How to pick fair football teams

Close games are more fun for everyone, and more people keep turning up. Here’s how organisers of weekly 5-a-side and 7-a-side games pick fair teams without the arguments.

1. Rate players on more than one thing

A single “good or bad” score hides a lot. Rate each player from 1 to 10 on attacking, defending and fitness. A quick, fit defender and a slow, skilful striker might have the same overall score but play very differently. Our guide on how to rate players fairly goes into detail.

2. Make 5 the average for your group

Scores only need to be fair compared with each other. Treat 5 as a typical player in your game, not a professional standard, and spread people out from there. Adjust after a few weeks if someone is consistently over- or under-rated.

3. Balance the averages, then the mix

Start by matching the teams’ average overall ratings. Then check the mix: if one side has the three best defenders, swap one over. Doing this by hand gets slow with more than 10 players, which is where a team generator helps.

4. Break up the same pairings

Friends who always play together make a team stronger than the ratings suggest. Mix up who plays with whom from week to week, as long as it doesn’t make the teams uneven.

5. Keep a record

Writing down each week’s teams shows who played, who keeps missing out and whether the same side keeps winning, and that tells you when ratings need adjusting.

Let an app do the maths

Playrs does most of this for you: three scores per player, teams balanced on overall rating with each team’s attack, defence and fitness shown so you can fine-tune with a swap, fewer repeated pairings, and a saved history. It’s free to use on your phone.

Open the free team picker