How to Use a Live Football Scoreboard

Getting started takes three taps:

1. Open the Free Scoreboard page on JudgeMate.
2. Select Football from the sport list.
3. Tap "Create Scoreboard".

The system instantly generates two links:

• Admin link — your private control panel (contains a secret token).
• Spectator link, the public view for fans.

No account, no email, no app download required. The board is ready immediately.

Save your admin link — if you close the browser without bookmarking it, you will not be able to regain control.

Before the match starts, you see the Setup Screen where you configure:

Team names:

• Tap the name fields to type custom names (up to 20 characters).
• Default names: HOME and GUEST.

Team colors:

• Choose from 12 color presets (red, orange, amber, lime, green, teal, cyan, blue, purple, pink, gray, white).
• Colors appear on the spectator display and help distinguish teams visually.

Starting the match:

• Tap "Start Match" when both teams are ready.
• Spectators see a waiting screen ("Game Starting Soon") until you press Start.
• Once started, the board goes LIVE and the clock is ready to run.

The score area is split into two tap zones:

• Left half = Home team
• Right half = Guest team

Each side has:

• A large "+" button — tap to add a goal.
• A smaller "−" button, tap to undo a goal (score never goes below 0).

Every tap updates the spectator screen instantly in real-time. There is no confirmation dialog — the score changes immediately.

Tip: If you accidentally add a goal, tap the minus button right away. The spectator display corrects itself within a fraction of a second.

Football in JudgeMate uses a cumulative count-up clock — the time never resets between halves. It runs continuously through all phases:

Basic controls:

• START (blue button) — begins the clock.
• PAUSE (yellow button), pauses the clock.

Adjusting the clock: Tap "Adjust clock" to open a sheet with six steps (−1:00, −0:10, −0:01, +0:01, +0:10, +1:00). The steps add up, and a preview shows the corrected time before you apply it.

Period transitions: Tap "End period", then tap again to confirm. The board moves on: Half 1 → Half 2 → Overtime 1 → Overtime 2 → Shootout. The period label on the spectator display updates automatically.

When the clock passes the period boundary (e.g., 45:00 or 90:00), the display automatically switches to stoppage time format.

How it looks: Instead of showing 91:23, the spectator display shows 90+1:23 — matching the broadcast standard.

Setting stoppage time: The admin panel has quick-select buttons: +1, +3, +5, +7, +10 minutes. You can also type a custom value (0-30 minutes).

• Tapping a preset sets the stoppage amount.
• Tapping the same preset again clears it.
• A yellow indicator on the spectator screen shows the added time.

Stoppage exceeded: When the clock runs past the set stoppage time, the display turns red with a pulsing animation — signalling to spectators that the referee is playing beyond the announced stoppage.

Example timeline:

1. Clock reaches 45:00 — display shows 45+0:00.
2. You set +3 minutes of stoppage.
3. Clock reaches 45+3:00, display pulses red.
4. You tap "End period" and tap again to confirm. The clock stops, and the second half begins at 45:00 on the cumulative clock.

Football in JudgeMate tracks yellow and red cards with full detail.

Adding a card:

1. Tap the Yellow or Red card button for the relevant team.
2. A pop-up appears — optionally enter a player number or name.
3. Confirm, the card is recorded with the current match time.

Cards appear on both the admin panel and the spectator display.

Automatic double-yellow to red conversion: If you enter a player name/number and that same player already has a yellow card, the system automatically converts the two yellows into 1 red card. The spectator display updates instantly.

This only works when you enter the player identifier. Without a name/number, the system cannot match cards to the same player.

Undo: Each team has an "Undo last card" button that removes the most recently added card. Useful for correcting mistakes.

What spectators see: The spectator view displays a summary of cards per team (e.g., 2 yellow, 1 red for Home). In the post-game summary, all cards are listed with times and player names.

When you advance past Extra Time 2nd Half (period 4), the board enters Penalty Shootout (PK) mode.

What changes:

• The clock disappears — only a "SO" (Shootout) label is displayed.
• START/PAUSE buttons and all clock adjustment controls are hidden.
• Only the +/− score buttons remain active.

How to use it: Tap + for each successful penalty kick by either team. Tap − to correct a mistake.

The spectator display shows the shootout score separately from the regular-time score, making it clear which goals were scored in regulation and which in penalties.

Note: JudgeMate does not enforce the 5-kick rule or sudden death logic automatically. You manually track each penalty and can end the game when the shootout is decided.

The IFAB Laws of the Game 2026/27 have been binding on every affiliated competition since 1 July 2026, and they left the scoreline alone — a goal is still worth one, and the cumulative clock still runs from 0 to 120. What the 2026/27 edition changed is the card log: fewer cautions are now issued at all, and two kinds of card can now be moved to a different player after a video review.

Three amendments delete a caution you used to record. A foul that denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity now carries no disciplinary sanction at all if the referee plays advantage and the attacking team scores — not a yellow, not a red. Time-wasting at a restart is punished with possession instead of a card: the referee whistles, signals, and counts down five seconds with a raised hand, after which a delayed throw-in is awarded to the opponents and a delayed goal kick becomes a corner kick. The caution survives only if the player keeps delaying after the restart has already been handed over.

The expanded VAR protocol is the part that touches your board directly. Both new reviewable categories are card-log corrections rather than score corrections. A red card produced by a clearly incorrect second yellow is now reviewable and can be rescinded — second cautions were previously outside VAR's scope entirely. And mistaken identity is now reviewable for a yellow or a red shown to the wrong player of either team, not only the offending team. On a board that stores cards against a player number, both outcomes are an undo followed by a re-entry — which is exactly what the Undo last card button and the optional player identifier exist for.

Two smaller changes affect what you type. In a penalty shoot-out, an accidental double touch — both feet striking the ball, or the ball brushing the standing leg immediately after the kick — now resolves in one of two ways only: if the ball goes in, the kick is retaken; if it does not, the kick is recorded as missed. There is no third outcome to hold open. Separately, the whole flow package (five-second countdown, ten-second substitution exit, one minute off the field after on-pitch treatment) is designed to cut added time, so the +7 and +10 stoppage presets that suited a 2026 World Cup profile will fire less often in 2026/27 league football.

For the arithmetic underneath the scoreline, see how football scoring works; for the officiating mechanics behind the countdown and the VAR protocol, see the football referee guide.

Tap the "Share" button in the admin panel to open the share modal:

Sharing options:

• QR Code — spectators scan it with their phone camera to open the live scoreboard.
• Copy Link, copies the spectator URL to your clipboard for sharing via any messenger (WhatsApp, SMS, email, etc.).
• Native Share, uses your phone's share sheet (where available in your browser).

The spectator link works on any device with a web browser — phones, tablets, laptops, Smart TVs, projectors. No app download or login required.

Font size remote control: As the admin, you can control the text size on all spectator screens:

• A− / A+ buttons or a slider.
• Range: 50% to 300% of default size.
• Ideal for adjusting readability on stadium screens, projectors, or jumbotrons.

Spectators can also adjust their own local font size (70%-160%), but the admin's setting takes priority.

Use case: Share the QR code on a printed flyer, a WhatsApp group, or display it on a TV near the entrance so arriving fans can follow the score live. Running a whole tournament? See how to run your own mini World Cup, with one scoreboard per match.

Ending the match: The board never ends the match by itself. When the final whistle blows:

1. Tap "End match" at the bottom of the panel.
2. Tap it again within 4 seconds to confirm. The button needs this second tap, so a stray touch does not end the match.

Once ended:

• The score is frozen for spectators, and no more goals can be added.
• Spectators see the final score under a "Final Score" label.
• The clock stops.

After the match: The panel shows a "Match ended" card with the final score, the shootout score if there was one, and the winner. Further down, "Match summary" lists every event of the match in order.

• "Share" sends the final score to fans, team chats, or social media.
• "Save to my matches" keeps the match in your account. If you are not logged in, you see "Log in to keep this match" and "Not now" instead.
• When you are logged in, "My matches", "My leagues" and "Add to a league" appear as well.

There is no rematch button. For the next match, create a new board.

Board lifespan: Completed scoreboards you have not saved remain accessible for up to one week. After that, the board expires and spectators see a "Session Expired" message. Save or screenshot the final result if you need a permanent record.