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One round of fixtures, and the way CLUBVERSE™ counts the season: GW 1 to GW 38, with a winter break in the middle. The top bar shows where you are ("GW 14 of 38"), and anything long is counted in gameweeks: out for 3 GW, back for GW 17, a report that fades after GW 20.

The world updates twice a day, at 09:00 and 21:00 UTC. Training, recovery, scouting and results all move on at each update, and a gameweek takes about 3 real days of real time, a whole season about 115 real days. The top bar counts down to the next update.

Everything you have to act on, or turn up for, is shown on your own clock: "Kick-off 19:00 your time", "Decide by Fri 22:00", "Back Thu 21:00". It is the time of the update when it happens, in your time zone. Matches kick off in the evening in your league's own time zone. Emails cannot know where you are, so they give the date, the league's clock and UTC.

If it happens this gameweek or next, you get the time on your clock. Further out, you get the gameweek. A deadline always shows the time it shuts, with the gameweek first when it is a while away: "GW 21 · shuts Sun 1 Nov 09:00".

Always a real day, and always with a time. The game never names its own days of the week. Inside a gameweek a day is called by what happens on it, like "GW 14 · matchday" or "GW 15 · cup night".

Pre-season comes first, with friendlies and the summer transfer window, which stays open into the first gameweeks. GW 1 to 19 are the first half of the league. A short winter break follows, when the winter window opens. GW 20 to 38 are the second half. Then the off-season: awards, promotion and relegation, contracts running down, and a new season.

Once a gameweek in the league, so a match every 3 real days or so of real time. Founders Cup rounds sit on cup nights between league matchdays, never on one. Kick-offs are staggered so not everything happens at once.

No. This is one world with everyone in it, and the clock is the same for every manager. What you can do is prepare: name the side, set the plan, and the match will play when its kick-off arrives whether you are watching or not.

No. Every match is simulated in full at its kick-off time and the result stands whether anyone watched. If you are there you can watch it replayed minute by minute, with commentary. If you are not, your named side plays as you set it and the report is waiting when you get back.

Your saved formation and squad tactics are used, with whoever is fit. The result is real. Skipping the team sheet costs a little dressing-room goodwill each time, so confirm one before each kick-off even if nothing has changed.

Not yet. The match is simulated in full at kick-off and what you watch is a replay of that result. Substitutions during the ninety minutes are made for you by the engine, for injuries and for tiring players. Your decisions are the ones you make before kick-off: the eleven, the shape and the strategy. Touchline changes are on the list.

Every player is on the pitch as a moving body with a position, a role and a set of attributes. Passes, tackles, shots and runs are decided from those, moment by moment, not rolled from a table. That is why a well-drilled tier-five side can hold a better one, and why a nine-man squad cannot.

A club that cannot field enough fit players forfeits. This happens to clubs that were left short and it is the first thing to fix if you have inherited one: sign free agents, which you can do any day, and keep an eye on injuries in the medical centre.

Bids to other clubs only go through while a transfer window is open: from pre-season into GW 3, and from the winter break into GW 21, unless the managers in your league have voted the winter window longer or shorter. Free agents can be signed at any time, and their wage demands fall the longer they go unsigned. Outside the window, scout and talk to your own players about new contracts. The window status is on the World page.

If the selling club has a manager, that person. A bid goes to their inbox and they accept, reject or counter it themselves. If the club has no manager, the board handles it on the club's behalf. Contract talks with a player are with the player, who has an idea of their own worth.

Gate receipts, a television share that depends on your tier, sponsorship, and whatever you sell. Wages go out weekly. A club that spends beyond its income runs a negative budget, and a board watching a negative budget for long enough stops being patient.

Contracts count down a year every off-season. A player whose contract has expired leaves as a free agent unless you have agreed a new one before then. The squad page shows who is in their final year.

You only see a player's true ability once your scouts have looked at them. Send a scout to a region to find players you did not know existed, or to a named player to get a clearer picture. A report deepens over five levels; until then the numbers are a range, not a fact.

Yes. The board sets objectives at the start of a season and reviews you against them. Miss them badly, or leave the club without a manager for long enough, and the board will look for someone else. A sacked manager is not out of the game: there is always a vacancy somewhere.

Managers can apply for vacancies at other clubs. The board that is hiring looks at your record. Leaving a club leaves it exactly as it stands for whoever comes next.

They have temperament, form, fitness and relationships with the people around them. A player left out for weeks notices. A player asked to play out of position notices. Most of this shows in the match, some of it shows in the inbox, and the press notices everything.

The kit designer lets you set colours, a shirt pattern and a crest. The result appears everywhere the club is named: the scorebug, the league table, the match report, the browser tab. Supporters expect it to stay put once it is set, so change it between seasons rather than mid-week.

A straight knockout that every club in the pyramid enters, played on six midweek days across the season. It is the one competition where a tier-five club can be drawn against tier one.

No. The game is free, there is nothing to download, and there is nothing to buy that affects the pitch. You sign up with an email address and a password; sign-in with Apple, Google or Microsoft is coming. If the world is invite-only when you arrive, the form also asks for an invite code. CLUBVERSE™ Pro, an optional tier of cosmetic and convenience extras, is the only thing that costs money.

No, you do not need it. Pro is an optional tier of cosmetic and convenience extras, £3.99 a month or £29.99 a year, and it is how the game is paid for. It never touches the pitch: a Pro manager and a free manager get the same match engine, the same board, the same market and the same players. When sales are open it is bought through Stripe, and you can cancel any time and keep it to the end of the period you paid for. Testers and early supporters who had it before it was sold keep it for life, as Founders. Everything it includes is listed on the shop page.

Because adverts would pay for the game with your attention and your data, and we would rather it paid for itself. There are no adverts, no advertising trackers and no third-party analytics, and we never sell your data. The game is free for everyone, and the managers who choose Pro are what keeps the servers on.

Any vacant club in tier three or below. Tiers one and two are full and cannot be joined; a place there is earned by promotion. The landing page and the World page count the open chairs and where they are.

Check the status page first: if sign-in is down for everyone it will say so. If it is only you, check it is the email address you signed up with; the form says when an email and password do not match. There is no password reset yet, so if that fails, ask in the Discord with the email you used and roughly when you signed up.

Yes. Ask in the Discord or through the Feedback button and we will remove it. Your club stays in the world with its squad and its money exactly as you left them, and the manager's name on its history stays as a record.

No. Squads, money, board trust and history carry over. What changes at the off-season is the tier you play in, the players whose contracts have ended, and the veterans who retire.

The world runs and the loop is real, but the balance is not finished and the rough edges are listed further down. Things will change under you, sometimes between one sign-in and the next. The changelog on the status page says what changed and when.

It has been, and it may be again before the game leaves alpha. When it happens it will be announced in the Discord and on the status page ahead of time, with a reason, and never in the middle of a season.

The Feedback button in the bottom-right corner of every screen sends us what you typed together with the page and the screen size. For anything you want to talk about, the Discord. For the state of the service right now, the status page.