Pre-Season Football Camp Checklist for Nordic Clubs

A pre-season camp is one of the most expensive weeks in a Nordic club’s calendar. It is also one of the easiest to under-plan, because everyone involved has done “a camp” before and assumes the details will repeat. They do not. New players, new dates, a different hotel and one missing physio are enough to turn a good idea into a tired, expensive friendly tournament.

This checklist is written for the person who will actually run the trip: the head coach, the team manager, or the volunteer who ends up with the passport envelope. It follows the real order of work, from the first board conversation to the first week back home. Italy appears as a worked example because many Swedish and Danish clubs use the Adriatic in late winter, but the same list applies to Spain, Portugal or Cyprus.

Twelve to sixteen weeks out: decide what the camp is for

Write one sentence that the board and the coaches both accept. Examples that work: “Eight grass sessions and two matches before we play competitive football.” “A U17 week that builds the group and gives every player 11v11 minutes.” Examples that fail: “A bit of heat and team spirit.”

That sentence drives the destination. If the sentence is about grass volume, you need a venue with locked pitch times. If it is about exposure and a higher level of opponent, a format such as the Italy Football Showcase Camp is a different product from a closed club week in a quiet hotel. Do not mix the two in your head and then get surprised by the schedule.

At this stage you also need a budget owner, a rough headcount, and a decision on who travels: first team only, a combined senior group, or an age-group squad with extra staff. Gothia Sportstravel can price and shape options once those numbers exist. They cannot usefully price “something in the south in February”.

Check school holidays, league start dates, and work leave for the amateur players who still make up most Nordic squads. The perfect football week that three key players cannot attend is not the perfect week.

Ten weeks out: lock destination, dates and the non-negotiables

Choose the country and the venue type. A coastal hotel with a short pitch transfer is one model. A sports centre is another. A showcase or match-heavy camp is a third. Browse football camps only after you know which model you want.

Confirm in writing:

• Arrival and departure airports or the coach plan
• Hotel name and rooming capacity (twins, triples, staff singles)
• Pitch surface and named slots for each day
• How many matches are requested, and who is responsible for arranging them
• Transfer method between hotel and pitch
• Meal times that fit a double session
• What happens if a pitch is unplayable

If Italy is the direction, Riccione Football Camp, Italy is a typical Adriatic package: town, hotel, pitches and a football culture that understands visiting squads. Treat it as a venue to interrogate, not as a finished plan. Ask the same pitch and match questions you would ask in Malaga.

Eight weeks out: people, papers and the medical plan

Collect passport copies and expiry dates. A passport that lapses during the camp is a problem you can only solve at home. For youth players, collect parental consent, medical notes and insurance numbers in one folder, digital and paper.

Name the travelling staff with roles: coach, assistant, manager, physio, driver if you have a van, and a safeguarding lead for under-18s. Two coaches for 22 players is tight the first time someone needs a hospital trip.

Agree a medical baseline. Who tapes ankles. Who holds the first-aid bag. Where the nearest clinic is. How you call a taxi at 22:00. Photograph every player’s insurance card. If a player has a current injury, decide before you fly whether they are training, rehabbing, or staying home. A camp is a poor place to “see how it feels”.

Six weeks out: the football plan

You do not need a 40-page booklet. You need a daily theme.

• Arrival: walk, meeting, sleep
• Day 2: aerobic-technical, keep the speed controlled
• Day 3: first tactical block or first match
• Midweek: the heaviest grass day
• Late week: second match or the shape you want to take into the season
• Departure: short session or none, depending on the flight

Share a player-facing version. Amateurs arrange childcare and shifts around the week. Youth players train better when they can see which day is the match.

Decide your video plan. One phone on a mini-tripod is enough if someone actually watches it that night. Four cameras and no review is decoration.

Four weeks out: rooms, meals and money

Publish the room list. Separate the obvious clashes. Give staff a quiet room if you can; they will work after the players sleep. Check that the hotel can handle a late kitchen plate for a delayed flight and an early breakfast for the first session.

Tell players what is included. Airport transfer, pitch fees, water, lunch on match days, and what they pay themselves. Ambiguity here becomes a corridor argument in a foreign currency.

If parents are travelling with a youth squad, write their role. Spectators are fine. Extra coaches with conflicting instructions are not.

Two weeks out: packing list and the tone-setter

Send a short list, not a novel.

Players: boots for grass, a second pair, shin pads, tape they already use, trainers, club kit for two sessions a day, a warm layer for Italian or Spanish evenings in February, charger, ID, insurance card, any daily medication in original packaging.

Staff: pump, bibs, extra balls if the venue supply is unknown, whiteboard pens, laptop and adaptor, medical bag, copies of passports, emergency contacts, a printed room list.

Add one sentence about the standard. The camp is a training week. Sleep and punctuality are part of the football. The clubs that skip this message spend the first two days establishing it in person.

Departure week: the operational list

• Confirm flight times and the meeting point
• Recheck passport expiry
• Print or download boarding passes and hotel address
• Pack the medical bag in carry-on
• Share a staff WhatsApp that includes the organiser contact
• Weigh kits so you are not arguing with a budget airline at 05:30
• Leave a home contact who can reach a parent or a board member

On the bus or at the gate, do a headcount and a document check. It is old-fashioned and it still prevents the worst morning of your year.

During the camp: a daily 15-minute staff meeting

Meet after breakfast or after the last session. Cover injuries, who is on a reduced plan tomorrow, any hotel issues, and the next transfer time. Write the morning meeting time on a board in the breakfast room. Players who are late once should not be late twice.

Keep the organiser in the loop the same day if a pitch or a match moves. Gothia Sportstravel assigns a contact person for that reason. Use them before the problem is two hours old.

Protect one recovery behaviour: a set lights-out, water on the table, and no new evening activity invented at dinner. Pre-season camps fail more often from accumulated small sleep loss than from a hard session.

After you land: do not waste the week

Within five days, write a one-page review: what the pitch was actually like, whether the matches were the right level, which sessions transferred into the first home week, and what you would change in the hotel or the travel day. Send a short note to the organiser while the details are fresh. Next year’s camp is easier if this year’s notes exist.

Then train as if the camp mattered. The worst outcome is a suntan and a return to the same November habits. Keep one session theme from the trip in the first two home weeks so the players can feel the continuity.

A compact checklist you can copy

Before booking: purpose sentence, dates, budget owner, headcount, camp model.

At booking: named pitch slots, matches requested, transfers, meals, room types, rain plan.

People: passports, insurance, medical notes, staff roles, safeguarding lead.

Football: daily themes, match plan, video owner, arrival-day load.

Kit and ops: boots, pump, bibs, medical bag, adaptors, printed addresses.

On site: daily staff meeting, headcounts, sleep, same-day problem reporting.

Home: one-page review, thank-you to hosts, first two weeks of continuity.

Use the list. Do not decorate it. A Nordic pre-season camp is a short window of grass and shared time. The clubs that come back fitter are the clubs that treated the unglamorous items as part of the coaching.