Football Timer

Count up, the way a referee does

Football is the odd sport out: the clock runs from 0:00 to 45:00 and then keeps going while the referee decides how much time to add. A countdown clock cannot express that, which is why most football timers are wrong for the sport before you even press start.

This one counts up by default. At 45:00 it does not stop — it switches to a plus sign and keeps running, so the touchline can see exactly how deep into stoppage time the half is.

Flip the direction switch if your competition wants a straight countdown to 0:00. Both behave the same way otherwise, including the whistle and the next-period button.

Why the clock survives a background tab

Most browser football timers add one tick per interval. Browsers throttle intervals in background tabs down to once a second or less, so a timer built that way quietly loses minutes over a half — and you only find out when it disagrees with your watch.

This one anchors the start to a timestamp and recalculates elapsed time from the difference every time it updates. Throttling makes the display update less often, but it cannot make the clock slow down. Switch back to the tab and the correct time is simply there.

Halves, quarters and short-sided games

Pick a half length from five minutes to forty-five, then choose one period, two halves or four quarters. The next-period button resets the clock and advances the counter, which is what you want at half time.

The shorter presets exist for a reason. Five-a-side, futsal-style games and school matches rarely run 45 minutes, and a football timer that only knows about ninety-minute matches gets used once.

Reading the clock at the side of the pitch

Press fullscreen and the football timer takes over the whole screen: large digits, nothing else. Plug a laptop into a projector, or prop a phone against a bag at the side of the pitch, and the time is readable from twenty metres.

The whistle is generated in the browser rather than loaded as an audio file, so it works with no download and no network. Leave it off if you are indoors and would rather not surprise anyone.

If you came here for the game rather than the clock, the Ragdoll Football pitch is one click away — same site, same no-install rule.