How to make a fair draw

Two teams lined up on the pitch with the referee in the middle — A fair draw means every team starts the day with a real chance.

A completely random draw is exciting, but it can put the three strongest teams in the same group while another group has nobody who has played before. Seeding fixes that without taking the fun out of the draw.

Seeds and pots

Put the teams into pots by strength: the favourites in Pot 1, the next best in Pot 2 and so on. Then each group gets exactly one team from each pot. The draw is still random – nobody knows who meets whom – but every group is balanced.

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Two captains and a referee at the centre circle for the coin toss — Captains, coin toss, kick-off. The draw is part of the show.

Make the draw part of the day

Do it live with all the teams watching – on a phone, in a hat or with a cup of folded papers.
In Cup Day, tick “Random draw” and the app shuffles teams into groups for you; in a bracket, the first teams in your list get the seeded places.
Keep friends and colleagues from the same group of mates in different teams – it makes the games more even.