Seasons and squads

Clubs

Each team has a squad in each season. Registered players join only by accepting — an invitation or a join code.

1. Open the club portal and choose Squads (staff open it from My club roles). A Club Administrator or club manager starts a season — for example 2026/27, with its first and last day — and adds a squad for each team, empty or copied from an earlier season.
2. Copying a squad invites its registered players again — a new season needs their consent again — and places the club's temporary players straight away.
3. A squad has 35 places unless the club changes it (Club Administrators, 1 to 60) or gives one squad its own size. Invitations waiting count as places, so a squad can never be over-full.
4. To invite a registered player, press Invite a player and find them by their public display name. The player accepts in My teams. An invitation expires after 14 days. A player who declined or left cannot be invited to the same squad again for 30 days, but can still use a join code.
5. Or make a join code (valid for up to 30 days, for up to 60 players; shown once — copy it then; at most three at a time per squad). Players type it in My teams and ask to join; you approve or decline each request. Stop a code at any time.
6. Administrators and managers who cover all teams look after every team's squad; other administrators and managers, and team staff, only the squads of their own teams. Positions (up to three) and a shirt number can be set on each player.
7. You see a registered player's name (as they gave it for team sheets), age and positions only while their consent runs: until the season's last day, or until they leave. When a place ends, the club keeps first name and initial in the squad's history — nothing at all if the player left. A player who deletes their account shows as "Former player".
8. Archive a season when it is over: its places end and it becomes read-only history. Archive a team you no longer run: it keeps its history, leaves the club's public page and no longer counts towards the six teams in use. A team with squad history cannot be deleted — archive it instead. As when a team is deleted, its team staff no longer cover it; anybody left with no team, and the club's administrators, are told. Restoring the team does not give it back to them: add it to their role again in Staff & roles.

• Players see only their own squads: the team, the season, the club and its team staff — never the other players, and never what staff see.
• When a player under 18 takes a place, the parent or guardian who agreed to their account is emailed which club, team and season, with a link that can end the place. You then see the place as left.
• On anything the club shares outside the club, a player under 18 — or whose date of birth is unknown — is shown as first name and initial.