Organisers: your first week

1. Start your squad

Go to Start a squad and sign in, so the squad is saved to your account and you can run it from any phone or laptop. Then fill in two short parts:

• The squad: its name (what your group chat is called works fine), a crest colour, and how many a side you play.
• You as a player: your name, usual position, stronger foot, an optional flag, how good you honestly are, and the year you were born.

2. Post the invite link

Your squad page shows an invite link and a QR code. Post the link in your group chat. Everyone who taps it adds themselves: there's nothing for you to type in.

Anyone with the link can join, so keep it to the group chat, not anywhere public. If it gets out, use "Link got out? Make a new one": the old link stops working.

3. Set up your game

On the squad page, choose "Set up your game" and say when and where you play:

• Next kick-off: the day and time.
• How often: every week, every two weeks, or a one-off.
• How long: one hour, 90 minutes or two hours.
• Where: the venue, with a map link if you have one. Leave the link empty and it points to a map search for the venue.
• Pitch cost: split between whoever played, or a fixed amount each. See pitch money.
• Player limit: once it's reached, anyone after goes on a waitlist and moves up when someone drops out.

4. See who's in

Once the game is saved, everyone in the squad can say if they're playing, from the same link. The squad page shows who's in and how many you have against your limit. Players can also add every game to their own calendar from there.

5. Pick the teams

When you're ready, choose "Pick teams from the players who are in". You get two sides balanced by rating and position. With an odd number, the side with the extra player gets the lower ratings.

• Reshuffle: new balanced teams from the same players.
• Move a player across if you want to tweak it by hand.
• Name the teams (bibs and non-bibs, colours, whatever you use).
• Someone else turned up? Add them on match day; they join the side that's a player short.
• Add a guest: a ringer who isn't in the squad. They're rated like everyone else, but can't vote.
• Keep apart, keep together: rules for two players who should never, or always, be on the same side. Only organisers see them.

6. Enter the score

After the game, open the match and enter the full-time score. Scorers are optional: goals, assists and own goals. Saving the result opens voting.

Tick "Don't count this one for ratings" for a friendly or a mismatch. If the game was abandoned or rained off, void the match instead: it won't count for anything, and you can undo that.

7. Send the vote link

The match page gives you "Send the vote link to the group". Everyone who played rates their teammates and picks a player of the match. Voting stays open for the time set in your squad's settings (12, 24 or 48 hours) and closes sooner once 70% of the players have voted. You can also close it yourself.

When it closes you get the player of the match, a Team of the Week, any special cards, how everyone's card moved, and a match report image to share. More on that in how ratings and cards work.

Sharing the work

In Settings you can make someone a co-organiser. Co-organisers can pick teams, enter results, close voting and mark payments. Only the owner can add co-organisers or hand the squad over. Settings is also where you remove a player, merge two entries for the same person, and change how long voting and a season last.

Questions