Many ambitious grassroots clubs know the offer: as a PREMATCH partner club you get weekly social media graphics delivered to your door – matchday posts, power rankings, stats. Free, no contract, and just a few minutes of effort per week. It sounds good, and for some clubs it is.
But there's a catch worth thinking about beforehand: it isn't your content. This post gives you an honest comparison – and explains why more and more clubs prefer to keep their matchday content completely in their own hands.
This is what "doing it yourself" looks like: TSV Bernhausen's complete matchday set in the club's own design.
What the partner programme offers – and what it doesn't
Fair is fair: PREMATCH provides ready-made graphics, visibility in the app, a network of clubs and partner promotions. If you have no capacity at all for social media, you get a feed that looks better than none.
The flip side:
- The look comes from the platform. The designs are created at PREMATCH, not by you. The programme dictates style, formats and visual language – your feed looks like that of dozens of other partner clubs (up to 50 per regional association).
- So does the rhythm. You post what is delivered, when it is delivered. A spontaneous goal graphic in the 87th minute? Your own artwork for the derby? A transfer announcement in your club's look? The toolkit isn't built for that.
- Recognition is built elsewhere. Every post also builds the platform's brand. The signature style your fans should recognise actually belongs to your club – see the club branding guide.
In short: you're trading effort for control. The interesting question is whether that trade is necessary.
DIY – without a designer, without the faff
The reason for partner programmes is real: no volunteer wants to spend hours every week in a design programme. That's exactly the problem Matchday.design solves – but in a way that means everything belongs to your club:
- Set up your branding once: logo, club colours, fonts, sponsors. Every template picks them up automatically.
- Add a match, generate posts: from opponent, date and result you get an announcement, line-up, goal graphic, result and league table – in the right Instagram format as a post and a story.
- Your own templates: in the designer you build templates that genuinely look like your club – here's how. Or start with ready-made templates and just adjust the colours and logo.
- Post whenever you want: right after the final whistle, at half-time, the moment a goal goes in – you don't depend on a weekly delivery.
The effort per post is a few minutes – comparable to forwarding a delivered graphic, except that your own design ends up in the feed.
The honest comparison
- Zero effort, look doesn't matter: the partner programme works. Delivered is delivered.
- Own identity, full flexibility: DIY clearly wins. Your own look, every post type, your own schedule – and the feed builds 100% for your club.
- Sponsors: if you add sponsors to your posts, you'll want to decide yourself where each logo goes – not an external programme.
- Combine both: that works too. Use PREMATCH's app visibility and network, but run your own feed yourself.
Incidentally, the same argument applies to generic design tools – the difference there is only the effort, not the control: Canva alternative for football clubs.
Your own matchday content in 10 minutes
- Set up your club: logo, colours, fonts – just once.
- Choose a template or design your own.
- Enter the match, choose the post type, generate.
- Export as a post (1080×1350) and story (1080×1920) – or publish straight to Instagram.
The step-by-step guide: Your first graphic in 3 minutes. How to turn every matchday into a whole content series is covered in Every matchday becomes content.
Conclusion
The PREMATCH partner programme takes work off your hands – but you pay with your own look and flexibility. If your club wants to build its own brand, you need content that looks like you and appears when something happens at your club. That's exactly what Matchday.design is built for: the low effort of a partner programme, the control of having your own designer.
Try it for free and design your next matchday in your own club look.