Most junior coaches agree that every child should get a fair amount of football. The harder part is doing it on a cold Saturday morning, with a close score, a missing player and a parent watching the clock from the touchline. This guide covers what "fair" can mean in practice, how to explain your approach to families, and how to keep track without a clipboard full of crossings-out.
Why it matters
Children join a team to play. A child who spends most of the match on the side learns less, enjoys it less and is more likely to drift away from the sport. At junior level the result matters far less than whether the whole squad is getting better and wants to come back next week.
Fair playing time also takes a lot of heat out of the touchline. When families know how minutes are shared, and can see that you stick to it, there is much less room for the quiet grumbling that wears volunteer coaches down.
It is worth checking your league's and county FA's guidance too. Many junior leagues expect every registered player to get meaningful game time, and some set out their own expectations. Your club may have a policy as well.
What "fair" actually means
There are two common ways to think about it.
An equal share
Every child gets the same number of minutes. It is simple to explain and hard to argue with. The difficulty is that it rarely works out exactly on the day: an odd number of subs, a player who arrives late, an injury or a change of goalkeeper will all knock the numbers out by a few minutes.
A minimum share
Every child gets at least a set amount, and you have some freedom above that. This is more forgiving on the day, but it needs a clear number, or "at least" drifts into "not very much".
A sensible middle ground: 85% of an equal share
One approach that works well is to work out what an equal share would be, then treat anyone who reaches at least 85% of it as having had a fair game. That gives you a little room to manage the match without anyone being short-changed.
Take a 7v7 match of two 25-minute halves with a squad of ten. There are six outfield places, so 6 × 50 = 300 outfield minutes to share. Across ten players, an equal share is 30 minutes each. 85% of that is 25½ minutes. So a child who plays 26 outfield minutes has had a fair game; one who plays 18 has not, and should be first on next time.
The exact figure is your call. What matters is that you pick one, apply it to everyone, and can explain it in a sentence.
Talking to parents
Tell families your approach before the season starts, not after a difficult match. A short message at the start of the season is enough:
Everyone who is available and turns up on time will get a fair share of minutes across the match. That may not be the same number of minutes every week, but over a few matches it evens out. If you ever have a question about your child's time on the pitch, have a word with me after the match rather than during it.
A few habits help:
- Explain the principle, not the detail. Parents don't need a table of everyone's minutes, and publishing one tends to create comparisons between children.
- Keep conversations about an individual child private, and away from the touchline.
- If a child did have a short game, say so and say what you will do about it next week.
- Be consistent. A policy that bends when the score is close is not really a policy.
Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers make fair minutes more complicated, because time in goal is time on the pitch but not always the football a child wants.
Most coaches of younger age groups rotate the goalkeeper, often by half or by period, so no one is stuck in goal every week and everyone gets to try it. If a child genuinely loves keeping, let them do more of it, but make sure they also get some outfield time across the season.
Decide how you count keeper time and be open about it. Some coaches count it the same as outfield time. Others track outfield minutes separately, so that the child who kept goal for a half still gets a fair share of outfield football. Either is reasonable, as long as you are consistent.
Late arrivals
Things happen: a sibling's party, a car that wouldn't start, a lift that fell through. Set a simple rule and apply it kindly. For example, a player who arrives after kick-off joins the rotation from the next change, and their fair share is worked out from the time they arrived rather than from the start.
If lateness becomes a pattern, have a quiet word with the family. Avoid punishing the child for something that is usually outside their control.
Tracking minutes during the match
Keeping minutes in your head does not work beyond the first ten minutes. Some options:
- A pre-written substitution plan that you follow, with times against each change. See planning substitutions for fair minutes for a worked example.
- A notebook with each player's name and the times they went on and came off.
- An assistant or parent helper whose only job is the clock and the changes.
- An app that logs changes as you make them and works out the minutes for you.
Whatever you use, glance at it at half-time. That is your best chance to put right anyone who has fallen behind before it is too late.
Over a season, not just a match
Some weeks it will not quite work. A tight cup match, an injury or a short squad can all push the numbers out. That is fine if it evens up over the following weeks. Keep a rough record across the season so you can see who has done more bench time than others, and start them next time.
Everyone is on track for a fair share
How Match Report GO helps
In Match Report GO, the live "Time on pitch" view tracks minutes as you make changes and gives you a plain-English line such as "Everyone is on track for a fair share" or "Ava needs to go on soon". A player counts as on track while they can still reach 85% of an equal share of the outfield minutes. The detailed minute comparisons are for staff only, so parents never see a league table of minutes.
On Pro, the rotation planner builds a substitution plan for the match's periods when rolling substitutions are on. You can find what's included in each plan on the pricing page.