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Several mini pitches at once, teams rotate every six minutes, and no score is ever written down.

Game 22 min 12 to 24 players Half pitch 2019 to 2021

Colts Street Football Lift each other Be brave

Three or four small pitches side by side with a goal at each end and spare balls beside each; teams of three move round after every six-minute game.

Set up

Mark 3 or 4 pitches side by side with discs, each in a different disc colour.
Put a pop-up goal at each end of every pitch.
Put spare balls in a bag beside each pitch so play restarts at once.
Split children into teams of 3 (or 5 for 2019s) by handing out bibs at random as they arrive.
Give each team a starting pitch.

12 to 24 children. Use 3 or 4 mini pitches of about 20 m by 15 m for 3v3 (2021s, 2020s) or 30 m by 20 m for 5v5 (2019s), with 3 m gaps between pitches.

How to play

Every game lasts 6 minutes.
On the whistle, all pitches kick off together.
If the ball goes out, the nearest child dribbles it back in (no throw-ins).
After a goal, the other team restarts from their own goal line straight away.
At the end of 6 minutes, everyone high-fives the other team and moves one pitch clockwise to a new opponent.
Nobody writes down or announces scores. Each child can keep their own count in their head if they like.
After the last round, the group shouts out the bravest thing they saw.

Keeping everyone moving

Teams are exactly 3 (or 5). If numbers are odd, the extra child is a finisher who plays on the team that is a player short, or swaps in every 2 minutes. There is no knockout, nobody stays on, and nobody waits for a turn.

Make it easier

Make the pitch wider so there is more space to dribble.
Allow the goal to count from anywhere, including by dribbling in.

Make it harder

Goals only count if the team uses both feet in the move.
Make the pitch shorter so defending comes quicker.

Three things to say

Children getting on the ball again quickly after losing it.
Children trying to beat a player, not just passing it away.
Children looking up before they pass or shoot.

Words that work: "Brave try!", "Great work getting it back!", "Love how you helped your teammate!"

Colts habit

Each team names one player who lifted others, and that player chooses the next pitch direction.

Both feet

Shout Other foot goal! when someone scores with the foot they use less.

Heads up

Before each rotation, ask who looked up before they passed.

For your birth year

Pick a birth year to show the tweak for that group. Birth year

2020 to 2021: 3v3, 5-minute games, size 3 ball, no keepers.
2018 to 2019: 5v5, 6-minute games, one roaming keeper who must also leave the area to play.
2016 to 2017: If used as a fun end-of-term festival, play 5v5 on bigger pitches with 7-minute games.

Safety: Keep a 3 m gap between pitches so balls and runners do not collide. Peg or weight the pop-up goals. No heading: if the ball is in the air, restart it on the ground.

Keeping score: Before the first game, each child picks one thing to try, for example take someone on 3 times. At the end, they tell a coach whether they beat last week's count. The child keeps the count, not the coach.