How to start a grassroots sports club (UK)

1. Before you start: three questions

Most new clubs that fold in year two never asked these.

• Is there a club already? Every governing body has a club finder. If a club with your sport is within ten minutes and short of players, a new section of that club is easier than a new club. This is normal in water polo, where most teams are a section of a swimming club, and in hockey and cricket, where women’s and girls’ sections are the fastest-growing part of an existing club.
• Where will you play? Rugby needs a grass pitch and posts. Hockey needs artificial turf, hired by the hour. Netball and basketball need a court, usually a school or leisure centre on a fixed weekly slot. Water polo needs a pool slot, and one evening a week is normal. Cricket needs a square and someone to prepare it. The venue question decides your budget and your training night before anything else does.
• Who are the first five people? Not players: officers. Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Welfare Officer and a coach. Every governing body asks for a committee of at least three unrelated adults, and every one asks for a named welfare officer before it will affiliate you.

2. Write a constitution

A constitution is a two-to-four page document that says what the club is for, who can join, how the committee is elected, how money is handled and what happens to assets if the club closes. You need it to open a bank account, to affiliate, and to apply for any grant.

Do not write one from scratch. Every governing body publishes a model constitution and will expect you to use it:

• Rugby union: the RFU model club constitution, via your county Constituent Body.
• Hockey: England Hockey’s Membership Policy requires open membership, a dissolution clause and an elected committee of three unrelated people.
• Netball: England Netball’s club constitution template, part of the CAPS accreditation pack.
• Basketball: Basketball England’s Level 1 accreditation needs a constitution, a three-person committee and a bank account.
• Cricket: the ECB model constitution, via your county cricket board.
• Rugby league: the RFL’s community club templates, submitted with the Club Registration Form.
• Water polo: Swim England’s 2022 model constitution, required for Club Affiliation.

Decide early whether to register as a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC). It brings Gift Aid on donations and 80% rates relief if you ever own or lease a building. Most clubs do not need it in year one.

3. Open a bank account

A club account, not a personal one. Two signatories, both officers. Every high-street bank offers a community or treasurer’s account; several online banks now do too and open faster. You will need the signed constitution, minutes of the meeting that appointed the officers, and ID for each signatory. Allow four to six weeks.

Until the account is open you cannot affiliate, enter a league or take subs. Start this in the same week as the constitution.

4. Affiliate with your governing body

Affiliation is what makes you a club rather than a group of friends. It brings public liability insurance, the right to enter competitions, access to courses and grants, and in most sports the online system you will run the club on. What it costs and who you talk to first:

Figures move every summer. Check the current one before you set subs, and read the sport-by-sport detail in which governing body do we join?

5. Safeguarding, before your first junior

If anyone under 18 will train with you, this is not optional and it is not later. Before the first session you need:

• A named Club Welfare Officer (rugby calls it the Club Safeguarding Officer) who has done the governing body’s course.
• Enhanced DBS checks for every coach and for anyone else in regulated activity. In cricket that list runs to 24 roles including captains and scorers. In netball, from 1 September 2026, every coach and volunteer needs one regardless of supervision.
• A written safeguarding policy, on your website. Rugby league and basketball require it published; every other body requires the welfare officer’s contact to be easy to find. Use our template.
• A photography and consent process for anything with a child’s name or face on it.

6. Set subs and a first-year budget

List the fixed costs first: venue hire for the season, affiliation, league entry, insurance if not included, kit, balls and first-aid kit, officials’ fees if your sport makes the home club pay them (hockey umpires, basketball table officials, netball umpires). Divide by a realistic membership, then add a third, because a third of the people who say they will join will not.

Patterns that work in each sport:

• Annual sub with a family cap in rugby union.
• Annual sub plus a match fee in hockey, cricket and netball, because every match is on hired turf, ground or court. £10–13 a match is typical.
• Monthly instalments in basketball and rugby league, often £25–30 for ten months.
• Monthly squad fees in water polo, on top of the Swim England membership.

Collect by card or Direct Debit from the first week. Cash at the gate is how treasurers burn out.

7. Enter a competition

Your first season is usually friendlies plus one league or festival programme. Entry windows are earlier than new clubs expect:

• Rugby union: Constituent Body merit tables and age-grade festivals. Competition starts the first weekend of September; the county wants to know by early summer.
• Hockey: new teams to the Area by 1 May for a September start.
• Netball: winter-league entries close in June; fees due in August.
• Basketball: local league registration in July; team withdrawal deadline 31 August.
• Rugby league: league membership applications from 6 January for a March start.
• Cricket: league entries over the winter for a late-April start.
• Water polo: regional leagues run summer and winter seasons; ask the league secretary which one you can join mid-year.

8. Get the club online

Three things, in this order. A WhatsApp or Spond group for the people already in. A website for the people who are not yet: training times, venue, subs, how to join, the welfare officer, the safeguarding policy. And the governing body’s system (GMS, ENgage, PlayHQ, GameDay, Play-Cricket, OMS), which you do not choose and must keep up to date.

The website is the one people skip, then regret when the fourth parent this week asks what time U12s train. What to put on it is in your club website.

9. The first-year calendar

• Months 1–2: founding meeting, constitution, officers, bank account, venue booked.
• Month 2–3: affiliation, welfare officer trained, DBS checks started, insurance confirmed, website up.
• Month 3–4: first training sessions, subs open, kit ordered.
• Month 4–6: first friendlies, league or festival entry, first newsletter.
• Month 12: first AGM, accounts presented, officers re-elected, subs set for year two.

What year two looks like is in how to run a grassroots sports club.