If you are a coach and somebody sent you a link to this app — here is what you get out of it, beyond one more icon on your phone.
- The squad fills itself in. You post one link into the parents' chat — parents follow it and attach themselves to their own children's cards. No collecting details one by one and merging them into a spreadsheet.
- Applications instead of paperwork. The tournament list and the line-up for every match live in the app, where the organizer and the referee can see them. The application can be printed if somebody still wants it on paper.
- Statistics accumulate on their own. Goals, assists, cards and matches played are recorded during the game and stay in the player's card — for the season and for all time.
- Video review of a match. Episodes are tagged on the recording itself, and at the review a tap on an event jumps the video straight to that moment.
- Fewer questions in the chat. Parents see the schedule, the results, their child's statistics and certificates themselves — no forwarding screenshots.
Below is the whole path in order, from signing up to the line-up for a game.
A coach has a team, and the team has players. To play a tournament the coach sends an application to take part, then puts together the tournament application — the list of players cleared for that tournament. Before every game the match line-up is built out of that list: who starts, who is on the bench, who is in goal.
Three lists nested inside one another: team → tournament application → match line-up. A player will not make it into a match if he is not in the tournament application, and he will not make it into the tournament application if he is not in the team.
The usual scenario: the organizer invites a coach, the coach builds the team
This is how it works most of the time. The point is that nobody types in other people's squads by hand: the organizer does not rewrite thirty surnames, the coach does not collect children's details one by one, and parents link themselves to their own children's cards. One link in the parents' chat is enough.
- The organizer invites the coach. They create the team or find one already in the app and send the coach an invitation to it. The Invite coach item is not available to everyone: it is only there for someone who has the right to edit that team. Simply finding somebody else's team in the app is not enough.
- The coach accepts the invitation. After that he sees the team and its squad, and can do whatever his rights in the team allow.
- The coach invites the parents. Team card → ⋮ menu → Invite player → the link goes into the parents' chat. The link is reusable: every parent can follow it, not just the first one. It is valid for 7 days — the next intake needs a fresh one.
- A parent follows the link. They sign up or log in with their own account and pick their child from the squad. The player card is linked to the parent's profile — from then on they see their child's statistics, certificates and matches.
- The coach finishes the squad. Edits player cards, sets numbers and positions, and uses the ⋮ menu → Make photos of players to photograph the team straight from a phone.
- The team is ready to play. The coach applies to take part in a tournament, puts together the tournament application, and names the line-up before each game.
The organizer does not have to type in the squad by hand: they invite the coach and after that only review the application to take part in the tournament. The coach gets away with one message in a chat instead of writing to every parent. Parents do not have to fill in the squad: they follow the link and get linked to their own child's card.
When the coach creates the invitation he can leave the player field empty — then the link is a shared one, and everyone who follows it picks which player they are responsible for. That is the version for a chat.
Or he can pick a specific player — then the link is personal and single-use: whoever follows it is linked to that card automatically. Handy when the squad has been entered in advance and parents are invited by name.
Player photos are not a formality
Step five of the scenario looks like decoration, and it is not. Team card → ⋮ menu → Make photos of players — and the whole squad is shot in one go before a training session, in five to ten minutes.
Why it is worth the time: the same background and kit make the team recognisable, and the photos do not stay inside the player card — they are pulled into posters, into broadcasts when the line-ups are announced, and into match events, when the app shows who scored or who was booked. For parents and players it turns a list of surnames into the team's story.
Then the very first posters, broadcasts and news come out with faces rather than placeholders. You can always reshoot later, but publications that have already gone out cannot be redone.
How the shooting screen works, what the round editor and background removal do, how to replace a bad shot and when it is time to reshoot the squad — in «Team player photos».
Now everything in order. For the examples we will run a team called Hawks 2014, coached by Sergey.
Step 1. Signing up
Install the app and sign up with your phone number. On the Select Profile Type screen make sure you tick Coach.
A coach's rights over the line-up are tied to the account type. If Sergey signs up as a «Fan» or a «Player», he will see matches and tables but will not be able to edit the match line-up — the line-up screen will open read-only. The type can be changed later in the profile (the pencil in the top right corner), but it is easier to pick the right one straight away.
Step 2. Where the team comes from
There are two paths in total: a coach joins a team through an invitation link, or creates the team himself. The first is the one from the usual scenario above. Links come in two kinds, and the outcome differs:
| Who sent the link | What happens |
|---|---|
| The team owner or an administrator — an invitation to the team | Sergey becomes the coach of the existing Hawks 2014, with their whole squad and history |
| A tournament organizer — an invitation to the tournament | While signing up, Sergey creates his own team and lands in the organizer's tournament with it |
| Nobody — the coach creates the team himself | Teams → + → Create the team yourself. A blank team card opens, Sergey fills it in and becomes the owner right away |
If the invitation was to a tournament, the app asks you to fill in the Creation of your team screen: your first and last name, the team name, the city, the players' year of birth and, if needed, the home ground. Once confirmed, the team appears in the app and you become its coach.
Every link the app produces — for coaches and for players alike — works for one week from the moment it was created. After that it simply stops working.
That happens when the team was created by an organizer or another coach. Do not create a second copy of it: find it through search, open the card and choose Request access from the ⋮ menu — the owner gets the request and can grant you rights. And if the team is not in the app at all and you would rather not create it yourself, the same Teams → + has Request to Add Team — it will be created for you.
Step 3. The squad
You have a team — now it needs players. The whole picture is in the usual scenario; here is what each action actually does. All of it lives in the team card, ⋮ menu:
- Invite player — the app produces a link for parents or the players themselves. Whoever follows it signs up and is linked to a card in your team.
- Enter players' numbers and positions — one screen where numbers and positions are set for the whole squad at once. Faster than opening every player separately.
- Make photos of players — shooting the whole squad straight from a phone. Covered in detail in «Team player photos».
- Exclude / Delete players — when somebody leaves the team.
Exclude — the player has left, but everything he played stays in the history: goals, cards, matches. This is what you want almost every time. Delete — wipe the player as if he had never been there; that is only for somebody added by mistake. If the player already has events in matches, the app will refuse to delete him and say why.
Step 4. Applying to a tournament
Next comes getting into a tournament. Open the tournament page, Preview tab → Registration. What you see there depends on how the organizer collects teams.
Option A. The organizer has opened applications
The page says Applications are now open and offers Send Participation Request. If you have several teams, the app first asks you to Select team — Sergey picks Hawks 2014. The request goes to the organizer and its status appears in your list of requests. Until the organizer replies you can Withdraw Participation Request.
Option B. The organizer invited you
Then the Invitations to the tournament from the organizer block holds an invitation — tap it and choose Accept or Decline.
If instead of the Send Participation Request button the page says «Only coaches can apply for participation», the account has a different profile type. Go back to step 1.
Step 5. The tournament application
The team has been accepted — now you have to say which of its players are playing this tournament. That is the Tournament Application: a separate list for every tournament, not the whole squad in one lump.
Why separate: a club may have thirty people while eighteen are entered for the tournament; the competition has its own limits on age and numbers. Sergey opens the tournament application and uses Add players to the application to tick those who are going. The app asks for the date of entry — and that is the easiest thing to get wrong here.
Every player in the application has a date from which he is cleared. Set it later than the date of the game and, when you build the line-up, the app will warn you: «The date of entry into the tournament application is higher than the date of the match». If you are adding a player after the fact, check the date.
Excluding a player by date and how that differs from deleting, what to do when the app refuses to delete, the roster history, printing the application for the referee — all of it is in «The team's tournament application».
The organizer can allow only verified players — then every one of them needs a confirmed card. How that works from the player's and the organizer's side is described in «Player verification».
Step 6. The match line-up
The last step before the game. Open the match, ⋮ menu → Match Application. The screen is called Team Lineups: the team switcher is at the top, and under it Source — where the list of players came from. Tap the pencil to turn on editing and sort the players out:
- Starting Lineup — who starts the match;
- Substitutes — who is on the bench;
- Goalkeepers — a tab of its own; a keeper is recorded from the minute he comes on, by match time.
A player moves between the lists by tapping his card. The same place is where you set the Player Number in Match — the number he will wear in this particular game. Finish with Save.
A coach edits the line-up of his own team only: the other half of the screen opens read-only. The match organizer can edit both. If the pencil does not appear even for your team — check the profile type (step 1) and that you really are listed as a coach of that team.
No minimum number of players, no mandatory goalkeeper — a match can be started with an empty line-up. The No goalkeeper marker in the match list is a hint, not a block. Keeping the line-up complete is on you.
What the Source line means and why the list holds «the wrong» players, how to create a player straight from the line-up, what to do about the «Players absent from tournament application» block — in «The match line-up».
Once saved, your part is done: from there the match is run by the organizer or an appointed operator — see «Running a match».
What else a coach can do
None of this is required and none of it affects the «sign up → match» path, but it often turns out to be useful.
Match objectives
The ⋮ menu of any match has Match objectives — set a target for the game and check afterwards whether it was met. Good for youth teams: «keep a clean sheet in the first half», «five accurate passes in attack».
Player targets
Every player has personal targets for the season — the Player targets section. It lets the coach steer the players by individual goals, not only by the team result.
Team and player statistics
The team card has Statistics — by season or all time, broken down by player — and Tournament Participation, showing where the team played and how it finished. There is also Head-to-Head against a particular opponent.
Team news
Create news in the team menu — a short post with a photo. Parents and supporters see it in the feed, no separate channel required.
Sharing the team
Show QR and Share team are the quick way to hand a link to the team page to parents or opponents. There is also an option to share a snapshot of the current screen to social media.
A second coach and rights
Invite coach issues a link to an assistant: he gets coach access to this team, and the set of actions available to him depends on the rights he is given. You can check your own in the team information — the Editing rights line. The coach link is single-use: one person joins through it, so a second assistant needs another one.
Writing to support
Write to support straight from the team or match card — the request arrives already attached to the right object, so you will not have to explain «which team».
Troubleshooting
I cannot send a tournament application
Either applications are closed (the page will say «Registration is closed»), or the account is not of the «Coach» type, or applications for all your teams have already been sent — the app says so directly.
The match line-up opens read-only
Two reasons: the profile type is not «Coach», or you are not listed as a coach of that particular team. The second is solved by an invitation from the team owner or a request for access.
A player is missing when I build the line-up
Then he is not in the tournament application — go back to step 5 and add him. If he is there, check his date of entry: it must not be later than the date of the match.
The player is in the team but not in the app
Send him the Invite player link. Until he signs up the card lives without a person attached — it works, but the player will not see his own statistics and certificates in his account.
Still stuck? Write to support@nsgsoft.me and we will help you sort it out.