1. The one job
The people who already play at your club are in the WhatsApp group. The website is for everyone else: the parent whose child wants to try rugby, the student who has moved to town and played hockey at school, the woman who last played netball at sixteen and has seen a Back to Netball poster. They will look at your site for about forty seconds. The whole site should be built for that forty seconds.
2. The eight pages
- Home. What you are, where you are, who you are for, one button that says how to join. Next fixture and last result if you have them.
- Teams. One page per squad with the coach’s name, training night and venue, the age band, and who to contact. In hockey and netball this is where women’s and girls’ sections must be as visible as the men’s; in many clubs they are the larger half.
- Fixtures and results. In your sport’s own scoring. Points for rugby and basketball, goals for hockey, netball and water polo, innings and a margin for cricket. A form guide that knows a tie from a draw and does not count an abandoned match as a loss.
- Join. Subs, match fees, what the governing body membership costs on top, and the link to register (ENgage, GMS, PlayHQ, Play-Cricket). Say whether there is a waiting list.
- Safeguarding. The welfare officer’s name and contact, the policy, the governing body’s reporting route. Required, see below.
- Contact and find us. The postcode of the ground, court or pool, not the clubhouse if they differ. Parking. Which entrance.
- News. Match reports, selection, the AGM, the summer camp. Two posts a month is enough; none for six months tells a visitor the club is dead.
- Documents. Constitution, policies, AGM minutes, codes of conduct. Clubs on the old platforms carry 20 to 90 of these. Keep the current version only.
3. What your governing body requires you to publish
| Sport | Must be on the website | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Rugby league | The Safeguarding Policy Statement and the Club Welfare Officer’s contact details | RFL Operational Rules, Safeguarding Policy 2.4 |
| Basketball | Safeguarding policies (Level 1 accreditation); two social-media outlets; a website is “desirable” | Basketball England club accreditation |
| Hockey | Welfare officer contact “easily accessible”; under-18 names on team sheets only with GMS consent | England Hockey safeguarding minimum standard |
| Rugby union | Safeguarding personnel “clearly identifiable” | RFU safeguarding audit |
| Cricket | Club Safeguarding Officer contact; Safe Hands compliance | ECB Conditions of Affiliation |
| Netball | Safeguarding policy submitted to leagues; welfare officer contactable | England Netball CAPS |
| Water polo | Welfare officer’s identity communicated to members | Swim England Wavepower |
Whatever the wording, the practical answer is the same: a safeguarding page with a named person on it, live from day one.
4. Fixtures and results, properly
Every club in our research typed results by hand, even where a governing-body feed exists. That is fine. What matters is that the site writes them the way your sport does:
- Rugby union and league: “Home 24–17 Away”, with tries, conversions and drop goals per player if you keep stats. Draws stand.
- Hockey and water polo: goals, low numbers, draws stand, shootouts only in knockouts.
- Netball: goals in the 25–65 range. League points are 5, 3, 2, 1, 0, so a narrow loss earns something.
- Basketball: points, often over 60 a side; the site must not cap at 99.
- Cricket: an innings per side (“212-6 (45.0) v 198 all out (44.2)”) and a result (“Won by 14 runs”, “Lost by 8 wickets”, tie, draw, no result, abandoned). A scoreline comparison is wrong for a side that chased.
And a season that matches the sport: 2026-27 for winter sports, 2026 for cricket, rugby league and water polo.
5. Player pages and consent
Player profiles are the page parents like most and the page that carries the most risk. Rules that keep you right: private by default; a child’s name and photo go public only with a recorded parental consent; adults can opt out; positions in your sport’s own words (GS to GK, fly-half, point guard, wicket-keeper); stats in your sport’s own counts. If your governing body records consent in its own system, as England Hockey does in GMS, match it.
6. Shop, sponsors, and the 100 Club
Kit, training tops, caps and hoodies sell better from a page with a card checkout than from a PDF order form. Sponsors are sold per team in most sports (“U13s coach sponsor”, “table officials sponsor”), so give each team page a sponsor slot. A 100 Club or 200 Club lottery is standard in cricket and rugby; put the entry form on the site and the draw results in the news.
7. Keeping it updated with a day job
- One admin per team for their own page and results. Not one person for the whole club.
- Results the same evening, from a phone. If it needs a laptop it will not happen.
- A monthly newsletter that is the last month’s news posts, sent to the member list the site keeps.
- Training times and subs reviewed once, at the AGM, and then trusted.
- Nothing that needs a designer. If the site needs a colour code, the site is wrong.
8. What to leave off
The full committee’s home phone numbers. Children’s surnames without consent. Last year’s training times. A gallery with 400 unlabelled photos. A league table you do not maintain. The other platform’s adverts. And a “coming soon” page: if a page is not ready, do not link to it.
A site built around your sport
AllGrassroots seeds every page in this guide in your sport’s own words: positions, scoring, governing body, safeguarding contact. Free, in minutes, from your badge.
Start with your sport →