For millions of amateur footballers worldwide, the game doesn’t start with a whistle — it begins with a question: Where are we playing today? A schoolyard? A worn-down pitch tucked behind an apartment block? Or maybe it’s just a spot someone mentioned in a group chat?
Sometimes, finding a decent place to play becomes a real headache, especially if you’ve just moved to a new city and don’t know anyone who can drop a pin.
So what’s harder — finding teammates or a decent field to play on?
Prawn Football, a sport-tech startup, has already tackled the first question — and did it with a clear answer. Instead of focusing on teams, they built a platform around the individual player. With pro-style tools like AI match analytics, smart insights, and a global leaderboard, they help amateur footballers get noticed and track their progress.
But when it came to the second question, the team hit a problem of their own.
Earlier this year, while working on a new feature for fields, the Prawn Football team pulled data from Google Maps and OpenStreetMap — and quickly hit a wall. There just wasn’t enough information. In some cases, no info at all — no surfaces, no photos, not even coordinates.
Take Brazil, for example — a country that lives football. Across the whole country, they found just about 500 verified fields. That’s less than what you’d expect in one big city. So instead of launching another top-down directory, the team decided to do what they do best: combine smart tech with real input from the people who actually play.
Think you know your local fields better than Google? Time to prove it.
To make it happen, Prawn Football is launching a global campaign to crowdsource the most accurate, player-made field map. The idea’s simple: Players add fields they know, describe the surface and condition — maybe even share a story — so others can find a good place to play, wherever they are.
To recognize the most active players, Prawn Football is launching a global challenge from August 1 to November 1, with $3000 in prizes — $1000 for each of three categories:
For the user who adds the most verified fields
Know your local fields like your own boots? The more verified pitches you add, the closer you are to being named the most relentless contributor.
For the most contributions from Brazil
Too many pitches still aren’t pinned yet. So, add as many legit fields as possible to help the country complete its football map.
For the favorite voted by the Prawn Football community members
Got a field with a story? Prawn Football will feature it on their Instagram, and the pitch that gets the most love becomes a winner.
And just like the platform itself, the final result will be a mix of smart tech and input from amateur footballers. The map will be built using open data from OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, and the players themselves. Every field added through the campaign helps fill the gaps and turns the map into a useful tool for anyone who keeps playing, no matter where life takes them.
