Indoor Football Tournament Software
Six teams, one sports hall and 15 matches on a winter day
A winter indoor tournament for six teams plays as a round robin: 6 × 5 / 2 = 15 matches. With two halves of 10 minutes and a 25-minute slot, one hall is busy for 6 hours 15 minutes of play. Before the invitation goes out, decide two things: whether you play futsal rules or hall rules with boards, and how many minutes a match really gets. Both depend on your association and on how long the hall is booked.
A Saturday in January, match by match
08:15: goals in, boards up if you play with them. A laptop goes on the timekeeper's table and the TV on the wall shows the first fixture.
09:00: match 1. Every match is 2 × 10 minutes with a short half-time and the changeover inside a 25-minute slot.
12:20: eight matches done. A 20-minute break for the players and for whoever is running the clock.
12:40: match 9. Every team has played two or three times, so the stands mostly watch the table on the screen.
15:35: match 15 ends. The last result goes in from the scoreboard and the table is final.
15:45: medals. Nobody adds up goals on a sheet of paper while the hall manager waits to lock up.
15 matches, one hall: the time budget
With six teams, a round robin means 6 × 5 / 2 = 15 matches. Each team plays 5 of them, 100 minutes of football at 2 × 10.
A slot is more than the playing time. Two halves of 10 minutes, about 2 minutes of half-time and 3 minutes for the teams to swap make 25 minutes. 15 slots are 375 minutes, 6 hours 15 minutes, plus any lunch break.
If the hall is booked for four hours, shorten the match before you cut a team. One half of 12 minutes in a 15-minute slot fits all 15 matches into 3 hours 45 minutes. Five teams play only 10 matches, and 2 × 10 fits into four hours if you trim the slot to 24 minutes: 10 × 24 = 240.
One hall also means every team waits. Four of the six teams are off the pitch in every slot, so changing rooms and the stands fill up. Tell the coaches when their five matches are; the published schedule does that for you.
Futsal rules or hall rules with boards
The Laws of the Game (IFAB, 2026/27) set two halves of 45 minutes and allow shorter halves when the competition rules say so (Law 7). Indoors there is no single rule, and in Germany the regional associations show how far apart the options are.
- Futsal rules. The Saxon association (SFV) has required FIFA futsal rules for all indoor youth competitions since 1 July 2025. Children play with a futsal ball and without boards.
- Hall rules with boards. The 2026 hall guidelines of the FVN district Rees-Bocholt state that they do not apply to futsal. Boards are allowed but not required, teams have up to 14 players with up to 5 on the pitch, substitutions are rolling, a match lasts up to 2 × 15 minutes and no team may play more than 180 minutes in one day.
Check your own association before the invitation. Some require approval for an indoor tournament weeks in advance. The FVN district asks for 28 days for youth and 21 for adults.
If your rules are futsal, set the event up in the futsal discipline instead. Its scoreboard follows the futsal laws, which this football setup does not. The rules themselves are explained in how futsal scoring works.
Setting the tournament up in JudgeMate
Start from the football event creator. Football runs as a club tournament: each side of a match is a team name, and players need no accounts.
- Add a category in the Round robin format and enter the six teams. A squad list is optional.
- Set Period length to 10 and Number of periods to 2. If you went for one 12-minute half, set 12 and 1.
- Add one playing area, name it after the hall, and set the Start time and a Slot length of 25 minutes. The slot already includes half-time and the changeover.
- On the Match day screen press Run the draw to create the round robin, then press Auto-schedule in the Pitches & schedule card. Leave Team rest at 0 in a single hall. With six teams nobody plays two slots in a row, so a rest up to the slot length changes nothing, and a longer one leaves the hall empty after every round.
- Keep result entry on Me or my event staff. On the day, the person at the timekeeper's table starts a scoreboard from each match, and you confirm the score from the board with Confirm from boards.
If a team does not turn up, record a walkover. Football enters it as 3:0 by default, and you can change the score in the draw settings.
What goes on the hall screen
A scoreboard started from a match takes over the 2 × 10 format of the draw. Its spectator link opens in any browser, so a smart TV, a laptop on a projector or the hall's LED wall can show the clock, the score and the cards. The A+/A− control in the operator's panel makes the numbers readable from the far stand.
Between matches, use the screen for the whole tournament. In the share menu, Open jumbotron shows the results full screen and Venue TV shows who is playing now and who is next. Both need the event to be public.
The football scoreboard also works on its own, without an event, if all you need is a clock and a score for a friendly. Its format settings let you change the length of a half.
What the scoreboard does not count in a hall
- Rolling substitutions. The football scoreboard has no substitution event, so it does not track who is on the pitch.
- Time penalties. Football sanctions are a yellow and a red card. A 2-minute suspension under hall rules has to be timed separately, for example on a phone at the table.
- Accumulated fouls. If you need them, choose the futsal discipline. Its scoreboard counts team fouls per half, flags the free kick from the 10 m mark from the sixth foul, and leaves a team one player short for 2 minutes after a red card or until it concedes.
- Tie-break order. In a tournament table, teams level on points are separated by the matches between them first, then by goal difference and goals scored. The table has no federation preset for football. If your rules put overall goal difference first, a tie can come out differently.
- Approval and money. JudgeMate does not apply to your association for approval and does not collect entry fees online.
For youth groups that play festivals with teams moving between pitches, without a table, this setup does not fit.
How this differs from a summer club tournament
A club tournament on two pitches spreads groups and a knockout over a long summer day, and two matches run at the same time. The hall turns that around. There is one playing area, so the length of a match decides the length of the day, and a round robin replaces the knockout because every team gets five matches instead of three.
The second difference is the rulebook. Outdoors the Laws of the Game apply with shorter halves. Indoors you choose between futsal and your association's hall rules, and that choice decides which discipline you pick in JudgeMate.
The third is the calendar. Indoor tournaments are a winter event, and the season can start in November: the Rees-Bocholt hall guidelines apply from 1 November 2026.
Set up your event
Free for organizers. No athlete cap. No commission on registrations. See football features · Organizer guide