Frequently asked questions

Matchday Manager is a fantasy football game for the Swiss top league. You build a squad of real players, pick your starting XI and your captain before every Round, and score points for what your players actually do on the pitch: minutes played, goals, assists, clean sheets.

While the matches are on, your points tick up live.

No, the game is free. All you need to sign up is an email address.

iPhone and Android phones. The current download links are on the overview page.

Yes. You choose a manager name and give us your email address; every time you sign in we send you a six-digit code — there is no password to remember.

After that you pick your favourite club and build your squad. Team names are unique: if the one you want is taken, you will need another.

Fifteen players: 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 forwards. You have a starting budget of 100.0M CHF to buy them — whatever is left over becomes your bank for later transfers.

You may hold at most 3 players from the same club.

Eleven of your 15 players start, the other four sit on the bench. You need exactly 1 goalkeeper, 3 to 5 defenders, 2 to 5 midfielders and 1 to 3 forwards — so 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 5-3-2 or 4-5-1, for example.

You also name a captain and a vice; both have to be in the starting XI. The bench is ordered: the substitute goalkeeper has a slot of his own, and the three outfield substitutes come on in the order you set.

For what your players do in their matches: minutes played, goals (4 to 6 points depending on position), assists (+3), a clean sheet (goalkeepers and defenders +4, midfielders +1) and saves. Cards, own goals, missed penalties and goals conceded are deducted.

A player who does not get on the pitch at all scores exactly 0 points — nothing positive, nothing negative. The full table is under scoring.

Your captain's points count double for that Round. If he plays 0 minutes and his match is over, your vice counts double instead.

Never leave your captain on the bench: a bench player scores nothing, and the doubling only applies to players in the starting XI.

An auto-sub steps in. Once a starter's match is over and he has not played a minute, the first substitute who did play takes his place. A goalkeeper can only replace a goalkeeper and an outfielder only an outfielder, and the formation has to stay legal afterwards — otherwise the slot simply stays empty.

While the Round is still running, auto-subs are provisional.

Your points run live during the matches. While the Round is still running, bonus points and auto-subs are marked provisional and can still change.

A Round becomes final when it formally closes, once the next deadline has passed. That is also when price changes, your next free transfer and any Boost you played settle.

In every match the three best performers get an extra +3, +2 and +1 points, judged across both teams. Who makes the three comes out of a performance score that weighs minutes played, goals, assists, saves and clean sheets against cards, own goals and goals conceded.

While the Round is running, bonus points are provisional and can still change.

One hour before the Round's first kick-off. Until then you can change your lineup, captain, transfers and Boosts as often as you like.

After that the Round is locked: your team for that Round is frozen, and anything you change now only applies from the next Round on.

One free transfer per Round. Unused transfers carry over, up to a maximum of 5 banked. Every transfer beyond that costs −4 points — three transfers on a single free transfer is −8 points.

You always swap like for like: a midfielder can only be replaced by a midfielder. More under transfers.

Prices move in 0.1M steps, at most one step per player per Round, and only after a Round has closed — never mid-match. Form is what drives them: score more than your price suggests and you rise, disappoint and you fall. How widely a player is owned speeds the move up a little.

Sell at a profit and you keep half of it, rounded down to 0.1M: a player bought at 6.0M and now worth 6.5M sells for 6.2M. If a player has dropped, the loss is entirely yours. More under prices.

Four extras with a limited number of uses per season. Only one can run in any given Round, and you always play it for the Round coming up — never for a later one.

• Wildcard (2× per season) — unlimited transfers for one Round with no −4 point hit. The squad changes stay permanent.
• Triple Captain — your captain scores ×3 instead of ×2 for one Round.
• Bench Boost — all 4 bench players count with their points for one Round.
• Free Hit — unlimited transfers for just one Round; your squad reverts afterwards.

Triple Captain and Bench Boost can be taken back until the deadline. The Wildcard and the Free Hit cannot — they are final the moment you confirm the transfers. More under Boosts.

Yes. As soon as your squad is complete you can create a private league. You get an invite code to pass around; anyone who enters it joins. It is normally eight characters, upper and lower case do not matter, and look-alike characters are left out — no 0 or O, no 1 or I — so it is hard to mistype.

There is no cap on how many people a league can hold, or on how many leagues you can be in.

On total points for the season: more points, higher up the table. You can also switch the table to a single Round.

Managers on the same points share the same rank — 100, 90, 90 and 80 points give ranks 1, 2, 2 and 4. Within a shared rank, whoever has been playing longest is listed first.

Yes. As soon as your squad is complete you are in two automatic leagues: the overall table, and the league for the club you picked as your favourite when you signed up. You cannot leave those two — private leagues you can leave whenever you like.

Yes. You come in for the next Round and score from that Round on. You get no points for Rounds played before you joined — scoring in hindsight would not be fair on everyone else.

Your first free transfer is available straight away.

German, French, Italian and English — in the app and on this site. In the app the language is set in your profile, under “Language”.

Right in the app, in a few steps. The exact path and what happens to your data are explained on the support page.