What an auction sheet needs
A useful sheet has four things: the team name, the starting budget, one row per squad slot and — the column that is almost always missing — the remaining credits.
Rows should be grouped by role, in buying order: keepers, defenders, midfielders, forwards. It is not decoration: halfway through the evening the question is "how many defenders am I missing", and the answer has to be visible at a glance.
The remaining-credits column is what makes the difference. Without it, the subtraction happens in your head after every purchase, and heads fail exactly when it matters: in the last half hour, when everyone is tired and the good players are gone.
The sum everyone gets wrong
Every empty slot costs at least one credit. With a squad of twenty-five and twelve slots open, twelve credits are already committed even though you have not spent them.
It sounds obvious and it is forgotten every year, always the same way: you reach the last three defenders with two credits and have to take anyone. Set aside the number of slots left and treat only the rest as spendable.
The cautious version is two credits per slot instead of one, so in the closing minutes you can still choose between two names rather than take the only one left.
Why paper beats a phone at the table
In a live auction paper has three advantages no app makes up for: it does not go to sleep, it is visible from across the table, and you can write on it while talking.
It also has a social advantage: the sheet is public. Anyone walking past sees what you spent and how many slots you have left. In an evening spent arguing about who can still afford what, having the numbers visible on the table prevents half the arguments.
Using both makes sense because they do different jobs: the screen holds the authoritative count — prices, credits, squads — and paper holds each person's overview.
Setting the sheets up before the evening
Decide three things in advance: how many teams, how many credits, and the squad composition. The most common Italian setup is eight teams, 500 credits and twenty-five players split 3 keepers, 8 defenders, 8 midfielders, 6 forwards.
If team names are decided, type them: each sheet comes out with its own name at the top. If not, the sheets come out numbered and work just as well.
Print one spare. One will get ruined, and whoever turns up without a sheet will end up writing on the back of someone else's.
