Tournament Builder

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Can be purchased for £5 by clicking here.

Sometimes in training it is great fun to split the group into teams and play a mini tournament. The kids love it, and they love to take it seriously. We can help you with this.


Within the PDF there are fixture lists and league tables for three, four, five, and six team tournaments. It helps to keep track of who has played who, and the number of points they have. Making practice competitive adds so much more pressure and realism, and when done in a safe and encouraging environment, the players thrive.

There are six teams at different formats; 5v5, 6v6, 7v7, 8v8, 9v9, and 11v11. How you split your teams is up to you. For example, if you have twenty four kids, you might want to do a four-way 6v6 tournament, or a three-way 8v8 tournament, or perhaps even a realistic practice match of 11v11. Each group is assigned a team, and we have helpfully matched the colours to the teams, aligning them with what bibs you may have available to you. There's many of your favourite teams from around the world included, as well as a few niche teams for the football nerds.

The example below is based off having twenty players available to you, and wanting to do a four-way 5v5 tournament. Five players in red bibs become Benfica, five in yellow become Dortmund, five in green become Panathinaikos, and five in blue become Chelsea. You can pretend it is the Champions League group stage. We have based our template off of Football Manager, making the tactical instructions easy for the players to read and understand, with the colourful animations. Hand out the cards, let the teams have a brief teamtalk, and then let them play. Afterwards becomes a great time for reflection on the application and effectiveness of these tactics. What worked? What didn't? What did you enjoy? What did you not enjoy? What changes did you make? What will you do differently next time? Why did A work better against B? This really engages their brains and gets them to think on a more deeper level about football.


Here's a closer look at the Benfica card for 5v5 and the Palmeiras card for 7v7. You as the coach can obviously make adjustments and recommendations to your players. It doesn't even have to be Benfica! It could be any team in red. If you like, for £10 you can have the template to edit this in any way you like.





When designing sessions and other activities, I like to put myself in the mind of a child. "If I was a kid, would I enjoy this?" The very active child still within me screams back "YES!" The bright colours, the clear instructions, the chance to pretend to play for a big name, and interesting club, absolutely! Especially when there are tournaments and league tables. Below are all the slides that are within the PDF.



5v5: Benfica, Borussia Dortmund, Panathinaikos, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Juventus.
6v6: Manchester United, Villarreal, Santos Laguna, Basel, River Plate, Corinthians.
7v7: Liverpool, Club America, Portland Timbers, Inter Milan, Borussia Monchengladbach, Shakhtar Donestk.
8v8: Bayern Munich, Tigres UANL, Palmeiras, Manchester City, Valencia, Anderlecht.
9v9: Chivas Guadalajara, Columbus Crew, Celtic, Barcelona, RB Leipzig, AC Milan.
11v11: Atletico Madrid, Kaizer Chiefs, Seattle Sounders, Porto, Tottenham Hotspur, Bayer Leverkusen.

Just think of some of the amazing football match-ups that can be found!

A 5v5 six-way tournament between Benfica, Dortmund, Panathinaikos, Real Madrid, and Juventus.
A 6v6 three-way tournament between Manchester United, Villarreal, and River Plate.
A 7v7 five-way tournament between Liverpool, Inter Milan, Monchengladbach, and Shakhtar Donetsk.
An 8v8 four-way tournament between Bayern, Tigres, Man City, and Valencia.
A 9v9 three-way tournament between Celtic, Barcelona, and AC Milan.
An 11v11 match between Atletico Madrid and Porto.

The kids will love it. Especially if you can do some head to heads.



You guys put on red bibs! You have x minutes to prepare to play as Atletico. You lot put on blue bibs and you play as Porto! Play for a half. How is the game going? Should they stick with what they are doing or change? How will the other team adapt and will that mean you have to adapt again? In your debriefs and deep discussions, it is possible to use this framework to dive deeper into their tactical understanding, allowing you to use leading questions via lived experience, to elicit answers from the participants.

If you would like this, it's yours for £5. If you have any questions, get in touch, and we'll be happy to speak to you.

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