Who knew there were so many football sizes? When you think about it, it does make sense for kids to be playing with smaller sized footballs than full grown adults!
Years ago most children's first experience of organised football would have involved kicking a full-size adult football about in an 11 v 11 game on a full size (probably slightly overgrown and muddy) grass pitch, whether that be for a school team, or a local football club team.
People in the FA started to realise that this wasn't great for children to develop their football skills and tended to favour those kids who were bigger and more physically developed. So guidelines were changed and smaller sided games were introduced, starting with 5-a-side at Under 7 (Year 2), and progressing through 7-a-side, 9-a-side and eventually to 11-a-side, with pitches also made smaller and gradually increased in size with every step up in team sizes.
Alongside this, the size of the footballs which children use was looked at and 3 official sizes were developed for organised football, size 3, size 4 and size 5.
- Size 3 - Under 7 (Year 2) to Under 10 (Year 5)
- Size 4* - Under 11 (Year 6) to Under 14 (Year 9)
- Size 5* - Under 15 (Year 10) to Adult
At the start of the 2020-21 football season, the FA in England adjusted their guidelines and now size 3 footballs, which were used until Under 9 (Year 4) are now used up until Under 10 (Year 5) football.
*However the FAs of Wales, Scotland and also Northern Ireland have kept it as it was, so if you're playing in these countries you will still start using size 4 footballs from Under 10s and also move up to size 5 from Under 14s.
There are also smaller footballs, size 2 for the younger age groups, under 6 (Year 1 and below), and size 1 which are used by any ages for fun.
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ChildrensFootball.com Birthday & Christmas Football Gift Ideas
Suggested additional reading:
What age group should my child be playing football in?
Goals, goals, and more goals! A guide to buying goals for your child to play with.
3 comments
Your site says children’s football, however you have not included both genders. Girls and women’s football sizes by year are different.
Yes, Chris, there is advice on the correct inflation pressure printed on most footballs. The actual FIFA guidelines actually suggest a pressure of between 8.5 PSI and 15.6 PSI ( 0.6 – 1.1 atm) across size 3, 4 and 5 footballs, which is obviously a very wide range. It is therefore very much dependent on the football manufacturer’s own guidance as to what it best for their specific football within this range.
As well as size, the inflation also seems to be a consideration for kids football. Is there any information/guidelines etc. on the correct inflation pressure for each size?