Field Hockey Scoreboard: Cards, Sin Bins and What the Scorebug Must Show
What a field hockey scoreboard overlay has to display, why three card colours make it harder than football, and how to build one that survives a penalty corner.
A field hockey scoreboard must show the score, the period, the match clock, the penalty corner tally and a live on-field player count for each team. Broadcasters call the same graphic a scorebug, and both words mean the persistent overlay carrying live match state. The player count is the part most overlays get wrong, because field hockey has three card colours with three different consequences: green is a two-minute suspension, yellow is five minutes or more, and red is permanent.
So the graphic needs two kinds of sin bin countdown running at once, plus a live count of how many players each side has on the pitch, plus corner tallies, stroke timers and video referrals. This page sets out what a field hockey scoreboard has to do, alongside the master scoreboard guide covering how scoreboard graphics work across every sport.
What a field hockey scoreboard must show
| Element | Why it matters | Source of data |
|---|---|---|
| Score | Low-scoring sport, so every goal and correction is visible | Goal events from the scoring app or a feed |
| Period label | Competitions run both two 35-minute halves and four 15-minute quarters | Match configuration, period start and end |
| Match clock | Stops for corners, strokes, injuries and referrals, so a running clock is never a safe assumption | Clock start, pause and resume |
| On-field player count | Two card colours remove a player temporarily, one removes them permanently | Derived from active suspensions and red cards |
| Sin bin countdowns | Green and yellow carry different durations and can run for both teams at once | Card event and its awarded duration |
| Penalty corner tally | The corner is the sport's main scoring route, so the count is the pressure stat | Derived counter on each corner awarded |
| Corner or stroke timer | Some competitions run an execution window the broadcast has to show | Award event, cleared on execution or expiry |
| Video referral state | Clock and secondary timers must visibly freeze during a review | Referral started, confirmed, overturned |
| Shootout tracker | Replaces the clock entirely when a drawn match goes to one-on-ones | Sequential shootout attempts |
Field hockey render in build. The requirements below are what the graphic is being built against.
The clock is the hard part
Field hockey has spent recent seasons with two period structures in circulation at once. Some competitions play two halves of 35 minutes, others four quarters of 15, and they have not all moved together. A bug built for one renders the wrong period label for the other, so period count and length have to be configuration values, not artwork. Direction varies too: some count up to the half, others down to zero.
Then the clock stops, for penalty corners, penalty strokes, injuries and video referrals. A field hockey scoreboard sits in a stopped state far more often than a football one, and that state has to look different rather than merely stop moving. Grey digits, or a colon that stops blinking, read faster than a clock that has silently frozen.
Two short timers sit on top. Some competitions run a 30-second execution window from the award of a penalty corner, which needs its own countdown and must clear the moment the corner is played or expires. A penalty stroke has its own window under the FIH rules and its own countdown. The two must never render together.
The detail that catches people out: a field hockey suspension is served in match time, not real time. If the clock stops, the sin bin stops with it, and a suspension awarded late in a period carries into the next one. A countdown wired to a wall clock will release a player early, on air, in front of the umpire who awarded the card.
Where a competition still plays extra time it is two periods of 7 minutes 30 seconds on a golden goal basis, so one goal ends the match mid-graphic. Still level after that and the clock is removed altogether and the bug becomes a shootout tracker. One craft note across every clock: use tabular figures, or the whole clock shifts sideways when 9 becomes 10 and viewers read it as a glitch.
Scoring events and what the bug does
Field hockey goals are not interchangeable. Open play, penalty corner, penalty stroke and shootout are four different events and the graphic should say which, because the corner count on the bug only means something next to how many corners were converted.
- Open play goal - scorer, number, minute, updated score, and an assist only where one exists.
- Penalty corner goal - the same card with a corner badge and the tally updated behind it. Where the method is recorded, a drag flick or deflection is real information for a commentator.
- Penalty stroke - scored, missed and saved are three outcomes, not two. A save credits the goalkeeper; a miss does not.
- Shootout attempt - advances the shootout tracker, never the main score, which stays at the full-time result.
- Score correction - has to decrement cleanly, because in a low-scoring sport a wrong score is obvious for the rest of the match.
One sequencing rule matters more than it sounds: the score digit should change before the goal pop-up plays. If the pop-up announces a goal while the bug still shows the old score, the two graphics disagree on screen and viewers notice.
Cards, sin bins and player counts
| Card | Consequence | What the bug has to do |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Two-minute temporary suspension | Spawn a two-minute countdown, drop the team to 10, show the opponent a player up |
| Yellow | Temporary suspension of five minutes minimum, often longer at the umpire's discretion | Spawn a countdown of the awarded length, not a fixed one, and drop the player count |
| Red | Permanent dismissal | Drop the count for the rest of the match, spawn no countdown, drop the player from later lineup graphics |
Because two of the three are temporary and either team can be carrying one, the scoreboard needs several countdowns at once, ordered oldest first so the next player back is at the top. When both sides are short, show each team as minus one rather than netting them off; 10 against 10 is not the same broadcast picture as 11 against 11.
A yellow an umpire later upgrades to a red is a new decision, not an edit to the old one. Treat it as a fresh event, so the player count drops permanently instead of waiting on a countdown that will never expire.
Extensions: the stats worth putting on the bug
An extension is a pop-out panel attached to the bug, fired on a milestone or an operator cue, and it can carry a sponsor banner. In field hockey the ones that earn their place are narrow:
- Penalty corner count per team - the single most useful field hockey stat. Attribute it to the attacking team, not the side that conceded, or the panel reads backwards.
- Goalscorer list - chronological, corner and stroke goals tagged, hat-tricks flagged.
- Goalkeeper saves - in a sport where one stroke decides matches, the keeper's line is a story.
- Lineups and substitutions - substitution is rolling and unlimited, so there is no used-subs counter to show and sub cards should be small and quick.
How LIGR drives a field hockey scoreboard
Below international level there is no commercial field hockey data feed. That is the whole product argument. LIGR takes an official feed where one exists, and where one does not the LiveScore app is the feed. An operator taps a green card against a player and the app already knows it is two minutes: it starts the countdown, drops the team to 10 and shows the opponent a player up. Every event is timestamped as it is entered, which is what makes corner tallies, goalscorer lists and automated highlights possible afterwards.
The graphic is data-bound in Fuse, LIGR's graphics configuration and publishing engine, which connects Rive designs to a live production without code. That is why two period structures are not two graphics packages: period count, period length and count direction are variables on one scoreboard, not a redraw. Game Plans fires the sin bin widget the moment the card is entered and runs break and live playlists off the same event stream, the Control Room gives an operator manual control where a producer wants one, and auto-mode runs a match with no operator at all. It is the same event model that carries a full season of DAZN National League football, 640 or more matches.
Field hockey scoreboard graphics are in build at LIGR, against exactly the requirements above. The platform behaviour described here is how every sport on it already works. See the sports LIGR supports and what the platform does.
Frequently asked questions
What is a field hockey scoreboard overlay?
A field hockey scoreboard overlay is the live score graphic rendered over a stream or a broadcast, and broadcasters call the same thing a scorebug. It has to carry the score, the period, the match clock, the penalty corner tally and the number of players each team has on the pitch, plus a running countdown for every green or yellow card suspension currently being served.
What does a field hockey scorebug need to show?
A field hockey scorebug needs the score, the period, the match clock, the on-field player count per team, any active sin bin countdowns and the penalty corner tally, plus states for video referrals and shootouts. The player count and the sin bin clocks separate it from a football bug, because two of the sport's three card colours remove a player temporarily rather than permanently.
How long is a field hockey sin bin?
A green card is a two-minute temporary suspension. A yellow card is a suspension of at least five minutes, and umpires can award longer. A red card is permanent. Because the yellow duration is set by the umpire rather than fixed, a scorebug should take the awarded length as data rather than assuming five minutes every time.
Does a field hockey sin bin clock run in real time?
No. Suspensions are served in match time, so the countdown must pause whenever the match clock pauses, and a suspension awarded near the end of a period carries its remaining time into the next one. A countdown wired to real time will return a player to the pitch early on screen, which is the most visible way to get a hockey graphic wrong.
Is field hockey played in halves or quarters?
Both formats are in use. Some competitions play two halves of 35 minutes and others four quarters of 15, and they have not all changed at the same time. A scorebug should treat the number of periods, the period length and whether the clock counts up or down as configuration values, so one graphic serves both without a rebuild.
Should the penalty corner count go to the attacking or the conceding team?
To the attacking team. A penalty corner is an attacking opportunity, so the tally belongs beside the side that won it, even though the event is a concession by the other team. Reversing it inverts the panel, because a high corner count reads as sustained pressure rather than indiscipline.
What happens to the scorebug in a field hockey shootout?
The clock is removed and the bug becomes a shootout tracker: a row of attempt markers per team that fill on a goal, grey on a miss and mark a goalkeeper save distinctly. Attempts never advance the main score, which stays at the full-time result, and the tracker must extend if the shootout reaches sudden death.
Can you run field hockey graphics without a data feed?
Yes, and below international level you generally have to, because no commercial field hockey feed exists there. LIGR's LiveScore app becomes the feed: an operator enters real match events on a phone or tablet, the graphics update automatically, and each event is timestamped for stats and highlights. Where an official feed exists, LIGR takes it and drives the same graphics.
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