Cancel a match or practice instead of deleting it
The hall is shut for building work, five players have dropped out of a squad of nine, or the federation calls the match off because of ice on the roads. You used to delete an evening like that from the calendar — and the attendance, the session plan and the sign-ups went with it. Since then there's a middle road: cancelling.
Deleting throws away, cancelling keeps
Deleting is final. The practice or match is gone from the calendar, and everything hanging off it goes too: the attendance you had already ticked off, the session plan you put together that afternoon, the sign-ups from your players. It looks like the tidy solution — nobody is training, after all — but you're throwing away work you'll want to see again later.
Cancelling does something else: it puts a line through the evening without taking anything out of it. The item stays in the calendar, everything you had filled in is kept, and the only thing that changes is that it no longer counts towards your figures. That is almost always what you mean when you say “practice is off tonight”.
Cancelling a match
Open the match and tap Cancel match. The app asks you to confirm and tells you what happens: “It stays in the schedule with all sign-ups but does not count as played. You can reinstate it later.”
After that the match carries the notice “This match has been cancelled. It does not count towards statistics; sign-ups are kept.” That last part is the point: whoever answered with I'm coming or Can't make it is still there. If the match is replayed a week later, you know exactly who could have been there on Saturday — and nobody has to answer a question they already answered.
Cancelling a practice
It works the same way for a practice, with the Cancel training button. The confirmation reads: “Attendance and the session plan are kept, but the training does not count towards attendance figures.” At the top of the cancelled practice it then says: “This training has been cancelled. It does not count towards attendance figures.”
The session plan is the hidden win here. If you had already laid the evening out with a warm-up, two blocks and a game at the end, it's all still there. You don't have to build it again for the following week — you copy it across to the next practice or use it as a template.
Why your turnout figures get better for it
An attendance percentage is a fraction: how often somebody was there, divided by how often there was a practice. Put an evening in that denominator when the hall was shut, and you're measuring something nobody could influence. Twelve cancelled practices in a season of council building works drag the figure down for your whole team, without a single player having stayed at home.
So a cancelled practice drops out of the sum altogether. Not as a missed practice, not as an attended one — it simply doesn't count. What's left is the number you actually wanted: how often did this player turn up when there really was a practice. That's also the number you can do something with in a conversation, and the one that makes working on turnout worthwhile.
The same goes for matches. A cancelled match doesn't count as a match played: it isn't in your win-loss record, not in match attendance and not in your players' playing time. Nothing was played, so there's nothing to count.
You can always undo it
Cancelling is not a one-way street. A cancelled match carries Reinstate match, a cancelled practice Reinstate training. One tap and the item is simply scheduled again, with the same sign-ups, the same attendance and the same session plan, and it counts once more.
That also makes cancelling the safe choice when you're in doubt. If the caretaker rings in the morning to say it's going ahead after all, or the federation puts the match back on its original date, you don't have to rebuild anything. If the match moves to another day, you reinstate it and change the date with Edit.
When deleting is the right call
Deleting isn't going anywhere, and sometimes it's exactly what you want: you created the same practice twice by accident, you put a match on the wrong date and have scheduled it again, or you created too many evenings while setting up your season. In those cases the item should never have existed, and then it can go.
The rule of thumb: if it was on the schedule but didn't happen for real, you cancel. If the schedule itself was a mistake, you delete. Anything that genuinely stood on the calendar and that players have already replied to is a candidate for cancelling.
Cancel it in the app, announce it in the team feed. The banner on the practice or match is there for whoever opens the app, not for whoever is already on their way. So add a short announcement — then everybody gets a notification on their phone and nobody is left standing outside a locked hall.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between cancelling and deleting?
Deleting really does throw the practice or match away: the attendance, the session plan and the sign-ups are gone with it. Cancelling leaves everything standing and only puts a line through it — the item stays in the calendar, with everything you had filled in, but it no longer counts towards your figures. If it goes ahead after all, you undo it with one tap.
Does a cancelled practice ruin my attendance percentage?
No. A cancelled practice doesn't count towards the attendance figures: it isn't in the denominator and nobody picks up a missed practice from it. The attendance you filled in is still kept, but it no longer weighs anywhere. So your season figure says what it's supposed to say: how often a player was there when there really was a practice.
Can I undo a cancellation?
Yes. A cancelled match carries the Reinstate match button, a cancelled practice Reinstate training. After that the item is simply scheduled again, with the same sign-ups, the same attendance and the same session plan, and it counts once more. Handy if the hall frees up after all or the federation puts the match back on its old date.
Does a cancelled match count as a match played?
No. It doesn't count towards statistics: no match played, no effect on your win-loss record and no playing time for your players. The sign-ups are kept, though, so you can still see who was going to come. If it's replayed on another day, you reinstate it and change the date with Edit.
