Last updated: 20 July 2026.
The questions we actually get, answered plainly. Something missing? Write to hello@playing.football.
who owns the athlete’s data?
The athlete. Not the family, not the coach, not us. Everything they write, record or reflect on lives in their own Google account — we run no server that stores it and keep no copy. Sharing anything with a guardian or coach is the athlete’s explicit, revocable choice. The full privacy page.
what does it cost?
During the beta, everything is free. What follows is what it will look like after.
Everything you do by hand stays free — always. Setting a direction, check-ins, reflections, recording voice notes, reviewing a match, the schedule, deciding what to share. For a coach, that includes the whole craft: building the week, placing it on a player’s calendar, notes, calls. The routine library and everything on this site is free too, no account needed.
playing. plus adds the quiet reading — the part that costs us to run:
- for a family — voice notes turned into the athlete’s own words, and the look-back that reads their trail and reflects it back to them
- for a coach — gathering what a player has shared into a short catch-up, and translation when you don’t share a language
One family subscription covers everyone connected to that athlete. A coach’s subscription covers all their players, whichever families they work with.
A coach charges their own work directly to the family, with no commission. We never touch that money.
why is any of it paid?
Because some of it costs us and most of it doesn’t. Your athlete’s writing lives in your own Google account, so storing it costs us nothing — that’s why it can be free forever rather than free until we need revenue. The AI reading is different: every transcript and look-back is real money each time it runs. Charging for exactly that part, and nothing else, is what lets the rest stay free without ads, data sales, or a rug-pull later.
is this a replacement for a club?
No. Club training is where a young footballer learns to play with and against others — nothing replaces it. playing. is the individual layer between club hours: the goals, routines and reflection that club sessions don’t have room for. It’s built to sit alongside a club, not compete with it.
does the athlete’s club coach see anything?
Only if the athlete shares it with them, and only what they share. There is no back channel. That’s not a setting — it’s how the product is built.
what age is this for?
Young athletes who can hold a direction of their own — in practice, roughly 12 and up — always with a guardian involved. Below the age of digital consent in your country (14 in Spain, 13 in Sweden), a guardian gives the legal consent; the athlete’s own yes is required at every age. If the athlete doesn’t want this, it doesn’t happen.
do you rank players or help scouts find them?
No, and we never will. No rankings, no comparisons between athletes, no searchable database of young players. When an athlete wants to tell their story publicly, they publish it themselves, on their terms — the direction only ever points outward. The roadmap’s “never” list is the standing commitment.
i’m a coach — can i work with my players through this?
That’s the pilot we’re running now. A coach places a weekly plan on each athlete’s calendar, sees what each athlete chooses to share, and keeps their coaching relationship — and their fees — entirely their own. The plan-builder is free, for as many players as you coach; one plus subscription covers the reading tools across your whole roster. If you want in: hello@playing.football.
why does it run on Google accounts?
Because the alternative is our server holding children’s data, and we don’t want to be that company. Your family already has the accounts; the athlete’s journal is a Sheet in their Drive, their schedule a Calendar they own. If you stop using playing. tomorrow, everything is still yours, in tools that outlive us.
how do i send feedback or get help?
Email hello@playing.football — during the pilot, the person who reads it is the person who builds the product. There’s also a short form if that’s easier. We read everything; “this was confusing” is as useful as a feature request.