How to organise a weekly five-a-side

Everyone loves a weekly game. Hardly anyone wants to run it. But somebody has to book the pitch, find ten players every week and sort out who owes what. If that's you, this guide covers the lot: the pitch, the players, the replies, the drop-outs, the money and the teams.

Most of it works whatever you use to run things.

Book the pitch first

Everything else hangs off the booking, so get that sorted before you start rounding people up.

• Pick one slot and keep it. Same night, same time, every week. "Tuesdays at 7" sticks in people's heads. "Some time next week, whenever suits" doesn't.
• Ask about block bookings. Most centres will hold a regular slot for you, sometimes cheaper if you book a term or pay up front. Ask what happens if you need to cancel a week, and how much notice they want.
• Work out the cost per head. Divide the pitch fee by ten and round up a little. That spare change covers the weeks when only nine turn up.

Build a pool of 12 to 16 regulars

Five-a-side needs ten. If you only know ten people, you'll be short every other week. Someone's ill, someone's working late, someone's at a wedding.

Aim for a pool of 12 to 16 people who'd happily play most weeks. That gives you enough cover for the usual drop-outs without lots of people missing out every week. Go much bigger and the regulars start getting left out, and they drift off.

Ask your players to bring a mate: workmates, or the bloke from the Sunday league who fancies a midweek run-out. A mix of abilities is fine. Fair teams fix most of that (more on that below).

Get replies without forty messages

"Who's in Tuesday?" is the most dangerous question in five-a-side. Forty messages later you've got memes, an argument about Arsenal and still no idea who's playing.

What works:

• Ask one clear question, early. Ask as soon as the last game finishes, or on the same day every week.
• Set a deadline. "Let me know by Sunday night" gives you time to find a replacement.
• Keep the answers in one list, not mixed up with the chat.

This is the bit 5asider was built for. When you add a game, everyone in the squad gets an email with an I'm in and an I'm out button. One tap and they've replied, with no need to log in. The game page shows who's in, who's out and who hasn't replied yet, so you know exactly who to nudge. Players can change their mind any time before kick-off.

Each player signs in with Google once, when they accept your invitation, to start getting the game emails. If someone won't sign up, you can still keep them in the squad and mark them in or out yourself.

Deal with drop-outs before they happen

Drop-outs are part of five-a-side. Plan for them.

• Have reserves. If 12 say they're in, pick the ten who are playing and tell the other two they're first reserves. On 5asider you mark the ten as selected, and anyone else who's in shows on the game page as also available.
• Agree a rule on late drop-outs. A common one: drop out after the deadline and you still pay, unless you find your own replacement.
• Make dropping out a bit awkward. On 5asider, a player who drops out has to confirm it, and they're told when they're leaving a team a player short. The rest of the squad can see the change in the game's reply history.
• Keep an eye on the serial offenders. 5asider's reliability page shows who drops out after saying they're in, and who does it close to kick-off. Use it gently. Sometimes people drop out to let someone else play.

And if you're stuck with nine, play four against five with a rolling keeper. It's fine. Nobody will remember by next week.

Collect the money

Money is where a lot of organisers lose the will to live. A few things help:

• Collect up front. Paying for a block of weeks in advance beats chasing a fiver from ten people every Tuesday.
• Make paying easy. A bank transfer to one account, or a payment link from your banking app, means nobody can use "I've got no cash" as an excuse.
• Keep a simple record of who's paid for which weeks. A note on your phone does the job.
• Be clear about drop-outs. Decide whether late drop-outs pay, and stick to it.

5asider doesn't collect money. It's for who's playing, the teams and the results. You can put the cost and how to pay in the squad description, so new players know before they turn up.

Pick fair teams

Nothing kills a weekly game faster than the same lot winning every week. Captains picking their mates, or "same teams as last week", both end the same way: lopsided games and quiet players who stop coming.

Ten minutes of thought before kick-off pays off. Our guide on how to pick fair five-a-side teams goes through the options. In short, 5asider's auto-pick splits whoever is playing into two even teams based on the squad's own results, and you can swap anyone about before you save.

Keep it going

The first few weeks are easy. Keeping a game alive for years takes a bit more. Share the job with a co-organiser, bring new players in steadily and give people a reason to come back. Our guide on keeping your weekly game going covers all of that.

Setting up your squad on 5asider

1. Create your squad and give it a name.
2. Add your players. Paste a list of names or email addresses and add the whole squad at once, then send invitations.
3. Add a game. Everyone who has signed up gets the email with one-tap replies.

It takes a minute, it's free and there's nothing to install.

Questions people ask

How many players do you need for a weekly five-a-side?

Ten on the night, but aim for a pool of 12 to 16 regulars. That covers illness, work and holidays without leaving people out every week.

How do I stop people dropping out at the last minute?

Set a reply deadline, keep a couple of reserves and agree that late drop-outs still pay unless they find a replacement. Seeing who drops out, and how close to kick-off, also helps.

Does 5asider collect pitch money?

No. 5asider handles who's playing, teams and results. Most groups collect money by bank transfer or a payment link, ideally in advance for a block of weeks.

Do my players need to download an app?

No. 5asider works in the browser on any phone or computer. Players reply from an email with one tap. They sign in with Google once to start getting the emails.

How much does 5asider cost?

Nothing. It's free for organisers and players.