Club roles: who does what

Why roles matter

A role isn’t a title. It’s a short list of what that person does and what they can change. When that’s clear, nobody needs to ask permission for everything or guess whether they’re allowed to touch a match sheet.

Roles also protect the club’s data. If everyone can change results and ratings, one slip is enough to ruin weeks of records. The rule is simple: everyone has the permissions they need for their job, and no more.

This applies even to small clubs. In a group of friends the trust is there, but memory fails. Knowing who handles what saves messages and stops two people doing the same job, or nobody doing it at all.

Owner and manager

Owner

The owner answers for the club. They decide who comes in and who leaves, which roles exist and what appears on the public page. In a small club it’s usually whoever founded it. There should be one, two at most, and they should be people who are going to stick around.

Manager

The manager handles the day-to-day: scheduling matches on the calendar, adding opponents, sending invites and answering join requests. It’s the right role for someone with time and a knack for organisation, even if they’re not the loudest voice in the dressing room.

Splitting the two roles has a practical advantage. The owner doesn’t need to be available all the time, and the manager can get on with the job without access to decisions that aren’t theirs to make.

In VOC, invites go out by email or link, and anyone who wants to join the club can send a join request, which waits for an answer from whoever manages the club.

Coach and analyst

The coach schedules training, sets the plan for each session, picks the XI and prepares for matches. They need to see everything to do with the squad: attendance, match sheets, stats. They don’t need to touch the club settings.

The analyst fills in and validates the match sheets and reads the stats. They’re the guardian of the numbers, which is why it makes sense for them to be a different person from the coach whenever the squad allows it.

Why keep them separate

Whoever picks the XI tends, even without meaning to, to give ratings that justify their choices. An independent analyst gives more neutral ratings, and the coach gains a second opinion instead of a mirror. In a small club one person can do both jobs, but it’s worth having someone review the sheets every now and then.

What’s down to the player

The player answers attendance, plays and keeps their profile up to date: photo, number, position. They follow their stats and get notified about scheduled matches, results and training.

What a player shouldn’t be able to do is change their own rating. Not out of mistrust, but because a record anyone can change stops being worth anything to anyone.

Link each profile to the player’s account. That way their match and stats history is tied to the right person, and they’re the one who gets the notifications.

When to create a new role

The five roles cover most clubs, but not all of them. When someone does a job that doesn’t fit any of them, create a new role instead of giving them one with too many permissions.

• Media officer: writes the news for the public page
• Recruiter: sends invites and follows up on join requests
• Assistant coach: helps the coach with training and attendance

In VOC, you create custom roles and choose the permissions for each one. Start with a few and add more when they’re needed. Taking permissions away from someone always costs more than never giving them in the first place.

Review roles over time

Clubs change. The analyst starts playing more, the manager’s hours change, the coach leaves at the end of the season. Review roles at least once a season and whenever someone joins or leaves the coaching staff.

When a player leaves the club, mark them as inactive instead of deleting them. Their history stays, the season’s stats remain correct and, if they come back, they pick up where they left off.