Saturday, 8.15am, the pitch is waterlogged
The groundsman walks the pitches at eight and calls it off: the lower field is under water. The fixture secretary now has three home games to deal with. For each, the away club's secretary needs a call, the referee needs telling, the home team's players or parents need to know, the tea volunteer can stay in bed, and the league has to be informed within its deadline. One of the away teams is already on a coach.
The same thing happens, more slowly, every time a fixture is rearranged midweek. The league changes a date, the opposition asks to switch to an afternoon kick-off, or a cup game pushes a league game back. Each change means finding the right people, in the right order, and hoping nobody was missed. Someone always is. The referee turns up to an empty ground, or a parent drives forty minutes to a game that moved.
Why a moved fixture reaches some people and not others
The fixture itself is not complicated. The trouble is that each fixture touches a lot of people, and nothing connects them.
- The official fixture list is in the league's system; the club's own copy is a spreadsheet or a website page updated by hand.
- Each team has its own WhatsApp group, run by its coach or captain, and the fixture secretary is not in all of them.
- Referees, the opposition secretary and the tea or bar rota live in different contact lists.
- Kick-off times and pitch numbers change, and old versions keep circulating as screenshots.
- Only one person, the fixture secretary, knows who needs telling about what.
What each missed message costs
Wasted journeys, mostly, and the goodwill that goes with them. A referee who turns up to a cancelled game may still expect a fee under your league's rules, and may be less keen to accept your fixtures next time. The away club remembers. Your own parents grumble. League penalties for late notifications, or for failing to fulfil a fixture, come out of club funds.
And the fixture secretary, who probably has a job and family too, spends Saturday mornings on the phone, which is one of the reasons the role is hard to fill.
One fixture list that knows who to tell
We check first whether a club app you can subscribe to would handle it; several combine fixtures, teams and notifications. Where your club needs more, such as a link to a league feed, pitch allocation and volunteers in one place, we build it.
- Fixtures are imported from the league's published fixtures where it offers a feed or export, and otherwise entered once by the fixture secretary.
- Each fixture has its home or away team, pitch, kick-off, referee or umpires, opposition contact, and matchday volunteers attached.
- A change to a fixture, whether moved, postponed or cancelled, is made once, with a reason.
- Everyone attached to that fixture is notified by the channel they chose: app notification, email or SMS through a service such as Twilio. The opposition and referee get a plain message; players or parents get it in their team's feed.
- The club website and any public fixture page update from the same list.
- A log shows who was notified and when, so the fixture secretary can see if anyone has not opened the message and phone just them.
| Who | What they need to know | How they are told |
|---|---|---|
| Home team players or parents | Off, moved, new time or pitch | Team channel in the app, or SMS |
| Opposition secretary | Off or moved, with reason | Email and SMS |
| Referee or umpires | Off or moved | SMS or email |
| Tea, bar and gate volunteers | Needed or not | App notification |
| League | Postponement notice | Fixture secretary submits; the system reminds them |
The league's own rules and systems stay as they are. The fixture secretary still reports to the league as required; the system just reminds them and records it.
The next waterlogged Saturday
The groundsman calls it at eight. The fixture secretary opens the fixture list on a phone, marks three games as off with the reason, and the messages go out. The away secretaries and referees get texts. Parents see it in the team feed. Tea volunteers are stood down. Shortly afterwards, the fixture secretary is looking at a list of who has opened the message, and rings the one referee who has not.
Is this your Saturday morning?
- The fixture secretary phones and texts everyone individually when a game moves.
- Your club fixture list is a spreadsheet updated by hand.
- Referees or opposition have arrived at cancelled games.
- Kick-off times circulate as screenshots in WhatsApp groups.
- Only one person knows who to tell about each fixture.