired/43501261)
I included this, from the BBC site, as I found it really useful. I didn’t stick rigidly to it, as for me, it’s there to be used as accompanying factor. I think you can get a bit too drawn into meeting targets, so when you miss them, you can naturally be to hard on yourself. Set goals, sure, but do it at your own pace. But over time, you’ll get a lot of people who love footy, but are apprehensive about joining in due to their fitness levels. So send them over to our blog or get them started with the Couch to 5k challenge.
What’s more relevant is that 5k is a nice starting point for football. You don’t run a marathon during a game, so 5k is a great beginning and maximum even. What you do afterwards it’s up to you.
There you have it! Probably loads more apps out there but if we tested them all out, we would never get around to getting a game on. But we’ll try to revisit this page if we discover more apps worthy of mention so pop back for more updates.
The key here is trialling them all out if you get the time. Hopefully you’ll have a couple of lieutenants that can help you out with a testing phase. Some apps are quite intensive, so require a bit of work at the beginning, you get out what you put in. This maybe overkill when you’re just beginning, so it could be a lot of effort for not much gain.
Finally, it all depends on the people you have playing. A lot of these tools will help you organise, take the time out of sending comms out all over the place, and last-minute struggles. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the people you have on board. Don’t fear giving people a kick up the backside. If they aren’t showing much effort, warn them and finally boot them from the group. You are putting a lot of effort in, so the least people can do is be a bit more interactive and make your life easier. We mentioned this as an organiser, but the same is true to the players, they will get out what they put in. You’re all a team remember, so let’s get everyone acting like one.
Over time, if you’ve followed our tips, you’ll have several platforms up and running. To organise your games, to communicate to your players and showcase your events and game via the medium of photography, graphics and posters. You will have to carry most of the burden, so give your players and the lurkers something to look forward to, mix it up and have drinks nights, weekend events and leagues etc. If you create something magic, people will be queuing up to take part. Once you’re at that stage, then the rest is plain sailing!
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