The ideal layout for your changing room!

If the changing room still needs to be built, we recommend thinking carefully in advance about the load-bearing walls. This has the advantage that the changing room benches can be mounted floating, making it much easier to clean the changing room. For the furnishing of the changing room, it is important to let us know the desired number of seats and which options (for example a massage table) are also still desired. Based on your wishes and the dimensions of the changing room, we can provide you with good advice.

After you, as a club, have thought well about what you want to achieve and how you want to do it, it is important to inform yourself about the quality standards regarding club and sports buildings.

Especially when clubs privatize club and sports buildings, it is essential for the club to have everything clearly in view in advance. What exactly does the club want to build? What are the associated (legal) requirements and standards? And is there a clear picture of the financial possibilities?

Ensuring the quality standards is important for the sports club itself as well as for municipalities and consultancy and architectural firms. But also regardless of ownership arrangements, insight by the club into the standards and guidelines for the construction, furnishing, management and maintenance of the club and changing facilities is always important.

Read more about it in the KNVB brochure.

Installing and using team lockers offers many advantages. It’s safer, saves time and space, fewer changing rooms are needed and it leads to better field availability. It makes match scheduling easier and also reduces the risk of theft.

Many football clubs struggle with a lack of changing rooms. Double use of changing rooms is often necessary, but not ideal. The space is quickly too tight to share it between two teams, who also have to miss out on their privacy. The use of team lockers can prevent this emergency solution, partly or even entirely. In addition, it shortens the changeover times between matches. As a result, it is more often possible to plan one or more extra matches per pitch.

That of course depends on it, because the circumstances are different for every club. How many teams take part in the competitions under the banner of the KNVB? But also important: do women and girls play, are there mixed teams and/or are there immigrant footballers with a different bathing culture? Can two mini matches for youth players be played at the same time on a ‘normal’ field? Is it 4-a-side and 7-a-side football? Does it work to shorten the changeover times and are there artificial turf pitches?

Fortunately, the KNVB has developed a calculation model that makes it easier to determine the number of changing rooms. You can find it here (p. 8)!

The minimum recommended dimensions for a football changing room are 15 to 24 square meters. Here, the wash area is not taken into account. For a changing room of 15 m2, the dimensions are based on 15 people. Double use (use by two youth or training teams) is not an option here. There is also no space for lockers or a massage table. If the opportunity arises to build some larger changing rooms (24 square meters) during new construction or renovation as well, that is recommended.

Usual dimensions for the smaller changing spaces, assuming 15 people, are therefore a minimum of 15 square meters. The minimum and optimal width of a changing room is 3 meters. For a changing space of 15 square meters, this automatically means a length of 5 meters. For wash areas, including a toilet and washbasin, it is 10 square meters.

The higher teams typically consist of a larger selection and also often have a larger staff. They therefore often need a changing room of more than 20 square meters, or about 3 by 7 meters. Often, these types of larger changing rooms are also equipped with extra facilities such as a massage table, treatment table, changing room chairs and/or changing room lockers. As a result, an area of 24 square meters is a realistic wish. In this situation, also assume a larger washing area of 12 square meters. The big advantage of a larger changing room is the fact that these facilities are ideal for double use. This allows an association to store multiple teams at the same time in a changing room.

Maybe not the first facility you think of, but referees must also have at least one separate changing room, or one for women and one for men. It is advisable to choose wall benches without floor support unless it cannot be done any other way (for example due to the absence of load-bearing walls). The presence of lockers or cubbyholes is also recommended when more than one person uses the referee changing room. In any case, make sure that the changing rooms can be closed properly with a view to theft and safety.

With a view to maintaining changing rooms, we always recommend choosing wall benches. Floor supports are often experienced as obstructive in practice. Preferably, there is a 9 linear meter changing room bench in a changing room. Usually, one assumes 60 centimeters of seating space per person.