Choose a format that fits your time and pitches
Work backwards from the time available. Count the pitches, the hours of play, the match length and the changeover between matches. That gives you the number of matches you can play, and the number of matches decides the format.
Groups followed by knockouts is the most common tournament format because every team is guaranteed several matches before elimination. A straight knockout is quicker, but half the field goes home after one game.
- Number of teams, with a firm entry deadline
- Pitches available and hours of play
- Match length plus changeover time
- The minimum number of matches each team is guaranteed
- Format: groups then knockouts, or a straight knockout
Set up the groups
Groups of four are the easiest to schedule: each team plays three matches and each group has six. Groups of three or five also work, but they make the schedule uneven.
Spread the strongest teams across different groups where you can, and keep teams from the same club apart in the group stage.
Publish group tie-breakers before the first match. When groups are different sizes, comparing raw points across groups is unfair to teams in the smaller groups, so rank by group position first or compare points per match.
Work out qualification, byes and seeding
Knockout brackets divide cleanly with 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 teams. If your rules produce a different number of qualifiers, you need byes or preliminary matches.
To calculate them, take the largest power of two below your number of qualifiers as the main stage. The number of preliminary matches is the number of qualifiers minus the main stage, and the number of byes is the number of qualifiers minus twice the preliminary matches. With 12 qualifiers, the main stage is 8, there are 4 preliminary matches, and 4 teams receive byes.
Seed the draw so the strongest qualifiers do not meet early. Where four teams qualify from each group, a common pattern is first in one group against fourth in another, and second against third.
Build the schedule
Give every team a rest between matches and never schedule a team twice in a row. Play the final round of each group at the same time, so no team knows in advance the result it needs.
Leave a buffer before the knockouts. Late group matches, result disputes and injuries all eat into it.
Assign a referee to every match before the day, and have a spare.
Run the day from one results desk
The most common tournament delay is waiting for someone to work out the knockout draw by hand. Decide the rules in advance so the bracket follows directly from the final group tables.
- One person confirms every result before it is published
- Group tables update only from confirmed results
- Qualifiers and the bracket are published as soon as the group stage ends
- Teams are told their next pitch and kick-off time
- Supporters can see the tables and bracket without asking anyone
Finish cleanly
Confirm the final result, publish the winners and keep the full record of groups and bracket. If the tournament runs again next year, this year’s entries, format and timings are your starting point.