How to organise a football tournament

Every other decision follows from this one, because the format decides how many matches you have and therefore how many days, pitches and referees you need. There are three shapes worth considering and one worth avoiding.

League (round-robin)

Everyone plays everyone. Fairest, most matches, needs the most time. The table decides it, so there is no final unless you add one.

Knockout (cup)

Lose and you are out. Shortest possible, but half the teams play once and go home — a poor deal if people paid to enter.

Groups into a knockout

Small round-robin groups, then the top teams into a bracket. Everyone gets at least two or three matches and you still finish with a final. This is what most amateur tournaments should run.

Double elimination

Two defeats to go out. Fairer than a straight knockout and much shorter than a league — good for a weekend competition where everyone travelled.

If your teams have travelled or paid an entry fee, do not run a straight knockout. Half of them will play one match. Groups into a knockout costs one extra day and everybody gets a competition.

This is the number that tells you whether your plan fits in the days you have. Do it before you book anything.

Round-robin, once each

N × (N − 1) ÷ 2. Eight teams is 28 matches; twelve teams is 66.

Round-robin, home and away

N × (N − 1). Eight teams is 56.

Knockout

N − 1, always — every match eliminates exactly one team. Sixteen teams is fifteen matches, byes or no byes.

Groups then knockout

Add them up: each group is its own round-robin, then N − 1 for the bracket that follows.

Rounds matter as much as matches, because a round is what fits in a day. An even number of teams needs N − 1 rounds to play a full round-robin; an odd number needs N, because one team sits out each round.

Divide the matches by the slots you can actually get. A pitch free for four hours on a Sunday gives you roughly four 11-a-side matches, or eight small-sided ones — small-sided formats are shorter and they turn over faster, which is why they suit a single-venue weekend competition.

11-a-side

Two halves of 40–45 minutes. Allow two hours a match with the turnaround.

7-a-side

Two halves of 25–30 minutes. Allow an hour.

5-a-side / futsal

Two halves of 20–25 minutes, often with rolling substitutions. Allow 45 minutes.

Leave one empty slot per day. Something will overrun, and a schedule with no slack turns one late kick-off into every later match starting late.

Collect a squad list, not just a team name and a phone number. The squad list is what settles the argument later about whether somebody was eligible, and it is the thing organisers most often skip and most often regret.

• Team name, and one named contact with a phone number.
• Every player's full name, and their shirt number if they have one.
• The entry fee, if there is one, and whether it is paid.
• A deadline after which no new player can be added — usually before the first match, sometimes before the knockout stage.

A spreadsheet is fine for this. What is not fine is a group chat: by the third week nobody can find the message with the squad in it.

Almost every tournament argument is about a rule nobody wrote down. These are the ones that actually come up, and each takes one line to settle in advance and an evening to settle afterwards.

Points

Three for a win, one for a draw. Say it anyway.

Tie-breakers

What separates two teams level on points, in order. Goal difference then goals scored is the common chain; head-to-head first is the other. Pick one and write the whole order down.

Squad eligibility

Who may play, when a player can be registered, and what happens if an unregistered player is used.

Suspensions

How many yellow cards means a ban, and how many matches a red card costs.

Knockout ties

Extra time, penalties, or straight to penalties. Also whether away goals count if you play two legs.

Walkovers

What a team that does not turn up is recorded as, and whether it affects goal difference.

Decide the tie-breaker order in the first week, not in the last. It is the single rule most likely to decide who wins, and the only time to agree it is before anyone knows who it helps.

Somebody has to write down what happened, and if that somebody is you standing on the touchline of one match, the other three pitches are unrecorded. Name a person per pitch before the day starts — a referee, an assistant, a substitute with a phone.

• The score, obviously — but also who scored and when, or the top-scorer table is guesswork.
• Cards, or suspensions cannot be tracked and the rule you wrote down in step 5 is unenforceable.
• Kick-off time, so a dispute about a late start has an answer.

Whoever records it should publish it the same day. A table that appears on Wednesday is a table nobody trusts, because by then three people remember the score differently.

Everything above is true whether or not you use software for it. This is the part Dawrify replaces, and it is the last section on purpose: the guide is worth reading without it.

• You pick the format and the rules — including the tie-breaker order from step 5 — and it generates every fixture.
• Whoever is at the pitch opens a match console and taps events as they happen; the standings and the top-scorer table update themselves.
• Suspensions from yellow-card accumulation and red cards are tracked without anyone counting.
• Every tournament, team and player gets a public web page, so there is a link to send instead of a photograph of a table.
• Last season stays public and next season can be created from it.

Your first tournament is free, up to 8 teams of 7 players, with no card to start; bigger tournaments use paid plans priced by teams and players. Following a competition is free for everyone. Organising happens in the dashboard, which is a separate application; the app is where people follow along.