Soccer Aid - organise a five-a-side

To organise a five-a-side you will need

Teams of five to eight players, including one captain per team
Referees with whistles and stopwatches
A venue
Footballs and cones if you need to divide one large pitch into smaller ones
A fixture table/schedule
Refreshments – you could raise more money by charging for these
A prize or certificate
A set of rules – you can use the official FA version or adapt your own
Posters to publicise the event and attract teams (download them here)
Bibs or colours for the teams to wear – you can tell each team just to wear a specific colour to save costs.

Planning

Set an entry price that will cover your costs (e.g. venue hire, publicity and prizes) and will raise money for UNICEF.
Make a rough plan of how many teams you would like to recruit and work out how many minutes you will play per game. Allow for a half time break and schedule breaks for teams between matches if you are playing all day.
Book the venue and publicise the date early so that people put it in their diaries. You can use posters, flyers, word of mouth and perhaps contact your local paper.
Approach local companies to enter teams and sponsor elements such as the prizes, the equipment i.e. balls, whistles, stopwatches, cones, the venue or the refreshments.
Identify key audiences who may be interested in entering such as established local teams, local sports clubs, local pubs and local offices and workplaces.
Enlist some friends as referees and ask them to swot up on the rules.
Contact UNICEF to register your event and order fundraising resources if needed, such as collecting tins, balloons etc.
Find out if your venue is insured if not, you will need to obtain public liability insurance. Contact us with a completed event form if you want help with this, we may be able to arrange cover under our policy.
Arrange for someone with first aid training to attend
Do a risk assessment and make contingency plans to avoid unnecessary risk where possible
Check with the venue about car parking and give team captains a set of directions of how to get to the venue by car and public transport

Soccer Aid – organise a five-a-side