How To Create A Football Field

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How to build a Football Field Chart?
Football Field Template and Tutorial for Excel

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Football Field Tutorial from Scratch

How to build a Football Field Chart from Scratch using Excel

Step 1 - Create an input table

Let's start by creating an input table with names, as well as a bottom and a top range.

Step 2 – Create a simple bar chart

Now create a simple horizontal clustered bar chart. You will find this on the ribbon under "Insert". Use the "Clustered Bar". You should now see an empty chart on your sheet.

Step 3 – Select your data

Right-click on the empty chart and click on "Select Data…".

A window will now pop up. Click on "Add" under "Legend Entries (Series)". You will have two input fields now (i) "Series name" and (ii) "Series values". You can ignore Series name and click on the up-arrow under "Series values". Now select all your values for the bottom range and hit "OK".

Repeat the exercise by clicking on "Add" again, but now select all your top range values.

Once you are done, your window should look like the picture on the right. Now click on "Edit" under the "Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels" and select the (company) names, they will appear on the y-axis of your chart now.

Your chart should look like the chart on the picture below on the right-hand side.

Step 4 – Overlapping the bars

Left-click on the blue bars now (your bottom values) to select only them. Afterwards right-click on them and click on "Format Data Series…". On the right-hand side, you will now have the "Format Data Series" area. Under "Series Options" increase the "Series Overlap" to 100%.

In case you can only see the orange bars now, click on the chart and go to "Select Data…". Now, select "Series2", i.e. the series of your blue bars, and click on the "Move Up" arrow to put them on top of the orange bars. Your bars should now look as on the picture below.

Step 5 – Formatting the bars and x-&y-axis

Select again your blue bars only by left-licking on them, and afterwards right-click on them and choose "Format Data Series". Now you have to change their filling colour to white by choosing "Solid fill" and then choosing the white colour option under "Colour".

Following that, you need to delete the grid lines. Therefore, select them and hit the delete button.

Your chart should look like this now. As you can see, there are two problems now: (i) your y-axis has the names sorted in descending order and (ii) your x-axis has no line.

Right-click on your y-axis and choose "Format Axis". Under the axis options, choose "At maximum category" as well as "Categories in reverse order".

Then right-click on the x-axis and choose "Format Axis". Under "Fill & Line" select the "Solid line" and choose a colour of your choice.

Your x-axis is now in the correct order and your y-axis has a proper line. Your chart should now look like the picture on the right-hand side.

Step 6 – Add data labels to your bars

Now we add "Data labels" to our chart. Therefore, select your white (/invisible) bottom value bars and (i) click on "Add Data Labels" and following that (ii) right-click on the bars again and now choose "Format Data Labels".

Choose "Inside End" under "Label Options".

Repeat the exercise for the orange bars, but choose "outside end" now (normally outside end should be the standard setting anyway if you add data labels"

You chart should now look like the picture on the right.

Step 7 – Cosmetic changes

Now we only need to do some cosmetic changes and we are done!

Right-click on either your bottom or top bars and choose "Format Data Series". Now change the Gap Width to something in the area of 30-40% to make the bars look wider.

Lastly, we want the bars to cover most of the chart area. Therefore, we right-click on the x-axis and choose the "Format Axis" option and set the "Minimum Bounds" to a value slightly below your lowest bottom value. In this case it would a value below 51, so let's go with 45.

If you now delete the title, change the colour of your bars and change the formatting of your values to e.g. a currency, your chart looks like in the picture below and you are good to go!