Starting your own community football team: A community action plan
Download this community action plan to help you get started setting up a community football team, from the fundamentals to expanding your offer.
A community football team is a great way to build local connections, both within the team and for those supporting it. In addition to connecting neighbours in your area at an individual level, being involved in team sports is good for people’s physical and mental health.
This action plan, full of practical tips and guidance, will help you to:
- Set up a team and get people involved
- Identify funding opportunities
- Locate and access space to practise and play
- Plan training sessions
- Understand safeguarding procedures
- Play against other teams and in local leagues
- Grow and make the most of your club
It includes insights from the Woolavington Wanderers (supported by Villages Together Big Local in Somerset) and Clarksfield & Glodwick in Greater Manchester (with support from Clarksfield, Greenacres and Littlemoor, also known as Big Local Oldham).
The plan also shares guidance and resources from national sporting organisations and associations.
Clarksfield & Glodwick’s football club offers opportunity for young people
Clarksfield & Glodwick set up a football club for under-15s because there was little for young people to do in the area. They now have eight different teams, ranging from under-7s up to under-15s, playing for the club.
They recieved initial funding and support from Big Local Oldham, including for football kits, and took a grassroots approach to finding their first coach, by putting a call out on a local community Facebook page.
Safeguarding is important to the club and they have a designated officer with whom any concerns can be raised. Their FA affiliation also ensures coaches regularly undergo refresher safeguarding training.
Young people taking part in the football club have had opportunities they wouldn’t have accessed otherwise. Clarksfield & Glodwick’s under-14s team played their league final in Salford stadium, the first time in a stadium for many of the children and parents, and they won the East Manchester under-14s junior league cup!
There have been challenges (to setting up our club), but the memories and benefits to the kids and our wider community have been huge. I would say ‘do it’ to anyone thinking of starting one.”
Zia, coach at Clarksfield & Glodwick Football Club in Oldham
Photo: Heath Big Local Credit: Local Trust / Richard Richards
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