Overlooked UX in football club apps

The most interesting screens to design in any sports app isn’t when the game is on. It's actually the empty state - when there’s no match, no score, and no data.

What keeps users opening your app during the off-season?

We design a lot of sports apps and often work side by side with in-house teams. And we saw it multiple times: most designers build experiences around upcoming matches. It makes sense - but it’s also a trap.

Because during the match, you have hundreds of competitors: streaming platforms, live TV, Eurosport, social media, and even a family Whatsapp group with match updates.

The real opportunity lives in the quiet moments - the off-season, the long flights, the boring Tuesday evenings when nothing’s on.

Think about it. On a plane, your app might be the only way a fan can stay connected to their club. Most sports channels don’t work offline, but your app can. That’s where the magic should happen.

So many design efforts are focused on one narrow slice of the journey, while entire blank spaces stay untouched.

We often run 2–3 hour jam sessions just to invent off-season or offline features - and users love them. In comparison, any in-game innovations require much more effort, typically large-scale design sprints for 5 days or more.

This is actually a universal trick – when the design bar is low, even small ideas feel like innovation :)