FOOTBALL, FROM KICK OFF TO PENALTIES.
SportsBuddy runs football tournaments from eleven-a-side down to futsal and beach soccer. The scorer records goals with the scorer and the method, cards, substitutions against the limits you configured, sin bins and the full penalty shootout including sudden death — and the league table rebuilds itself on three points a win with goal difference and head-to-head tiebreakers.
Most amateur football is administered twice: once on the pitch, and again that evening by whoever volunteered to keep the table. The second job is where the disputes come from — a result entered wrong, a goal difference nobody can reproduce, a suspension everyone forgot about until the player was already on the pitch.
SportsBuddy makes the recording of the match the same act as the maintenance of the competition. A goal is tapped in with the scorer and how it went in; an own goal picks from the opposition's defenders and credits the team that benefits, the way a proper record should. Cards accumulate against the suspension threshold the organizer set, and a player who has crossed it simply cannot be picked in the next lineup — the app blocks the selection and says why.
It handles the formats that grass-roots football is actually played in. Eleven-a-side, nine, seven, five, futsal with its accumulated-foul count and its rolling substitutions, and beach soccer with three periods. Each one is a preset that sets the periods, the squad and bench sizes and the substitution rules, and each one is editable afterwards.
The scoring screen
What the person on the touchline taps, and what each tap is worth to the record.
Goals with the method
GOAL takes the scorer and how the ball went in — open play, header, penalty, free kick or own goal. An own goal shows the opposition's defenders and credits the goal to the team that benefits from it, so the scoreline and the goalscorer list are both right.
Cards, and what they add up to
CARD takes the player and the colour. Yellows accumulate across the tournament against the suspension threshold the organizer set, so a booking is not just a note on a timeline — it is a consequence the next team sheet has to deal with.
Substitutions with the limits enforced
SUBSTITUTIONS brings a bench player on and the app holds you to the maximum substitutions and substitution windows the tournament configured. Futsal's rolling changes and an eleven-a-side five-sub limit are the same screen with different numbers behind it.
Sin bins
Where the competition runs temporary suspensions, SIN BIN takes the player off and lists them with a RETURN button. While they are binned they cannot be picked as a goalscorer, carded or substituted, and the team's on-field count drops on the scoreboard for everyone to see.
Accumulated fouls, for futsal
When a foul limit is configured, each team gets a FOUL button showing the running count against the limit — and once it is passed, a banner says the next foul is a direct free kick. The count resets per period, as the laws require.
Extra time and the shootout
A drawn match works through extra time — golden goal included where the format uses it — and then PENALTY SHOOTOUT. RECORD KICK takes the kicker and whether it was scored or missed, through the first five each and on into sudden death.
Rules set per tournament, editable mid-match
A seven-a-side works to different laws than a futsal final, and a tournament sometimes changes its mind at half time. Everything below is a field on the competition rather than a hardcoded assumption.
Six format presets
Eleven-a-side, nine, seven, five, futsal and beach soccer. Choosing one sets the players per side, the number of periods and their length, the squad and bench sizes and the substitution rules — and every one of those stays editable afterwards.
Extra time, golden goal, shootout
Whether a drawn knockout goes to extra time, whether extra time ends on a golden goal, and whether it finishes on penalties are three separate switches — so a group stage that accepts draws and a final that cannot are the same tournament.
Yellow cards to a suspension
Turn the rule on and set the number. Reach it and the player is blocked from the next lineup with a SUSPENDED tag rather than a reminder somebody forgot to send, and the ban is served by sitting the match out.
No heading
For age-group competitions that have removed heading from the game, the header disappears as a goal method entirely — a rule the scoring screen enforces rather than a note in the handbook.
Change the rules mid-match
MATCH SETTINGS opens during the game. Adjust the half length, the periods, extra time or the shootout rules and the change applies live to the match in progress — for the evening the floodlights fail and the second half becomes twenty minutes.
Points and tiebreakers
Three for a win, one for a draw is the default and both are editable, as is the tiebreaker order — goal difference, goals for and head-to-head, arranged the way your competition rules say.
What everyone watching sees
A browser link that works for the parents on the far touchline and the ones who could not come.
Live
The scoreline, the period, and the state of the match — half time, extra time break, or a shootout in progress — updating within seconds of the touchline tap.
Timeline
Every goal, card and substitution in order, with the player and the method on each one. It is the match report, written as the match happens.
The shootout, kick by kick
The penalty shootout gets its own block: each kicker, scored or missed, both teams side by side, and sudden death flagged when the first five each are not enough.
Awards
Player of the Match, the match's top scorer, and the goalkeeper honours — best goalkeeper and a clean sheet where one was kept.
Squads
Both teams as they were named, starters and bench, so anyone arriving at twenty minutes past knows who is on the pitch.
For whoever is running the tournament
The league table is the part that generates the arguments. It is also the part that is fully automatic here.
A proper league table
Played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, goal difference and points — three for a win by default, on your own numbers if you prefer, with the tiebreaker chain applied in the order you set.
Draws and shootouts counted correctly
A drawn match is recorded as a draw for both sides. A knockout tie settled on penalties is a win for the side that advances, and the public result reads as won on penalties rather than pretending the ninety minutes were decisive.
Groups and knockouts
One table per group with the qualifying places marked, and group results kept separate from the bracket they feed — so the table stops changing once the knockouts start.
Suspensions that enforce themselves
Set the yellow-card threshold once and the app carries it across the tournament. A player who has reached it is blocked from selection until the ban is served, which is one fewer protest to adjudicate.
Walkovers without a fake scoreline
When a side does not turn up, declare the walkover and pick the team that advances. The result is recorded as exactly that and the standings update, instead of a 3-0 somebody invented.
Football tournaments on SportsBuddy
- Completed
Aarti Kutchi Football Cup 2026 - General Group
St. Joseph's Wadala, Mumbai
- Completed
Aarti KFC Season 3 - Village
Urban Sports St. Jospesh, Mumbai
Written out, step by step
Every step below is transcribed from the real button labels in the app, so you can follow it word for word on the phone in your hand.
- Score a football matchGoals, cards, substitutions, sin bins and penalty shootouts.
- Assign a scorer to a matchHand a fixture to the person who will score it live.
- Hand a live match to another deviceSwap phones mid-match without losing a single ball or point.
- Create a tournamentThe three-step wizard that sets up your event — identity, then logistics and match settings, then prizes and rules.
- Schedule matches once teams are readyTurn a list of registered teams into a fixture list, one row per match.
- Record a walkoverAward a match that was never played because one side did not turn up.
- Check standings and leaderboardsPoints tables and the individual award races for a tournament.
- Watch on the website — no account neededShare a link with anyone and they can follow the match in a browser.
FOOTBALL ANSWERED.
Asked most often about football on SportsBuddy. The screen-by-screen version of every flow lives in the step-by-step guides.
Does SportsBuddy handle penalty shootouts?
Can SportsBuddy run a futsal or five-a-side tournament?
Does the app track yellow card suspensions?
How are football standings calculated?
Can the rules be changed after a football match has started?
Can spectators follow a football match without downloading the app?
YOUR SPORT.
YOUR ROLE.
Download SportsBuddy, pick your role, and get started in under 2 minutes. No subscription needed to play.
Player
Organizer
Scorer
Viewer
Summary
Organizer
Create & run tournaments end-to-end
Team Owner
Manage squad & join tournaments
Player
Build your profile & track stats
Scorer
Score matches live from the field
Viewer
Follow live scores in real-time
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