Small sided soccer field layout: splitting and lining a full field for young players

The question league organizers ask: "Our youngest age groups play five-, seven- and nine-a-side on the same full field. How do I split it, line it and schedule it so two games never share the same grass?"

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Small Sided Soccer Field Layout: Split and Line a Full Field · Watch on YouTube

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A field that fits every age group

0:00 By the end of this video, you will have a clear plan for small-sided soccer on one full field. You will know how to split it, line it and schedule each area. We will cover the layout, the lining, a worked example, the checks before you paint, and how Play 2 Earn Sports helps.

What makes small-sided fields different

0:18 Small-sided soccer changes the field. Younger teams play five, seven or nine a side, on smaller areas. One full field can often hold two or four of those areas. The exact sizes come from your association's small-sided guidelines.

0:35 Those rules set the length, the width, the goals, the penalty area and the run-off. Start there, not with a number from a blog.

Lay out the split before you paint

0:43 Before you paint, measure the full field. Then test the split on paper. A small-sided field needs room around it, so count the run-off as part of the layout. Turn the small fields to use the space you have.

0:57 Check the run-off behind each goal, not just the rectangle. If the run-off does not fit, use one area, or ask your association what it allows. Here is a typical layout check. A full field is one hundred metres by sixty-four.

1:11 A seven-a-side area is sixty by forty. Two fit across the width with four metres spare, if your run-off rule allows it.

Line the field

1:19 Lining starts from one fixed corner. Measure from a marker the grounds crew trusts. Square the first line with a three-four-five triangle, so the corners are true right angles. Run a string between stakes, check the measurements twice, then paint.

1:34 Use the line width your association specifies. Keep players off the paint until it dries. Where a full field and a small field share a line, use a different colour. Tell coaches and referees which colour belongs to which layout. A clear map saves questions on Saturday.

Turn one field into many slots

1:51 A slot is the game plus the changeover. Give every playing area its own name and its own hours. Then one permit can hold several small games at once. Here is the arithmetic on a six-hour permit, eight in the morning to two.

2:05 Eleven a side holds three games. Nine a side holds four. Two seven-a-side areas hold twelve. Four five-a-side areas hold twenty-eight.

A worked example

2:15 Here is a typical example. It is illustrative, not a specific league. An under-nine division has eight teams. A single round robin gives seven rounds and twenty-eight games.

2:28 The league splits one full field into two seven-a-side areas. Each area holds six games on Saturday morning, so twelve games fit. Each round needs four games, so one round fits with room to spare. Seven rounds fit seven Saturdays.

2:45 With nine playable Saturdays, the division keeps two spare weekends. Use one for a moved game, and keep one clear for a club event.

Check before you publish

2:54 Before you paint or publish, check five things. The layout fits the association's sizes. The run-off is clear. The lines have a map.

3:03 The slots fit the permit. And the paint has time to dry. A lining plan says which fields are used each week, which layout each needs, and who lines them. Today, that rota is your club's process. Put it on paper before the season.

How Play 2 Earn Sports helps

3:19 Now, how Play 2 Earn Sports helps. Each field can be its own venue with its own format, hours and buffer. So a seven-a-side half and the full field are separate spaces. The scheduler checks field and team clashes.

3:34 A published schedule is not regenerated over. Move one game at a time, and a clear move says: Game saved. No clashes found. Today, there is no lining rota in the app.

3:44 The rota stays a club process. The app keeps the field hours and the schedule, so the crew knows which fields are in use. Measure the field, check the run-off, line it with a map, and give each area its own hours. The full guide is on the page linked in the description.

4:01 Try it with your own fields: Starter is free for clubs with up to 10 teams. Thanks for watching.

What makes small-sided soccer fields different

• The format changes the field, not just the game. Five-a-side, seven-a-side, nine-a-side and eleven-a-side each have their own field size and markings. A full field is not simply divided by the number of players.
• One full field can hold several areas. Two seven-a-side areas or four five-a-side areas may fit, but only when the playing rectangles and the run-off fit together.
• Every area is its own playing space. Give each area a name, such as 7v7 North and 7v7 South, and its own kickoff times.
• Lining is a weekly job. Small-sided layouts often change through the season as age groups rotate or a full-field game takes priority.
• The lining crew needs the schedule. The people painting the lines need to know which layout each field carries each weekend.
• Dimensions belong to your association. Use its small-sided guidelines, not a generic chart or a number from a blog.

Step 1 — collect the soccer field lining dimensions

Start with the association's small-sided guidelines. For each age group and format, record the measurements and the rules that decide the layout.

Call the association if a number is missing. Write the version and date of the guidelines on your plan, so every volunteer works from the same edition.

Then measure the full field once: length, width, the corners, permanent posts or anchors, irrigation heads, and any area that stays wet. Note where the goals already sit, and which lines stay all season. Keep those measurements with the field map, not in someone's phone.

Step 2 — test the split on paper before you paint

You need three numbers for every layout: the area size, the run-off, and the full field. Then work in this order:

1. Draw the full field to scale on one sheet.
2. Draw each playing area, including its run-off, as one block.
3. Try the blocks in both orientations.
4. Count the space between areas and around the outside.
5. Check that goals, benches and the referee's path do not sit in the run-off.

Illustrative example, not a specific league or field. Check your association's small-sided guidelines for every number.

A full field is one hundred metres by sixty-four metres. The association's seven-a-side area is sixty metres by forty metres, with three metres of run-off on every side. Two areas, each with its length across the full field's width, need sixty metres of width and eighty metres of length. The length leaves twenty metres. The width leaves four metres, which is two metres on each side. So the rectangles fit, but the three-metre run-off across the width does not. Ask the association whether a smaller run-off is allowed for that age group, use one area, or find a wider full field. Do not assume a smaller run-off is acceptable.

The same method shows when a split does fit. Four five-a-side areas of thirty metres by twenty metres, with two metres of run-off, fit in a two-by-two block: sixty-seven metres of length and forty-seven metres of width, inside the same one hundred by sixty-four field. The numbers change with your guidelines, but the method does not.

Step 3 — line each area from one fixed corner

Lining is easier and more accurate when every volunteer starts from the same corner and follows the same order.

1. Choose one fixed corner that the grounds crew trusts, and write down which one it is.
2. Set the first goal line with a string and stakes.
3. Square the corner with a three-four-five triangle. Measure three metres along one line and four metres along the other, then adjust until the diagonal is five metres. Use a larger multiple if the field is wide.
4. Measure the length and width from the association's guidelines, and mark both goal lines.
5. Mark the penalty area, goal area, halfway line and centre circle at the sizes in the guidelines.
6. Use the line width the guidelines specify, and keep the same width on every line.
7. Paint in dry weather, and keep players off the paint until it dries.
8. Record the layout on a field map, with the starting corner, the measurements and the line colours.

Where a full-field line and a small-sided line overlap, use a different colour. Tell coaches and referees which colour belongs to which layout. If the field already has permanent lines, check whether they can be used or must be overmarked, and record that on the map too.

Step 4 — give every playing area its own hours

A slot is the game plus the changeover. Give each area a name, a format and its own availability window. Then count the capacity before you promise a season.

Illustrative example, not a specific league. Time a real game in your own league and use that number.

The permit is six hours, or three hundred and sixty minutes. Three hundred-minute slots use three hundred minutes. Four seventy-five-minute slots use three hundred. Six sixty-minute slots use three hundred and sixty. Seven fifty-minute slots use three hundred and fifty, leaving ten minutes. The counts fit the permit, and the youngest divisions fit where the hours are shortest.

Give the full field and its split halves separate availability windows, so a full-field game and a small-sided game never land on the same grass at once. When the layout changes by weekend, record the change as a date-specific exception.

Worked example — two 7v7 areas and an eight-team division

Illustrative example, not a specific league.

An under-nine division has eight teams and plays a single round robin. Each team plays seven games, and the division plays twenty-eight games in seven rounds of four.

The league splits one full field into two seven-a-side areas for Saturday mornings. Each area holds six sixty-minute slots from eight in the morning to two in the afternoon, so the two areas hold twelve games. One round needs four games, so one round fits in one Saturday morning with eight slots left for other age groups or a make-up.

Seven rounds fit seven Saturdays. With nine playable Saturdays, the division keeps two spare weekends. Use one for a moved game, and keep one clear for a club event. The eight spare slots each Saturday are useful for younger divisions, but they do not let one team play two league games in a morning unless your rules allow it.

Step 5 — write a lining plan and a lining crew rota

A lining plan is one page for each weekend. It says which fields are used, which layout each carries, which colour each layout uses, and who lines it. Keep the plan with the field map and the association's guidelines.

Today, a lining rota is a club process; it is not a feature of Play 2 Earn Sports. Keep the rota simple and human:

• Pair a new volunteer with an experienced one.
• Measure once, and paint in pairs.
• Store the map, the tape and the paint in the same place.
• Send the crew the field list two days before the weekend.
• Keep a spare cart, paint and string in the shed.
• Thank the crew publicly, because lining is the job everyone notices when it is missing.

Common mistakes

• Counting rectangles but not run-off. Two areas can fit on paper and still leave no safe space behind the goals.
• Giving the full field and the halves the same hours. The scheduler will place two games on the same grass.
• Using one line colour for two layouts. Coaches and referees cannot tell which line belongs to which field.
• Lining from a different corner each week. Small differences add up, and the areas drift.
• Forgetting the changeover. A slot is the game plus the changeover, not the game alone.
• Painting on wet grass. The paint smears, and the lines are not ready for the first game.
• Filling every weekend. A season with no spare Saturday has nowhere to put a game lost to weather.

How Play 2 Earn Sports supports small-sided soccer fields

Play 2 Earn Sports gives you scheduling for every team in one place, and for leagues it can build the season from the same inputs.

Soccer clubs running many small-sided teams can manage them in soccer club management software.

• Each field as its own space. Each field can be its own venue with its own format, hours and buffer, so a seven-a-side half and the full field are separate spaces.
• Clash checks. The scheduler checks field and team clashes.
• Published means protected. A published schedule is not regenerated over. Move one game at a time, and a clear move says "Game saved. No clashes found."
• The lining rota stays with your club. Today, there is no lining rota in the app. The rota stays a club process. The app keeps the field hours and the schedule, so the crew knows which fields are in use.

If you run a soccer league, see how youth soccer league scheduling handles the season around those field hours.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• League scheduling guides: every league scheduling guide in one place.
• Scheduling divisions on shared fields, rinks and courts
• When a field, rink or court permit changes mid-season
• Sharing early and late game times fairly
• Turn pairings into dated games with the free league schedule maker
• Setting a small-sided lineup on the pitch
• Travel soccer schedule
• Soccer referee scheduling