Managing Substitutions During a Match

Prerequisite: Recording a Live Match

Overview

Squadd gives you three ways to make a substitution during a live match: a fair-play swap that picks the most and least-played players automatically, a manual substitution where you choose exactly who comes on and off, and swipe-to-sub on the live match screen's Squad page.

Method 1 — Fair-Play Swap (⇄ button)

A quick way to sub. Squadd works out the fairest swap for you.

Find the player you want to bring off in the live match screen
Tap the ⇄ button on their row

Squadd immediately swaps the player with the most accumulated minutes off for the bench player with the least accumulated minutes on. The swap is applied at the current match minute.

⚠️ The swap executes immediately — there is no confirmation step. If you tapped the wrong row, use + Event → Substitution to reverse it manually.

The ⇄ button skips goalkeepers — GK is never selected as the outgoing player in a fair-play swap.

Method 2 — Manual Substitution

Use this when you want to choose specific players rather than letting Squadd decide.

Tap + Event on the live match screen
Select Substitution
Pick the player coming off from the on-pitch list
Pick the player coming on from the bench list
Confirm — the substitution is recorded at the current match minute

The event is saved with the minute, the player going off, and the player coming on.

Method 3: Swipe to Sub (Squad Page)

The live match screen is organised into three pages you move between with a swipe: Goals, Squad and Timeline. On the Squad page, you can substitute a player with a swipe instead of opening any menu: swipe a bench player's row and Squadd asks who comes off, suggesting the player with the most minutes. The substitution is recorded at the current match minute, the same as the other two methods.

Swipe-to-sub doesn't replace the ⇄ button or manual substitution. All three are available side by side, so use whichever suits the moment.

What Happens to Minutes

When a substitution is recorded, Squadd updates each player's running minute total:

The player coming off stops accumulating minutes at the current minute
The player coming on starts accumulating minutes from the current minute

This feeds into both the real-time fairness tracker and the season stats.

📝 Minutes can be corrected after full time. If a sub was logged at the wrong minute (or missed entirely), open the Match Report in edit mode and set each player's minutes directly — there's an "Even split" button to divide minutes evenly across the squad. You don't have to get every sub perfect live.

Undoing a Substitution

If you recorded a substitution by mistake:

Tap + Event
Select Substitution again
Reverse the swap (the player who came on goes back off; the player who came off comes back on)

This isn't a true undo — it creates a new substitution event — but it corrects the playing time calculation and season stats.

The Fairness Tracker During the Match

As the match progresses, Squadd shows each player's projected final minutes in the live match screen. Each player also carries a minute badge that's colour-coded — green while they're on the pitch, grey while they're on the bench — so you can see at a glance who's playing and who's resting. A ⚠️ warning appears next to any player projected to finish below 50 % of total match time, based on how much of the match remains.

This warning first appears after 40 % of the match has elapsed — earlier than that, it's too soon to act on.

Use the suggested fair-play sub (⇄ button), a manual substitution, or swipe-to-sub on the Squad page to address any warnings quickly.

📝 The minute badges, the warning, and the fair-play sub suggestions are coach-only — never shown to parents — and they're scoped to the match-day squad. If your squad is over the playing cap for the format, the over-cap reserves are excluded from the minute tracking and from the sub suggestions.

Substitutions and the Pre-Match Rotation Plan

The substitution rotation plan you built in the lineup screen is a pre-match reference only. During the live match, the app does not enforce or auto-execute the planned rotations — you record subs manually.

The plan can be built in Auto mode (Squadd schedules fair sub windows for you) or Manual mode (you set your own subs, or save a plan with none at all if you'd rather decide everything live). See Planning Substitution Rotations for the full breakdown of both modes.

The plan tells you when to sub and who. The live match tools help you execute it accurately and track whether anyone is falling behind on minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sub a goalkeeper during the match?
Yes — use + Event → Substitution and manually pick the GK as the outgoing player. The fair-play ⇄ button won't select the GK automatically, but a manual sub works for any player.

A parent called a player off the pitch early — can I record a partial minute count?
Yes — record the substitution at the minute it happened. Squadd calculates minutes from kick-off to when each player came off/on, so the timing matters.

Can I see a summary of all substitutions made during the match?
Yes — the match events list on the fixture detail screen shows all substitution events with the minute and players involved.

What's the difference between the ⇄ button, a manual sub, and swipe-to-sub?
The ⇄ button picks the players for you based on fairness (most minutes off, least minutes on). The manual route (+ Event → Substitution) lets you override that and choose any two players. Swipe-to-sub on the Squad page is just a faster gesture for the same thing: you still pick exactly who comes on and off by swiping a bench player onto the pitch player you're replacing.