Cancelling a Game
Cancelling a Game
A game can end in three ways: it gets played, the host cancels it, or Furbol cancels it. This page is about the last two.
Who can cancel
Only the host of the game. No co-host, no admin, no player — if you didn’t create the game, the “Cancel game” option isn’t shown to you. Hosts see it tucked behind the dots menu on the game screen, next to “Edit game”.
When you can cancel
From the moment the game is created until the feedback window closes — that’s kickoff + the game’s duration + a 3-hour grace period after it ends for ratings. So:
- Before kickoff — normal case. Something came up, you won’t have enough people, the pitch is unplayable.
- During the game — still possible, although rare.
- After the game ends, for 3 hours — still possible, in case you want to wipe the record for some reason.
- Once the feedback window closes — the game is locked, and “Cancel game” disappears.
The Furbol app adds one extra restriction: once the game has reached the roll call results stage, the dots menu no longer offers cancel.
What cancelling does
When you confirm the cancellation:
- Every player on the lineup is unbooked. Nobody stays in a cancelled game.
- Wallet holds are released. For online-paid games, every player’s hold comes off and their balance goes back to normal. See The Wallet.
- Everyone gets a push. “The host cancelled the game.” If a player has muted notifications for that game or has the right preferences off, they won’t hear it.
- The game shows up as cancelled. It stays visible in the history — it’s not deleted — but marked cancelled and pushed out of the active lists.
- Furbol writes two log entries. One on the game itself (“the host cancelled the game”), one on your host profile.
You don’t pick a reason. Furbol doesn’t collect one, and players don’t see one.
What it doesn’t do
- No penalty. There’s no stat that counts “games the host cancelled”. Hosting a game and then cancelling it doesn’t hit your reputation.
- No cooldown. You can create another game immediately.
- No refunds of anything other than the online holds — cash games don’t involve Furbol’s money, so there’s nothing for Furbol to refund.
When Furbol cancels the game for you
Three cases. All are automatic, no host tap involved.
1. The last-hour cut leaves the roster below minimum
At the start of the last hour, every unconfirmed player is auto-removed (see The Last Hour). If that leaves the roster below the game’s minimum, and the game isn’t marked game on, no matter what, Furbol cancels the game.
This looks the same as a host cancel from the player’s side — they get unbooked, their online hold releases, they get a push — but the log explicitly says Furbol cancelled the game, not that the host did.
2. The “game on” ghost sweep
“Game on, no matter what” lets a host commit to playing even if minimum isn’t reached. But if the scheduled end-time comes and goes with zero players on the lineup, the game is a ghost — nobody showed up on Furbol’s side. Furbol cancels those games automatically so they don’t linger in the listings.
3. A partner game with nobody taking over
A partner-platform game that’s still un-taken-over an hour before kick-off — meaning nobody has gone over to the partner platform and actually booked the slot — gets cancelled at the same moment as the last-hour cut. With no Furbol player committed to the booking, there’s nothing to run. Players who’d already saved a spot get unbooked and notified, same as the other automatic cancels. The listing on the partner’s side is unaffected — Furbol doesn’t reach into the partner platform.