Football Career Online was built for groups. One person sets up a private career, everyone else joins with a code, and the whole group plays the same league. This guide covers how to run one so it actually gets finished, and stays fun the whole way.
Setting up
The host creates the career and chooses the league, the mode, the budget, the transfer rules and how long it lasts. The host also sets the maximum number of human managers, up to eight. Any clubs nobody picks are run by the computer, so a league of three friends still has a full division.
Then share the invite code. Anyone with it can join the lobby and pick a club, as long as there is room.
The ready system
Matchweeks only play when everyone is ready. This keeps things fair: nobody can play ahead while a friend is still setting his team. It also means one person can hold everyone up, so it helps to agree a rhythm. A few matchweeks a night works well for most groups.
Playing ahead
When the group wants to move faster, anyone can propose playing ahead: to halfway, to the next transfer window, or to the end of the season. It only runs if everyone agrees. While it runs, nobody sees the results until it stops, so nobody gets an unfair look at the table. Anyone can stop it after the current matchweek.
Derbies and rivalries
Every match between two human managers is a derby. The news covers them, results between friends are remembered, and beating the same friend home and away in one season earns an achievement. Head-to-head records build up across careers.
The transfer market between friends
Buying from a friend is a negotiation between people: you make an offer and they decide. There is no computer to set the price. It leads to some of the best moments of a season, and some of the most heated.
Watching Wrapped together
At the end of each season nobody sees the final table until the whole group watches Season Wrapped together. It starts when everyone is in the lobby, plays in sync on every screen and reveals each manager's finish one by one, from the bottom of the group to the top. It is the best part of the season. Do not skip it.
Long careers
A career can keep going for up to fifty seasons. Players age and develop, the academy brings through young players, contracts run out and the clubs in the other leagues buy and sell. Your seasons are saved to your profile and the career keeps its own records: champions, top scorers and every title.
You can have up to five careers on the go at once. Star a career to keep it for good.
Communities
For bigger groups there are communities: a ranked table across many careers, where finishing above other members earns points. Ranked careers use fixed rules so a result means the same thing for everyone.
The host's toolkit
The host has a few extra controls. In the lobby the host can remove a manager, close the lobby to new players and start the career when everyone has a club. In a longer career, the host can also call time on the career for good. Every season played is kept in the records and on everyone's profile.
If a friend disappears mid-season, the rest of the group can still agree to play ahead, but everyone has to be ready. Agree in advance what happens if someone stops playing.
Etiquette that keeps a league fun
- Do not sit on Ready. If you need time, say so in the chat.
- Answer transfer offers. A rejected offer is fine. A month of silence is not.
- No peeking. Results during play-ahead stay hidden for a reason.
- Win gracefully, lose loudly. It is a football league with friends: that is half the fun.
Tips for a league that gets finished
- Agree the length and a rough schedule before you start.
- Use play-ahead for the quiet stretches.
- Keep the group chat going: the news page gives you plenty to talk about.
- Always watch Wrapped together.