Short answers to what organizers ask support most often. Where a question deserves a proper walk-through, there is a link to the full article.
About the platform
How can I run a football tournament with no licence fee?
On FUTBOLISTA the core organiser tools are included in the platform at no charge: creating a tournament, team registration, schedule, standings and brackets, live match management, live streams with a scoreboard, statistics and publishing results. What you really get is less admin and fewer mistakes — and your tournament gets its own media: live streams, posters, previews and certificates. The app is available for iPhone (App Store), Android (Google Play), in the browser at app.futbolista.me, and as desktop versions for Windows and macOS. It suits youth and amateur football, futsal, and one-on-one competitions.
How much does FUTBOLISTA cost for an organiser, and how do you make money?
Organisers do not pay for the core tools. FUTBOLISTA's revenue comes from optional subscriptions for viewers and players: career history across tournaments, tagging your own moments, live streams and archives. The organiser receives a share of the subscriptions sold on their tournaments — from 15%, with open reports. Subscription prices have not been announced yet. More — "How we make money".
Can I live-stream a match with a scoreboard over the video?
Yes, in two ways. From a phone, with one button: in the match card choose Start match broadcast — the app creates the live stream on YouTube and films with the phone camera, while the scoreboard with score and clock and the event banners are added automatically. You can also record the match on the phone and upload it later. From an external camera or OBS: the app gives you a stream key, and the scoreboard is shown through a screen per pitch. Details — "Broadcast management" and "One broadcast per field".
Which tournament formats are supported?
Round robin and groups, playoffs with Cup and Plate brackets, a custom structure of stages, one-on-one individual tournaments, penalty shootouts, and rating participants by criteria. Standings are calculated automatically, including points for penalty wins and tie-break rules. Details — "Groups + Cup and Plate", "Configuring the structure by hand" and "How the standings are calculated".
How do teams register for a tournament?
The organizer creates the tournament and invites teams; the coach builds the team's application from their players right in the app and picks the line-up for each match from it. Players can sign up on their own, and the organizer can verify their documents. Rosters can also be imported from Excel — see "Printing and importing". See "Creating a tournament and getting teams in" and "Player verification".
What do players and parents get?
A player profile with the history of every match and tournament, goals and personal statistics, video moments and certificates. The history stays with the player when they move to another team or into the next season. Parents see the schedule, results and their child's statistics. Who can see a child's profile — "Children's data".
Why is it easier than spreadsheets and group chats?
A result is entered once — in the match report. From it the standings and bracket, player statistics, the stream scoreboard, posters, match previews and reviews, and personal certificates are built automatically. Everyone sees it in the app at once, with no files to send around. Excel is only needed at the start, to import rosters — after that everything lives in the system.
How do I get started?
Start small: a first tournament with a few teams can be set up in about two hours. The order is: create your organisation and tournament → invite teams or import rosters from Excel → generate the schedule → assign referees → run your first match in the app. Checklist — on the organisers page, step by step — "Creating a tournament".
Self-service sign-up for organisers opens in November–December 2026. Until then, fill out the organiser form or write to support@nsgsoft.me — we will have a short call and help you launch your first tournament.
Tournament and participants
Why are some players highlighted in red when the tournament has no age limit?
The highlight does not come from the tournament — it comes from the team's own age category. If the team card has a year on it, say 2005, then a player born earlier is flagged red no matter what limits the tournament has. Clear the year on the team and the flag goes away.
Only organizers see the flag, and it blocks nothing: the app will accept an application with that player. It is a hint, not a gate.
Individual tournaments work differently: there the red flag comes from the tournament's own age criterion. If no criterion is set, nobody is flagged.
What are «Trials» and how do they differ from the main event?
That is how a child individual tournament (the 1×1 format) inside an event is labelled; the event itself is marked Main event. Participants, matches and certificates belong to the child tournament. If you open the main event's card and find neither applications nor certificates, you almost certainly need to open the specific trial.
What is the difference between a tournament application and a match line-up?
The tournament application is the list of everyone who plays for the team in that tournament. The match line-up is picked out of that application and belongs to one specific game. In detail — «The team's tournament application» and «The match line-up».
Why does the match line-up show players who are not ours for this tournament?
Almost always the team has no tournament application. With nothing to build the line-up from, the app shows the team's whole roster — everyone who has ever been in it. On the line-up screen this shows as Source: Team Players. Create the tournament application and add the players who actually play — the line-up will then be built from it. See "Match line-up".
A referee added a new player during the match — what happens next?
A player created on the line-up screen during a match is not temporary: the app adds them to the team, to the tournament application and to this match's line-up. The organiser sees such players in the New players list, with the match and event where they were created, and checks whether it is a duplicate of an existing player. If the app reports a connection error while entering a goal, do not stop the game: write down the minute, shirt number and scorer, and enter the event later.
The same player appears twice. How do I merge duplicates?
A person has one main profile — their personal history across all teams and tournaments — and a team profile in each team, which is the card that goes into tournament applications. Duplicates appear when someone is added to a team twice or when a team card is not linked to the person's main profile. Use Merge Players: two cards become one, and matches, goals and certificates move to the remaining card. You can merge two main profiles or two team profiles of the same team. A player with match events cannot simply be deleted — so that statistics are not lost. If unsure, write to support@nsgsoft.me.
My child moved to another team. What should we do?
Write to the tournament organiser or the coach of the old team. They exclude the player from the tournament application and from the team by date — played matches, goals and certificates stay in the history. The new team adds the player, and the profile keeps collecting statistics there. Self-service transfers in the app are planned.
Matches and results
The semi-final ended in a draw — how do I record the penalty shootout?
First enable the shootout in the tournament rules, otherwise no button appears in the match. After that a Start penalty shootout button appears in any match that ends level in regulation, and the app asks whether to enter the kicks one by one or just the shootout score. In detail — «Draws and penalty shootouts».
The standings show more wins than the results do
Most likely some draws were decided on penalties and the rules award separate points for a shootout win. Shootout wins are included in the total wins — the table has separate Wp and Lp columns for them. A worked example is in the shootout article.
I cannot find a match that has already been played
The match list opens on the Today tab, with Upcoming and Archive next to it. Played matches live in Archive. Search by team name works there too — faster than scrolling through dates.
The playoff matches are not showing, although they existed
Most likely the tournament is marked Finished — which happens automatically once the end date passes. On a finished tournament the Matches tab only shows matches that already have a result, so every unplayed one drops out of the list, and a freshly created one disappears immediately: it is still «Not started».
Two ways to reach them:
- The fast one: tournament → the Stages tab → the stage you need. The bracket shows matches whatever their status, and the score is entered from there.
- To bring the list back: tournament settings → Status → Started. If the end date has already passed, move it forward too, or the tournament will close itself again.
The matches have not gone anywhere — they are merely hidden. Deleting a playoff stage wipes everything in it, including matches already played with their scores. See «Setting up the structure by hand».
There is a mistake in the match report — who fixes it?
The tournament organiser: once a match is finished, the organiser edits the report (the referee's access closes at full time). Players, parents and coaches just need to report the mistake — via Feedback in the app profile or to the organiser directly. To get it fixed first time, include the match (tournament, teams, date), the minute and what happened, who actually scored (number and name), and a video link or timestamp if you have one.
Live streams
The stream keeps dropping — what should I do?
Do not minimise the app or lock the phone during the stream. Check the app version in the profile header and update if it is old. If you get a "Video token revoked" notification, reconnect YouTube in your organisation's Streaming platforms. If the platform has already ended the stream, create it again. And send the stream's diagnostic report to support. Details — "If the stream drops".
Which phone do I need for streaming?
Almost any modern phone, but not every phone handles 1080p: on weaker Android phones use 720p — the app will warn you itself. Phones overheat in hot weather: keep them in the shade, bring a power bank and a spare phone. For several pitches at once, a laptop and Wi-Fi at the venue work better.
Poor internet at the pitch — can I record the match and upload it later?
Yes. Turn on Save to device: the match is recorded to the phone, with or without going live. The recording is then uploaded to the server — automatically after you stop, or manually from the Broadcast archive, for example later over Wi-Fi.
Certificates
I issued the certificates but the player does not see them
Check that the player is looking in their own profile: Achievements → Certificates, not on the tournament page. If it is empty there while the certificate exists, the usual cause is that the player's card in the tournament is not linked to their main card — the certificate is issued to whichever card is in the application. In detail — «Certificates for participants».
Does «Create all diplomas» top up the missing ones?
No. It recreates the whole list from scratch: the old certificates are deleted along with any images already generated for them. Files you have already exported to your computer are not affected.
The certificate list is empty although I definitely created them
Check which tournament you are in. In events with child tournaments the certificates live in the tournament the participants actually played — the trial, not the main event.
No template is selected and there are no images — how to restore
In this order: pick the certificate template again → create the certificates → run Bulk create images of certificates. The first two steps give you the records, the third gives you the pictures. Skip the third and you get certificates the player sees in his profile, but without an image.
App and devices
Incoming RTMP does not work in the TestFlight build on iPhone
Incoming RTMP is implemented in the desktop versions of the app — Windows and macOS. Mobile builds do not have it, so an iPhone will not pick the stream up. The ffmpeg you installed on your computer is unrelated: the app on the phone knows nothing about it.
Where do I get the desktop version?
Desktop builds are published outside the app stores, and there is no public download page yet — support will send you the link to the current version. An app that is already installed checks for updates on its own and offers to update when a new version ships.
How do I download a team or club logo?
Open the club or team card for editing and tap the logo itself — a menu appears: Replace, Edit, Download file, Copy link, Delete. The same menu opens on a player's photo in the squad shooting screen.
Background removal on photos is slow
The processing takes time, and on some devices it goes through the server — on a weak connection the wait is then noticeable. It is an optional step: in the shot editor you can simply not press Background removal — the photo is saved as it is, and the background can come off later through Edit on the same card.
Question not here
Write to us — we answer and keep adding whatever comes up most often. When a topic turns out to be big, it becomes a proper article instead of a paragraph here.
Still stuck? Write to support@nsgsoft.me and we will help you sort it out.