On the touchline you have plenty to do. You watch the game, call out instructions, comfort a kid with a grazed knee and keep an eye on the clock. Who has played how long slips through. By the end, the three strongest players stayed on almost the whole game and two kids only came on for the last few minutes.
Children remember that, and on the drive home their parents ask about it. Research shows how much their own playing time means to kids. With one of the four substitution models below you can share it evenly, and a worked example shows the numbers.
Playing time is part of the fun
In 2015, a team led by Amanda Visek at George Washington University asked youth soccer players what makes sport fun. 142 players, 57 parents and 37 coaches from the US collected 81 items and rated each one (Visek et al., Journal of Physical Activity and Health). "Getting playing time" is on the list.
The study also asked about playing time directly:
| Group | Playing time is "very" to "extremely important" |
|---|---|
| Players | 80 % |
| Parents | 93 % |
| Coaches | 94 % |
So coaches agree with the kids. During a match it still gets lost, because in that moment you think about the next goal, and about minutes only after the final whistle.
The same paper names the other side. According to the figures the authors cite, a third of US children quit organised sport every year, and up to 70 % have dropped out by adolescence. The kids give the most common reason themselves: it stopped being fun. A child who gets the last five minutes every weekend has little reason to sign up again next autumn.
What the associations prescribe
Rules differ from country to country and from league to league. Germany is one example: since the 2024/25 season, the German football association (DFB) has made its new game formats for children mandatory nationwide. Teams are small, pitches are small and every child gets many touches of the ball. The regional associations decide how substitutions work.
The Württemberg association, for instance, uses rotation players in its guide to children's match days for 2023/24. After every goal, whichever team scores, both teams bring one child on, and at the latest every two minutes. Every child gets enough time on the pitch without the coach doing sums on the sideline.
Why "the best play longer" backfires with children
Children's teams are grouped by birth year. A child born in January is almost a year older than a teammate born in December. At eight, that is an eighth of their life, and you can see it in height, strength and speed.
Researchers call this the relative age effect. A meta-analysis by Stephen Cobley and colleagues looked at 38 studies from 16 countries and 14 sports (Sports Medicine, 2009). Children born early in the selection year are over-represented among selected players across the board. On average the effect is small, and it grows with the age gap within a group.
It shows up in German football too. A study of 10,130 players in the DFB talent programme, aged U12 to U15, found clear relative age effects in the physically demanding tests and hardly any in the technical ones.
On match day this means the kids you see as "strong" today are often the older ones. Give them more minutes and they get more touches and learn faster. The gap that began with a birth month widens with every season. Equal minutes make sure the youngest in the year group get their touches too.
Four substitution models compared
Which model suits you depends on squad size, game format and age. All four only work if you settle on one before kick-off.
| Model | How it works | Works well for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed intervals | Every few minutes two or more kids swap, following a plan | large squads, games played in periods | You have to watch the clock |
| Block changes | A whole group comes on for each period | games in quarters or thirds | Avoid strong and weak blocks |
| Rotate after a goal | After each goal one child comes on, after two minutes at the latest | 3v3, small pitches, four-goal games | Keep the time limit, or one child sits out a long goalless spell |
| Minutes balance | Whoever has played least so far goes on next | older age groups, games with tactical changes | Only works if someone records the minutes |
The minutes balance is the most flexible model. You can make a change when a child is tired or you want to switch a position, and the totals still add up at the end. For that you need to know who sat out how long, and nobody can keep that in their head for a whole match.
I coach an U9 team myself, with 17 kids in the squad, and we try to give everyone the same playing time. Before I tracked the minutes with the clock, I got the children's playing time completely wrong. Now that I have real numbers, I can see who is missing out and make up for it in the next match.
A worked example
You play 7v7 with a goalkeeper, two halves of 25 minutes. Eleven kids turn up: one in goal, ten sharing six outfield spots.
- Outfield minutes in the match: 6 spots × 50 minutes = 300 minutes
- Per outfield player: 300 ÷ 10 = 30 minutes
- Per outfield player on the bench: 20 minutes
Split the match into five blocks of ten minutes. In each block four kids sit out, and each kid sits out exactly two blocks. You change in the 10th, 20th, 30th and 40th minute, four kids each time.
| Block | Match minutes | On the bench |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 to 10 | players 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| 2 | 10 to 20 | players 5, 6, 7, 8 |
| 3 | 20 to 30 (with half-time) | players 9, 10, 1, 2 |
| 4 | 30 to 40 | players 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| 5 | 40 to 50 | players 7, 8, 9, 10 |
Every child plays exactly 30 minutes. Shuffle the numbers before each match so the same child doesn't always start on the bench. Rotate the goalkeeper from match to match, so over a season it isn't always the same child playing 50 minutes in goal while the others get 30 outfield.
If a child is missing or gets hurt, the plan falls apart. Then switch to the minutes balance from the table above: whoever has the fewest goes on next.
Objections you will hear
You'll hear a few objections, from parents, from the club or from yourself.
"But we want to win." At eight, winning on Saturday decides nothing. The kids on the bench today are the ones you'll miss in three years, when they have quit. In Visek's study, players, parents and coaches rated three areas as the most important for fun: trying hard, good team dynamics and positive coaching. Winning isn't among them.
"Kids who come to training should play more." You can do that. Then say so before the season, to everyone, and stick to it. Children accept a rule they know. A spur-of-the-moment call on match day feels like a punishment to them.
"From U12 up, performance counts." As players get older you can pick more on performance, and in competitive leagues that is normal. A minimum playing time for every child in the squad still doesn't hurt a team. It keeps the kids who are developing more slowly than others in the game.
Talk to the parents before the season
Many touchline arguments start because parents don't know the rules. A short parents' meeting or a message to the group before the first match helps:
- Say which model you use for substitutions.
- Say roughly how many minutes each child gets.
- Say when you'll deviate, for example after an injury or when a child doesn't want to play.
- Offer to show the minutes after the match.
You can only keep the fourth promise if you record the minutes. With numbers in hand you have a different conversation with a parent than with "I think he was on for a long time".
Track minutes without a notepad
A notepad with tally marks works until it rains or you make two substitutions at once. SquadClock counts the minutes for you. Start the match clock and record your substitutions, and the substitution dialog shows each child's minutes so far. You see who is due on while you are making the change, not after the final whistle.
For training and for tournaments with several teams, SquadClock splits the kids into evenly matched teams by strength. You can adjust the split by hand afterwards. The app works offline at the touchline, and you need no account for the core features.
Sources
- Visek, A. J. et al. (2015): The Fun Integration Theory: Toward Sustaining Children and Adolescents Sport Participation. Journal of Physical Activity and Health 12(3). https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2013-0180
- Cobley, S., Baker, J., Wattie, N. & McKenna, J. (2009): Annual Age-Grouping and Athlete Development: A Meta-Analytical Review of Relative Age Effects in Sport. Sports Medicine 39(3), 235 to 256. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200939030-00005
- Relative age effects in the DFB talent programme (U12 to U15): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24047192/
- DFB: New game formats in children's football (German). https://www.dfb.de/neue-spielformen-im-kinderfussball/kopfballspiel/
- Württemberg Football Association: guide to children's match days 2023/24 (German). https://www.wuerttfv.de/app/uploads/2023/09/wfv-KiFu-Spieltag-Vorstellung-Leitfaden-2023-24-3.pdf