Setting up a Football Club

Dolph Starbeam

Hi I am just wondering if anyone on here has ever gone about setting up a club and what would be involved.

Brain-storming in the pub yesterday with 2 mates, all of us fed up with life at our clubs and they way things are being run. We got cracking just out of interest to see who we knew who could play for us, all other local enough lads that we believe would be interested in playing, i think we easily listed about 30 players so we believe numbers will not be a problem.

Because its the weekend I have not been in contact with anyone from the League to see what we need to do to go about starting a club, on there website it lists the New Team Affiliation fee at €350 so that's not too bad.

I have spent the last hour on Pro Direct Soccer to have a look for Teamwear and equipment and see what costs would be. Doing a quick look and some quick maths, kit, balls, training gear and so on comes to about another €1500.

Things we are not so sure on just yet are where we will play, there are a number of pitches around town but we wouldn't have a clue on what kind of cost would be involved to use or rent for a season. I also believe we might need some kind of insurance, as i said i won't be in contact with anyone from the league until this week when i'm sure i can find out more.

Does anyone else know what else would be involved or what kind of other costs we should factor in?

We would also know quiet a few businesses around the town and also a pub that we think would possible help sponsor us.

Cheers for your help in advance, all input welcome, we only thought of doing this yesterday so i'd say we might have forgotten a few things.

It is the CCFL, Combined Counties Football League.

curry-muff

Yep pretty sure you're gona need a pitch anyway.

Paully D

Insurance is another massive cost AFAIK?

bobbysands81

Mark! wrote: »

I have spent the last hour on Pro Direct Soccer to have a look for Teamwear and equipment and see what costs would be. Doing a quick look and some quick maths, kit, balls, training gear and so on comes to about another €1500.

Mate - you can get gear FAR cheaper than that online.

curry-muff

Paully D wrote: »

Insurance is another massive cost AFAIK?

It is indeed, but usually whats done in that case is the players chip in €15/20 per head at the start of the season, usually takes a fair dent out of it.

Jax Teller

Just ask one of your local teams if they would Like to set up a B or C team . Worked for my mate

Will I Amnt

A mate of mine set up a team for us a few years ago and got the squad to pay €50 a head up front for setup and insurance and a fiver on matchday for other running costs after the referees fee.
As far as I know he applied to the local council for a pitch,don't think there was any cost involved there

Dolph Starbeam

bobbysands81 wrote: »

Mate - you can get gear FAR cheaper than that online.

Yes sorry i know that, i was just kind of going for all good stuff, i haven't seen kits for much cheaper than about €500 though, 2 kits so there is €1000 straight off.

cambo2008 wrote: »

A mate of mine set up a team for us a few years ago and got the squad to pay €50 a head up front for setup and insurance and a fiver on matchday for other running costs after the referees fee.
As far as I know he applied to the local council for a pitch,don't think there was any cost involved there

Thats what we would be doing, a couple of us already pay 70 quid a season to cover costs plus money on match days for the ref, i don't think that will be a problem. We could do with money from a few sponsors to try get a pitch going and to pay for insurance.

keysersoze_88 wrote: »

Just ask one of your local teams if they would Like to set up a B or C team . Worked for my mate

There is a local club here that need a senior team so that is an option. We'd kind of like to have it as our club, we know it is a lot more work but we are going to look into doing it this way first anyways.

Cheers for all the input lads.

ArmaniJeanss

Pick a really obscure jersey colour if you can - even look at the teams who are likely to be in your league and see what their strip is - if there is loads of greens and blues and reds then you can go for a white or a yellow etc.
(This is because you are expected to actually have two expensive strips available, with the home team changing in the event of a clash. But if you go obscure then you can get away with one kit.)

Its really great if you can have a handyman, generally an oul lad in his 40s/50s who wants to be involved. You need someone to put up the nets, then take the bloody nets down after you've been beaten 4-0 in driving rain. He can hopefully mark the pitch for you as well - this is a chore in itself as most councils don't let you burn the markings so you have to do them for each home game. You can pay him by listening to his tales about how football was better back in his day.

Whats the transport situation - are there enough cars to 'comfortably'* go around. If not then you need to hire a minivan for away matches.
(*5 cars for a team of 20 is not comfortable, all it takes is one car to be unavailable and you're snookered)

Try to get a pub to sponsor you, if not still find a pub you can use as a base.
You can then sell 'spot the balls' on Sunday afternoon, maybe organise a weekly lotto for Sunday nights etc.

If I remember any more from the 4 years of hell that was running a team I'll let you know.

mikemac

Mark! wrote: »

Yes sorry i know that, i was just kind of going for all good stuff, i haven't seen kits for much cheaper than about €500 though, 2 kits so there is €1000 straight off.

Would you have a link to one of these sites, would be appreciated
Interested in checking this

Dolph Starbeam

feelingstressed wrote: »

Would you have a link to one of these sites, would be appreciated
Interested in checking this

http://www.prodirectsoccer.com/staticfeature.asp?WID=7812&ALT=Teamwear%20Football%20Kits%20at%20Pro-Direct%20Soccer

Something like this is something we'd probably pick

http://www.prodirectsoccer.com/prodinfo.asp?DPID=PDS-052-010-543&DEPT=052&BRAND=10&SS=1&GROUP=POWERCAT510

Dolph Starbeam

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Pick a really obscure jersey colour if you can - even look at the teams who are likely to be in your league and see what their strip is - if there is loads of greens and blues and reds then you can go for a white or a yellow etc.
(This is because you are expected to actually have two expensive strips available, with the home team changing in the event of a clash. But if you go obscure then you can get away with one kit.)

Its really great if you can have a handyman, generally an oul lad in his 40s/50s who wants to be involved. You need someone to put up the nets, then take the bloody nets down after you've been beaten 4-0 in driving rain. He can hopefully mark the pitch for you as well - this is a chore in itself as most councils don't let you burn the markings so you have to do them for each home game. You can pay him by listening to his tales about how football was better back in his day.

Whats the transport situation - are there enough cars to 'comfortably'* go around. If not then you need to hire a minivan for away matches.
(*5 cars for a team of 20 is not comfortable, all it takes is one car to be unavailable and you're snookered)

Try to get a pub to sponsor you, if not still find a pub you can use as a base.
You can then sell 'spot the balls' on Sunday afternoon, maybe organise a weekly lotto for Sunday nights etc.

If I remember any more from the 4 years of hell that was running a team I'll let you know.

Cheers for that, the jersey thing is a good idea, i'll look into that, we laughed one one of the lads suggested wearing pink like Palermo, maybe it wasn't that bad an idea after all.

The handyman is something i never thought of, we have 2 men who believe would be interested as managers but i don't think they'd want to be doing the other stuff. We have a few younger people who might not be wanting to play but be involved somehow and maybe they could help. I'll bring that point up though.

Again the transport is something we'd not really thought of, i think a lot of them do have cars so i don't think we'll need to buy any transport, it is something i will have a look into though.

Ye we were actually in our local pub when we came up with the idea to start up and we have a feeling that they would sponsor us, it is a recently done up pub that is doing very good business, they do not sponsor any clubs at the moment and a lot of the other big pubs in the town do, so hopefully they will be interested. We thought of maybe having a table quiz night to try raise some money to start up if the pub agree to sponsor us. We so have a few others that might help sponsor us too though if that main plan doesn't work out.

Thanks again for your reply it is very helpful.

GLaDOS

This has come up before, there's some good advice in this thread here

Mikeyt086

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Its really great if you can have a handyman, generally an oul lad in his 40s/50s who wants to be involved. You need someone to put up the nets, then take the bloody nets down after you've been beaten 4-0 in driving rain. He can hopefully mark the pitch for you as well - this is a chore in itself as most councils don't let you burn the markings so you have to do them for each home game. You can pay him by listening to his tales about how football was better back in his day.

Loved this.

Gavin "shels"

Don't ask Sporting Fingal for advice anyway!:D

Frisbee

Also you need to be aware that if 20 lads say they are definitely interested - when it comes to crunch time you'll get a maximum of 7/8 actually willing to commit.

celtictiger32

i agree with frisbee whatever lads say they will play now will never be the end result. theres a lot more work involved than you would think i set a club up a few years back its still going strong we have a few senior and kids teams but im still doing stuff 7 days a week ( hope your missus is understanding) i never envisaged the work, commitment and money needed to run a club.