Grassroots heroes: The SMEs powering football from the ground up
Amateur clubs are both an important source of talent for professional football clubs and vital community hubs. But the majority are run by volunteers and the workload is heavy. Can digital tools ease the administrative burden of this crucial part of the beautiful game?
Introduction
Raw passion for football is rarely more evident than at a local pitch on a rainy Sunday morning. This is the grass roots of a multibillion-dollar industry, and without it there would be no starting point for the football superstars of the future.
Grassroots football is any football that’s played at a non-professional level, and it’s a critical foundation of the professional game: it discovers future stars and builds the interest and engagement of fans. But its value goes beyond its contribution to the professional leagues – local clubs also boost community spirit and encourage social cohesion.1
Grassroots clubs have spent the past five years recovering from a major hit in participation rates during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when all group sports were banned across large parts of the world. But while official statistics are hard to get hold of, player numbers are now bouncing back. England’s Football Association (the FA), for example, reports that more people are now playing the grassroots game than ever before.1
This is progress, and it’s putting amateur clubs in a position to take the grassroots game into a new era of growth. But there are challenges – not least, the fact that in most countries the vast majority of grassroots clubs are run by volunteers.
This is where innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are stepping in. Their digital club management and support tools are helping to ease the organisational burden for club leaders and coaches, and are enhancing the player experience.
Technology that evolves with teams
One of these SMEs, UK-based TeamFeePay, offers all-in-one club management software that takes care of payments, player sign-ups, scheduling and fundraising. “Clubs’ needs are so much greater than just collecting membership payments,” says TeamFeePay COO Victoria Millar. “They have to ensure they have an engaged base of volunteers and coaches, and can plan ahead for facilities to ensure training and coaching for all teams falls into place.”
Data protection and safeguarding are becoming increasingly important as administrative tools move online, particularly for youth teams. Millar says that TeamFeePay has added support in these areas to its system as it has grown. “Being a young company and an SME, we’ve been able to be agile in that way,” says Millar. “We've built the product alongside our clubs to help them do so much more than just manage membership and payments.”
Fellow SME 360Player, based in Sweden, was originally created because of another pressing challenge for grassroots clubs: retaining players. These clubs can’t survive without their players, and revenue rises and falls in line with membership numbers. But the developmental differences between young players is a central challenge in youth sports.
360Player aims to “take the bias out of physical maturity” by offering tailored training plans to ensure every young player can thrive, even as they grow at different rates.
“We want everyone to continue with their sport for much longer, and there are ways to adapt for physical differences and develop every player,” says 360Player's founder and CEO Mats Kraitsik.
Again, 360Player has grown as it has developed, and it now offers much more than tailored training. It’s designed to solve the wide range of challenges faced by grassroots teams, and clubs can use it to manage payments, scheduling, communication and more – all in one place.
“We’re always asking how we can support clubs to be more efficient,” says Kraitsik. “How can we get more revenue into the club by offering new payments systems, new ways of getting fees, or by attracting new sponsors or advertisements? SMEs will listen and adapt to specific things and niches that big businesses can’t. We can be more specific, more localised.”
SMEs will listen and adapt to specific things and niches that big businesses can’t.
Founder and CEO, 360Player
Match passion with passion
Another SME created to enhance the player experience and sustain their loyalty is Germany-based app Prematch. Prematch’s founding mission was to give amateur players access to the kind of stats and analysis normally reserved for professionals. Players can track their match results and performance data – even their market value – and compare their stats with teammates and rivals. “We always say we don’t turn you into a pro, but we make you feel like one,” explains co-founder and CEO Lukas Röhle.
The idea was born from experience: Röhle and his fellow founders Fiete Grünter and Niklas Brackmann grew up playing football. “We were all super passionate,” says Röhle. “Games on the weekend were the most important part of our weeks, but outside of that we had no way to keep engaging with our team or our league. Yet the coverage for professional sports is so extensive.”
This passion for football is something shared by all the leaders of the SMEs, and when a business is smaller it’s easier for the founders to ensure that passion runs right through it. “Everybody in our business has played football, or is part of a committee, so they have that lived experience,” says Millar. “And that’s something that resonates and has built the trust that clubs have in us.”
Röhle and his co-founders even launched their own amateur club after starting work on Prematch. “It's good to know the challenges of running a small club ourselves and not just listen to our users speak about it,” he says.
Röhle’s advice to other would-be SME founders in grassroots football? “Stay close to the community,” he says. “Play football yourself, go to the pitches. Really feel it yourself, rather than trying to solve it from the outside.”
We always say we don’t turn you into a pro, but we make you feel like one.
Co-founder and CEO, Prematch
The business of football
Football isn’t just about what happens on matchday. These in-depth reads and success stories explain how technology, data analytics and commercial innovation are reshaping the sport behind the scenes.
Player of the match: Why football clubs view SMEs as their new star players
Breaking into the big league: How SMEs can score with football clubs
Why global football is going local
A greener pitch: Can football clubs clean up their act?
The beautiful game has a dirty secret: it produces as much CO2 as some entire countries. Fans are clear that they want that to change, and clubs are responding by finding innovative ways to reduce their environmental impact.
A numbers game? How data science is changing football scouting
Levelling the pitch: How SMEs are targeting women football fans
Playing to the crowd: Why football clubs are investing in the stadium experience
TV brings in the cash, but live crowds are the lifeblood of the football industry. How can small and medium-sized businesses help clubs enhance the matchday fan experience?
Player of the match: Why football clubs view SMEs as their new star players
Breaking into the big league: How SMEs can score with football clubs
Why global football is going local
A greener pitch: Can football clubs clean up their act?
A numbers game? How data science is changing football scouting
Levelling the pitch: How SMEs are targeting women football fans
Playing to the crowd: Why football clubs are investing in the stadium experience
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