How do I Create and Manage a Free multi-stage Football Tournament Online Using Kwiki Football

In Kwiki a multi-stage football tournament can be created by combining a set of round robin groups with a single elimination knockout stage. If you are more interested in a Round Robin or Knockout Tournament you can find posts about it here:

In the round-robin group stage, participating teams are divided into groups, and each team plays against every other team in its group. Points are awarded for wins and draws, with the top teams from each group advancing to the knockout stage based on their performance in the group matches.

Once the group stage is complete, the tournament transitions into the single-elimination knockout stage. Teams are paired against each other, and the loser of each match is eliminated from the tournament. This stage continues until only one team remains undefeated, thus determining the tournament champion.

1. Tournament Format Selection

Go to the page Create new Tournament
Determine the format of your tournament, in Kwiki this step is as easy as selecting the option "2-stage (Group Stage and Knockout Stage)" option and selecting the number of participating teams, the number of groups and the number of qualifying teams from the group stage to the knockout stage. Kwiki helps you by offering you only options that gives a balanced and fair tournament.
A random team name from the participating national teams in the World Cup 2022 are automatically assigned to each team of the knockout tournament. Any team name can later be changed directly from the administration page by clicking the team name in the bracket.

2. Draw, Group and Bracket Creation

Kwiki automatically conducts a draw to divide the participating teams into groups. Kwiki offers setups of 1, 2 or 4 groups to allow for a balanced 2nd stage knockout bracket. This draw also prepares for the possible matchup in the knockout stage.
Kwiki prepares the second stage knockout bracket that visually displays the matchup and progression of teams through the knockout stage. Based on the number of qualifying teams from the group stage the correct number of rounds are created:
- 2 teams - Final Round
- 4 teams - Semi finals and Final rounds
- 8 teams - Quarter, Semi and Final rounds
- 16 teams - Round of 16, Quarter, Semi and Final rounds

3. Scorekeeping, result reporting and standings tracking

Decide if you alone or a set of trusted persons (for example the captain or leader of each team) should be responsible for keeping scores. All persons administrating the tournament need to be given the link to the admin page.
The persons use the administration page to update the score in real time during the games using the number inputs for each game and to lock-in the results when the final whistle is blown by clicking the lock icon.
Kwiki maintains the standings tables and brackets up-to-date at all time throughout the tournament to track the progress of each team. Even when the games are ongoing preliminary advancements to the next stage and round are shown in the admin and the public tournament pages. Once the results are locked-in for all games in the group stage the definitive qualifying teams to the knockout stage are decided.
Any person (players, organizers, referees, audience and other interested) can follow the tournament in real time using the tournament public link.

4. Tie-Breaking Procedures

To understand how Kwiki handles tie breaks in the group stage and in the knockout stage please see "Tie-Breaking Procedures" in the following two blog posts, the group stage follows the same rules as the Round Robin tournament and the knockout stage follows the same rules as a Knockout Tournament.

5. Deciding a tournament winner

The winner of the last round in the knockout stage, the final, is the winner of the tournament. Kwiki does not offer a match for third place so the the 3rd position is decided based on which team lost against the tournament winner in the semifinal.