League Management

Handling forfeits

When a club reports a forfeit, it doesn't decide the fixture on its own — it sits as a pending claim until a league admin reviews it. This stops a single club from unilaterally deciding a match (by mistake, or maliciously) and gives you a single review step even when both clubs report, whether they agree on who forfeited or blame each other. This guide walks through both outcomes on a real fixture: Oakwood Rovers U10 vs Thornfield United U10 in the Cambridge Youth Football League.

Who can do this

Anyone with the league's Seasons: all permission — by default, your league's admins. Reporting a forfeit yourself as the league admin — the League declared reason on the report dialog — is unaffected by any of this and still applies immediately, since you're already the authority there. This review step only exists for claims clubs file.

Two clubs, two outcomes. If only one club reports, you're approving or rejecting a single claim. If both clubs report the same fixture, you'll see both claims side by side — either agreeing (they both blame the same side, so approving either card resolves it the same way) or conflicting (they blame each other, so approving one automatically rejects the other as superseded).

Step by step

League admin

Spot a pending fixture

In your league's Schedule tab, a fixture with an unreviewed claim shows an amber Pending League Decision badge instead of its usual status.

League Schedule tab showing Oakwood Rovers U10 vs Thornfield United U10 with an amber Pending League Decision badge
League admin

Open the fixture

Tap the fixture to open its Match Details screen — the same pending badge is shown here too, alongside the full fixture info.

Match Details screen for the fixture, showing the Pending League Decision badge under the two club names
League admin

Open the overflow menu

Tap the ⋮ menu in the top-right corner. Review Forfeit only appears while the fixture has a claim awaiting your decision.

Overflow menu open on Match Details, showing a Review Forfeit option
League admin

Review the claim(s)

With one report, you'll see a single card with who reported it and why:

Review Forfeit screen showing a single claim: Oakwood Rovers U10 reported as forfeiting, reason Force majeure, with Approve and Reject Claim buttons

With reports from both clubs that disagree on who forfeited, you'll see both claims side by side, each with its own Approve button:

Review Forfeit screen showing two conflicting claims: Thornfield United reported by Oakwood Rovers, and Oakwood Rovers reported by Thornfield United, each with its own Approve button and a single Reject Claim button below
League admin

Approve one side

Tap Approve — [Club] for whichever claim is correct. This applies the league's forfeit score, marks the fixture Decided, and — if a second, conflicting claim existed — automatically marks it rejected as superseded.

Match Details after approval: status Decided, Forfeit Details showing type No-show, description Forfeited by Thornfield United — approved by the league admin, with a Forfeit approved success message
League Schedule tab showing the fixture as Oakwood Rovers 3–0 Thornfield United with a green Forfeited badge
League admin

Or, reject a mistaken report

Tap Reject Claim instead if the report doesn't hold up — every pending claim on the fixture is rejected and it returns to whatever state it was actually in before (scheduled, in progress, or awaiting a reschedule decision).

Success message reading Forfeit claim rejected, fixture is scheduled again, with a prompt asking Want to set a new date now, with Not Now and Reschedule Now buttons
Done

Reschedule on the spot (optional)

After a reject, you're offered the chance to pick a new date and time immediately — the same date/time picker used everywhere else in the app. Choosing Not now just leaves the fixture scheduled as it was; you can always reschedule later from the fixture's own edit-date action.

Match Details showing the fixture back to Scheduled status at a new date and time, with a Fixture rescheduled success message

What happens when you approve

The forfeiting club's default forfeit score is applied (configurable per league), the fixture moves to a decided result, and both clubs' own calendar copies of the fixture flip to Cancelled — the same as any other decided result. Both clubs are notified of the outcome. A club's repeated-forfeit count (used for any consequence your league configures) only ever counts approved forfeits — a report you reject never counts against a club.

What happens when you reject

The fixture is restored to its real prior status — nothing is cancelled, and neither club's calendar is touched. Both clubs get a neutral notification that the claim was rejected and the fixture remains as scheduled. If the underlying problem is a scheduling conflict rather than a dispute over who's at fault, use the reschedule prompt (or the fixture's own edit-date action later) to resolve it properly instead of leaving it as a live dispute.

See Reporting a forfeit for the club-side half of this workflow — how a claim gets filed in the first place.