Football trials: what to expect and what to watch for

Grassroots club trials

At a local club, a trial usually means come along and see how it goes. The club wants to know whether your child fits the group and whether the numbers work. Your child wants to know whether they like it.

At the youngest age groups, clubs are more often trying to fill teams than to select from a queue, so a formal trial for a five or six year old is worth asking about. That does not mean it is wrong. Some clubs genuinely have more children than places. It does mean it is reasonable to ask what the session is for, how places are decided, and what happens if your child is not offered one.

Ask whether it is a trial or a taster, because clubs use both words loosely and they are not the same thing. A taster is for your child to try the club. A trial is for the club to assess your child. Our guide to choosing a grassroots football club covers what else to ask before committing.

How professional club recruitment works

The examples below come from English professional clubs because they have published particularly clear guidance about fake approaches. Recruitment procedures vary between clubs and across the UK, so check the official guidance of the club involved.

Professional clubs use a range of recruitment routes, including scouting and invitation. When Lincoln City published guidance (opens in a new tab) after fake scouts were reported in its area, it set out its own process plainly: its scouts do not use social media to recruit players, its recruitment staff never ask for money in return for a trial, and a genuine scout would contact the grassroots club secretary and the player's coach before any visit.

Chelsea has published similar guidance (opens in a new tab) after fraudsters impersonated the club and its staff to extract payment for trials and private training. It states that the club will never ask for money in connection with anything referring to a trials process, that its academy for male players does not hold open trials, and that it will never contact young players or their families directly through social media or use personal email addresses from coaches, scouts or other staff to invite anyone to a trial.

These two clubs give parents useful examples of what formal recruitment can look like, but clubs do not all use identical procedures. What matters is that you can independently verify the person through the professional club they claim to represent. If an approach deliberately discourages you from contacting your child's current club or checking with the professional club, treat that as a warning sign.

Clubs also publish their own recruitment processes. If you want to know how a particular club works, look on that club's official website rather than relying on what somebody has told you.

Warning signs

None of these is proof of anything on its own. Any of them is a reason to stop and check before agreeing to anything.

• Anybody asking for money in return for a trial with a professional club. In the Lincoln City case a family was asked for 2,000 euros (opens in a new tab).
• An unsolicited direct message claiming to come from a scout or professional club, particularly one sent directly to a child.
• Contact from a personal email address rather than a club one. Chelsea has stated it does not use personal email addresses from staff to invite anyone to a trial.
• An approach that cannot be independently verified through the professional club, or where you are discouraged from telling your child's club or another trusted adult.
• Pressure to decide quickly, or to keep it quiet from the club or from other parents.
• Guarantees of a contract, scholarship, academy place or professional outcome. For paid showcase events, be wary of vague promises of exposure without clear information about who will attend and what you are actually buying.
• Any suggestion that your child travels to meet somebody without you.
• Contact details that only work one way, such as a mobile number and no club email or switchboard.

How to check an approach

Checking is straightforward and no legitimate scout will mind you doing it.

1. Find the club's official contact details yourself, from its own website, and ring or email the academy or recruitment department to ask whether the person is theirs. Do not use a number or an address that the person gave you.
2. Tell your own club as well, particularly if the approach happened around its matches, training or players. Speak to the club secretary, the coach and the club's safeguarding contact.
3. If you think an approach is fraudulent, or that a child could be at risk, report it. In the Lincoln City case the County FA alerted the police.

Treat it as a safeguarding matter and not simply a scam, because somebody creating a reason to be alone with a child is a safeguarding matter whatever their motive. If something you have seen on FindMeFootball causes a concern, you can also report it to us.

Preparing for a genuine trial

Keep it low key. The main thing you can do for your child is to reduce the size of the occasion rather than build it up.

• Check what to bring, what surface it is on and what boots are appropriate.
• Eat properly beforehand and take water.
• Arrive early enough that they are not rushing in.
• Avoid filling the journey with last-minute tactical instructions. Keep the occasion as normal as you can and let the coaches run the session.
• Agree in advance what happens afterwards, whatever the outcome, so the day has a shape beyond the result.

What coaches assess varies by club, age group and position. Your child is better off playing naturally than trying to guess what somebody on the touchline wants to see.

If it does not go their way

A trial does not guarantee a place, and not being offered one is not a definitive judgement on a child's future in football.

Ask for feedback if it is offered, take what is useful and get them playing again. The aim is not to let one trial become bigger than their enjoyment of football.

Children develop at different rates, so one trial at one point in time should be treated as exactly that.

Find a club near you

Search grassroots clubs by location and age group, and see what each club has coming up, including trials, open days and training sessions.

If your child has not played before, our guide to when a child can start playing football covers where to begin.