Free Field hockey scoreboard

Why score Field hockey with ScoreZen

• ✓One-tap scoring, built for Field hockey
• ✓Share the live score by QR code or link
• ✓Free for spectators — no app to install to watch
• ✓Keeps working if the connection drops
• ✓34 sports, tournaments and standings included

How Field hockey scoring works

A goal is worth 1 point and is awarded when the ball fully crosses the goal line between the posts and under the crossbar, provided an attacker touched it inside the shooting circle. The final score is each team's total number of goals. If a knockout match ends level, a shoot-out series is used to decide the winner (depending on the competition format).

Match format

A match is played in 4 quarters of 15 minutes (60 minutes of effective play), with short breaks between quarters and a longer half-time after the 2nd quarter. The clock is stopped in certain situations (penalty corner, goal, etc.). Durations may vary by category, format or federation.

How to win

The team that has scored the most goals at the end of regulation time wins. If a knockout match is tied, the winner is decided by a shoot-out series, according to the competition's rules.

Recommended ScoreZen setup

Set up field hockey in goal-scoring mode with a simple per-team counter. Choose the Official preset (4 quarters, no point cap) or Casual, and enable a shoot-out tie-breaker if needed for knockout matches.

What actually counts as a goal in field hockey

Hockey has the strictest goal definition in team sport. Rule 8.1: a goal is scored when the ball is played within the circle by an attacker and does not travel outside the circle before passing completely over the goal-line and under the cross-bar. A shot struck from twenty metres that flies straight in is not a goal, because nobody in your colours touched it inside the D. A defender may deflect it, before or after, and it still counts.

That clause also removes most own goals: if a defender puts the ball in their own net and no attacker played it inside the circle, there is no goal, and play restarts the way the Rules treat any ball sent over the back-line — a free hit with the ball on the 23-metres line if the defender did it unintentionally, a penalty corner if they did it on purpose (Rule 7.4). The circle is not a semicircle either. It is a 3.66 metre line parallel to the back-line, continued by arcs of 14.63 metres struck from the inside front corner of each post.

Every goal is worth one, but you record three kinds: field goal, penalty corner goal, penalty stroke goal. In FIH pool competitions, teams level on points are separated by matches won, then goal difference, then goals for, then the result of the match between the tied teams (or the mini-table between them if more than two are level) — and only after all of that by the number of field goals. A sheet that says only 3-2 cannot answer that in the last hour of a tournament.

The detail lives in the penalty corner. The ball goes on the back-line inside the circle, at least 10 metres from the post (13.3 b). No goal counts until the ball has travelled outside the circle (13.3 k). And if the first shot at goal is a hit rather than a push, flick or scoop, it must cross the line at 460 mm or under, the height of the backboard (13.3 l). A penalty stroke is simpler: one attacker, one defender — the goalkeeper, or a field player if the team plays without one — and the ball on the spot 6.40 metres from goal.

Shoot-outs are not goals. Under Rule 5.2, a match with equal goals is a drawn match; the shoot-out competition only decides who goes through. Five players a side, ball on the nearest 23-metre line, eight seconds each, a second series of five if it is still level. Write 2-2 (4-3 on shoot-outs), never 6-5.

(FIH, Rules of Hockey, effective 1 March 2026, rules 1.7, 2.1, 2.3, 5.1, 5.2, 6.2, 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 11.4, 13.3, 13.4 and 14.1; FIH General Tournament Regulations: Outdoor Competitions, May 2025, appendices 1, 3 and 12.)

The three clocks a hockey scorer runs

Four quarters of 15 minutes, with 2 minutes between the first and second, 2 minutes between the third and fourth, and 10 minutes at half-time (Rule 5.1). Ends change once, for the third quarter (Rule 6.2). Time is stopped after a goal is awarded and re-started when the teams are ready (Rule 8.2). Rule 5.1 also lets both teams agree other durations unless the competition regulations say otherwise, so a youth or veterans fixture may look nothing like 15-15-15-15.

Rule 13.4 catches everybody once: the match is prolonged at the end of each quarter to complete a penalty corner, and any corner or stroke that follows from it. Time is up, the whistle has gone for the end of the quarter, the ball is still injected, and a goal scored after that signal is a goal. Do not close the sheet on the sound.

How much of the timing is your job depends on the level. At inter-nations level the technical table runs fixed stoppages of 40 seconds after a goal and a 40-second countdown at the award of a penalty corner, while the defenders put on their face protection. At most club and youth fixtures there is no table and no countdown: the umpires simply hold the game clock themselves and you write down what they signal.

The last clock decides how many players are on the pitch. A green card is a warning plus two minutes of playing time off, team a player short (14.1 b). A yellow is five minutes minimum, the exact length set by the umpire (14.1 c). In FIH competitions the time starts when the player is seated in the designated area, and a second suspension is added to the first. Red is permanent, with no replacement (14.1 d). Write the card, the shirt number, the minute and the quarter as it happens.

The match sheet on a club Sunday

One person keeps the sheet, and that person stays put: halfway line, on the side used for substitutions, both benches and both circles in view. Substitution is unlimited and allowed at almost any moment, the exception being between the award of a penalty corner and its completion, and players go on and off within 3 metres of the centre-line (Rule 2.3). Shirts cross that line all afternoon, and if you wander too, you will lose a number.

Before the push-back, take both lists with shirt numbers, mark the goalkeepers, note the toss and which end each team attacks first. A team is sixteen people at most, eleven on the pitch and up to five substitutes, eighteen where a Regulation allows it. Count the eleven yourself at the start of each quarter: too many players on the field is penalised against the captain.

Attributing the goal is the hard part. At a penalty corner the ball touches three sticks in a second, and the credit belongs to the last attacker who played it inside the circle, not to whoever is celebrating. Ask the umpire at the next stoppage if it is unclear — the umpires, not the table, keep the official record of goals and cards (Rule 11.4) — and write the type beside the number: FG, PC or PS. Corrections happen before the restart, because once the centre pass has been taken nobody reopens a decision already made.

The sheet keeps its shape across the code; the numbers change. Indoor hockey is six a side on a pitch of 44 by 22 metres where the hall allows it (36 by 18 metres is the minimum), four quarters of 10 minutes, with a green card worth one minute and a yellow two at minimum. Hockey5s is five a side over two halves of 10 minutes and drops the circle entirely: a goal counts once an attacker has played the ball inside their attacking half.

What ScoreZen changes for field hockey

You keep the score from your phone: one tap per goal, four quarters of 15 minutes and the running clock on the same screen. Green, yellow and red cards have their own counters, and a green card starts a two-minute countdown measured in playing time, so it only runs while the clock runs. If the tie goes to shoot-outs, they are counted in a separate panel and never touch the match score, which stays a draw exactly as Rule 5.2 requires.

You then share the match with a link, or a QR code taped to the clubhouse door. Parents, grandparents and the player icing an ankle follow it live, and spectators are free, unlimited and never need an account. On site, TV mode fills a laptop or a screen plugged into a television; the transparent overlay drops the live score into OBS if the club streams; and the club website embeds the widget straight into a page.

For a tournament, ScoreZen runs knockout with an optional third-place play-off, home-and-away championships, pools then a final bracket, Swiss system, best-of-3 and best-of-5 series and rotating teams. One QR code covers the whole event: every player scans that same code and finds their own fixture, whichever pitch it is being played on, then scores it while you follow every game from the table.

Hockey pitches are rarely next to a mast, so ScoreZen keeps counting without a network and resynchronises when the signal returns, in 25 languages across 34 sports. Afterwards the Replay summary and the vertical Story image are made to be shared, the fixtures export to CSV, the public read-only API needs no key, and the A4 score sheet prints for leagues that still want paper. Three trial matches are free for life; after that, one payment of €1.99unlocks it for life.

Frequently asked questions