Futsal Hall Tournament Software
Sixteen clubs, two courts, one day: groups in the morning, a final before the hall closes
A one-day futsal tournament for 16 clubs usually means four groups of four, the top two into quarter-finals, then semi-finals, a third-place match and a final: 24 group matches and 8 knockout matches. On two courts with 2 × 10 minutes of playing time and a 30-minute slot, that is 17 slots, or 8 hours 30 minutes. The futsal clock stops on every dead ball, so the slot has to be longer than the playing time.
The day from check-in to medals
08:00: team managers check in at the desk. Every squad is already in the system, entered by the manager in the week before, so the desk only checks shirt numbers.
08:30: first slot. Group A plays on court 1, group B on court 2. The person at the scorer's table starts the scoreboard from the match; the clock runs down from 10:00 and stops when the ball goes out.
11:00: the sixth slot. A team in group C has five accumulated fouls in the second half, and the scoreboard warns that the next foul means a 10 m free kick.
14:30: twelve slots and 24 group matches are done. You close the group stage, and the eight quarter-finalists appear in the bracket.
16:00: third-place match on court 1.
16:30: the final. It ends level, and after extra time the scoreboard switches to the shoot-out panel.
17:00: medals. The hall screen has shown the bracket since the semi-finals, so nobody asks who plays whom.
Why the court slot is longer than the match
Futsal counts playing time. Under the FIFA Futsal Laws of the Game 2025-26, the timekeeper stops the clock whenever the ball goes out of play, each team has one timeout per half, and half-time can last up to 15 minutes. A match of 2 × 20 therefore takes well over 40 minutes in the hall.
The same Law 7 allows shorter halves when the competition rules say so, and many one-day tournaments use that. The arithmetic for 16 clubs at 2 × 10:
- Groups: 4 groups × 6 matches = 24 matches, 12 slots on two courts.
- Knockout: 4 quarter-finals (2 slots), 2 semi-finals (1 slot), then the third-place match and the final one after the other (2 slots).
- 17 slots × 30 minutes = 510 minutes, 8 hours 30 minutes without a lunch break.
With 8 clubs in two groups of four, it is 12 group matches, 2 semi-finals, the third-place match and the final: 9 slots on two courts, 4 hours 30 minutes.
In JudgeMate the slot field starts at the match length from your format, which for 2 × 20 is 40 minutes. That is playing time only. Change it before you press Auto-schedule, or the afternoon runs an hour late by the quarter-finals.
What the scorer's table runs on the board
Each match in the bracket opens its own futsal scoreboard, and the format you set for the draw goes with it.
- Clock. Counts down per half and stops when the operator stops it. Extra time is 2 × 5 minutes.
- Accumulated fouls. Counted per team and per half. From the sixth, the board shows the direct free kick from the 10 m mark. The count starts again at half-time; in extra time, the fouls from the second half carry on, as Law 13 requires.
- Timeouts. One per team per half, none in extra time.
- Red card. The team plays short for 2 minutes or until it concedes. A second yellow for the same player becomes a red automatically when the card is given to a player.
- Shoot-out. Five kicks per team, then sudden death, with a goal and a miss button for each side.
Attribute goals to a shirt number and the top-scorer list builds itself. The futsal scoreboard guide shows the operator's panel in more detail.
Setting it up in JudgeMate
Start from the futsal event creator. Futsal runs as a club tournament: each side of a match is a club, and players do not need accounts. The video tutorial with Mate walks through the same steps on screen.
- The first category arrives with a knockout bracket and a third-place match. Switch the format to Groups + knockout, with four groups and two clubs advancing from each. That gives quarter-finals; keep the third-place match on.
- Leave entries to A team manager enters the team. The event starts out private and its link does not work yet, so switch visibility to public (it needs a location and a description), then share the link with the clubs. Each manager adds the club name and the squad, which holds 14 players by default and can go up to 30. You approve every team on its own.
- Set the period length and the number of periods for the whole draw: 10 and 2 for the plan above.
- Add two courts, a start time and a Slot length of 30 minutes. Press Run the draw on the Match day screen, then Auto-schedule. No club is ever booked on both courts at once.
- Print the match slips, two to an A4 page with the score left blank.
On the day, the scorer's table starts a scoreboard from each match. The Referee QR links card then shows a code for that match; a referee who scans it keeps the score on the board. When the board ends, you confirm the score with Confirm from boards, and it goes into the group table, the bracket and the public page. Quarter-finals, semi-finals, the third-place match and the final are confirmed by you, the organiser.
Level on points, level after extra time
In a group of four, two clubs can easily finish level on points. The group table in JudgeMate compares the matches between the tied clubs first (points, goal difference, goals scored), then overall goal difference and goals. UEFA uses head-to-head first in the mini-tournaments of the Futsal Champions League 2026/27, but its list goes on to fair play points and the club coefficient, which JudgeMate does not count. Futsal has no federation preset in the table settings.
If a tie still decides who advances, for example second against third, the group stage will not close until you settle it. Write the method into the invitation: penalties straight after the last group match, or a draw of lots.
A knockout match cannot be confirmed without a winner. Under Law 10, extra time is two periods of no more than 5 minutes each, followed by kicks from the penalty mark: five each, then one at a time until it is decided. Some competitions skip extra time in the third-place match; UEFA goes straight to penalties there. Say which you use before the first whistle.
If a club does not turn up, record a walkover. JudgeMate enters 5:0 for futsal by default. Poland's Futsal Ekstraklasa regulations use that score, among others. FIFA's Laws of the Game do not set one, so check your own rules and change the value in the draw settings if needed.
What to plan around
- The foul threshold is fixed at the sixth. It follows FIFA. Some regional rules lower it for short matches: the FV Rheinland indoor rules for A to D youth teams (2024-2025) start the 10 m kick at the third accumulated foul in the match when it lasts under 10 minutes. JudgeMate cannot set that, so the operator calls it out loud.
- No online payment. You record each club's entry fee as paid or waived; the money changes hands outside JudgeMate.
- No notifications. Managers do not get an email or a push when the schedule moves. Put the event link in your invitation, and the public page shows the current schedule and table.
- No hall booking and no association report. JudgeMate does not reserve courts and does not file results with your federation.
For the hall screen there are two views. Open jumbotron in the share menu shows the results full screen, and Venue TV shows who is playing now and next on each court. Both work once the event is public.
Set up your event
Free for organizers. No athlete cap. No commission on registrations. See futsal features · Organizer guide