Creating a Season
Learn how to create and configure seasons for leagues, tournaments, and cup competitions with automatic fixture generation and standings.
Prerequisites
Before creating a season, make sure you have:
- A group with at least 2 teams created
- Teams with players assigned to their rosters
A season is a structured competition that organizes matches into a meaningful format with rules, standings, and automatic calculations. Balla Stats supports three types of seasons.
League
Round-robin format with home and away fixtures
Tournament
Knockout brackets with elimination rounds
Cup
Knockout competition with optional home/away legs
- Create a new season
- Add teams to a season
- Configure competition rules
- Generate fixtures automatically
- Activate and play matches
- View live standings
Navigate to your group's Seasons tab and click "Create Season" to start setting up your competition.
- 1Go to your group page and click the Seasons tab
- 2Click the "Create Season" button
- 3Fill in the season details form
Season Details
- Name: Give your season a descriptive name (e.g., "Premier League 2025")
- Type: Choose League, Tournament, or Cup
- Start Date: When the competition begins
- End Date: When the competition ends (optional)
Select the teams that will participate in this season. Teams must already exist in your group.
- 1Click "Add Teams" on the season page
- 2Select teams from the list of available group teams
- 3Optionally set seeding order for tournament brackets
- 4Click "Save" to confirm the team selection
Important: Teams cannot be added or removed after fixtures have been generated or the season has been activated. Make sure all participating teams are added before proceeding.
Set up the rules and settings for your competition based on the season type you selected.
For Leagues
- Points for Win: Default 3 points (customizable)
- Points for Draw: Default 1 point (customizable)
- Home and Away: Enable to generate both home and away fixtures
- Playoff Spots: Number of teams that qualify for playoffs
For Tournaments
- Single Elimination: Lose once and you are out
- Double Elimination: Teams must lose twice to be eliminated
- Seeding: Set team seeding to control bracket placement
Once teams are added and rules configured, generate the fixture schedule automatically.
- 1Click "Generate Fixtures" on the season page
- 2Configure scheduling options
Scheduling Options
- Start Date: When the first round of matches should begin
- Days Between Rounds: How many days between each round (e.g., 7 for weekly)
- Default Kick-off Time: Set a default time for all generated fixtures
- 3Review the generated fixtures in the fixture list
- 4Make any manual adjustments if needed
You can manually edit individual fixtures after generation to adjust dates, times, or venues. See the Fixture Management tutorial for more details.
When everything is set up and ready, activate the season to start playing matches.
- 1Review all settings, teams, and fixtures one final time
- 2Click the "Activate Season" button
- 3Confirm the activation in the dialog
Once Activated
- Matches can be started and played
- Standings update automatically after each match
- Teams can no longer be added or removed
- Season settings become read-only
Creating Matches from Fixtures
After activation, use the "Create Matches" button to bulk-create match records from your fixtures. This lets you start tracking lineups, events, and statistics for each scheduled game.
As matches are completed, the standings table updates automatically with:
- Position and points
- Wins, draws, and losses
- Goals for and against
- Goal difference
- Current form (last 5 matches)
- Automatic sorting by points and tiebreakers
Clone Seasons
Use the clone feature to quickly create a new season based on an existing one, preserving teams and settings.
Export Standings
Export standings to CSV for sharing with participants or publishing online.
Use Playoffs
For league seasons, configure playoff spots to automatically transition top teams into a playoff bracket.
Tournament Bracket Sizes
For best results, use power-of-2 team counts (4, 8, 16, 32) for tournament brackets to avoid byes.
Can't Add Teams After Activation
- Teams are locked after fixtures are generated
- Create a new season if you need to change the team list
- Use the clone feature to quickly duplicate settings
Fixtures Not Generating
- Ensure at least 2 teams are added to the season
- Check that you have admin or owner permissions
- Tournament brackets require power-of-2 team counts for best results
Standings Not Updating
- Matches must have status COMPLETED for standings to update
- Check that the match is linked to the correct season
- Try refreshing the page to see the latest standings
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