When the rule does not light up

A rule that never lights up may be too tight — or it may be right and running into data that did not arrive. Those are different things, and the second one is not solved by changing the number.

From the most common to the most hidden:

1. Highlighting is switched off

The rule list has a master switch, separate from each rule. With it off, the rules stay saved and nothing lights up. It is the first place to look and the easiest to forget.

2. The window has not started yet

Fields of 5 and 15 minutes only start counting after minute 6 and minute 16 of each half — and the count restarts in the second half. At 50 minutes, a 15-minute rule lights up in no match at all, because the window is still cut off by the whistle.

If your rule looks dead in the first minutes of each half and alive afterwards, this is it, and it is working as it should.

3. The competition does not send that data

A blank cell never satisfies any condition — not “greater than”, not “equal to 0”. A match with no corner coverage does not light up in a corner rule, even if it has had eight. It is the difference between a dash and a zero, showing up in practice.

It is worth checking over an afternoon: if your rule only lights up in matches from the same competitions, that is no coincidence — those are the ones that send the field it uses.

4. Recent goals with no timeline

The Goals scored (5′) and (15′) fields are counted from the match's event list. When the competition sends no events but the score shows a goal, the field is left without a value instead of answering zero.

The consequence catches people out: a condition “Goals scored (15′) equal to 0” does not light up in those matches. It looks like it should — after all, no goal was recorded — but answering zero there would be asserting something nobody measured.

5. The match joined in the 2nd half

The four 2nd-half fields depend on the half-time mark. In a match that was already in the second half when it entered the list, that mark was never recorded: shots and dangerous attacks cannot be split by half.

Goals and corners in the 2nd half still work in those matches, because they arrive ready-made from the source and do not depend on our split.

How to find out which of the five it is

Cut the rule down to a single condition and see if it lights up. If it does, the problem was one of the others, and you find out which by adding them back one at a time. If it still does not light up with a single condition, the problem is the field, not the rule — and then it is one of the last four reasons.

It is worth doing this on a Saturday afternoon, with a full table. On a Tuesday morning, with six matches in the list, any rule looks broken.

Updated on Oct. 31, 2026.