Nine Years of Sunday Mornings
Dave Kendall has managed Sunday Rovers FC for nine seasons. In that time, he has selected roughly 360 starting elevens, chased approximately 7,920 individual subs payments, sent more WhatsApp messages than he cares to estimate, and spent the vast majority of his Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings performing administrative tasks that have nothing to do with coaching football.
"People think managing a Sunday league team is just picking a team and shouting from the touchline," Kendall says. "The football bit is about twenty percent of the job. The rest is admin, logistics and chasing people for money."
Sunday Rovers compete in a local league in the Midlands, fielding a squad of thirty-two registered players across two teams. Kendall manages the first team directly and oversees the reserves. In a typical week, he handles availability for both squads, collects subs from twenty-two matchday players, tracks three to five injury absences, maintains a safeguarding log as the club's designated welfare officer, and liaises with the league about fixtures, referee appointments and registration queries.
Until January 2026, he did all of this from his phone, using WhatsApp and memory.
Saturday Mornings Before Lumio
Kendall's Saturday morning routine was the most time-consuming part of his week. "I'd wake up around 7am and start going through the WhatsApp group," he recalls. "By that point, maybe eight or nine lads had responded to the availability message I'd sent on Wednesday. So I'd start chasing the rest individually."
The chasing process involved sending direct messages, making phone calls to players who did not respond to messages, and occasionally asking other squad members whether they had spoken to the non-responders. By lunchtime, Kendall would typically have responses from around twenty-five of his thirty-two players.
"Then I'd sit in the car — literally in the car, because the house was too noisy — and work out the team. I'd have a notepad with who's available, who played last week, who's carrying a knock, who hasn't paid subs. I'd try to balance it so nobody felt like they were being dropped unfairly. It took me about two hours from start to finish."
The team would be shared in the WhatsApp group around 4pm on Saturday. Inevitably, two or three players would then message to say they could no longer make it, and the process would begin again.
The Voice Briefing He Did Not Expect to Use
When Sunday Rovers adopted Lumio Grassroots, Kendall was primarily interested in the subs collection feature. "That's what sold me," he admits. "I just wanted to stop chasing people for fivers."
The AI voice briefing was not on his radar. "I thought it was a gimmick. I've been picking teams for nine years. I don't need an app to tell me who to play."
His first briefing arrived at 8am on a Saturday morning. "I was making toast when it played. It told me I had sixteen confirmed available, three unavailable with reasons, and thirteen who hadn't responded. It told me the thirteen names. It told me two players had self-reported minor injuries during the week. And it suggested a starting eleven based on who was available and my usual formation."
Kendall was sceptical. He listened to the suggested eleven. Then he checked it against his own mental selection. "It was almost exactly what I would have picked. The only difference was it had put in a lad who'd been available for four weeks straight but I'd forgotten about because he hadn't played since November. I'd genuinely just overlooked him."
He started using the AI suggestion as a starting point the following week. Within a month, it was his default process.
"I still change two or three players most weeks," he says. "But I'm changing from a solid starting point instead of building from scratch every time. The two hours I used to spend in the car is now about fifteen minutes."
The Scepticism Around AI Team Selection
Kendall was not the only person at Sunday Rovers who questioned the AI team selection feature. Several players were initially uncomfortable with the idea.
"One of the lads said to me, 'So a computer's picking the team now?' I told him no, I'm picking the team, but the app is making sure I don't forget anyone. That landed better."
The AI's value, Kendall explains, is not in making subjective decisions about who is better than whom. It is in processing the administrative data that informs selection — availability, recent minutes, positional balance, fitness status — faster and more completely than a human can from memory.
"Last month, the AI flagged that one of my midfielders had played every minute for six weeks straight and might benefit from a rest. I hadn't noticed because he never complains and he's always available. But it was right. I rested him and he came back sharper the following week."
Subs Collection: From 70% to 90%
The subs collection feature delivered exactly what Kendall hoped. Before Lumio, Sunday Rovers' payment rate hovered around 70%. Roughly six or seven players per week would either forget, claim they would pay next time, or simply avoid the conversation.
"I used to stand in the changing room after the game with a money tin," Kendall says. "Some lads would pay. Some would say they'd transfer it. Some would just walk past. I'm not a confrontational person, so I'd let it go and add it to the mental tally."
Lumio's Stripe integration sends automated payment reminders before each fixture. Each player's payment history is visible in the platform. The club's configurable policy means that any player three weeks in arrears is flagged as unavailable until payment is made.
"The payment rate went to about 90% within the first month," Kendall says. "And I didn't have to have a single awkward conversation. The app sent the reminder. The app tracked the payment. I just read the numbers on Saturday morning."
The outstanding 10%, Kendall notes, are players who are genuinely experiencing financial difficulty. "For those lads, I use the hardship exemption in the system. They're flagged as paid without it affecting the club finances. Nobody else in the squad knows. It's handled with dignity."
The Sunday Morning Difference
Nine seasons of Sunday mornings have taught Kendall that grassroots football management is an endurance test of administration. Lumio Grassroots has not changed the nature of the job, but it has changed the burden.
"I still love picking the team. I still love the touchline. I just don't love the two hours of WhatsApp archaeology that used to come before it. Now I listen to a briefing, make a few tweaks, and I'm done. The app handles the rest."
He takes a sip of coffee. "My wife says I'm nicer on Saturdays now. That's probably the best review I can give."