Pitchside
An editorial football magazine WordPress theme with live scores, fixtures and league tables from a football data API, player scouting pages and news.
About
The week in football, beautifully told.
Pitchside is a WordPress theme for football magazines, sports news sites, clubs and fan sites. Editorial type and pitch-green colours frame your stories, while the scores, fixtures, league tables and players can come live from a football data API, or from records you keep yourself.
Every page is built with Elementor, so you can change text, images, colours and layouts visually without touching code. A one-click demo import makes your site look exactly like the demo in minutes.
Everything you need
- Live football data: choose where the matches, scores, league tables and players come from: the built-in demo data, your own records, or a live API: API-Football (api-sports.io or RapidAPI), football-data.org or Sportmonks.
- Stays within your API plan: pick your plan (Free, Pro, Ultra, Mega or Custom) and the site never asks for more than it allows a day. Data refreshes in the background, so visitors never trigger API calls. Your key stays on the server.
- Matches page: a date strip, league chips and a card for every match with its score, minute and venue.
- Score ticker and live & upcoming matches on the home page.
- League tables: home tabs per league and a sortable standings page with form.
- Players: a scouting report with search and filters by position and league, and a page per player with the season's goals, assists, rating, passes and minutes. Players from the API are added for you.
- News & Features: articles with category filters and full article pages.
- Tactics board: switch between classic formations.
- Careers with an application form, a newsletter sign-up, a contact page and a dark mode switch.
- Site manager (React admin): matches, players, standings, messages and the Football data screen.
Football data on autopilot
- Site manager → Football data: pick the source, paste your API key and test it, choose your plan, the season or week to show and the leagues. See the requests used today, refresh now or clear the saved data.
- Matches, Players and Standings: add or edit them yourself when you use your own records.
- Messages: applications and contact messages, marked New, Replied or Archived.
Ready for every market
- Translation-ready: the theme and its plugin come with .pot files, so every word can be translated.
- RTL support: the layout switches to right-to-left for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu and other RTL languages.
- License and updates: activate your key under Settings → License and new versions arrive as normal WordPress updates.
Pages included
Home, Matches, News & Features, League standings, Players, Player details, Careers, Contact.
Requirements
WordPress 6.0 or newer, PHP 8.0 or newer and the free Elementor plugin.
Features
One-click demo import
Make your site look exactly like the demo in minutes.
Built with Elementor
Change text, images, colours and layouts visually, with no code.
Live football data
Demo data, your own records, API-Football, football-data.org or Sportmonks.
Within your API plan
Plan presets cap the daily requests; data refreshes in the background, never on a visit.
Matches & score ticker
A date strip, league chips, live and upcoming matches and a ticker.
League tables
Home tabs per league and a sortable standings page with form.
Player scouting pages
Search, position and league filters, and season stats for every player.
News & features
Articles with category filters and full article pages.
Tactics board
Switch between classic formations on the pitch.
Careers & newsletter
Open roles with an application form, plus a newsletter sign-up.
Dark mode
A light/dark switch in the header.
Site manager (React admin)
Matches, players, standings, messages and the Football data screen in one admin.
Form fields, emails & spam protection
Change your forms' fields, the email each one sends and its Google reCAPTCHA spam protection from the admin.
Translation-ready & RTL
Every word of the theme and its plugin can be translated (.pot files included), and the layout flips for right-to-left languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu.
License & one-click updates
Activate your license key under Settings → License and new versions arrive as normal WordPress updates. Local and staging copies never use a site.
Responsive & accessible
Designed for phones, tablets and desktops, with a smooth phone menu.
Frequently asked questions
Which football APIs does it work with?
API-Football (from api-sports.io or RapidAPI), football-data.org and Sportmonks. You can also show the built-in demo data, or type the matches and tables yourself under Site manager. Pick the source under Site manager → Football data.
Will it use up my API plan?
No. Choose your plan (Free, Pro, Ultra, Mega or Custom) and the site keeps to its daily and per-minute limits. The data refreshes in the background on a schedule, so a busy day of visitors never makes extra API calls.
Does the free API-Football plan show this season?
API-Football's free plan only reaches some past seasons, so on that plan pick one of them as the season to show. A paid plan shows the current season live.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Every page is edited visually in Elementor, and matches, players, tables and messages are kept in one admin screen.
Does the demo content come with it?
Yes. The one-click demo import brings in every page, record and setting from the demo.
Which plugins do I need?
Only the free Elementor plugin. Pitchside's companion plugin is included in the download.
Is it translation-ready and RTL-ready?
Yes. The theme and its plugin come with .pot files, so every word can be translated with a plugin such as Loco Translate, and the layout switches to right-to-left for languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu.
How do I get updates?
Enter your license key under Settings → License on your live site. New versions then arrive in Dashboard → Updates like any other theme update.
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Customization
Want Pitchside set up or changed for you? Pick a package, or tell us what you need and we will send a quote.
Request custom work
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