This is Grassroots Manager

Our Purpose

To give football players and families complete ownership of their footballing journey—from first kick to final whistle, wherever that journey takes them. We believe every player deserves to own their complete football story, with development milestones, achievements, memories, and connections traveling with them through every club, coach, and stage of their journey.

Why We Exist

UK grassroots football serves 1.5 million young players through 28,000 clubs, powered by 400,000 volunteers who contribute £8.7 billion worth of labour annually. Yet the weekly coordination that makes this beautiful game possible is needlessly chaotic—WhatsApp groups overflow with "What time should we be there?" messages, managers duplicate the same match details across multiple apps, and families struggle with fragmented information across clubs and seasons.

We're building the missing coordination layer that respects how grassroots football actually works: volunteer-driven, locally focused, and built on relationships rather than rigid systems. Unlike generic sports platforms designed for American markets or broad organizational use, GrassrootsManager is purpose-built for the unique culture and structure of UK grassroots football.

Our Approach: Parent-Controlled Data Sovereignty

At the heart of GrassrootsManager is a revolutionary approach to youth sports data: permanent parent control. Instead of asking families to repeatedly enter the same information across different clubs and systems, we flip the model completely. Parents create secure profiles for their children once, then choose precisely what information to share with each club, coach, or competition—and they can revoke that access instantly if circumstances change.

This isn't just about convenience—it's about fundamentally shifting power back to families. When Dom moves from Under-8s to Under-9s, or switches clubs, or tries rugby alongside football, his complete journey stays with the family, not trapped in club silos. Medical information, development progress, treasured memories, and key contacts all travel with the player, creating true portability in youth sports participation.

How We're Different

While competitors like Spond, Pitchero, and Clubforce focus on payment processing and admin-heavy club management, GrassrootsManager prioritizes the daily coordination that actually drives grassroots football. We're building for the weekly match day experience rather than the monthly payment cycle, for manager-to-manager coordination rather than treasurer-focused workflows.

Our Match Day Guide exemplifies this philosophy: instead of just displaying fixture information, we transform raw match data into practical preparation guidance. Weather-based kit recommendations, venue intelligence from other families, parking guidance based on expected attendance, and facility information that answers the questions parents actually ask: "Do they have toilets?" "Can I bring the dog?" "Have we been here before?"

By focusing on these daily touchpoints—the 30+ weekly matches rather than the annual subscription—we create genuine value that strengthens grassroots football's natural community connections rather than replacing them with generic digital processes.

Our Values in Action

Everything we build reflects our core commitment to:

• Football-first design: Built for football culture, not generic team management
• Player ownership: Players own their story; we just help them write it
• Portable identity: A player's journey belongs to them, not their current team
• Family control: Parents decide who sees what, when, and why
• Journey continuity: Every club adds to the story; none owns the whole book
• Inclusive participation: Extended family shares the journey even when they can't be at the game

We design for the grandparent who lives 200 miles away but never misses celebrating a goal, for the parent juggling multiple children across different sports, and for the player who dreams of playing for England but just wants to enjoy football with their mates right now.

Looking Forward

Our journey begins with solving the fundamental coordination challenges that create stress for the 93% of volunteers reporting increased pressure in grassroots football. By building trust through genuine time-saving tools and family-controlled data sovereignty, we're laying the foundation for a comprehensive ecosystem that serves every aspect of grassroots football participation.

This means evolving from match day coordination into family services that leverage the intelligence only possible with parent-controlled data: transport coordination between families, equipment sharing networks, development tracking that follows players across clubs, and local service connections that enhance rather than commercialize the grassroots experience.

Our success isn't measured by subscription revenue or user acquisition metrics, but by whether we're genuinely making grassroots football more enjoyable for players, less stressful for parents, and more sustainable for the volunteers who make it all possible.

Built by Grassroots, for Grassroots

GrassrootsManager emerges from deep understanding of the volunteer-driven, polycentric nature of UK youth football. We recognize that effective solutions must enhance existing social coordination mechanisms rather than replace them with generic efficiency tools. Our local-first approach, league-by-league rollout strategy, and focus on manager-to-manager coordination reflects respect for how grassroots football actually operates.

We're not trying to "disrupt" grassroots football—we're trying to make it work better. Every design decision, every feature priority, and every business model choice serves the fundamental goal of strengthening the beautiful, chaotic, volunteer-powered ecosystem that introduces millions of children to the world's most beloved sport.