Once the fixtures exist, someone still has to cover them. Spreadsheets handle this badly: the same two volunteers end up on every Tuesday, a player's own team gets their friend, and nobody notices two games at 7pm sharing one referee until the night. The rules are simple enough to automate, so here they are.
Open the free schedule maker (step 6, Referees and officials)
Teams Hawks, Owls, Wolves and Lynx play a single round robin from Tuesday 6 October 2026. Officials, one per line:
Pat (Hawks) Sam Lee: Tue max 2
Pat belongs to Hawks, Sam is free any night, and Lee works Tuesdays only and at most twice.
| Round | Match | Official |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawks v Lynx | Sam |
| 1 | Owls v Wolves | Pat |
| 2 | Lynx v Owls | Lee |
| 2 | Wolves v Hawks | Sam |
| 3 | Wolves v Lynx | Pat |
| 3 | Hawks v Owls | Lee |
Six matches, three officials, two each. Pat never appears on a Hawks game, and no one is on both matches of a round at the same time. A separate test recomputes this table from the same code the tool runs.
Give every match one official and hand each match to whoever has worked the fewest so far. Break ties by who has seen the two teams least, then by list order. That keeps the counts within one of each other without anyone keeping a tally by hand.
Not under these rules. If you put a team in brackets after an official's name, the tool never gives them that team's matches. It also never puts one official on two matches that start at the same time.
The tool leaves that match without an official and lists it with the reason, such as every official being off that weekday or at their match cap, so you can recruit someone or lift a cap.
Yes. After officials are assigned you can download a calendar file or copy a ready-to-paste note for each official with only the matches they work.
Related: how to fit a league onto limited courts and time slots, how to make a round-robin schedule and how to reschedule a rained-out game.