Pitch22 is a football club management software that gives clubs the opportunity to improve their administration and communication. It aims to make life easier for club administrators and coaches, but also facilitates the lives of parents and players.
Atlas Insurance signed an agreement to sponsor Pitch22 for all local football clubs for three consecutive years, up to May 2018, making a deal of this nature a first in the sports sector in Malta.
Football clubs face big challenges when it comes to administration, and the collection of data is one of them. “Most clubs are still using methods that do not allow them to capture and make use of the invaluable information they have around them. Even something simple like the attendance of their players over a period of time is a piece of information that few clubs are able to supply. Something so rudimentary may immediately highlight certain negative trends that may be addressed”, said Claudio Camilleri, CEO of Pitch22.
“We want to build a sense of responsibility around information, since we believe this is one of the foundations for sustainability and long-term continuity. Storing information on a spreadsheet saved on an individual laptop is not a healthy practice”, continued Mr Camilleri.
“Our goal is to provide Maltese football clubs with the appropriate software to run their operations. Together with Atlas we are giving these clubs the ability to use this solution without incurring any costs”, said Claudio Camilleri, CEO of Pitch22.
“We have sports at heart, and we are proud to give all the local football clubs the tools to improve their day to day operations. As a company we believe in a healthy lifestyle and the promotion of a work-life balance, and supporting sports is in line with those beliefs”, said Robert Micallef, Chief Commercial Officer at Atlas Insurance.
“It is impressive how much time is invested to make sure that thousands of players are able to play football every week. We wanted to do our part and give these people a tool that will help them improve the way they administer their clubs to ensure that we continue building on what is a hobby and a passion to so many people on a volunteer basis”, continued Mr Micallef.
A fundamental aspect of Pitch22 is that it provides continuity to the clubs, irrespective of who is administering. Clubs are used to having to handover all information or even worse, start all over again when an administrator leaves the club. This will no longer be the case if the web based software is in place.
With Pitch22, administration staff, coaches, parents and players may all login to the web-based solution and each person has different rights based on their role at the club.
“Sharing simple administration tasks, like giving parents the opportunity to set their own children’s attendance, alleviates some of the tasks undertaken by the club”, said one of the club administrators.
Amongst other features, Pitch22 gives clubs the opportunity to retain all the information about its players, their parents and staff members in one system. The platform ensures that administrators are reminded about expiring association registrations or expiring medical consents. Player attendance is constantly tracked and the schedule of events for the club is constantly available to the relevant people. Various reports are also available.
Pitch22 also has a series of policies to safeguard players’ data whilst using the software. These were implemented with the person responsible for Safeguarding Children at The Football Association.