Football word search
Make a football word search in one click. Pick a theme, a grid size and how hard it should be, then play on screen by dragging across the letters or print it with the answer key on a second page.
Football word search
Name: ______________________
Answer key
How to make and play a football word search
- Choose a theme: Premier League clubs 2026/27, football positions, famous stadiums, World Cup winners or general football words.
- Pick a grid size from 10×10 to 15×15. Bigger grids hide more words: 8 words on a 10×10, 10 on a 12×12, 12 on a 13×13 and up to 15 on a 15×15 (the World Cup theme has 8 winners, so it always hides 8).
- Pick a difficulty. Easy only runs words left to right and top to bottom. Medium adds diagonals. Hard uses all eight directions, so words can run backwards and upwards.
- To play on screen, drag from the first letter of a word to the last, or tap the first and then the last letter. Found words turn green and are crossed off.
- To print, press Print. Page 1 has a name line, the grid and the word list; page 2 has the answer key with every hidden word shaded.
How the puzzles are built
The generator picks words from the theme, longest first, and tries every position and direction allowed by the difficulty. Words may cross where they share a letter, which makes the grid tighter and a little harder. If a word will not fit, it starts again; if a grid still will not work after many tries, it drops one word rather than giving you a broken puzzle. Empty squares are then filled with random letters.
All of this runs from a seed number, which is part of the puzzle code. The code stadiums-15-hard-2024 means the famous stadiums theme, 15×15, hard, seed 2024. Enter it on any device and you get the same grid, letter for letter. That is what makes reprinting possible: a teacher can hand out a sheet on Monday and print the same one for a pupil who was absent on Wednesday.
Which settings to choose
| Who is playing | Size | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Ages 6–8 | 10×10 | Easy |
| Ages 8–11 | 12×12 | Medium |
| Older children and adults | 13×13 or 15×15 | Hard |
These are only starting points. A confident young reader who loves football will often manage a hard 12×12; a tired adult on a Friday may prefer medium.
Ideas for classrooms, clubs and parties
- Wet-play or early-finisher sheets. Print a few different themes at the start of term and keep the codes so you can reprint.
- Spelling practice. The positions and football-words themes contain useful spellings such as goalkeeper, midfielder, referee and substitute. Ask pupils to write a sentence using each word they find.
- Junior football club. Hand out the positions sheet before a session on formations and talk about what each position does.
- Birthday party race. Print the same code for every child; the first to find all the words wins. Because the grids are identical, nobody can say theirs was harder.
- Matchday programme filler. A 12×12 Premier League puzzle fits half an A4 page.
How we tested it
We wrote automated Node tests that build 720 puzzles: every theme, sizes 10, 12, 13 and 15, all three difficulties, and 12 seeds each. For each of the 7,632 hidden words the test checks that the word lies completely inside the grid, that the letters along its path spell it exactly, that its direction is allowed for the chosen difficulty, and that a selection from its first letter to its last (and from last to first) is recognised. It also checks that the answer key shades exactly the squares of the hidden words, that no word appears twice in the list, that every square holds a letter, and that loading the puzzle code rebuilds the same grid. All tests pass. The Premier League list was checked against the official Fantasy Premier League team list for the 2026/27 season.
Frequently asked questions
How do I print the same puzzle again?
Every puzzle has a code such as pl-12-hard-48213. Write it down or copy it, then paste it into the puzzle-code box later and press Load code. The same code always makes exactly the same grid, so a whole class can get identical sheets.
Why are some words written without spaces?
Word searches only hold letters, so “Aston Villa” is hidden as ASTONVILLA and “Hat-trick” as HATTRICK. The word list under the grid shows the normal spelling.
Which Premier League clubs are included?
The 20 clubs of the 2026/27 season, including Coventry, Hull and Ipswich, who came up in 2026. Long names are shortened to the name fans use, such as Forest, Man City and Man Utd, so they fit a 15×15 grid.
Can I make the answer key not print?
Yes. Untick “Print answer key on page 2” before you print. The key is only ever shown on paper, never on screen, so it will not spoil the game for anyone playing on a phone.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Drag your finger from the first letter to the last, or tap the first letter and then the last. Found words are shaded and crossed off the list.
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