Organising a football tournament is more difficult than putting together tournaments of any other sports, especially when one considers putting together a football tournament in our country. It’s considered to be a mammoth task. Football is yet to reach its peak popularity in India and our National team’s FIFA ranking proves just that. It takes a lot of convincing and running about to complete permission process which has to be taken to organize a professional tournament.
There is another aspect where one may face problems during organization - i.e. procurement of sponsors; they are a part of every tournament. It's not all grey for Indian footballers and enthusiasts. However, the interest has picked up thanks to many new self styled tournaments and websites which report on local football tournaments. Let us now look into the most important aspects of hosting a football tournament.
1) The Pre-Tournament Registrations and Scheduling
Open registrations for the teams you would like to participate in the football tournament. It gives the teams enough time to prepare and hosts have enough time to see if adequate numbers of teams have registered. It can also help us early on to see if we the advertisement and marketing for the tournament is being done in the correct manner.
2) The Player Transfers
Transfers is a very exciting and an important aspect of any tournament, be it be the Barclay's Premier League or any local league, the transfer is what makes the game interesting and more competitive. It is widely believed that the modern day football is all about the money and most owners are interested in the business aspect of the game. Maybe but, the transfers that take place are important for any club. Social media and football websites help us know about all the latest updates regarding transfers. Sites like TheFootballMind.com can be used for the same.
3) The Schedule
One shall schedule the dates for the tournament based on the number of teams and players that have signed up. If you have the appropriate number of teams for a basic tournament, scheduling rounds a week apart will give players time to heal from any injuries and practice for the next round. The number of teams per tournament should be based on the type of tournament. A knockout tournament should have 2/4/8/16/32 teams so that it is easier to take care of eliminations. A league can be designed as per the allotments of the dates, most leagues however follow a top 3 criteria and award them.
4) The Ground Planning & Permission
One of the most important things for any tournament is the ground in which the tournament would be played and for that one would need to make bookings/reservations accordingly. Try to reserve a field or two or any commercial area where one could get a ground in exchange for the rent. If the space needs to be rented, considering the rent aspect when charging any registration fee for the participants is advisable.
5) Referees
It is highly recommend that you hire a set of referees for each game. It is because we would be paying each set of officials by the hour or by the game. The total cost encured in this case will be the same as that for hiring one set of referees for all games and this will also keep the referees fit mentally and physically because they get breaks between the games.
6) Medical Facilities
Football is a contact sport, we need to prepare ourselves to face medical emergencies, for which, we would need to hire medical assistance. It is advisable to have a medical team equipped and ready. One would have to pay for this service and schedule it well in advance of the tournament dates.
7) The Essentials
When the playing field is available at your disposal, it is necessary for us to start working on placing the goal posts, marking the boundary lines, the 'D' box's. Get footballs, the area markers and pylons or cones. Another important thing that people do generally tend to miss out on, are the water bottles. The organizers must provide clean drinking water and ensure that it is available for the players and the team members at all times.
8) The Final Reminders
It is highly necessary to alert the participants of the time slots for their first-round games, and tell them when and where their subsequent games will be so that they can plan ahead. It also necessary to tend to their queries about the venues, rules, etc.
All of these or at least most of the above mentioned things can easily be done using the internet. Doing these things online does not involve any heavy usage. There are websites which providing live coverage of the games and help in keeping the audience informed about the information (score-line/match updates). All of this can also be done with basic internet connection from home without many difficulties. There are sites which help in organizing in doing so, sites like Konkuri.com, bookmysport.com, thefootballmind.com, leaguelab.com, enjore.com. Organising tournaments can be made easier with the help of the internet and resources are available on the aforementioned sites to make the task less hassle free if not completely hassle free.
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