Manual

You manage one football club in a shared world with other real managers. Everything runs on a real-time clock, so the game keeps going while you are away. You don't need to log in every day: set things up and check back a few times a week.

1. Pick your team on Tactics. Your lineup locks 15 minutes before each match.
2. Plan training on Training. Players under 30 improve on Mondays and Thursdays.
3. Watch your money on Finances. Don't let your budget fall too low.
4. Build for the future with rookies on Youth Team and deals on Transfers.

The Getting started checklist on Overview walks you through the basics. Each of its 5 chapters pays €50,000 into your budget.

Every week follows the same pattern. Match times are in UTC, shown on every page next to the clock.

Monday	Training
Tuesday	Free
Wednesday	League match, 18:00 UTC
Thursday	Training
Friday	Free
Saturday	New youth rookies and the weekly finances
Sunday	League match, 14:00 UTC

A season lasts 17 weeks: 15 weeks of league matches (30 rounds), then 2 off-season weeks with the season awards and the reset into the next season.

Your home page. It shows your next match, what happens on each day this week, your recent results and the league table. While you are new, the Getting started checklist sits at the top. You can hide it and bring it back later.

The bell next to your club name shows how many new notifications you have.

Your season week by week: matches, training days, youth intake and finance days. Use Earlier and Later to move between weeks. Played matches show W (win), D (draw) or L (loss). Click one to open its report.

Your first-team players, from goalkeeper to forwards, with their skills and whether they are available, injured or suspended for the next match. Click a name to open the player's profile: skills, statistics, value, salary and his last 5 training days.

• Skills go from 1 to 18 (Stamina 1 to 12). Colours run from weak to excellent.
• Highlighted skills are the ones that matter most for the player's position.
• Rating (0–100) shows how well he suits a position. Use it when you pick your lineup.
• Green skills went up at the last training session.
• Form (−2 to +2) changes a little after each match and nudges how well he plays that day.
• Experience (1 to 18) grows with minutes on the pitch. Experienced players play more consistently.

Matches are played out as a chain of duels: a pass against a defender, a dribble against a tackle, a shot against the keeper. Each duel uses a few skills.

Skill	Used for
Passing	Short passes, plus part of long passes and through balls
Long Passing	Long balls over the top and switches of play
Creativity	Finding the killer through ball
Technique	Clean touches: helps passing, dribbling, shooting, crosses and set pieces
Dribbling	Beating a defender with the ball
Pace	Running past defenders, getting on the end of through balls, catching quick forwards
Crossing	Crosses and corners
Finishing	Shots, headers on goal and penalties
Aerial Ability	Winning headers in both boxes
Strength	Holding off opponents in aerial duels and at corners
Positioning	Being in the right place: intercepting passes and runs, finding space to score
Tackling	Winning the ball back and putting pressure on shooters
Stamina	Staying sharp. Low stamina makes a player weaker after half-time and again from the 70th minute. 12 means no drop.

Goalkeepers have their own skills. Reflexes is the most important one for saving shots and penalties. Handling and Agility also help with shots and free kicks. Distribution counts towards the keeper's rating and value.

Your best taker for corners, free kicks and penalties is chosen automatically from these skills.

Everything that decides how your next match is played. Remember to press Save tactics.

• Formation: choose a system such as 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. A, B and C are different midfield and attack shapes of the same system.
• Starting XI: click a player in the table, then click a position on the pitch. The number on each spot is that player's rating for the position.
• Substitutes: up to 7 players on the bench. Injured and suspended players can't be picked.
• Substitutions: plan up to 5 changes in advance, each from a chosen minute. The change is made at the first stoppage after that minute.

Team instructions are small nudges, not magic. The better squad still usually wins. Each choice has a cost:

• Mentality: Defensive (safer, quicker counters), Balanced, or Attacking (more shots, but you can be countered).
• Attacking focus: Mixed, Left, Right, Centre (passes and dribbles through the middle) or Flanks (more crosses).
• Passing style: Short (keep the ball), Mixed, or Direct (long balls and through balls, faster but riskier).
• Defensive line: Deep (hard to get behind, but you get shot at from distance), Normal, or High (catches forwards offside, but through balls can split it).

Your lineup locks 15 minutes before kick-off. Changes after that count for the following match.

Matches lists all your league games this season with their results.

From kick-off you can watch the match live from Overview, Calendar or Matches. Commentary, the score and the statistics update as it happens, and the commentary points out when your tactics are working (or not).

About two hours after kick-off the result becomes official. The league table, player ratings and the full match report appear then. The report shows the statistics, every player's rating and notes on how both teams' instructions played out.

Cards: a red card, or 2 yellow cards collected over league matches, means a 1-match ban.
Injuries: a minor injury heals in 3–7 days, and the player can still train and play. A severe injury lasts about 10–25 days, and he can't play or train until it becomes minor.

The full table of your division, with 16 clubs. Click any club to see its squad and results. Every club plays the others twice, home and away.

At the end of the season the top 3 go up and the bottom 3 go down (where there is a division above or below). Empty places are filled with computer-run clubs.

National leagues: once 12 or more managers from the same country have joined, that country gets its own league at the next season reset.

Training happens every Monday and Thursday. For each player you choose which skill to train, or leave it on Automatic. Automatic trains the most important skills for his position in a sensible order.

• Age matters most. Players aged 14–18 learn fastest, then 19–22, 23–26 and 27–29 more and more slowly. Players aged 30 and over no longer improve.
• A skill goes up after several sessions. Higher skills take longer, and some players are simply more talented than others.
• Players with a severe injury miss training.
• The training report shows the last session for your whole squad. Each player's profile keeps his last 5 training days, including missed ones and the reason.

Every Saturday three rookies aged 14–17 are offered to your academy. Their skills are shown as rough ranges.

• Scout a rookie (€25,000) to narrow every range to within 1–2 points. Your very first scouting of all three is free, as part of Getting started.
• You can sign one rookie per week, for free. The other two leave once you sign. The academy holds up to 18 players.
• Give each youth player a training focus. Young players develop fastest, so this is the cheapest way to build stars.
• From age 16 you can promote a youth player to the first team. Youth players who are 18 or older at the season reset leave the academy and go to the transfer market as free agents.

Buy and sell players with other managers through 3-day auctions.

• Selling: list a first-team player with a starting price (it suggests his current value). Listing costs 5% of the starting price. You can have up to 3 players listed at once.
• Buying: the first bid equals the starting price. After that each bid must be higher, by at least €5,000 or 10% on bigger amounts. You can't bid more than double the current bid.
• While you are the highest bidder, that money is reserved from your budget. You get it back if someone outbids you, and the bell tells you when that happens.
• A bid in the last minute adds one more minute, so nobody can snipe at the final second.
• Your first team can hold up to 25 players.
• Free agents (players without a club) are auctioned from €1.

Your budget and where the money came from and went. You start with €750,000.

• Every Saturday: your sponsor pays, then players' salaries and stadium maintenance are paid.
• Home matches earn ticket money.
• Other costs: scouting rookies and transfer listing fees.
• A player's salary follows his value. Better players cost more each week.

Careful: if your budget is below −€250,000 at three Saturday checks in a row, you lose control of the club. A warning appears before that.

Your ground: total capacity, weekly maintenance cost and how many spectators each stand holds. A bigger crowd means more ticket income from home matches. Stadium expansion and seat upgrades are coming in a later update.

The bell collects what happened while you were away: results, red cards and injuries, training improvements, new rookies, the weekly finances, transfers you won or sold, and when you have been outbid. It also warns you if your lineup has an injured or suspended player before a match.

By email you get a reminder about 3 hours before each match and the result after it. You can turn these off on the Notifications page or with the link at the bottom of every email.

The Account page shows your email, manager name and club, with links to the privacy policy and terms of use.

• Forgot your password? Use the link on the sign-in page to get an email with a new-password link.
• Delete my account removes your login, email and profile for good. Your club stays in the league as a computer-run club with a new name.

After the last round, off-season week 1 publishes the season awards. On the Monday of off-season week 2 the new season starts:

• promotion and relegation,
• every player gets one year older, and some veterans retire,
• new fixtures are drawn.

• Check your lineup before every match, especially after injuries or red cards.
• Put your most talented young players on focused training. That's where improvement is biggest.
• Read the match report: it tells you which instructions helped and which hurt.
• Keep money aside for salaries. Expensive signings raise your weekly costs, not just the price you pay.