Introduction
This is the full manual for Hattrick. For a quicker introduction to the game go to the beginners' guide.
Hattrick is a game where you get to lead a virtual soccer team to glory, competing with other participants from all over the world.
Hattrick is a simple game... it's easy to grasp the basics. You can play Hattrick even if you just log in once or twice a week (but we hope to see you more often). The challenge is not to beat the game, but rather it lies in the competition with the other participants. While competing, many team managers become friends, making Hattrick a social game, too.
Your overall tasks
You perform the duties of both manager and club owner. You plan tactics and strategy, decide what to train and select which players should play. You buy and sell players, invest in stadium improvements and much more. To be successful a good piece of advice is to form a strategy and long term plan. Success and glory will not come instantly, after all.
Your new team
When you first take control of your team, it will be in one of the two lowest divisions of the Hattrick series system. You start your climb upwards with a squad of players (some might be talented and some not so much), a stadium, and a small stipend to get you started. Now it's time for you to show your skill.
Don't worry about second thoughts when it comes to your team name. You can always change your team name between seasons, but it will cost you 10 000 US$ as match kits and marketing material etc. must be changed. You will also lose 3% of your fan club members, as some hardcore fans will not forgive you for abandoning the old name.
Region and weather
Your team belongs to region, a region which you probably have a relationship with. Regions are there so you can check out other people from the same area as you. Another important function is that each region has its own weather. No regions have better weather than others, all regions are equally good so you don't have to worry about making a bad choice.
Weather affects a couple of things, but most importantly attendance (fewer people will watch your games when it's raining) and player performance. On the "Region" page you can see what the weather is like today and a weather forecast for tomorrow. If the sun shines today, it's more likely (compared to other weather types) that it will also shine tomorrow, so weather isn't completely random.
If you want, you can change regions in between seasons. It will, however, cost you 10 000 US$ and 3% of your fans.
Our best piece of advice
The best piece of advice we can give you is to read this manual. You don't need to read everything at once, even just reading the first few chapters with will give you a good clue of how to play the game. If there is any other piece of advice, it would be to ask any questions you may have in our forums. There is actually a forum designed just for questions!
To give you and everyone else the best Hattrick experience there are some very simple rules of conduct to follow which you can find in our
House Rules.
Players: Skills
Each player has 8 basic skills, while there are also some additional factors affecting their performance in different situations.
Stamina:
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Describes how long a player can continue playing at his highest level during a match.
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Playmaking:
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The ability to control the ball and possibly turn it into scoring opportunities.
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Scoring:
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How well the player can score goals.
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Winger:
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The ability to attack down the sides of the field.
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Goalkeeping:
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How well your Keeper can keep the other team from scoring.
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Passing:
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How well a player can move the ball from sector to sector.
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Defending:
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Describes how well players can stop their opponent's attacks.
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Set pieces:
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The skill of your outfield players to convert free kicks and penalties, and the skill of your Keeper to prevent the opponent from doing the same.
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How good is your player?
In real life you say a soccer player is an "OK winger" or a "really good defender" when you see him play. In Hattrick, we do the same to describe how good players are. We use different levels (not only for players, but for other measurements as well), and the scale goes from non-existent (0), to divine (20). You can see the full denomination scales in our appendix.
Different types of players need to concentrate on different skills.
All players don't need to be good in every skill; Stamina is the only skill that affects everyone.
It is beneficial to have a player with a high main skill (other than stamina), but you will get the most out of your players if they are proficient in many skills (relevant to the position they play).
Which skills a player will use depends on the position they will play.
Goalkeepers:
Goalkeeping is (obviously) the main skill for goalkeepers. Keepers can also benefit from a good defensive skill, and a high set pieces skill will help to defend against free kicks and penalties.
Central defenders (CD):
CDs should naturally have a lot of defending. Playmaking is also beneficial, and their passing skill really makes a difference when counter-attacking.
Wing backs (WB):
Defending is most important, but they also benefit from a high Winger skill. They contribute a little with their playmaking skill, and passing also helps when counter-attacking.
Inner Midfielders (IM):
Having good playmakers in the inner midfield positions is a key ingredient for most successful teams.They also use their Passing and Defending skills a lot. They can also bump the side attacks with some Winger skill, and use a fair amount of scoring.
Wingers (W):
Naturally, a good Winger skill is most important here but Playmaking and Defending skills can also help. They can also use their Passing skills to help the attack ratings.
Forwards (FW):
The first job of a Forward is to score goals, which makes their scoring skill of primary importance. Passing is also valuable, and so is winger and playmaking.
Changes in skills
A player's skills slowly change over time. All skills can be improved by training as long as the player lives, but as players get older they will also start losing a little of their skills. This is covered more in-depth in the chapter about training.
Players: Other attributes
Age
Every player has a birthday and will age one year for every Hattrick season played. Players in the senior squad will be at least 17 years old; youth team players may be younger.
The Hattrick season, and a player year, is 112 days. A player's age is presented in years and days. There is no maximum age for Hattrick players.
Age itself does not impact a player's performance, but it will become harder to train and maintain skills and stamina as a player ages.
Experience and loyalty are attributes that can offset this as they generally improve with age.
Personality
All players have a personality. They can be nice or nasty, leaders or loners, temperamental or calm. Skills matter more on the pitch than personality, but it's for example wise to appoint a team captain with good leader abilities. More info about how personality affects the game is found in the psychology chapter.
Experience
Players who have played many important matches gain experience, and this experience helps them in various ways in future games. Being experienced can influence special events to score or concede goals, and help team avoid disorganization, among other things. We track experience as a separate value, one which is not related to the skills of a player. Every match played, and every type of match played, has a different effect on how quickly a player gains experience. A player typically needs about 100 experience points to reach a new level of experience. The points earned for each match type are presented in the following table.
Match type |
Experience Points |
League match |
3.5 |
Qualification match |
7 |
Main Cup match |
7 |
Secondary Cup match |
1.75 |
Training match |
0.35 |
International friendly |
0.7 |
HT Masters match |
17.5 |
Youth League match |
3.5 |
Youth Friendly match |
0.35 |
(Old) World Cup match |
35 |
(Old) World Cup finals match |
70 |
(Old) National Team friendly |
7 |
World Cup match |
28 |
World Cup (Semi and Final)
| 56 |
World Cup (Wildcards)
| 14 |
Continental Cups |
14 |
Continental Cups (Quarter, Semi and Final) |
21 |
Nations Cup |
7 |
Nations Cup (Knockout) |
14 |
National Team friendly |
3.5 |
Contender League |
7 |
Loyalty
Players with a high loyalty to the club perform better on the field. Loyalty increases with time spent in the club.
There are two types of loyalty:
Player loyalty bonus
For each consecutive day you keep a player on your team, he will become a little bit more attached and loyal. The more attached and loyal he is, the better he will play.
Loyalty is gained faster in the beginning, then increases more slowly over time. Maximum loyalty is reached after three seasons, but the halfway point is reached after 12 weeks.
Maximum bonus: +1 skill level on all skills (stamina excluded)
Example: Tommy Wright is a solid playmaker with passable defending, and he has max (divine) loyalty. He will then perform as if he were an excellent playmaker with solid defending (and this will also be reflected in his star rating).
When a player reaches divine loyalty he gets the full bonus. Your youth players start with divine loyalty.
Please note that a player loses his loyalty to your club if you sell him to another club. So if you later buy him back, you have to rebuild his loyalty from scratch again.
Mother club bonus
Players that play for their mother club, such as your youth players, that have been with you through their whole career, always give a little bit extra on the field as they hold a special place for the club in their hearts.
Bonus: +0.5 skill level on all skills (stamina excluded).
Players that have been playing for their mother club their whole career are indicated with a heart icon on their player page. Please note that any youth players you've sold and then re-bought will not get this bonus.
Gaining both bonuses
It is perfectly possible for a player to get both bonuses. So when you promote a youth player (it naturally doesn't matter which youth system you use) to your senior squad, he will get a 1.5 skill level bonus on all skills (excluding stamina) until you sell him.
Total Skill Index (TSI)
Total Skill Index is a measurement of how skilled a player is. TSI increases with training and can also increase (and decrease) with form.
Form
The better form a player is in, the better he will perform. It's not about the physical context though; it has nothing to do with how well trained a player is. Form in Hattrick reflects a combination of aspects affecting whether a player will perform at his full potential, like for example how his private situation in life is at the moment.
On the player page you can see a player's "current form". It's the figure applied for matches. An "excellent" player in "wretched" form is usually worse off than a "passable" player in "solid" form for example.
Current form is negatively affected by the amount of stamina training in the team; the more stamina you train (percentage-wise) the more negative effect.
Additionally, there's a hidden "background form", which is used to compute where the player's form is heading. Each week, during training, the current form of every player will change, moving toward the hidden background form.
Current form is not changed at once to the figure of background form. Instead it moves in steps over several weeks, though the further away from background form they are the larger the steps will be.
After current form has been changed during training, there is a chance that background form is changed for each player. Every player has the same individual chance of having his background form change, and there is nothing you can do to influence this chance.
However, when chance decrees that a player's background form will change, there are several factors that influence what the new background form will be:
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If a player has participated in a match during the week. This is very important!
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Training intensity - the harder you train, the better form in general
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Your coach - the better skilled he is, the better form in general
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Form Coach - a Form Coach specializes in improving form.
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Assistant coaches - Assistants also help improve form
Specialty
About half of all players have a characteristic called a” specialty", which has impact on matches. There are 5 different main specialties available for players: "Technical", "Quick", "Head", "Powerful" and "Unpredictable".
Every main specialty has a good and a bad side, explained in the Special Events chapter. Specialties can also be useful for certain tactic types as explained in the Tactics chapter.
Two rare specialties also exist: Resilient and Support. Players with the Resilient specialty will find their injuries heal slightly faster than other players. In fact, they might overcome a light injury during a match! Support players will try to help teammates that are close-by on the field. If successful, this makes the teammates perform better, but if not successful it can cause a drop in organization for the whole team.
Injuries
Players can get injured, and part of your job as a manager is to prepare for this eventuality. As a manager, you can do several things to reduce the risk of injury and make sure to have available backup players in case something happens.
The injury risk will increase if you maintain a high training intensity. You can also control injury risk through the staff you hire. Every level of assistant coach you hire will increase the risk while hiring skilled medics will reduce it.
Most injuries will happen during matches. Their severity can range from a slight bruise to more severe injuries that may take several weeks to recover from. Again, having a medic on staff will reduce the recovery time. Your player's age is essential here, as well. Older players will always need more time to recover.
Recovery time is measured in weeks, but this number takes into account the effect your hired staff has. This means that if you get rid of your medic, estimated injury times may go up. For players that approach their forties, even light injuries may prove impossible to recover from.
Players may also pick up lighter injuries during training. Such bruises will not prevent a player from playing a match, but the player will perform slightly worse during the game if he plays. Moreover, while a bruised player does not run a higher risk of getting injured, if he does get another injury, it will be more severe than it would otherwise have been.
Yellow and red cards
Players may get booked or sent off during matches. Highly aggressive players (especially those with low honesty and lacking experience) more often than others. Two bookings (yellow cards) during a match will automatically lead to the player getting sent off (red carded). Getting sent off means that the player is suspended from the next competitive game.
A player will also be suspended for one match after accumulating 3 bookings from competitive games during a season. Bookings from league, cup, and qualifying games are all counted. If a player has already been booked twice in league matches one season, and receives another booking in a following cup match, he will be suspended for the next competitive match, regardless of whether it's a league match, cup match, or qualifier.
You can check your Players list for how many bookings each player has received. A player who has accumulated 3 bookings or was sent off in his last match will have a red card symbol on the Players list, to show his suspension.
The suspended player's booking slate is wiped clean when a competitive match has been played. Also, all player slates are wiped at the end of the season. Transfers do not affect player slates. A player can't get a suspension (or get his slate wiped) from a friendly game.
Lineup: The basics
As the manager of your team, you decide how your team will play and which formation to use. Before each match you submit your decision - your match orders - through the order form found in the match list. Your match orders need to be submitted at least 20 minutes before the match starts, but remember that the referee's watch may not agree with yours, so try to avoid last-minute orders if you can.
You can also set a match order as your "standard setup" (which we recommend you do to avoid an empty or incorrect lineup). This means that Hattrick will assume this setup for future matches. Of course, you can always adjust your setup according to the particular circumstances affecting matches ahead.
Starting lineup and substitutes
For each match you select your starting eleven players, your substitutes, your set pieces taker and your team captain. In the order form you choose the player position by dragging and dropping.
If one of your players gets injured, the substitute for that position will enter the match. If you don't have a substitute assigned to a certain position, or if the substitute gets injured too, one of the other substitutes will automatically be selected to play.
If you don't have any substitutes left on the bench you'll have to continue the game with 10 players. If you're out of subs and your goalkeeper gets injured (or if you haven't named any subs), an outfield player will move to that spot.
You can also set up conditional substitutions. See the substitutions chapter for more info.
Remember that you must start your league or cup games with at least 9 players.
If your lineup contains fewer than 9 players, but you have players available in your squad, other club functionaries will step in and name a team for the particular match. In such matches, your team will have lower team spirit, form, confidence and formation experience compared to if you had submitted the lineup yourself. The effect last only for one match, and players will still receive training for the match.
If there are not enough players in the squad for a valid lineup, your team will do a walk-over. This also penalizes the team in the way described above, but in this case the negative effects will carry over also to future matches. In the case of a walk-over, training effect is also lost.
Choosing team formation
You can play with any formation that can be created in the interface; your training page also includes the full formation list.
Worth knowing, is that when more than one player plays in a central position (central defender, inner midfielder, or forward), they will not be able to contribute to the team ratings with their full capacity. This contribution loss is also greater for three players than for two. The logic behind this is that as soon as more than one player plays in the same area, they start to rely on each other and thus aren't able to contribute with their whole capacity.
In short, a sole player in a central position contributes 100%. Using two players in a central position means a contribution loss (affecting both), and using three means a bigger loss (affecting all three). This loss affects all skills of the players.
The size of the contribution loss is also greater for inner midfielders than for forwards, and greater for forwards than for defenders. More precisely, the contribution loss for inner midfielders is around twice that of defenders. The contribution loss for forwards is roughly in the middle between those two.
Tactics and team attitude
In the order form you can also set your team's tactic (if any) and the team's attitude for that particular match. The different tactic types are described in the Match: Tactics chapter and team attitude is explained in the Psychology chapter.
Man marking order
With man marking, you instruct one of your players to follow and try to neutralize a key player on the opposing team. Man marking is never without risks, so use it with care - but with the right player and the right timing, it can be an efficient way to even-out the odds in a match.
The principle is that you order one of your players to shadow and obstruct a specific player on the opposing team. If the opponent player is on the field, this order triggers after 5 minutes and your player will contribute a lot less to your team than he would normally do. In specific, your player contributes 50% less if the opponent is close and 65% less if he is further away. The benefit for you is that, hopefully, the contribution of the target will also decrease. This depends on how efficient your player is as a man marker. The trick is, of course, to find the situations where man marking pays off and avoid the ones where it will not.
A player that is given man marking instructions can not be given other instructions: This means that giving a player man marking orders cancels out any order he has already received about going offensive, defensive, to the wing or to the middle.
You can only give one man marking order per match to any of your Defenders, Wingbacks and Inner Midfielders and only with a Forward, Winger or Inner Midfielder on the other team as a target. If the player targeted does not show up, or if he plays in a non-markable position, the order becomes void, but your player will still suffer a 10% drop in his contribution. However, a man marking order that has not triggered at the start may become active later in the match, if the target is substituted into the match or if he moves into a markable position.
While a man-marking order is in effect, a player will not contribute with their skills to team tactics (such as Pressing or Counter-Attack). However, he will contribute to tactics with his skills if the man-marking order has not triggered, but only after the 10% penalty mentioned above is considered.
The defending skill is what matters most for your Man Marker. It is compared to the highest skill on the target player. This check decides how big the penalty will be to the contribution of the target player. Powerful players receive a large boost (10%) to their defending skill during man marking calculation, and players with no specialty receive a smaller one (5%). For the targets, having the Technical specialty will give you a penalty on their highest skill (-8%) during the man marking calculation, whereas Unpredictable players gets a boost (+8%). Form, stamina, experience, loyalty, homegrown and health are important to both man markers and target players. Note that all these bonuses and penalties due to specialties are taken into account only to calculate the man-marking effect, and are not considered for the ratings.
Any penalty for the marking player affects all skills, except Goalkeeping and Set Pieces. Penalties to the target player also excludes Defending.
Individual orders
You can give all your outfield players on the field individual orders. You can, for example, order your inner midfielder to play "defensive".
This means he's still an inner midfielder, but he concentrate more on the defensive side than normal, and less on attacking. There are four individual orders, see this
table for full details about what those orders mean for each position. Also, you can ask a player to man mark a star player on the opposing team. More is explained in the Man Marking section.
Position
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Tactics
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Effect
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Wing back
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Offensive
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Somewhat more Winger, somewhat more Playmaking, less Defending.
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Defensive
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Somewhat more Defending, less Winger, somewhat less Playmaking.
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Toward middle
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Much more Defending to the middle, less Defending to the side, much less Winger, somewhat more Playmaking.
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Central defender
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Offensive
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More Playmaking, much less Defending.
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Toward wing
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Much more Defending to the side, much less Defending in the middle, a certain amount of Winger, somewhat less Playmaking.
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Winger
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Offensive
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More Winger, somewhat more passing, less Defending, less Playmaking.
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Defensive
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Much more Defending, less Winger, less Playmaking, somewhat less Passing.
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Toward middle
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Somewhat more Playmaking, less Winger, somewhat more Defending in the middle, somewhat less Defending to the side, somewhat more Passing in the middle, less Passing to the side.
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Inner midfielder
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Offensive
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More Passing, much less Defending, somewhat less Playmaking, somewhat more Scoring.
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Defensive
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More Defending, less Passing, somewhat less Playmaking, somewhat less Scoring.
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Toward wing
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A nice amount of Winger, somewhat less Playmaking, somewhat more Passing and Defending on the side, somewhat less Passing/Defending in the middle, no Scoring.
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Forward
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Defensive
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Somewhat more Playmaking, more Passing (and even more Passing to the sides for technical forwards), much less Scoring, somewhat less Winger.
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Toward wing
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More Winger, much more Scoring and somewhat more Passing on the side, much less Scoring and somewhat less Passing in the middle, somewhat less Scoring, Winger and Passing on the other side, somewhat less Playmaking.
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Match: The basics
Finding the right lineup is one of your biggest challenges in Hattrick. In this and the other match chapters we will focus on how the players' skills come into play during a match. This chapter will give you an overview of the most important things to know.
The basics of the match simulation
In each half, a number of attacks are made, and the midfield decides which team gets each attack. The team with the strongest midfield (the team with the most ball possession) is most likely to get a larger number of attacks.
When a team gets an attack, it is decided what kind of attack it is. Basic attacks consist of attacks through the right wing, left wing, or center, as well as set pieces (free kicks and penalties). The attacking team's attack for that sector will then try to break through the defending team's defense for the corresponding sector.
The basic attacks
In each match a number of basic attacks (as explained above) are made. Some of these attacks are open, and can be taken by either team, and some are exclusive for one team only.
For open attacks, the midfield decides which team gets each attack. Exclusive attacks work in the same fashion, with one exception: If your midfield "wins" one of your opponent's exclusive attacks; you stop the attack - but you don't get it yourself. You can't get your opponent's exclusive chances, and they can't get yours.
Most of the basic attacks are reported in the match report, but ones that don't even come close to scoring opportunities are not reported.
You may also gain additional attacks from "Special Events" and from counter-attacks. These additional attacks are described in the other two match chapters.
Home field advantage
The home team is helped by their fans. Ordinarily you have a larger percentage of possession at home than you would have away.
When both teams playing in the match are from the same region, the game is treated as a rivalry match. In this case, the home team still gets their home field advantage, but the away team also receives a boost about half as big. Games on neutral grounds do not provide any home field advantage bonuses, even when a team is from the same region as the neutral stadium.
Psychology and the coach's mentality
Team spirit, confidence, and team attitude affect how well your team performs. You can read all about how Hattrick simulates these in the "Psychology" chapter.
The coach's mentality (if he's offensive, defensive, or neutral) also plays a part. Read more about this in the "The coach" chapter.
Team rating is the rating you should focus on
After a match has been played, you will get a team rating for each part of the team. These ratings tell you how well different parts of your team performed in the match, and it is these ratings that matter for the actual match calculation.
The match rating denominations (the scale goes from non-existent to divine) are also specified in four sub-levels: very low, low, high, and very high. This way it's easier to know precisely how good your rating is. For example a "very high solid" rating is just a little bit worse than "very low excellent", but a lot better than "very low passable".
Star rating
After a match your players receive a star rating for their performance in the match. The more stars, the better the performance.
Please note that the star rating only rates the individual player performance for his particular position and is useful for comparing different players playing in the same position. It's not an ideal way to measure team strength. To know how your whole team performed (and compare with other teams), look at the team ratings.
Please also be aware that team effects (such as the contribution loss for more than one player in a central position (see basic lineup chapter) is not reflected in the star rating.
A normal case
Simply put, the midfield rating of your team will decide how many scoring opportunities your team has during a match. The other parts of the team (Scoring, Winger, Defense, Goalkeeper) will decide the probability of any attacks leading to goals.
The following table may help you understand what to look for when selecting your team. Please note that this is only an example.
Some skill levels may only mean slight differences in performance, and for other levels the differences might be much larger. Additionally, individual orders (play defensively, for example) or the "crowding penalty" for using two or more players in a central position have not been taken into consideration.
Part of team
|
Factors (most important first)
|
Midfield
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Playmaking - IM
Playmaking - Wingers
Playmaking - CDs
Playmaking forwards
Playmaking wingbacks
|
Left Attack
|
Winger - Left W
Winger - Left WB
Scoring - Forwards
Passing- Left IM
Passing - Left W
Winger- FW
Passing- FW
Passing - IM
|
Left Defense
|
Defending - Left WB
Goalkeeping - GK
Defending - Left CD
Defending - Left W
Defending center central defender
Defending - GK
Defending - Left IM
Defending center inner midfielder
|
Central Attack
|
Scoring - Forwards
Passing- FW
Passing - IM
Scoring inner midfielders
Passing - W
|
Central Defense
|
Defending - CD
Goalkeeping - GK
Defending - IM
Defending - WB
Defending - GK
Defending - W
|
Right Attack
|
Winger - Right W
Winger - Right WB
Scoring - FW
Passing - Right IM
Passing - Right W
Winger- FW
Passing- FW
Passing - IM
|
Right Defense
|
Defending - Right WB
Goalkeeping - GK
Defending - Right CD
Defending - Right W
Defending center central defender
Defending - GK
Defending - Right IM
Defending center inner midfielder
|
Training
As the manager, every week you get to choose what kind of training you want your players to concentrate on in their training sessions. The effects of the weekly training always appear during the training update on Thursday or Friday, depending on the country. The training type selected when the update starts is what will be trained that week. Changes in players' current form and background form also occur at this time.
Player age and skill level
Younger players are, in general, faster learners than older players, but how much your player will learn from training also depends on the skill level he's at - the lower the skill level the faster the training.
Training a player with a very low skill level is many times faster than if the same player has a medium skill level. Training a player with a very high skill level is much slower than than the medium skill levels.
Apart from age and skill level, there are four other factors that determine the effects of training: the intensity of training, training type, the amount of stamina training, and the coaching staff (head coach and assistants).
Training Intensity
When the intensity is higher, the squad's form tends to get better, and players improve faster. You get to pick an intensity level between 0 and 100.
The drawback of a high intensity level is increased risk for injury. You'll have to decide what level you like. We recommend asking other managers on the forums.
Significantly decreasing intensity can provide a one-time boost to team spirit. However, once you order your players to train with more intensity again, their team spirit will drop. If you want to change the training intensity, make sure to do so at least one daily update before the training update.
Training type
There are 11 types of training to choose from. All of them will make your players better at something. The different types of training are shown in the table below.
Coaching staff
The better your coach, the more effective your training will be. Having more assistant coaches also increases the effect of training.
Stamina training
Stamina is trained every week, as a percentage of the total training the team receives. Its efficiency will drop at higher percentages, so it's better to train a little every week than a lot now and then.
Older players need more stamina training each week to maintain a certain level, which means that there isn't one optimal stamina training share... it depends on your particular squad and ambitions.
Players that played at least 90 minutes for your team during the week receive 100% of the team's stamina training effect. Players playing less than 90 minutes (subs, for example) receive 75% of the effect, plus a share for each minute they've played. Other squad players who have not played for your team during the week, but who are healthy enough to train (including bruised players), receive half the effect. Injured players don't receive any stamina training.
Stamina training affects the overall form of your team negatively: the more stamina you train, the worse the effect on form.
However, only current form, not background form, is affected by stamina training (see the Form section of the Introduction).
Basic principles
The amount of training a player receives depends on how many minutes he has played for your team in a trainable position during a competitive or a friendly match. Matches played for other teams will only count for the purposes of the form update, and no training will be received. If a player has seen no 'live action' or has not played at least 1 minute, he will not train at all.
A player can receive a maximum of 90 minutes training during a week. Playing for more than 90 minutes in a trainable position will not give him more training. Playing fewer minutes, for example 50, will give him less training. In this case, 50 minutes out of 90.
If a player has played in more than one (different) position during the week, the 90 minutes that give him the best training effect will be chosen at the training update. Individual player behaviors during matches do not affect training.
Players in a winger position will only receive half of the training when trained in playmaking. The same goes for wing backs when trained in crossing.
It doesn't matter if the player plays in a friendly game, a cup match or a league game - they are all just as effective from a training point of view.
However, if you do not have enough players in the squad to fill up a lineup for a competitive game, you will give away a walkover victory. In this case, you will only lose training for that specific game. All training for the week won't be lost. In case you didn't set your lineup, your players will enter the field in random positions and perform as if their form was lower than it really is.
On the other hand, if you show up for a competitive match, but your opponent doesn't, you will win by walkover and the starting XI will receive training as normal, but will earn no players experience.
Brackets indicate small effects. Double brackets indicate very small effects.
Training type
|
Improves
|
...for...
|
Set pieces
|
Set pieces
|
All players playing the match; 25% bonus to the set pieces taker and goalkeeper
|
Defending
|
Defending
|
Defenders ((All players playing match))
|
Scoring
|
Scoring
|
Forwards ((All players playing match))
|
Crossing (Winger)
|
Winger
|
Wingers (Wing backs) ((All players playing match))
|
Shooting
|
(Scoring)
|
(All players playing match)
|
(Set pieces)
|
((All players playing match))
|
Short passes
|
Passing
|
Inner midfielders, wingers, and forwards ((All players playing match))
|
Playmaking
|
Playmaking
|
Inner midfielders (Wingers) ((All players playing match))
|
Goalkeeping
|
Goalkeeping
|
Goalkeepers
|
Through passes
|
Passing
|
Defenders, inner midfielders, and wingers ((All players playing match))
|
Defensive positions
|
Defending
|
(Goalkeepers, defenders, inner midfielders, and wingers) ((All players playing match))
|
Wing attacks
|
Winger
|
Forwards and wingers ((All players playing match))
|
Individual (Youth team only)
|
Valuable skill(s) for the position played in match
|
(All players playing match)
|
Example
The team trains "Crossing" (winger) this week. Please note that your actual match day may vary. Here we use Sunday to refer to the weekend league match and Wednesday for the midweek friendly/cup match.
-
Adam Adams played 90 mins as a winger on Sunday, but missed the Wednesday game. He receives 90 mins full winger training.
-
Bert McBert played 90 mins as a winger on Sunday and 90 mins as a forward on Wednesday. He also receives 90 mins full winger training.
-
Carl Carlson played 50 mins as a winger Sunday and 90 mins as a wing defender Wednesday. He receives 50 mins full winger training and 40 mins winger training with small effect.
-
David Davis played 40 mins as a winger Sunday and 90 mins as a forward Wednesday. He receives 40 mins full winger training and 50 mins training with very small ("osmosis") effect.
-
Freddie Fredericks plays 90 minutes as a wingback both Sunday and Wednesday. He still only receives 90 minutes winger training with small effect.
-
Gus O'Gumby didn't play on either Sunday or Wednesday. He doesn't improve his skill at all.
Skill decrease
When a player gets closer to the age of 30, he loses a little of his skills each week. How big the decrease depends on how old the player is.
The coach
Your coach is an important person responsible for training and inspiring your players.
Coach abilities
Skill: A skilled coach knows the right methods to train players in order to make them better. The more talented your coach is, the more effective training will be. A coach can never be better than level 5 (Excellent). All new teams get a level 3 (Passable) coach to start with.
Leadership: Apart from running training sessions, your coach is also an inspirational source for your players. In general, your team spirit will be better if your coach is a good leader.
Tactics: Your coach can be offensive, defensive, or neutral, which (only) affects your team's performance during the match. An offensive coach improves your attack at some expense to your defense and a defensive coach improves your defense at some expense to your attack.
A defensive coach improves defense slightly more than an offensive coach improves attacks. A neutral coach is neither offensive nor defensive, which means he doesn't help or hinder any sector.
Ability deterioration
After your coach has been in charge for one season, his leadership skill will start to slowly deteriorate. Once your coach reaches disastrous leadership, the deterioration starts affecting his trainer skill instead.
Change coach
If you are not satisfied with your coach you can either recruit a new external one or make one of your players coach. A player needs to have been on your team for at least 16 weeks before being made coach. You can change your coach on the "Staff" page, found under the “My Club" menu.
Remember, all new trainers of a certain skill level are equal. If you purchase a coach with a level 3 (Passable) trainer skill for example, they always become "average" level 3 coaches. However, a level 5 (Excellent), coach is only 1/2 step better than a level 4 (Solid) coach.
When you hire a new coach your old coach will remain in the team as a player, but he can never become a trainer again. And... you can not sell him, either. If you don't want to keep him, you will have to fire him.
Recruit an external coach
When you recruit a new coach you first decide what style of play you want your coach to implement. Then you decide how good you want him to be. Each combination of leadership and skill has a fixed price - the better the trainer the higher the price.
|
Leadership |
Skill Level |
poor (3) |
weak (4) |
inadequate (5) |
passable (6) |
solid (7) |
|
|
10 000 US$ |
10 000 US$ |
10 000 US$ |
10 000 US$ |
10 000 US$ |
|
|
10 000 US$ |
22 800 US$ |
41 200 US$ |
65 100 US$ |
94 600 US$ |
|
|
79 600 US$ |
182 800 US$ |
329 700 US$ |
521 000 US$ |
757 100 US$ |
|
|
268 700 US$ |
617 100 US$ |
1 112 900 US$ |
1 758 500 US$ |
2 555 500 US$ |
|
|
4 000 000 US$ |
4 388 400 US$ |
7 914 600 US$ |
12 505 200 US$ |
18 172 500 US$ |
|
Make a player coach
Sometimes, it is better to recruit your new coach from among your players. When you turn a player into a coach he will keep his current leadership. His experience determines how skilled he can become. Experience also affects how much money is required to train the player to the skill level you want for him. More experienced players are cheaper to train. If you have a very experienced player with high leadership, this can be a real bargain. However, a player can not achieve a trainer skill that is higher than his experience, and the player must have been in your squad for a season (16 weeks) before you can make him a coach.
Normally, a new coach can not play matches, but when turning a player into a coach, you have the option to make him a player-manager. If you choose this option, the player-manager will stay in the squad and be eligible to play matches. He will also be paid his normal player salary in addition to his manager salary. While the manager salary is fixed, the player salary will change according to the player skills, just as for any other player.
Finances
As the club manager you are also responsible for your team's finances. You pay the expenses and collect the income at the weekly update. You can see the exact time this happens in your league on the
Local Schedule page.
If you, for example, buy a player for 10 000 US$, the player is accessible immediately, and your "new signings" entry is increased by 10 000 US$.
Revenues and expenses
On the finances page you can see your budget for this week and last week's financial status. This is what the entries mean:
Revenue
Match takings: Your income from home league matches and all mid-week matches. See Chapter 10 'The Stadium' for more information on crowd income.
Sponsors: Each week you get a sum of money from your sponsors. Check the 'Fans and sponsors' chapter for more info.
Player sales: Whenever you sell a player, the income ends up here. See the 'Transfers' chapter for more info.
Commission: If you received any money for being the previous or mother club it will show here. See the 'Transfers' chapter for more info.
Other: Any other income is accumulated here, such as membership fees from fans and prize money.
Expenses
Wages: Each week you pay your players' salaries. For each player you pay 250 US$ plus a certain amount based on his skills and age. You pay 20% extra for foreign players.
Stadium maintenance: The weekly cost for running and servicing your stadium. See Chapter 10 'The Stadium' for more info.
Stadium building: Construction or demolition costs if you rebuild your stadium.
Staff: Each staff member costs you between 1 020 US$ and 33 840 US$ per week, depending on the level of the staff member (1 to 5) and the contract's length (1 to 16 weeks).
Youth Expenses: The weekly costs for your youth team or your scouting network.
New signings: Your costs for buying new players on the transfer market end up here. See the 'Transfers' chapter for more info.
Other: The remaining costs are accumulated here, such as firing staff and promoting players to your senior team.
Interest: If you're in debt you will have to pay some interest.
Cash funds and Board reserves
The Board limits the money available in cash to the manager for expenses such as salaries, player transfer fees, or stadium projects. Any assets beyond this working capital will be reserved by the Board to ensure the future stability of the Club. If needed, the Board will release money from the reserves into the working capital, but only at a measured rate.
The Financial Director you can hire for your staff can increase both the working capital and the rate of return from the cash reserves.
Debts and bankruptcy
There's nothing to keep you from spending money even if your balance is zero. You can run a small debt and still spend money, for example buying players or hiring a coach. However, once you hit 200 000 US$ in debt, your spending options become limited. You'll have a line of credit of up to 500 000 US$ at the bank. Be aware, though, whenever you go into the red, you'll pay some heavy duty interest on the borrowed money.
If you run up debts amounting to 500 000 US$, you'll be given a bankruptcy warning. If you do not return your balance to within the 500 000 US$ debt limit within two weeks of your bankruptcy warning, you will be forced to leave the Hattrick series system!Note that if a team has players for sale whose current bids are enough to reach the "safe zone," or if the team has plenty of cash in the board reserves, the team will not go bankrupt - but will still pay interest from its current account.
Fans and sponsors
Your fans and sponsors are important sources of income for your team. Therefore it is strongly advised to keep good relations with them and to keep their mood up - it will pay off in the end.
Fan mood
The members of your fan club decide a lot when it comes to your team's finances. Membership fees (30 US$ / member) are paid once per season, but more importantly, their mood helps determine attendance, which affects gate receipts at your stadium.
The easiest way to keep their mood up and attract new fans, is to match (or even exceed) their expectations. Their current mood can be seen on the Fans page.
Season expectations
At the start of every season, fans will tell you what they expect of the team. These expectations depend mostly on what happened last season, what fans expected then, and what the outcome was.
As your team advances (or drops) through the league system, your fans will slowly get used to the new situation. If you just got promoted, fans will not expect much. But if you are staying put in the same division year after year, fans will tend to hope for just a little more.
Match expectations
The season expectations influence the expectations your fans have for each match. On the Fans page you can see what they expect from each match. Generally, fans expect more from you when you play at home.
If the match result is what they expected, a win will make them like you and a loss will not disappoint them too much (if they were predicting defeat). If the result is better than their expectations, their mood will be even better. But, if the result is worse than their expectations, it will affect their mood negatively. For the first league rounds of the season, your fans' reaction to the results will be a bit more moderate.
At the start of the season, match expectations are based on the seasonal expectations of both teams' fans. As the season progresses, the actual league standings (position and points) of both teams becomes more important. In cup matches, fans base their match expectations only on the seasonal expectations (including division level) of both teams.
Team attitude and your cash funds influence fans
Telling your players to "Play it cool" or play the "Match of the Season" also influences the fan reaction to the match result. If the result is as expected (or better), playing it cool will reduce the positive effect and match of the season will increase the positive effect.
If the result is worse than expected, playing it cool will increase the negative effect and match of the season will reduce the negative effect.
If you have a lot of money saved up, your fans are a bit harder to please as they feel you could be spending to reach success. Rich teams' fans react more harshly to losses and less positively to wins than fans of poorer clubs. The more money your team has, the higher the effect.
Sponsors
Sponsors provide an important source of income for your club as well. The amount of sponsorship money your club receives depends on which division you are in, as well as on how big your fan club is.
Sponsor income is paid out in an equal amount each week during the season, with the payout amount being updated once per season.
The stadium
Your club will start off with a small stadium, which you can improve throughout your Hattrick career. On the stadium page you can see and manage all details about your stadium.
Income and costs
Your stadium can have four different types of seats, each having their own ticket prices and weekly upkeep costs (which you always have to pay).
|
Income
|
Weekly cost
|
Bleachers
|
7 US$
|
0.5 US$
|
Regular seats
|
10 US$
|
0.7 US$
|
Seats under roof
|
19 US$
|
1 US$
|
Seats in VIP lounge
|
35 US$
|
2.5 US$
|
In the match reports from home games, you can see how many tickets were sold of each type. The income from matches is distributed differently between clubs depending on what type of match it is:
League matches: The home team takes all the income.
Cup matches: The home team takes 67% of the income and away team gets 33%, except for the last six rounds, which are played at neutral venues and where income is split evenly.
Friendlies and qualifiers: Income is split evenly.
Your crowd appearance
The attendance at your stadium largely depends on your fans. Your fans' mood and the size of your fan club are the most important crowd factors. Your current position in your series, and the difference between your position and your opponent's position are also important (for series matches).
To some extent the size and mood of your opponents' fan club matters, as some of them might like to come too. It's also worth knowing that people get more interested in going to matches as the season progresses. You will, in general, get bigger crowds at the end of the season than at the beginning.
Naturally, the weather also matters. Fewer fans will visit your stadium in bad weather, but those who come will be more interested in buying more expensive tickets to sit under a roof. It is therefore possible that your total income could be about the same in any weather, as long as there are enough appropriate seats.
Improving the stadium
To expand your stadium, you hire a construction company to add seats. It can take a week or more, depending on the amount of construction needed. All existing seats stay available during the construction period. You pay a set price of 10 000 US$ each time you change your capacity, along with a cost for each seat you want to add or remove:
|
Construction cost
|
Demolition cost
|
Bleachers
|
45 US$
|
6 US$
|
Regular seats
|
75 US$
|
6 US$
|
Seats under roof
|
90 US$
|
6 US$
|
Seats in VIP lounge
|
300 US$
|
6 US$
|
It's a good idea to offer a mix of different types of seats to your fans. Most people want to buy tickets for the bleachers, therefore these should be the largest in number among your seat types.
Some people only attend matches if they can have comfortable seats (and some will also demand a roof over their heads), so you should have quite a lot of those too. There is also a wealthy group of attendees who only want to sit in fancy VIP lounges. There aren't many of them, but you don't want to forget about them either. Seats under a roof and in VIP lounges aren't affected as much by bad weather as the other types.
Staff
Hiring the right staff members is important to your team and to the development of the club. Your staff may not be found in the dugout on match day, but they will work with the players during the week or fulfill other key tasks for the club. They complement the head coach and, for you as manager, it is crucial to make sure you have the right people on the team.
Staff effects and skill levels
Any contribution you get from hiring a staff member is applied as a static bonus on top of an existing team stat. This bonus will always be visible to you. But since team stats are dynamic to begin with, and are influenced by different factors, the final effect achieved with a hired staff member can be hard to predict exactly. What you can be sure of is that you are moving the needle in the right direction. Staff members with higher skill levels naturally contribute a higher bonus effect. These bonuses are linear - which means that each additional skill level gives the same amount of bonus. So the difference between a level 3 and 4 medic is the same as the difference between a level 4 and 5. If you have several staff members within the same category, their bonuses are combined and applied only once. In this way, a single level 4 Assistant Coach has the same effect as two level 2 Assistant Coaches. To make things easier, you will always see the actual bonus given by your current backroom staff or any staff you plan to hire written out on the Staff page. A table with all staff categories and bonuses can also be found at the end of this section.
Size of your staff
You can employ up to 4 staff members in total. You may employ up to two Assistant Coaches at a time. For all other staff categories your board will only allow one staff member at a time.
Hiring and firing
When you hire a staff member, you need to choose the length of his contract - up to 16 weeks. The longer the contract, the less expensive it will be per week. You have the option to break a contract ahead of time if your plans change and you need a staff slot to open up, but if you do you will need to repay 2x the savings up to that time, so it can be very costly to change your mind. Also, a staff member can never be fired in the first week of employment or during the last week of a contract. Beyond this there are no limitations as to how often you can make changes to your staff.
Breaking a contract
When you break a contract, you need to pay a fee of 2x the savings up to that time. Example: You have a 13 week contract with a staff level 3 and you want to break the contract 8 weeks in. Up to now you've paid 38 400 US$ in total salary (8 x 4 800 US$) due to the length of the contract. However, if you had originally signed an 8 week you would have paid 48 000 US$ in total salary (8 x 6 000 US$). Your savings is 9 600 US$, so you will pay 19 200 US$ in fines.
Cost/Week
Length of contract |
Skill Level 1 |
Skill Level 2 |
Skill Level 3 |
Skill Level 4 |
Skill Level 5 |
|
1 week |
2 115 US$ |
4 230 US$ |
8 460 US$ |
16 920 US$ |
33 840 US$ |
|
2 weeks |
2 055 US$ |
4 110 US$ |
8 220 US$ |
16 440 US$ |
32 880 US$ |
|
3 weeks |
1 890 US$ |
3 780 US$ |
7 560 US$ |
15 120 US$ |
30 240 US$ |
|
4 weeks |
1 770 US$ |
3 540 US$ |
7 080 US$ |
14 160 US$ |
28 320 US$ |
|
5 weeks |
1 710 US$ |
3 420 US$ |
6 840 US$ |
13 680 US$ |
27 360 US$ |
|
6 weeks |
1 650 US$ |
3 300 US$ |
6 600 US$ |
13 200 US$ |
26 400 US$ |
|
7 weeks |
1 575 US$ |
3 150 US$ |
6 300 US$ |
12 600 US$ |
25 200 US$ |
|
8 weeks |
1 500 US$ |
3 000 US$ |
6 000 US$ |
12 000 US$ |
24 000 US$ |
|
9 weeks |
1 440 US$ |
2 880 US$ |
5 760 US$ |
11 520 US$ |
23 040 US$ |
|
10 weeks |
1 380 US$ |
2 760 US$ |
5 520 US$ |
11 040 US$ |
22 080 US$ |
|
11 weeks |
1 320 US$ |
2 640 US$ |
5 280 US$ |
10 560 US$ |
21 120 US$ |
|
12 weeks |
1 260 US$ |
2 520 US$ |
5 040 US$ |
10 080 US$ |
20 160 US$ |
|
13 weeks |
1 200 US$ |
2 400 US$ |
4 800 US$ |
9 600 US$ |
19 200 US$ |
|
14 weeks |
1 140 US$ |
2 280 US$ |
4 560 US$ |
9 120 US$ |
18 240 US$ |
|
15 weeks |
1 080 US$ |
2 160 US$ |
4 320 US$ |
8 640 US$ |
17 280 US$ |
|
16 weeks |
1 020 US$ |
2 040 US$ |
4 080 US$ |
8 160 US$ |
16 320 US$ |
|
Staff categories
Assistant Coach
The training speed bonus given by Assistant Coaches is added to your team's existing training efficiency. Make sure you have a good regular coach before considering spending much money on assistant coaches. But when you do have a competent head coach, hiring a number of skilled Assistant Coaches could be a good strategy for any team focused on training.
Skill Level |
Training Speed |
Injury Risk |
Form |
|
No bonus |
40% |
No bonus |
|
+3,5% |
+2,5% |
+0,05 |
|
+7% |
+5% |
+0,1 |
|
+10,5% |
+7,5% |
+0,15 |
|
+14% |
+10% |
+0,2 |
|
+17,5% |
+12,5% |
+0,25 |
Effect Details
This bonus is added as a multiplier on top of the existing training efficiency as decided by the coaching skill of your head coach, your chosen training intensity, and your chosen stamina share. As an example, if you had a solid coach, 100% training intensity, and 10% stamina share, the following training speeds would be achieved for a 22 year old formidable playmaker:
No assistant coach: 8 weeks until next level.
Level 5 skill coach combination: 7 weeks until next level.
Level 10 skill coach combination: 6 weeks until next level.
You can hire either one or two Assistant Coaches. If you have two Assistant Coaches, their skill levels combine to create a single training bonus. This means one Level 4 Assistant Coach contributes the same training bonus as two Level 2 Assistant coaches.
In addition to their effects on training, Assistant Coaches also have two side effects. Form is increased, but so is injury risk.
Injury risk is calculated as the average number of injuries per game, not per player but per team. The base value is 0.4 injuries per match for your team. With a level 5 Medic this can be reduced to 0.025. Assistant Coaches contribute to a higher injury risk by 0.025 injuries per match per skill level hired. This means a level 5 Assistant Coach increases your base injury risk to 0.525 injuries per match (0.15 with a level 5 Medic), and two level 5 Assistant Coaches gives you a base injury risk of 0.65 injuries per match (0.275 with a Level 5 Medic).
As already mentioned, on the positive side, Assistant Coaches increase the background form of your players. If you have the full 10 skill levels of Assistant Coaches, background form will increase by 0.5 levels. In other words, two level 5 Assistant Coaches contribute half as much to form as a level 5 Form Coach would.
Back to categories
Medic
Medics are responsible for the overall physical condition of your players. This means they work both proactively to prevent injuries as well as with the rehabilitation of any players that do get injured. Having a Medic on the team will reduce injury risk as well as decreasing the recovery time for injured players.
Skill Level |
Recovery Speed |
Injury Risk |
|
No bonus |
40% |
|
|
+20% |
-7,5% |
|
|
+40% |
-15% |
|
|
+60% |
-22,5% |
|
|
+80% |
-30% |
|
|
+100% |
-37,5% |
|
Effect Details
Every time your team plays a match, there is a certain injury risk for your players. Having a Medic on staff will reduce the base injury risk for your team. A level 5 Medic will reduce the base injury risk from 0.4 injuries per match to 0.025 injuries per match, but be aware that other factors - such as hiring Assistant Coaches - may increase the risk.
If a player suffers an injury, Medics also help speed up their recovery. In Hattrick, injuries show up with an estimated recovery time in weeks. During every daily update, the player recovers a little bit on his way to 90% health (when he can play again, but is still bruised) and then, ultimately, to 100% health, when he has no sign of the injury left.
The graph shows how much faster a player will recover fully from the same injury, depending on whether or not you have a Medic. With no Medic, a 19 year old player will take 3 weeks to recover. With a level 2 Medic he will take around 2 weeks to recover. With a level 5 Medic this reduces to approximately one and a half weeks.
A 29 year old player with the same injury would take 6 weeks to recover with no Medic. A level 1 Medic reduces this to about 5 weeks. A level 5 Medic reduces it further to just under 3 weeks.
Back to categories
Sports Psychologist
The mental game is almost as important as the physical one. Hiring a Sports Psychologist can really help you create a winning atmosphere. This staff member will help you maintain your team's confidence in their own game as well as help nurture the team spirit of the whole squad.
Skill Level |
Team spirit |
Confidence |
|
No bonus |
No bonus |
|
|
+0,1 |
+0,24 |
|
|
+0,2 |
+0,48 |
|
|
+0,3 |
+0,70 |
|
|
+0,4 |
+0,92 |
|
|
+0,5 |
+1,12 |
|
Effect Details
Team spirit is driven by the team attitude you set for previous games. Immediately after a game team spirit may get a boost or drop, depending on which team attitude was used. But at each daily update the team spirit then tends to normalize, which means if it is high then it will slowly drop and if it is low then it will slowly recover. A Sports Psychologist can help you improve this process by raising the base value that your team spirit moves toward naturally. A higher base value means that high team spirit values will fall slower and low ones will rise faster. The bonus received is one tenth of a level per skill level employed. This means a level 5 Sports Psychologist will increase your team spirit base value by half a level of team spirit.
Your team’s confidence is primarily driven by your team's results and how many goals you’ve scored. On every daily update, Team Confidence moves towards a midpoint. For every Sports Psychologist level, this midpoint is raised, resulting in a higher level of confidence overall. However, the impact is not linear and it depends on the actual confidence level. The table is an example of how the midpoint will be increased for a confidence of level strong (5). The Sports Psychologist also affects the rate of change towards this midpoint. With a higher staff level, confidence drops are less severe after a significant loss, making it easier to maintain a high confidence level. With lower staff levels - or none - confidence drops are more noticeable.
Back to categories
Player performance is not only down to technical skills and physical stamina - players tend to go in and out of form, and many factors can influence this, not the least of which bein mental ones.
The Form Coach specializes in getting the most out of the players you have. He keeps the squad match-fit and motivated. Hiring a form coach is not a quick fix, nor is the effect permanent - but for some teams and some situations it can be a good solution.
Skill Level |
Form |
|
|
No bonus |
|
|
|
+0,2 |
|
|
|
+0,4 |
|
|
|
+0,6 |
|
|
|
+0,8 |
|
|
|
+1 |
|
|
Effect Details
The form of a player is a measure of how close he is to performing at his maximum potential. The value you see on the player is the current form, and this is what is used in the match simulation. However, the current form always has a trend and the value the form is moving toward is called the background form. By using a Form Coach you will receive a bonus to your background form updates. Whenever background form is recalculated (this happens on average every second week) each skill level of the Form Coach will bump the background form higher than it would have been by 0.2 levels. This means a level 5 Form Coach will add a whole level of background form to your player when the update is applied. Please note that background form can still drop, but that your average over time will be higher.
Back to categories
Financial Director
The Financial Director increases the manager's economic flexibility. This is ONLY useful for managers of wealthy teams.
(If you are a new user, there is no need to consider a Financial Director at all.)
Normally, the Board will limit the amount of cash available to the manager for expenses such as salaries, player transfer fees, or stadium projects. Any assets beyond this working capital will be reserved by the Board to ensure the future stability of the Club. If needed, the Board will release money from the reserves into the working capital, but only at a measured rate. Surplus working capital will be converted into reserves at a rate of 2% of the total cash per week.
By hiring a Financial Director the Board will allow both a higher working capital and a faster rate of return from the cash reserves. In turn, this will allow the manager to invest more aggressively than the Board would otherwise have agreed to. Having a Financial Director may be necessary for teams that have saved up money for a few seasons and now want to spend a lot quickly in order to make an expensive run for the Cup or league title.
Skill Level |
Max Funds |
Return/week |
|
15 000 000 US$ |
50 000 US$ |
|
|
17 000 000 US$ |
100 000 US$ |
|
|
19 000 000 US$ |
200 000 US$ |
|
|
21 000 000 US$ |
300 000 US$ |
|
|
23 000 000 US$ |
400 000 US$ |
|
|
25 000 000 US$ |
500 000 US$ |
|
Example: Team Tycoon has accumulated 40 000 000 US$ in funds. Without a Financial Director, the Board will only allow the manager access to 15 000 000 US$ at a time. If the manager spends 2 000 000 US$, and the new cash balance is 13 000 000 US$, the Board will make the reserves available to the manager, but only at the slow rate of 50 000 US$ a week.
Now Team Tycoon hires a Level 3 Financial Director. The Board becomes more confident that cash is being handled responsibly. The allowed working capital is increased to 21 000 000 US$ and the weekly release rate from the reserves is bumped up to 300 000 US$. As long as the Club's current balance stands below 21 000 000 US$, an extra 300 000 US$ per week will be transferred automatically by the Board from the reserves. If cash grows beyond 21 000 000 US$, for example through player sales, money instead starts flowing into the reserves at a rate of 2% of the total cash per week.
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Tactical assistant
Hiring a tactical assistant will improve the team’s flexibility with more strategic moves and advanced lineups. The effects of having a tactical assistant are mainly felt in the short term, since he affects only the upcoming match - make sure that you will hire one when your club needs him.
Skill Level |
Extra subs / orders |
Style of play flexibility |
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No bonus |
No bonus |
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+1 |
+20pp |
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+2 |
+40pp |
|
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+3 |
+60pp |
|
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+4 |
+80pp |
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+5 |
+100pp |
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Effect Details
Instead of the maximum five custom orders per game (that can be used for substitutions, changed player behaviour or position swaps) you can now get one extra order per level of your tactical assistant, up to a maximum of 10 orders with a level 5 tactical assistant. Keep in mind that the limit of 3 substitutions per match still applies, even when you have a Tactical Assistant.
The style of play ranges between 100% defensive (which is default for defence-minded coaches) and 100% offensive (which is default for coaches who prefer attacking play) with neutral being the middle point. You'll be able to set this for each match in the match order interface where you'll get 20pp (percentage points) flexibility per level of your tactical assistant from your coach's style of play.
For example, if you have a defence-minded coach and also a level 5 tactical assistant, you now have an available range of style of play that spans from 100% defensive to neutral. If you have a neither attack nor defence-minded coach along with a level 5 tactical assistant your available range will be span from Neutral half way to both defensive (50%) and offensive (50%).
You need to have your tactical assistant on the payroll at the time of the match. In case you have placed match orders with a tactical assistant, then fired him or have the contract end without renewing it, the match will be simulated without the extra sub/orders and using the default style of play of your current coach.
Lineup: Experience and confusion
Formation experience
Your team can play any formation you wish, but your players might get confused and play below their ordinary capacity if you use a formation they aren't experienced with. To increase the formation experience and avoid confusion your team simply needs some practice.
You gain formation experience every time you use a given formation (friendlies and competitive matches count just as much, but not tournaments, ladders, Duels, or the Hattrick Masters). The amount of experience you get for each formation is minute based (maximum 90 min per match), just as training. However, if you win by a walkover and fielded at least 9 players in your starting lineup, you also get formation experience as if a 90-minute match had been played. If you fail to submit a valid lineup of at least 9 players (which forces other club functionaries to name a lineup for you), your players will not get any formation experience.
Gaining formation experience becomes harder at high levels of formation experience. If you don't play with a certain formation, the experience will decrease over time. There is also a risk of losing a little formation experience when you sell a player.
Confusion
If your players aren't experienced enough with a formation, they risk becoming confused at any time during the match, which negatively affects their performance. A formation experience level of excellent or better is enough to keep this from happening. For lower levels, the risk of becoming confused rises the lower your formation experience level is. If your players' accumulated individual experience (see below) is high, the risk decreases, though.
In case of confusion your formation experience also decides how confused your players will be; the lower your formation experience level is, the more confused your players will become. If your players become confused, a text showing the current level of your team organization will be displayed in the match report. A confusion event saying that your team organization fell to "wretched" means that it was very bad, while a drop to "solid" only had a very limited effect. If your players are confused at half-time (or before extra-time) your coach can improve the situation somewhat by giving an extra team talk.
Players' individual experience
Experience positively affects a player's actions on the field. Players gain experience by playing matches. National Cup matches give about twice as much experience as league matches. Challenger and Consolation Cup matches gives your players half the league match experience.
An international friendly match gives about a fifth of the experience that a league match gives and a friendly against a team from your own country gives about half as much as an international friendly. National team matches give the most experience, followed by Hattrick Masters matches.
The amount of experience a certain player receives is minute based, just like training. A player cannot gain more than 90 minutes of experience from one match.
Team captain and total experience
You can appoint a team captain for each match. Experience and leadership are important abilities for the team captain, as the captain's level in those attributes gives a bonus when calculating your team's total experience - which can prevent your team both from suffering confusion and from getting nervous in important and dramatic matches.
In such situations, only the team with the lowest amount of experience at that particular moment can get nervous, reflecting their inexperience. The difference between the two teams' experience levels decides how nervous the players will get. Teams will never suffer from this in league matches or friendlies.
The team captain has to be in your starting lineup. If you haven't appointed a team captain, the players will choose a captain they think will do a good job.
Penalty takers
Cup and qualifier matches can end in a penalty kick shoot-out if there is still a draw after extra time. You choose your penalty takers through a sub-page to the order form.
When choosing the order please remember that nothing is more nerve-wracking than a penalty kick shoot-out, and at every penalty (not during regular match time, though) a test of the shooter's experience is made.
Apart from experience, the shooter's scoring and set pieces skills (as well as technical speciality) are taken into consideration. For keepers the keeper skill and the quick specialty are all that matters.
Match: Set pieces and special events
In this match chapter we will look a little bit deeper and focus on two important match details: how you score from set pieces and what you can gain from "special events" (and other additional match events).
Set Pieces
Some of your regular attacks will result in a set-piece opportunity, either as a free kick or a penalty kick.
While a regular attack cannot result in a corner kick, corners can instead happen as a Special Event (see below).
As in real football, mastering set pieces can be very valuable in Hattrick.
Direct free kicks
If your team gets a free kick in a good spot, it will be entrusted to your designated Set Pieces taker (see below).
This player will test his skill against the goalkeeper directly, using his set pieces skill and experience. The goalkeeper will defend using his set pieces skill, goalkeeping skill, and experience.
Indirect set pieces
About one-third of your set pieces' chances will be indirect free kicks, and the outcome of these depends on team effort.
To attack you use (in order of importance):
The average scoring skill of the outfielders
The average set pieces skill of the outfielders
The set pieces skill of your set pieces taker
The experience of players also matters.
To defend, you use (in order of importance):
The average defending skill of the outfielders
The average set pieces skill of the outfielders
The goalkeeping skill and set pieces skill of your keeper
And again, the experience of all players mentioned.
These ratings are known as your offensive and defensive indirect Set Pieces ratings.
Penalty kicks and Penalty Shoot-Outs
There are two types of penalty kick situations in Hattrick, and they work differently.
Regular penalty kick
If the referee calls for a penalty for a foul during the match, your designated Set pieces taker (see below) will step up. The following skills and specialities matter:
For the penalty kick taker: Set Pieces and Experience
For the goalkeeper: Set Pieces, Goalkeeping, and experience. Quick specialty.
Penalty shoot-outs
Some matches, such as Cup matches or qualifiers, cannot end in a draw. If such a match has not been decided after full-time and extra time, it will go to a penalty shoot-out. Each team gets five penalties in the initial round. If the match still needs to be decided after this, the teams will get one penalty each until one has outscored the other.
In a shoot-out, momentum matters. A player who scored a penalty earlier in the match will have a 10 % bonus during the shoot-out. Keepers who saved a penalty earlier in the game, including in the shoot-out, will get a 10 % bonus to save the subsequent penalty. This momentum is lost when the streak is broken.
The following skills and specialities matter during a Shoot-Out:
For the penalty kick taker: Set Pieces, Scoring, and Experience. Momentum bonus, as described above, matters, as does Technical speciality.
For the goalkeeper: Goalkeeping, momentum bonus. Quick speciality.
Picking your set piece takers
Your nominated Set pieces taker will, in most cases, be in charge of penalties, direct free kicks and corner special events during the match.
If you do not select a player for this role in the match order form, the coach will pick the player with the highest set pieces skill to do the job instead.
If your chosen player is injured, sent off or substituted, another player will assume his role. In this situation, the first player of your penalty kick order (see below) will be used. If you have not set a penalty kick order, the coach will pick a player for the role.
For penalty shoot-outs, the list on the Penalty Kick Takers tab in the match order form becomes important. It is used to decide in advance by who and in which order any penalty shoot-out kicks will be taken. If this list has not been set, the coach will pick the players based on their set pieces and scoring skills.
Corner special event
Corners are handled as a team special event. Your designated set pieces taker will take the corner.
To score from a corner kick, you can improve your chances by having a high set pieces skill on the player that takes the corner and by having a high offensive indirect set pieces rating against the opponent's defensive indirect set pieces rating.
There are two types of corner kicks. In one, the higher the number of outfield head specialists in your team (your set pieces taker does not count), and the lower the number of head specialists among your opponent's, the better your chances to score. Having no head specialists at all will make you very weak at defending against corners and very weak at scoring from your own corners.
In the other, the chance to score will depend on the scoring skill of the player that receives the ball. Note that corners might lead to a yellow card for the offensive team, but if your player is already carded, he will be extra careful, so the risk of a second yellow is lower than it would otherwise have been.
Special Events
Apart from basic attacks, "Special events" may occur. Special events are match events that occur depending on players' attributes, their specialties (in particular), which makes it a strategy IN itself to compose a squad that has a good balance of player specialties.
There are two types of special events:
1. Ball Possession-Related Special Events: These events are influenced by midfield control. A team with higher ball possession has a greater chance of triggering them. (If you have 55% ball possession you also have a 55% chance to get a team special event)
2. Individual Special Events:These depend on specific players’ specialties and positions, regardless of ball possession.
For each special event that occurs in a match, the probability of another special event decreases.
Weather and Specialties
Certain specialties are better suited to certain weather conditions. Every player's performance is affected by the specific weather conditions from the very start of the game.
Technical players gain 5% on all their skills in the sun, but lose the same percentage in the rain.
Powerful players gain 5% in the rain, and lose 5% in the sun.
Quick players lose 5% in the rain and in the sun.
When a weather event happens you will get information about it in the match report, and the player's star rating will also reflect their performance accordingly.
Individual Special Events
These events depend on player specialties, skills and positions. A team with more players with a certain specialty will have a higher probability of triggering the individual special events related to that specialty.
In addition to what is listed below, the player who ends up with the chance to finish (often, but not always, the same player who creates the chance) also needs some scoring skill in order to score from these attacks.
Unpredictable players can use their passing skill to create unexpected long passes if they are keepers, wing-backs or central defenders. They can use their scoring skill to intercept the ball if they are inner midfielders, forwards or wingers. If they are field players, their unpredictability itself may also create unlikely scoring opportunities. The lower the defense skill of an unpredictable defender or inner midfielder, the higher is the probability they can also make a reckless error that will give the opponent a chance to score. An unpredictable winger or forward with low passing skill is also more likely to cause chaos in your defense, possibly resulting in an own goal.
Quick wingers, inner midfielders and forwards can create a chance by using a burst of speed. This can be countered by the opposing team using a defensive player (central defender or wing back) who is also quick. You will also have a boost on your counter attacks tactic level for every quick winger, inner midfielder, and forward on your team. The opponent can still diminish this effect with quick inner midfielders, wingbacks, defenders, or keeper (just the extra boost can be nullified, not the initial tactic level).
Technical wingers, inner midfielders and forwards can create chances if an opposing keeper, defender or inner midfielder is a head specialist (the head specialist doesn’t have to be in the exact opposite slot). Moreover, every technical defender and wing back will give you a small chance to create a non-tactical counter attack from a missed normal chance of your opponent. The higher the passing of the defender, the bigger the chance.
Wingers with sufficient winger skill can create chances that will have to be finished off by another winger, a midfielder, or a forward. If that other player has sufficient scoring skill, he is more likely to score; if he is a head specialist, it will be even easier for him to score.
Corner: To score from a corner kick, you can improve your chances by having a high set pieces skill on the player that takes the corner and by having a high offensive indirect set pieces rating against the opponent's defensive indirect set pieces rating. There are two types of corner kicks. In one, the higher the number of outfield head specialists in your team (your set pieces taker does not count), and the lower the number of head specialists among your opponent's, the better your chances to score. Having no head specialists at all will make you very weak at defending against corners and very weak at scoring from your own corners. In the other, the chance to score will depend on the scoring skill of the player that receives the ball. Note that corners might lead to a yellow card for the offensive team, but if your player is already carded, he will be extra careful, so the risk of a second yellow is lower than it would otherwise have been.
Experience: Experienced forwards can score using their experience. Inexperienced central defenders and wingbacks can give their opponents an extra chance.
Tiredness: Tired central defenders can make mistakes. Unless the opposing attacker is also too tired, this may create a chance for the opponent.
Other additional match events
There are also some additional events you can get in a match. The chance to get these events is not dependent on midfield strength, so the chance doesn't increase if you're dominating the midfield.
Counter-attacks: Even if you don't use the counter-attack tactic there is a small chance that your team gets to counter. These "tactic-independent" counter-attacks do not require your team to have an inferior midfield (which otherwise is necessary to counter). See the chapter about tactics for more info on counter-attacks.
Long shots: Even if you don't use the long shot tactic there is a slim chance that your team gets a long shot opportunity. Read the tactics chapter for more info about long shots.
Powerful inner midfielders, if playing defensive (also called sitting midfielders) can concentrate on breaking up attacks and winning the ball. If he succeeds in pressing, the opponent's attack breaks down. To do that, he will rely on his defending skill and stamina.
Powerful forwards, if playing normal (also called power forwards) can put their bodies in the right place, forcing a second chance to shoot and score after a normal chance for your team has been missed. They will need sufficient playmaking and scoring skills to do that. Note that their physical play can result in yellow cards; however, if your player has already been carded, he will tread more carefully in these situations.
You will suffer an overcrowding penalty if you field two or three players having the same combination of specialties and positions of the following types: technical defensive forwards, powerful normal forwards and powerful defensive inner midfielders. If you field two players of the same type, you will suffer a penalty on their contribution (4% each). If you field three of them, the penalty will be bigger (7.5% each).
Match: Tactics
For each match you can order your team to use a certain tactic. Each tactic has its advantages, but also disadvantages - so choose carefully.
There are six tactic types (and normal) available. If you don't specify a tactic you will play "normal".
Tactical skill
How well you master a tactic depends on the tactical skill for that particular tactic. This skill is calculated from different players' skills together with an experience bonus for each involved player.
How effective your tactics are depends on how good your players on the field are. The better the players on the field, the better tactical rating you need to achieve the same efficiency. This means you need a better tactical rating in higher divisions than what you need in lower divisions.
Pressing
Pressing means that your players put pressure on your opponent and focus more on breaking your opponent's attacks than creating their own. Pressing could be a good option when you feel inferior and want to keep the score down.
Advantage: You can reduce the number of potential chances (for both teams) in a match.
Disadvantage: It will drain the stamina of your players faster than normal.
Relevant Skills: The total defending skill and the total stamina of all your players determine your Pressing tactical skill. If a player has the "Powerful" speciality, his defense skill counts as double. The more tired your players get, the less able they are to put pressure on their opponents.
Whenever a potential chance is foiled by a team using the pressing tactic, it is reported in the match report. You will never find out which team could have benefited from the chance. If both teams play pressing the effect is, on average, doubled. Additionally, when playing against a team focusing on long shots, a pressing team has a greater chance of preventing a long shot opportunity.
Counter-attacks
Counter-attacks (CA) mean you deliberately let your opponent control the ball, and as soon as they fail with an attack you try to make a fast counter-attack.
Playing counter-attacks could be a good option if you have a very good defense and attack (but a bad midfield), and especially in combination with your opponent having an ineffective attack.
Advantage: You can gain additional attacks (you get the chance to counter-attack when your defense manages to stop an opponent's attack).
Disadvantage: You lose 7% of your midfield capacity.
Relevant Skills: The total sum of your defenders' passing and defending skills determines your CA tactical skill. Passing is twice as important as defending. Quick wingers, inner midfielders and forwards give a boost to the CA tactical skill. This boost will be diminished (and may be nullified) by Quick inner midfielders, wing backs, defenders or keeper on the opponent's team (see also Chapter 13 - Special Events section).
Only the team that is not dominating the midfield at the time of a failed attack is able to make use of the advantage of this tactic (and note that you have to lose the midfield before the 7% tactical penalty is applied). If you dominate the midfield, then you will just suffer the disadvantage.
All counter-attacks are reported in the match report. Whenever your team receives a counter-attack attempt, the chance to have another one will decrease.
Attack in the middle
Attacking in the middle (AIM) means your team focuses on attacking down the center of the pitch at the expense of attacks on the wings. In practical terms, this means your team may successfully trade what would have been a wing attack for an attack in the middle. When this happens, however, the chance for it to happen again will decrease.
Advantage: Around 15-30% of your wing attacks will be converted to attacks in the middle.
Disadvantage: Your wing defense (on both sides) gets somewhat worse.
Relevant Skills: The total passing skill of all your outfield players determines your AIM tactical skill.
Whenever an attack is switched from the wings to the middle, it is shown in the match report.
Attack on wings
Attack on wings (AOW) works in the same way as “Attack in the middle”, only in reverse, meaning there is a chance that middle attacks are traded for attacks on the wings. As there normally are less attacks in the middle than on the wings, you convert percentage-wise slightly more of them. Also, for every time an attack is moved to the wings, the chance for it to happen again will decrease.
Advantage: Around 20-40% of your central attacks will be converted to wing attacks.
Disadvantage: Your central defense gets somewhat worse.
Relevant Skills: The total passing skill of all your outfield players determines your AOW tactical skill.
Whenever an attack is switched from the middle to the wings, it is shown in the match report.
Play creatively
Play creatively (PC) means players try to make more use of their specialties, and other attributes.
Advantage: You increase the maximum possible number of special events occurring during the match for both teams, but your own team will get slightly higher chances to get one of them (both positive and negative).
Disadvantage: Your team defense gets somewhat worse.
Relevant Skills: PC requires your field players have high passing skills and experience (with the first being the most important). If a field player is also Unpredictable, his contribution to the tactic will be doubled. To make good use of it, a SE-optimized team (i.e., one with many players having specialties, and the right combination of skills) is recommended.
Long Shots
When playing long shots (LS), your players are instructed to go for a long shot rather than try playing the whole attacking sequence through. In other words, you trade central and wing attacks for long shots. A long shot then pits the shooter against the goalkeeper. This can be useful if you have a hard time scoring on your central/wing attacks, but have decent shooters.
Advantage: The long shots tactic converts up to around 30% of side and middle attacks to long shots.
Disadvantage: Your wing and central attacks, as well as your midfield, get a little bit worse.
Relevant skills: Your outfielders' scoring and set pieces skills determine the LS tactical skill. Scoring is three times more important than set pieces.
When an attack has been converted to a long shot, a defending team using the pressing tactic has a chance to steer off the shooting opportunity. If the shot is not steered off, an outfielder (inner midfielders and wingers are twice as likely) takes the shot. The quality of the shot depends on the appointed shooter's scoring and set pieces skills, and the goalkeeper can attempt to save the shot using his goalkeeping and set pieces skills. For both shooter and keeper: A bit of both skills is needed, and it's better to have some of both skills than to only have a lot of one.
All long shots are reported in the match report, including any steered off opportunities.
Substitutions
As mentioned in the lineup chapter, if one of your players gets injured, the substitute for that position will enter the field automatically. You can also set up preconditioned substitutions.
Preconditioned substitutions
You can set up substitutions for a match in advance, either for making that master-mind tactical move or just to swap a tired player for a fresh one.
You can, for example, change a forward for an extra defender to secure your lead in a game, or swap a defender for a forward if you're down. You can also choose to change the individual player order for a player.
Adding a preconditioned substitution
To add a substitution you go to the "Subs/Orders" tab in the match order form. You pick the player you want to leave the field and the substitute who will enter. You then decide the conditions of the substitution.
You can set up the substitution to happen after a certain minute, and/or depending on the standings in the game, by displaying the "advanced options". Here you can also add a condition for if one of your (or your opponent's) players gets a red card.
Adding a behavior change
You add behavior changes in the "Subs/Orders" tab too. Similar to adding a substitution you pick which player you want and then add the conditions for when you want him to change behavior.
You can add five player orders
You may add up to five different player orders (substitutions and behavior changes). But remember, the referee will not let you make more than three substitutions in a match.
Orders are carried out when the conditions are met
Player orders will be carried out in the match as soon as all the conditions set ahead of time are met. If the condition(s) isn't (aren't) met, the order will not be carried out.
If you order a substitution in the 65th minute at any standing, the substitution will be carried out in the 65th minute. If you order a substitution in the 70th minute on the condition that you're in the lead, the substitution will be carried out the first time the condition is met after the 70th minute. So if you get into the lead in the 80th minute, your substitution will be carried out first then.
If you set up two orders for the 70th minute, for example, one if you're in the lead and the other if you're in the lead by more than one, and you have a 3-0 lead when that time comes, both orders will be issued. Please note: If you have set up two orders with the same conditions (match minute and result, for example) they will NOT be executed at the exact same moment but in the order they were created.
After the match you (but not your opponent) can see a list of all your player orders via a link on the star rating page, along with information of when they were issued or why they weren't issued.
You can't react to injuries
It's not possible to set up any condition for injuries. If one of your players gets injured during a match, the automatic system deals with it. This also means that an injury can mess up your substitution plans, just like in real life soccer.
Psychology
Managing a soccer team is not only about training and tactics, it's about psychology as well. Your team has to want to win and they have to believe in themselves. Your team psychology affects your match results, and in turn your match results affect your team psychology.
Team spirit
The atmosphere at your club has a great influence over the performance of your team. Team spirit affects your midfield ratings, and the higher team spirit you have, the better your midfield will perform. This, in turn, determines the amount of ball possession you will have.
Team spirit itself can be affected by a lot of things, but in particular your coach's leadership, the team attitude you set for each match, transfers, and your psychologist, if you have one.
Confidence
Your players have to believe in themselves to perform well. A team with low confidence has trouble finishing their opportunities. High confidence is normally a good thing, but if it gets too high, players may underestimate weaker teams (see below for more info).
Team Confidence is reflected in your attack sector ratings. Confidence is largely dependent on the results of previous games and their respective fan expectations. A psychologist or a coach with high leadership is known to boost Team Confidence.
Team attitude
Before each competitive match you tell your squad how important the match is. Your team attitude setting affects how much ball possession you will get. You have three options:
Match of the Season: Your players will do anything to win this one. However, directly after the match the team spirit will fall, which means your players will not perform at their best in the following matches.
Normal: The players perform as usual.
Play it cool: Your players are instructed to take it easy, as there are other more important matches to focus on later. Directly after the match, team spirit will increase and your players will perform better in their next matches.
Player personality
All players have a personality. Dishonest and aggressive players tend to get booked and sent off more often. Leadership is important for your appointed team captain and for your coach.
Psychological match events
The way a match unfolds can impact the behavior of the players beyond the instructions laid out by the coach. Such psychological events can have a big impact on a specific match, but they do not, by themselves, affect the team spirit or confidence of future matches
A team that gains a lead of two goals in a match will automatically start to lose their attacking momentum and will focus more on defense. This effect will further increase as the lead is extended; each goal increase in the goal difference decreases attack by 9% and increases defense by 7.5%. Each goal reduction in the goal difference reverses the previous effect. There is an upper limit of a goal difference of 8, after which the team’s ratings will stop changing.
In some situations teams are able to withstand this psychological effect. If the team has been given "Match of the Season" instructions, they won’t back down even when in a large lead. The same goes if the team plays a final in one of the national Cups or the Hattrick Masters, and in the last series round of the season. In national teams competitions, the team won't back down from the semifinals included in the World Cup, while in the Continental Cups and Nations Cup there will be no pullback from the quarterfinals on.
Moreover, a team performing unusually badly in the first half might get a tongue lashing from the coach during the break, and be able to pull themselves back together.
Underestimation
If you're facing a team in a worse position than you and your confidence is strong or better, your players may underestimate your opponent and play below their normal capacity. The risk to underestimate your opponent is dependent on the points and position difference between the teams, your confidence level, and your team attitude for the match. The risk is higher at higher confidence levels and when there's a bigger gap in the standings. The only way to completely avoid underestimation is to play 'match of the season'.
If you do end up underestimating your opponent factors such as point difference, confidence level, team attitude, and stadium in which your match is played determine how much underestimation there is. Depending upon the score, you might recover at half time. You'll have a full recovery if behind, 2/3 if you're tied, and 1/3 if you lead by a single goal.
Note that underestimation can only happen in series matches, but not in the first three rounds.
Transfers
The transfer list is where you acquire new players and try to sell those players you don't want to keep. You are allowed a maximum of 50 players at any time. The bid page gives you an overview of all the players you're selling or bidding on. It also shows any transfers of former players from whom you will receive money.
Selling a player
To sell a player, you place him on the transfer list, which you do from the page of that particular player. You choose what price you want to ask for him and he is placed on the transfer list. To get an idea of the player's value, you can use the Transfer Compare feature, and we always suggest listing at a realistic price. A player, however, needs to have played at least one game for your team to be transfer listed, and you can't transfer list a player more times than he has played games for your team. This restriction does not apply to players promoted from your youth team, or to players that were on your team when you first became manager. The player will be on the transfer list for three days before going to the club that has offered the most, provided somebody has bid for him.
A sold player disappears off to his new club after the deadline expires, unless one of the clubs involved in the transfer is playing a match at the time, in which case he will arrive as soon as the match finishes. If a buyer is not found, he will stay at your club. If you put a player up for sale by mistake, you may cancel the transfer. Canceling a transfer is possible for 10 minutes after listing the player, as long as there have been no bids. Your listing fee will not be refunded. Outside this window, you always have the option to buy the player back yourself!
Buying a player
To buy a player you visit the player market, the transfer list, under the Club menu, via the World menu, or via the transfer search icon in the top right corner. You search for what kind of player you want. To make an offer you enter the page of the player by clicking on his name. You must raise the bid by 1 000 US$ or 2%, whichever is greater. If there is no current bid on the player you can bid the asking price, as long as this is equal to or greater than 1 000 US$.
Note that the sum of your bids plus the wages of the players on whom you are bidding (you always pay a player's first salary immediately after the purchase) cannot put you more than 200 000 US$ into debt.
You may bid on a player right up until the deadline. If someone places an offer less than 3 minutes before the deadline, the deadline will be extended for another 3 minutes from the point in time that the offer was made.
A great help when buying players is the information concerning his skills, personality ,etc. You can also use the 'Transfer Compare' to see what a similar player has recently been sold for on the market.
Autobidding
Autobidding works in the same way as any normal bid would. If you place a max bid the system will automatically bid for you when needed, always raising the bid with the lowest possible amount (2% or 1 000 US$, whichever is lower).
You can change (both increase and decrease) your max bid at any time, but you can't remove your current bid. Your max bid is only visible to you; other managers just see the current bid.
You can have one active max bid at a time. If your max bid has reached its max, it does not count as an autobid anymore and you can set another max bid if you want.
For some special cases (like when two teams make the same autobid or when two autobidders bid against each other) we have built in some smart logic, here are some examples to help explain this logic.
The agent, the mother club and transfer fees
Placing a player on the transfer list costs 1 000 US$. After the completed deal the player's agent, mother club, and previous club will all take their cut of the sale price. On the player page you can always see how much you will keep if you sell a player. Here are the basics:
How much the agent takes depends on how long the player has been in your team.
The mother club always takes 2% of the selling price. When you're the mother club, you always receive 2% each time that player is sold. Please bear in mind you neither pay nor receive any mother club money when selling a homegrown player for the first time.
The previous club fund always takes 3% of the selling price. When you're the previous club the money you receive depends on how many matches the player played for your team.
See these tables for more info.
When you sell a youth player you are not considered the previous club. But, the next time he's sold, you are considered previous club (provided he has played at least one match for your senior team.)
Transfer proceeds to Board reserves
For some player sales, the Board may decide to transfer a part of the proceeds to Board reserves for later use by the club.
This happens only for specific players, and for most managers it will be a very rare occurrence.
The Board will tell you during the transfer listing process if this is about to happen and, if so, the percentage of the proceeds that will go to Reserves.
The Board may do this when they think a player is being sold for speculative reasons, or as a way to store value. They will reason that the team does not need to replace the player for competitive reasons. (Historically, such players have been called "Gold Bars" by the community, for their ability to hold value over time).
Currently, Boards will only consider retaining money for goalkeepers with at least solid goalkeeping skill, or potential future coaches with at least solid leadership plus inadequate experience or higher.
The percentage of the sale that the Board sends to Reserves depends on how many matches the player has recently played for your team.
The general rule is that for regular starters, all money stays as cash - no money goes to Reserves. Being a regular means playing at least 60 minutes once a week.
Absence due to injury is ignored, but if healthy players are sidelined, more money will be earmarked for Board Reserves.
Example: A player that fits the "Gold Bar" criteria has been starting in league matches all season. When the manager considers selling the player, the Board stands back - all proceeds (after agent fees) would be available to the coach as cash. Now say the transfer listing does not happen and the player is instead put on the bench. After two weeks, 12% of transfer proceeds will be earmarked for Board Reserves. After four weeks on the bench, the earmarked amount rises to 24%. Then the manager decides to start the player again. After six weeks playing league or Cup matches, the player can be sold with no money ending up in Board Reserves.
As a rule of thumb it takes three weeks of playing in a league or Cup match to recover two weeks of inactivity. If only playing friendlies, the recovery takes twice the time. If a player was raised in your team, no money will go to Board Reserves, whatever the skills and starting status of the player may be. This also goes for players that joined the club in the last two weeks and have not had the time to become starters.
Transfers may affect team spirit
Whenever you buy or sell a player you risk a drop in team spirit. The risk increases when you sell a nice player and when you buy a nasty player. There is no risk of a team spirit drop if you sell a youth player within 6 days of him joining the senior squad.
Server shutdowns
Transfer deadlines can be extended (in the fairest possible way) in case of server shutdowns. Also keep in mind that the server might be down just as the deadline approaches. A transfer is only completed once the new player arrived at his new club and may, until then, still be subject to an extension of the deadline when interruptions occur.
You'll be taking a chance by waiting until the last minute before making your move. It is advisable to transfer list your players at a price you think is reasonable, as you may risk selling your player at a lower price than you have hoped for. This way you avoid any possible disappointment because of an unexpected server down.
Fair Play in the Transfer Market
Good players and money are key aspects of Hattrick, which make it very important that no team benefits from abnormal activities in the transfer market. This means that buying players at inflated prices is prohibited, and so is any activity that is designed to give a team a financial benefit of any kind. Only the player attributes such as skills, age, uniqueness, NT/U21 potential, and other qualities which have an influence on the game, play a role in determining a player's market value.
Youth players
Youth players
You can acquire new players for your first team squad by recruiting young players. There are two different ways to achieve this.
-
The simplest way is to user your club's scouting network. Using this network, you can instruct scouts to look for players that they think are suitable to play for your senior team right away.
-
The second option is to start a youth team. Your scouts will then look for talent for this team instead. You will recruit younger players that need more time to develop. With a youth team, you can play matches against other youth teams in private or public leagues. Through these matches, you will be able to discover your players' true potential as well as train them before they are ready for the first team.
Finding a player through the scout network and recruiting them directly to your senior squad is a simple and time-efficient way to acquire talent. Running a youth team is more challenging, but if you do a good job it can also be more rewarding.
In both system, you rely on youth scouts to do the work. Each scout will present one prospect per week for you. Hiring more scouts costs more money but also give you a better range of prospects to choose from. You can only use one system at a time. The scouting network is used by default, but you can start a youth team at any time. It's a long term commitment as you can't expect any players for your senior team for at least one season. Once you are running a youth team, you cannot promote a youth player from the scouting network. However, you can of course change back. You do that by closing your youth team and start using the network instead. Beware, as by doing this you will lose any progress and all players you have in the youth team.
Scouting Network
You can acquire a new player each week by sending your scouts out to find a new talent for the senior squad. For each scout you hire, one prospect will be presented every week. However, only one can be chosen.
You don't have any options on what kind of player you'll get, apart from choosing between a goalkeeper or an outfield player. Don't count on receiving top notch players each week.
Most players the scouts recommend won't even be suitable for the reserve team. If you have one or two of them moving directly up into the team you should be satisfied - think about how things work in reality!
You can hire up to three scouts, who will each be paid a weekly salary. Each scout on your payroll can be given instructions what to do. You choose what region in your country they will search for talent, and you can choose if they should primarily look for a particular position or for any kind of player. When looking for a certain position, you will find talent that have a better fit for what you need, but you may miss out on players that have more talent overall.
You can hire and fire additional scouts at will, but you can never have less than one scout.
You're only able to recruit one young player per week through the scouting network.
Information on your youth squad activities can be found in the "My club" menu, under the "Youth Team" caption.
Youth team
Having a youth team means you will actively manage your youth players. You set line-ups, plan their training and discover their true potential. Understanding what skills your youth players can reach while still in the youth team is a key factor in running a successful youth team. Sometimes, you will be able to discover rare gems that can become important players for your teams for many years, or who can be sold for a lot of money on the transfer market. Your youth team can join and compete in a youth league of your choice; you can for example play in a league together with your friends or colleagues. Every now and then your youth team can also play friendlies against other youth teams in the world.
Starting up a youth team
You activate your youth team from the "My club" menu, under "Youth team, Overview" caption. You will get a trainer assigned to the team. Your scouts will be the same as when you ran only the scouting network. You will also get some youth players immediately to allow your youth team to play matches right away. However, those players are randomly picked boys from a local school and far from talented.
The youth league
Your youth team can join a youth league of your choice, or you can choose to create your own. A youth league can have 4, 6, 8, 12 or 16 teams, and the league can be private (the creator of the league invites people to the league) or public (free for everyone to join). The league creator can also choose when the league matches should be played. Once a league is filled with teams it starts automatically.
The scouts
Scouts work in the same way as they did with the scouting network. You can hire up to three scouts, but never have less than one on the payroll. You can tell them in what region they should look for talents, and also if you want them to look for a specific kind of player. When you ask a scout to look for a certain position, players tend to have a little lower overall quality.Every week, they will present one prospect each for you. You need to choose based on the limited information available to you. You can only recruit one player per week, and the players you pass on will never show themselves again around your club...You may also hire additional scouts if you want, but you cannot have more than three scouts (and not less than one).
You may also hire additional scouts if you want, but you cannot have more than three scouts (and not less than one).Once a week, each scout will make you a player offer when you call him.
If you have more than one scout, you can also get a second offer (and a third if you've got three scouts) if you say no to the first one. But remember, if you choose to turn the first offer down you will never be able to reverse that decision. Once you say no to an offer, it's final.
The players
Your youth team can host a maximum of 18 players at the same time. Players joining your youth team will be 15-16 years old. Most of their skills are yet to be discovered, so you will not see all their skills or personalities like you do for senior players. To explore your players you have got to try them out in different positions on the pitch, to see where they play the best. To your aid you have the star rating, the scout's comments and the trainer's report. Through training you will also be able to reveal their skills, more info about this in the training section. Additional hints are also to be found in the match report.
Matches
Once every week your youth team plays a league match and every third week you will also have the opportunity to play a friendly game. You place your orders in advance and choose the tactic you want to play exactly as you do for your senior squad. If no order is placed, or if the lineup is incomplete, the boys will fill the lineup themselves. They will nominate a keeper first, then fill open defender slots (max 5), followed by midfielders and wingers (max 5), and finally forwards (max 3).
Training
Youth players can focus on two types of training at the same time, one primary and one secondary. The primary training has more effect than the secondary. You can choose to train the same thing (for example defending) as both primary and secondary training, but the training effect will be bigger if you choose two different training types.
Youth players receive training from both league games (full effect) and friendly games (smaller effect). Training for youth players is calculated per match, so they can receive training twice the same week. You need to give your training instructions at least 10 minutes before the game starts. The effect of training appears after the game is finished. Right after the end of the match your trainer will give you a report about what has happened in the team, with a lot of good hints about the players' progress. You may also get the chance to reveal skills:
For primary skill training, your coach will inform you about the current skill level for one player who's played at least 44 minutes in a trainable position (i.e. receiving more than very small effect). The same goes for secondary skill training, but in this case the trainer will inform you about the maximum potential in that skill instead of the current level. A player potential report will not be shown if that player hits their maximum trainable skill level the same week. In such a case, the coach will report that the player can no longer continue training that particular skill.
Note that you will not receive a report for the secondary training if it is the same as the primary training. If all players in a trainable position have had their skills revealed, your trainer is not able to give you a report of this kind. Also, if you have fewer than 8 players on the pitch when the match ends, you will not get any skill reveals.
Additionally, your coach will normally report one of the three players with the most potential (highest maximum skill level) in a non-trained skill.
Promotion to the senior team
A youth player must at least be 17 years old and have been a member of your youth team for at least a season (112 days) before you can promote him. You cannot promote a youth player if it leaves your youth team with less than 11 players that are eligible to play matches. You can also not promote a player if you already have 50 players on your senior team squad. Once a player reaches 19 years old, he will no longer be able to play in matches for your youth team. He does not have to leave the youth squad, but you will not see him on the field again until you promote him to the main team.
The costs
When you start a youth team you pay a one-time registration fee of 5 000 US$ out of your Club temporary costs. Running a youth team with one scout costs 10 000 US$ per week and each additional scout costs 5 000 US$. You will also pay an additional 5 000 US$ as a signing bonus in the first week of hiring a new scout. The weekly costs for the youth team will be listed as "Youth expenses" in your weekly financial report. The youth team does not have any other staff, they rely on their parents taking care of transport, bruises, injuries etc. - which they do without any additional cost. At the same time youth teams have no income either, the only spectators are usually just parents and friends to the youth players.
Promoting a youth team player to your senior squad costs 2 000 US$.
Apart from that the only additional cost you will get is if you tell your scout to search for players in another region, then you might have to pay for his plane ticket.
Closing the youth team
If you want to deactivate your youth team, you can do that in between youth seasons or if your youth team is not a member of any youth league. You must keep your youth team for at least six weeks though. You can also "restart" your youth team, even during a youth team season, by using the "Restart youth team" feature on your Youth team overview page. This action is irreversible. It means that all your youth players and scouts will be fired, your closed youth team will remain in its league and you will have to find a new league for the new youth team. This option may be used only once in 3 seasons (48 weeks).
Please note that the 'restart youth team' box is only shown if the youth team has been inactive (no scout calls) for at least the past 3 weeks or if you haven't called your scouts this week and have less than 9 eligible (under 19) players in your youth team.
The series system
A Hattrick season is 16 weeks long: 14 league rounds (each series has 8 teams who play each other twice), one week for qualifiers, and one week with no league activity.
The League Pyramid
Every league in Hattrick builds on the same principle: you start at the bottom of the pyramid, aiming to earn promotion to the highest level over time.
The top three divisions look the same in every league. The top division has one series with eight teams - this is where the league champion is decided.
Below this, there is a division with four series and 32 total teams. Each of the four series winners may gain direct promotion to the top level or play a qualification match to advance, depending on their season record.
The third level has 16 series with 128 total teams, again an expansion by a factor of four from the league above it, and again the same promotion rules.
In the divisions below, not all leagues look the same. Depending on how many active managers a league has, the league structure may be flatter (allowing more teams per level but making promotion harder) or expand in a taller, more narrow way (which gives more division levels but with more accessible promotion paths).
The league structure in your league matters because it decides the promotion rules for your series. Check your league table for exact information on how promotion works in your series. You can also browse other divisions in your league from the arrows on the series page to see how promotion works in different places.
The Hattrick Football Association may occasionally choose to adjust the league structure by reducing or increasing the size of a particular division. If this happens, it will be communicated in advance.
Promotion, relegation, and qualifiers
Promotion can happen in three ways, depending on the size of your division compared to the one above you.
1. The winner promotes or plays a qualifier: If your division is much bigger (x4), fewer teams can promote. In this scenario, 50 % of the series winners in the division promotes directly and the rest of the winners have to play a qualifier. Who gets the direct promotion is decided by points and goal difference during the season.
2. The winner promotes directly, the runner-up plays a qualifier: If you division is twice the size of the division above, the winner will always promote and the runner-up plays a qualifier against a team from the level above.
3. Two teams promote directly, two teams plays qualifiers: If your division is the same size as the division above, four teams have the chance to promote. Teams placed 1 and 2 promote directly, teams placed 3 and 4 plays a qualifier.
Demotion rules are simpler. Unless you are already playing in the bottom division, the teams placed 7th and 8th will always be demoted directly, while teams placed 5th and 6th will play qualifiers to stay up.
Please note that the promotion and demotion rules for your series can always be found in your series table.
Switching series
If your team competes in one of the three bottom divisions in your league, it may be possible to switch from one series to another in the same division. For this to work, there needs to be a free slot in the series you want to join.
There are two ways to initiate a change of series:
1. In the Next Season Planner, available on your Series page, you can set a Preferred Series. This option opens up around one month before the season ends and will give you priority to a specific series when the season ends. All viable moves will happen immediately after Qualification matches have been played. If the division above or below your current one also has series switching enabled, you can also set a Preferred Series in these divisions. This preference will be used if you promote or demote at the end of the season. Your Preferred Series choices are reset once all viable planned moves have been completed, and the new season starts.
2. In the week after Qualification matches, a second opportunity to change series opens up. Using Switch Series, you can browse other series and move directly to a new one if there are available slots. Please note that if you have an additional team under your management, as part of your Supporter membership, your teams can never move to play in the same series.
Bot relegation
At the end of each season all bot teams in division VI and lower will be relegated to the lowest possible division. The only exception to this is at the very top of division VI, where any bot team that wins the series will either promote or play a qualifier as normal. Bot teams in division V or above are treated in the same way as human owned teams in terms of promotion and relegation.
As these bot teams are demoted, additional teams will be given space in the higher division. These teams will be labeled "Lucky Losers", and will either be teams that lost qualification matches, or in some cases, teams that were demoted directly. You can opt out from this kind of promotion in the team settings.
If there are enough bots in a country to fill the entire bottom division, the system automatically closes the bottom division, and hence makes preparations for it.
League position and ranking
The final standings are determined by, in order of importance, points, goal difference, and goals scored. This in turn determines your ranking, which is used to decide who meets who in qualifiers and cup games.
The ranking is based on, in order of importance: series level, place in the series, points, goal difference and goals scored. For both ranking and league position: if all of these things are equal a coin toss decides.
Prize money
If you finish in the top half of the table you will get some prize money. How much you get depends on your place and in which division you play:
Series Level
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
Division I
|
2 000 000 US$
|
1 175 000 US$
|
825 000 US$
|
500 000 US$
|
Division II
|
1 350 000 US$
|
1 050 000 US$
|
750 000 US$
|
450 000 US$
|
Division III
|
1 200 000 US$
|
925 000 US$
|
675 000 US$
|
400 000 US$
|
Division IV
|
900 000 US$
|
700 000 US$
|
500 000 US$
|
300 000 US$
|
Division V
|
600 000 US$
|
475 000 US$
|
325 000 US$
|
200 000 US$
|
Division VI
|
525 000 US$
|
400 000 US$
|
300 000 US$
|
175 000 US$
|
Other divisions
|
450 000 US$
|
350 000 US$
|
250 000 US$
|
150 000 US$
|
There is also a 10 000 US$ bonus paid for having the top scorer in a series. The money is paid-out after the last match of the season. If two players tie for this award, both current owners of the players will receive the award; however, if two of your own players tie, then you only receive one prize.
Promotion bonus
If you are directly promoted to a higher division you get a promotion bonus on top of the prize money. Moreover, promotion will also boost your fan club: you'll receive a 10% increase in fans. Similarly, if you demote you will lose 10% of your fans. If you promote "for free," outside the regular promotion slot, you only get the fan club boost. Examples of this include promotion due to bot removal and the temporary extra promotion slots available in the Hattrick International league.
Series Level
|
Directly promoted
|
Promoted after qualifier
|
Division I
|
-
|
-
|
Division II
|
500 000 US$
|
175 000 US$
|
Division III
|
450 000 US$
|
150 000 US$
|
Division IV
|
400 000 US$
|
125 000 US$
|
Division V
|
300 000 US$
|
100 000 US$
|
Division VI
|
200 000 US$
|
75 000 US$
|
Other divisions
|
175 000 US$
|
50 000 US$
|
The cup system
Participating in one of the Hattrick cups is an exciting challenge for every manager, as well as a good way to gain experience for your players and to earn extra cash for your club. The Hattrick cup system has been designed to offer a meaningful experience for teams at every level. It has also been designed to ensure that every team is guaranteed at least three cup games every season.
Every team in Division 6 and above will get to play in the National Cup. If eliminated early from the National Cup, the team will instead get to participate in a lower tier cup.
If your league has more than six divisions, there will also be a Divisional Cup for each division below Division 6. Teams in these divisions (Division 7 and below) will play in their respective Divisional Cup instead of in the National Cup.
These Divisional Cups, like the National Cup, have their own lower tier cups for teams that are knocked-out early.
Cup fixtures
Cup matches are always played in the middle of the week. The first round of the National and Divisional Cups always takes place a few days before your first league match of the season. The Challenger Cups consists of teams that have been eliminated from either the National or Divisional Cup, and for this reason the first Challenger Cup starts one week after the National Cup and Divisional Cup. There are separate Challenger Cups that correspond with the National Cup and with each Divisional Cup.
Your first cup opponent and the cup you will play in are announced one week in advance. In coming rounds, your next opponent and current cup will be announced shortly after all matches for the current cup round have ended.
Cup Venues
The main rule is that the strongest team still in the cup will play away against the weakest team still in the cup. To decide this, we use a cup ranking, explained further down.
In the cup's last six rounds, rankings no longer influence home or away advantage, as all matches are played at neutral venues.
Cup Draw
How is your opponent in the cup decided?
In the first round of the cup, the highest-ranked team will always play away against the lowest-ranked team in the cup.
Before the first round kicks off, the draw for the second round is made. For this draw, it is assumed that all high-ranked teams progressed from the first round.
If a lower-ranked team wins in the first round, it will inherit the place of its opponent in the second round. This could give it an easier opponent than it would otherwise have gotten in that round.
However, this advantage does not last. Before the second round starts, the draw for the third round is made. Again, all remaining top-ranked teams are matched against the remaining low-ranked teams.
The advantage of this system is that for any cup round, all remaining teams will know what happens if they progress to the next round. There is always another match, the winner of which will play the winner of your match in the next round.
Here is an example of how the Hattrick Cup draw works:
1. In the first round, we have the following 16 teams and matchups:
First Round
TeamRank16-TeamRank1
TeamRank15-TeamRank2
TeamRank14-TeamRank3
TeamRank13-TeamRank4
TeamRank12-TeamRank5
TeamRank11-TeamRank6
TeamRank10-TeamRank7
TeamRank9-TeamRank8
The expected Round 2 matchups, as made known before Round 1 starts, are these:
TeamRank8-TeamRank1
TeamRank7-TeamRank2
TeamRank6-TeamRank3
TeamRank5-TeamRank4
However, two Round 1 matches ended in surprise wins for the underdogs - Teams 16 and 14 outperformed. Because of this, the actual matchups in Round 2 will be:
TeamRank8-TeamRank16
TeamRank7-TeamRank2
TeamRank6-TeamRank14
TeamRank5-TeamRank4.
Now, when the draw for Round 3 is done, the system again assumes that the top-ranked teams will win, hence creating this draw:
Team Rank8-TeamRank2
TeamRank6-TeamRank4
If Team 16 wins again, it will acquire the seat of Team 8.
If Team 14 wins again, it will get the seat of Team 6.
Cup Ranking
The cup ranking is used when creating the cup draw. It is a static ranking that does not change once the cup has started. The first factor for the ranking is what division the team plays in during the current season. Teams are then ranked within these divisional groups as follows:
1. Active relegated teams
2. Active teams that neither relegated nor promoted
3. Teams that promoted by their own strength
4. Teams that promoted for "free" (replacing a relegated bot)
5.Bots, in case of vacant spots
Teams within each group above are sorted according to the ranking at the end of the last season. The ranking stays the same for the duration of the cup.
Joining a Secondary Cup Later
For Challenger and Consolation cups, the time of entry is also factored into the seed. Teams who entered early are guaranteed to be seeded higher than those who joined later. The cup ranking of each team still matters, but only to decide in which order teams that entered on the same date will be seeded.
One example would be that your team manages to stay in the National Cup until round 5 or 6 before being eliminated. As your cup journey continues in a lower-tier Challenger Cup, you will always be seeded lower than teams that joined before you. The highest-ranked team of those who entered in the first round will play against the lowest-ranked team of those who entered most recently.
The Different Cups and Their Formats
The most important cup in every league is the National Cup. This is open to every team in Division 6 and above that has a human manager. Only the very best teams will have a chance to win the National Cup, but any team that progresses far in this competition will be well rewarded.
However, if your team is eliminated early from the National Cup you will get a second chance. If you are eliminated in any of the first six rounds of the National Cup, you will instead gain a place in one of the three national Challenger Cups. Participating in the Challenger Cups will still be more attractive for your club than just playing friendlies, but rewards are still a lot lower than the National Cup. If you can, staying in the National Cup should always pay off.
The three Challenger Cups are, originally, the Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire Cups, though they may have different names in some leagues. The Emerald Cup takes on any team that is eliminated from the National Cup in round 1 or 6. Teams eliminated in rounds 2 and 5 are moved to the Ruby Cup. And teams eliminated in rounds 3 and 4 are moved to the Sapphire Cup. The three cups run parallel to each other and to the National Cup, and one winner will be crowned in each one of them.
Teams that are eliminated in round one of the Emerald and Ruby Challenger Cups will gain a place in the Consolation Cup. This Cup does not give any prize money or other perks, but the winner still gets a trophy.
In leagues with more than six divisions Divisional Cups are organized for Division 7 and below. The Divisional Cups follow a similar pattern to the National Cup. They have one main cup, the three Challenger Cups - Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire - and one Consolation Cup. The only difference is that the overall prize money is lower.
The size of the Cups is determined by the number of teams that are qualified for the cup and have human managers. The smallest possible Cup size that still makes room for all qualified human teams will be chosen. Once all human teams are in, the Cup will be filled up with bot teams to complete the starting field.
1. The amount of qualified teams managed by humans is counted
2. The smallest cup size that fits all the teams managed by humans is chosen
3. The Cup is then filled out by the human teams first
4. Regular bots from the league system are used next
5. If this is not enough, new bot teams are created for the purpose of the Cup only
Week |
National Cup |
Challenger Cup (Emerald) |
Challenger Cup (Ruby) |
Challenger Cup (Sapphire) |
Consolation Cup |
|
Teams |
Teams |
Teams |
Teams |
Teams |
1 |
16384 |
|
|
|
|
2 |
8192 |
8192 |
|
|
|
3 |
4096 |
4096 |
4096 |
|
4096 |
4 |
2048 |
2048 |
2048 |
2048 |
4096 |
5 |
1024 |
1024 |
1024 |
2048 |
2048 |
6 |
512 |
512 |
1024 |
1024 |
1024 |
7 |
256 |
512 |
512 |
512 |
512 |
8 |
128 |
256 |
256 |
256 |
256 |
9 |
64 |
128 |
128 |
128 |
128 |
10 |
32 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
11 |
16 |
32 |
32 |
32 |
32 |
12 |
8 |
16 |
16 |
16 |
16 |
13 |
4 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
14 |
2 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
15 |
- |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
16 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- Losing teams in round one and six of the National Cup will move on to the the Emerald Challenger Cup.
- Losing teams in round two and five of the National Cup will move on to the Ruby Challenger Cup.
- Losing teams in round three and four of the National Cup will move on to the Sapphire Challenger Cup.
- Losing teams from the first rounds of both the Emerald and Ruby Challenger Cups will move on to the Consolation Cup.
Team effects
One important aspect of the Cups is the tactical options that they present. Staying in the Cup for a long time gives you more competitive games, which also means more opportunities to increase confidence and team spirit in preparation for the league. Cup games also give your players more experience, which along with higher ticket sales makes a long cup run even more valuable. However, not all Cups will impact your team in the same way.
Cards and injuries are in full effect in all the cups. Cards picked up in cup games count the same as cards in league games for suspensions and yellow card accumulation.
Team spirit, confidence, fan mood: Only National Cup and Divisional Cup games will have an effect on these values. Matches played in any other cup behave like a friendly when it comes to the impact on future team spirit, confidence, and fan mood.
Experience: The National Cup and Divisional Cup give players twice as much experience as a league game. Challenger and Consolation Cup matches give your players half the experience they would get from a league game.
Cup income
Ticket sales are an important benefit from a successful Cup run. The longer you progress in any Cup, the more spectators will come and thus more revenue will be generated. The National Cup and the Divisional Cups are considerably more attractive to the fans than their corresponding Challenger and Consolation Cups. While a National or Divisional Cup game (at least in later rounds) can attract similar attendance to a league match, the other cups are more comparable to friendlies when it comes to attendance.
The National Challenger Cup will attract three times as many spectators as an international friendly between the two teams. The National Consolation Cup will attract twice as many spectators as an international friendly between the two teams. The Divisional Challenger Cup will also attract twice as many fans. The Divisional Consolation Cup will attract 50% more spectators than what an international friendly between the two teams.
The home side gets 2/3 of the crowd revenue and the away side gets 1/3. In the last six rounds the teams split the revenue 50/50. In general, fans aren't very interested in the first couple of rounds of the cup, but their interest will increase as it goes on. Additionally, the fans of a lower division team will want to see a match against a higher division side, but the reverse is not true. The best teams in the cup also get some prize money as shown in the table below. There is no top scorer award for the cup.
National Cup
Position |
National Cup |
Challenger Cup |
Consolation Cup |
Winner |
1 500 000 US$ |
300 000 US$ |
- |
Runner-up |
1 000 000 US$ |
150 000 US$ |
- |
Semifinal exit |
750 000 US$ |
100 000 US$ |
- |
Quarterfinal exit |
500 000 US$ |
50 000 US$ |
- |
Round of 16 exit |
250 000 US$ |
25 000 US$ |
- |
Round of 32 exit |
200 000 US$ |
- |
- |
Round of 64 exit |
180 000 US$ |
- |
- |
Round of 128 exit |
160 000 US$ |
- |
- |
Round of 256 exit |
140 000 US$ |
- |
- |
Round of 512 exit |
120 000 US$ |
- |
- |
Position |
Divisional cup |
Challenger Cup |
Consolation Cup |
Winner |
300 000 US$ |
150 000 US$ |
- |
Runner-up |
150 000 US$ |
100 000 US$ |
- |
Semifinal exit |
100 000 US$ |
50 000 US$ |
- |
Quarterfinal exit |
50 000 US$ |
25 000 US$ |
- |
Round of 16 exit |
25 000 US$ |
- |
- |
Friendlies
To give all your players a chance to train in the right position, practice games are always an option if you're not playing in the cup. Often they are used to let the reserves play and train, but they can also be a good way to test and train new formations and orders. Or why not challenge your best friend for bragging rights.
Getting a friendly
The easiest way to get a friendly is to add your team to the friendly pool on the challenge page. Choose what kind of match and opponent you would like, and then the pool will automatically match your team against another team and book a friendly (as soon as you meet the criteria set by a team that matches your criteria).
As long as you are out of the cup, and have not already booked a friendly, you can challenge any opponents that are also without a game. Some teams may be unavailable for challenges due to their preferences or Manager License status.
All of your challenges (including ones from teams who have challenged you) are shown on the "Challenges" page. Once a friendly has been arranged, it will appear on the fixtures page, and you can select your team in the normal fashion.
Season break friendlies
During weeks 15 and 16 of the season you will also be able to play friendlies during the weekend, as long as they do not clash with a qualification match.
During this period, challenging someone for a friendly will work a little differently. When making the challenge, a drop down will appear where you can select if the challenge is for a mid-week or weekend friendly.
The challenge window for weekend matches, whether they are international or domestic, will be from Monday at 06:00 to Friday at 23:59.
Friendly match types
There are two types of friendly matches: normal and cup rules. With cup rules the match is decided after extra time (and perhaps penalties) if there's a tie after full time.
International friendlies
You can choose to play abroad or invite a team from another country to your stadium. If you are playing abroad, the match will be played at the stadium local match time. For example, if you are playing in Portugal, the match will be played at the regular Portuguese Wednesday match time (i.e. 9:45pm Central European Time CET).
Regardless of to where you're traveling, your team will leave at 6:00 p.m. (CET) on Tuesday and return by 8:00 a.m. (CET) on Thursday. International friendlies must be booked by Tuesday 6:00 p.m. (CET) at the latest, and you can't book a new friendly until your team has returned home on Thursday. If your team didn't play an international friendly, you can start booking an international friendly for the next week at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday.
Each trip abroad will cost you 6 000 US$, but international friendlies tend to attract more fans.
Miscellaneous
The crowd turnout for a friendly is considerably less than for a competitive match . Friendlies with cup rules attract more than normal friendlies, and international friendlies attract even more.
Confidence and team spirit are not affected, nor are fans or their mood. However, the injury risk isn't reduced just because it's a friendly.
Playing on neutral ground
If you want to play a friendly without either team getting the home team advantage, you can choose to play on neutral ground. But if you play in a stadium in your own region, you will still get the home team advantage (even if you are listed as the away team). The stadium owner will not earn any money from these friendlies.
No matter where you choose to play, any match played against a foreign team is considered to be an international friendly.
Hattrick Arena competitions
Hattrick Arena is the alternative competition system for Hattrick teams. There are many types of Hattrick Arena competitions, from single-match Duels against another manager to official ladder contests where you can try to become the 'King of the Hill'. There are even private tournaments you can create and run yourself, setting the rules you want.
Note that you can still play regular friendly matches every week even if you play in a tournament.
Creating or joining a tournament
Hattrick Arena has a flexible tournament creation system. It is possible to join tournaments created by others or create one for yourself and your friends, using customized rules to make the competition more interesting.
As the creator of a tournament, you can decide on all aspects of the tournament. Name, format, size, match times, and special rules such as allowing only a certain category of players (homegrown, minimum, or maximum age) or setting a salary or power rating limit for participating teams.
Everyone can set up a tournament using Hattrick Credits. Creating or entering tournaments for free is also possible if you are a Gold, Platinum, or Diamond Supporter.
Match days in the Arena
Matches in Hattrick Arena competitions are played on neutral grounds, and they don't give you any income from spectators (and no new members to your fan club).
All Hattrick Arena matches use the same match data as regular matches. So your players’ current form, skills, experience, injury status etc on the match day will be used. There are two exceptions though: team spirit (and confidence) is set to a fixed value and cards work differently. See below for details.
Matches also have no effect on your team or your players after the match. Players don't get any training or experience from these matches, nor do matches affect formation experience, team spirit, and so on.
Divisional Battles and Trophies
You will also find several official contests in Hattrick Arena. These are created by Hattrick, and you can participate for free of charge if invited.
In Division Battles, you and the other managers in your series compete together against the other series in your division. Every round, your series is drawn against a different series, where each of the participating teams will face one of the teams from the other. The goal is to be celebrated as the best series of your division at the end of the season!
Hattrick also organizes two Trophy tournaments, both played during the pre-season. The Generation Trophy is a tournament where managers who started playing Hattrick around the same time are matched against each other.
The Supporter Trophy is an invitational tournament for all current Hattrick Supporters.
Hattrick Arena effects in detail
All the details you need to know about Arena matches are listed here:
- Team spirit: Team spirit is set to a fixed level (content) in Hattrick Arena matches.
- Team confidence: Confidence is always set to a fixed level (wonderful) in Arena matches.
- Injuries: No injuries will occur in Arena matches, but if your player already has an injury from a regular Hattrick match, they will not be able to play.
- Cards (Own Tournaments): Tournaments have their own card status and have a completely different system of red/yellow cards from 'normal' Hattrick. Cards received in a tournament only count for matches in that tournament. If a player acquires a red card in 'normal' Hattrick, they can still play in tournament matches.
- Cards (Ladders): Cards don't count in ladder tournaments.
- Training: Players don't receive training from tournament matches.
- Experience: Players don't gain experience from tournament matches.
- Formations: Your current formation experience in 'normal' Hattrick is used for tournament matches. However, you do not gain formation experience from tournament matches.
Ladder contests
In a ladder, your goal is to reach the highest rung and become the 'King of the Hill' - then stay there for as long as you can. To reach the top, you challenge other teams listed above you in the ladder. If you win, you take their place in the ladder.
Challenge Rules
Your current position in the ladder affects which teams you are able to challenge.
- Positions 2-5: You can only challenge the team immediately above you in the ladder.
- Positions 6-11:
You can challenge teams 1-2 places above you, but no higher than position 5.
- Positions 12-18:
You can challenge teams 1-3 places above you, but no higher than position 10.
- Positions 19-39:
You can challenge teams 1-5 places above you, but no higher than position 16.
- Positions 40-63:
You can challenge teams 1-7 places above you, but no higher than position 35.
- Positions 64-99:
You can challenge teams 1-10 places above you, but no higher than position 57.
- Positions 100-129:
You can challenge teams 1-15 places above you, but no higher than position 90.
- Positions 130-169:
You can challenge teams 1-25 places above you, but no higher than position 115.
- Positions 170-199:
You can challenge teams 1-35 places above you, but no higher than position 145.
- Positions 200-249:
You can challenge teams 1-50 places above you, but no higher than position 165.
- Positions 250-599:
You can challenge teams 1-75 places above you, but no higher than position 200.
- Positions 600-1099:
You can challenge teams 1-100 places above you, but no higher than position 525.
- Positions 1100-2499:
You can challenge teams 1-250 places above you, but no higher than position 1000.
- Positions 2500-5499:
You can challenge teams 1-500 places above you, but no higher than position 2250.
- Pos 5500+:
You can challenge teams 1-1000 places above you, but no higher than position 5000.
The challenger pays for the match with Credits, and challenged teams automatically accept the challenge. The match is played 24 hours after the challenge is made. If the challenger wins, the Credit will be refunded.
Position Changes after the Match
If you challenge a team and win, you take the position of the team you challenged. The challenged team moves down one position. This applies to all teams between the two teams in the ladder.
Example: Team A is in position 54 and challenges B, currently 47. If A wins, A takes position 47 from B. B moves down to position 48, and the team that held position 48 moves down to 49, the team that held position 49 moves down to 50, and so on.
If you challenge a team and lose, both teams stay in their respective places.
Challenge Grace Periods
A team cannot challenge you for twelve hours after the time your current challenge match begins. This gives you a chance to challenge a team yourself, and climb the ladder.
After a match in which you were the challenger, you can't challenge another team for 12 hours (from the start of the match). This is to give other teams a chance to challenge you. It is also to prevent scenarios where, for example, #2 always immediately challenges #1, making it impossible for #3 to challenge #1 and win that position.
National teams
In Hattrick, just like in the real world, there are national teams competing against each other. But in Hattrick the coach of your country's national squad is elected by you! Each Hattrick country has a main national squad, as well as a U21 team featuring players 21 years old or younger. This means each country has two national coaches, both elected by the community.
National team competitions
The National teams compete against each other in four interconnected tournaments. The competition cycle spans two phases, which are each one Hattrick season long. It starts with the Continental Cups, which are the regional championships for European, American, African and Asia/Oceania respectively. The national teams that are not ranked high enough to be seeded for the Continental Cups will instead participate in the global Contender League, which is played at the same time as the Continental Cups.
In the second part of the cycle, the best national teams will play the World Cup. The teams that do not make it to this tournament will instead play the Nations Cup.
The Contender League is a new addition to the competition schedule and will be where new national teams in Hattrick get started. The first edition will take place in January 2025.
National teams follow their own card status, and have a completely separate system of red / yellow cards from 'normal' Hattrick. As such, any card received in a NT/U21 match will only count for the matches that are part of that NT/U21 competition. Equally, should a player be red carded in normal Hattrick, he will still be able to play in a NT/U21 match. Cards are reset at the end of each competition (or when the team is eliminated from that competition).
Continental Cups
The best national teams of each Hattrick region will compete in the respective Continental Cup. These regional championships are played in groups of 6 teams. Groups are seeded based on the National Team ranking (see below).
The Continental Cups have a Round-Robin format (double matches - home away) and lasts for 10 weeks with quarter finals, semi finals and finals in the last week.
The best 8 teams in every region, based on their position, points, goals difference, and goals scored, will play quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals, while the rest of the National Coaches can schedule friendlies on Fridays. In the quarter-finals, the top 4 teams (based on position, points, goal difference, scored goals, and random if all else is equal) randomly face the bottom 4 teams that qualified to the quarter-finals. Two teams from the same group will not face each other in the quarters. The winner will be named continental champion and awarded a gold trophy. Silver and bronze trophies will be awarded to the teams placing 2nd and 3rd-4th respectively.
Contender League
Teams that did not qualify for the Continental Cups will play in the Contender League, which takes place alongside the Continental Cups.
This competition is played in the Swiss tournament format, which tries to avoid the same nations facing each other more than once - although this still may occur due to the small size of the competition.
The Contender League is not merely a consolation tournament, as the top 2 teams will go to the wildcard round for a chance to qualify for the World Cup. The rest of the teams will go to Nations Cup directly.
It's also important as good results during the Contender League will earn the team ranking points that are used for seeding in the next Continental Cup. |
World Cup
The World Cup starts in week 13 of the first season and lasts for the rest of season 1 and the entire season 2. It is divided into 5 rounds, followed by semi finals and finals.
96 teams participate in the Round 1 in 16 groups of 6 teams in a Round-Robin format. The first 4 of each group will proceed to Round 2, while the rest are disqualified.
Round 2 will have 16 groups of 4 teams in a Round-Robin format and the first 2 of each group will proceed to Round 3.
In Round 3 we have 8 groups with 4 teams where they play one match with every opponent in a neutral venue and the top 2 of each group promote to Round 4.
Round 4 and Round 5 will have four and two groups respectively, with four teams in each. Each team will play the other once at a neutral site, and the top two of each group will promote to the next round.
Both the semi finals and the final are in neutral venues. The winner of the final is named World champion, and is awarded a gold trophy. Silver and bronze trophies are awarded to the runner-ups.
Before each round, Team Spirit and Team Confidence will fully or partially reset to the reset values. For example, if the current team spirit is at level 9 and the reset value is 5 with the 80% reset, your team spirit will be decreased by (9 - 5) * 0.8 = 3.2 levels. Reset and midpoint values for the daily updates, for both Team Spirit and Team Confidences are 5.0.
Nations Cup
Teams that did not manage to qualify for the World Cup will play in the Nations Cup, which takes place alongside the World Cup. This tournament is played in the Swiss format (similar to the Supporter Week Trophy). The Swiss tournament format will try to avoid the same nations facing each other more than once, but that may still occur due to the small size of the tournament.
This is not merely a consolation tournament, but can be important for smaller teams, as good results during the Nations Cup will earn the team ranking points that are used for the seeding of the next Continental Cup. At the end of the Nations Cup - during the semifinals and finals of the World Cup - the top eight teams will have a knockout tournament and the winner will get a trophy. In this knockout tournament, the top four teams (based on position, points, goal difference, scored goals, and random if all else is equal) randomly face the bottom four teams that qualified to the quarter finals.
During the Nations Cup, players cannot be injured, but cards work as in any other tournament. Formation experience will carry over from Continental Cups, with a possibility to reset formation experience just like before the World Cup, and then be updated as normal after every Nations Cup match.
The winner is awarded the Nations Cup trophy.
World Cup qualification
96 teams progress from the Continental Cups to the World Cup.
Each continent has their own World Cup slots, which are awarded to the best placed teams in each group of the Continental Cups group stage. As we can see in the table below, Europe has 32 slots, Asia-Oceania 21 slots and Africa and America 12 and 20 each.
Continent |
Total teams |
World Cup slots |
Europe |
48 |
32 (4 promotions / group) |
Asia-Oceania |
42 |
21 (3 promotions / group) |
Africa |
24 |
12 (3 promotions / group) |
The Americas |
30 |
20 (4 promotions / group) |
A number of wildcard berths will be awarded for teams that did not qualify directly through the group stage of the Continental Cups. With eleven available wildcards, the best twenty teams that did not qualify for the World Cup - based on their points, goal difference, and goals scored in the group stages in Continental Cups - and the best two teams from the Contenders League, will be selected for a wildcard playoff.
In the wildcard playoff, the team with the highest ranking (a ranking based also on previous World Cup results) will be matched against the team with the lowest ranking, and the team with second highest ranking with the team of the second lowest ranking, and so forth. The playoff is played home and away, with a complete reset of Team Spirit and Team Confidence before the first match. In case of a tie, the second match will have extra time and penalties.
National Team ranking
Each National Team has its own ranking, which seeds the Regional Cup group draw. The last five seasons have an impact for this ranking, but this effect decays over time, meaning recent performances have more effect on the ranking than older performances.
Three factors affect rankings: the result of each match (M), the importance of the match (I), and the strength of the opposing team (T). The formula used to calculate the ranking is: P = M x I x T
Match result (M) |
Points |
Match Importance (I) |
Points |
Win |
3 |
World Cup Semi/Finals |
4 |
Draw |
1 |
WC rest of rounds |
2.5 |
Lose |
0 |
Continental Finals |
3 |
Win Penalties |
2 |
Continental rest of matches |
2 |
Lose Penalties |
1 |
Nations Cup |
1 |
|
|
Contender League |
2 |
|
|
Friendlies |
0 |
For the variable T, we subtract the ranking of the opponent team from the number 250.
Then, the final ranking is the average number of points (P) of the last 5 seasons weighted 100%, 70%, 50%, 30%, 20%, with the 100% being the current season and the 20% four seasons in the past. Rankings are updated after every match.
Continental cup draw
For the Continental Cup seeding we use the National Team Ranking to create the draw pots. The first position of each group is always reserved by the top teams, where group 1 will get the top 1 team, group 2 the second team etc. Then we have 5 draw pots, one for each position in the group filled with the rest of the teams sorted by their Ranking. For example, in America Cup, we have 5 groups of 6 teams. The first positions of each group are filled by the top 5 teams based on their Ranking. Then the second position can be filled by teams 6 to 10, third position by teams 11 to 15 etc. During our live draw, we work through all groups, until all pots have been emptied and all groups populated.
World Cup draw
The team ranking from the current season will determine the seed of that team in the World Cup draw. There are 16 groups in the World Cup first round, and the first team for each group is picked automatically. The top ranked European team from the Continental Cups (EU#1 in the table below) will always be the first team picked for Group 1, and the team ranked 8 from the Americas will always be the first team picked in Group 16.
Once one team has been assigned to each group, all other teams are picked using a live draw. The rankings from the Continental Cup are still very important, but instead of being assigned directly to a group, teams are put into draw pots. If we keep looking at the table below, in the column for “Team 2," four teams will be put in the first draw pot. These are the teams ranked 8, 7, 6, and 5 in Africa. Out of this pot they are assigned as the second team to Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, as decided by the draw. Four new teams are entered into the second draw pot and drawn for Groups 5, 6, 7, and 8. This process continues until all 16 groups are filled.
The system is broadly deterministic in order to make sure the best teams from the strongest continents are not in the same group. But at the same time we wanted a random element so that during the Continental Cup managers will not be able to proactively determine the various groups in the World Cup, as this could entice some NT coaches to lose games on purpose to get a better draw in the World Cup. It also makes the live draw much more fun.
Group |
Team 1 |
Team 2 |
Team 3 |
Team 4 |
Team 5 |
Team 6 |
1 |
EU#1 |
AFR#8 Pot#1 |
AME#9 Pot#5 |
ASO#16 Pot#9 |
EU#17 Pot#13 |
W#11 Pot#17 |
2 |
EU#2 |
AFR#7 Pot#1 |
AME#10 Pot#5 |
ASO#15 Pot#9 |
EU#18 Pot#13 |
W#10 Pot#17 |
3 |
EU#3 |
AFR#6 Pot#1 |
AME#11 Pot#5 |
ASO#14 Pot#9 |
EU#19 Pot#13 |
W#9 Pot#17 |
4 |
EU#4 |
AFR#5 Pot#1 |
AME#12 Pot#5 |
ASO#13 Pot#9 |
EU#20 Pot#13 |
W#8 Pot#17 |
5 |
EU#5 |
AFR#4 Pot#2 |
AME#13 Pot#6 |
ASO#12 Pot#10 |
EU#21 Pot#14 |
W#7 Pot#18 |
6 |
EU#6 |
AFR#3 Pot#2 |
AME#14 Pot#6 |
ASO#11 Pot#10 |
EU#22 Pot#14 |
W#6 Pot#18 |
7 |
EU#7 |
AFR#2 Pot#2 |
AME#15 Pot#6 |
ASO#10 Pot#10 |
EU#23 Pot#14 |
W#5 Pot#18 |
8 |
EU#8 |
AFR#1 Pot#2 |
AME#16 Pot#6 |
ASO#9 Pot#10 |
EU#24 Pot#14 |
W#4 Pot#18 |
9 |
AME#1 |
ASO#8 Pot#3 |
AME#17 Pot#7 |
EU#16 Pot#11 |
EU#25 Pot#15 |
W#3 Pot#19 |
10 |
AME#2 |
ASO#7 Pot#3 |
AME#18 Pot#7 |
EU#15 Pot#11 |
EU#26 Pot#15 |
W#2 Pot#19 |
11 |
AME#3 |
ASO#6 Pot#3 |
AME#19 Pot#7 |
EU#14 Pot#11 |
EU#27 Pot#15 |
W#1 Pot#19 |
12 |
AME#4 |
ASO#5 Pot#3 |
AME#20 Pot#7 |
EU#13 Pot#11 |
EU#28 Pot#15 |
ASO#21 Pot#19 |
13 |
AME#5 |
ASO#4 Pot#4 |
AFR#9 Pot#8 |
EU#12 Pot#12 |
EU#29 Pot#16 |
ASO#20 Pot#20 |
14 |
AME#6 |
ASO#3 Pot#4 |
AFR#10 Pot#8 |
EU#11 Pot#12 |
EU#30 Pot#16 |
ASO#19 Pot#20 |
15 |
AME#7 |
ASO#2 Pot#4 |
AFR#11 Pot#8 |
EU#10 Pot#12 |
EU#31 Pot#16 |
ASO#18 Pot#20 |
16 |
AME#8 |
ASO#1 Pot#4 |
AFR#12 Pot#8 |
EU#9 Pot#12 |
EU#32 Pot#16 |
ASO#17 Pot#20 |
EU: Europe
AME: the Americas
AFR: Africa
ASO: Asia-Oceania
WS: Wildcard slot
Elections
Elections are held at the beginning of the season, starting the two days after the World Cup Final. Every second season managers elect a National Team coach, and every second season managers elect a U21 coach. Each coach is elected for 2 seasons, ending their term about a week after the World Cup Final. Note that you will need to have played Hattrick for at least 1 season in order to be able to vote in the National Team elections.
Voting power
You can only vote once in an election. However, this vote may gain extra weight in the final tally. This system of voting power rewards commitment to the game, but the main reason for it is to make it harder to manipulate elections.
If you are a local team, you receive your first vote after 1 season in the game. You then gain a second vote after 5 seasons in the game, a third vote after 10 seasons, and a fourth vote after 15 seasons. Local teams can receive a total of 4 votes this way.
If you have an additional team in another league (except for international leagues, such as the Homegrown league or Hattrick International), you get your first vote after two seasons and a second and final seniority vote after 10 seasons.
All users also get up to two engagement votes, depending on how active their team management has been. We will not explain exactly how these work, to make it harder to manipulate them. They have been designed to be very easy to achieve for any normally managed team, but very tedious to achieve if you are maintaining a set of fake teams. Please note that as a user, you will not see the exact weight your vote has. We will just explain the principles behind the system.
The National Team squad
The national coach picks up to 26 players (from teams with active managers) from the pool of players with the right nationality. In terms of age requirements, U21 players must be at least 19 years old and National Team players at least 22 years old. After choosing players, the NT coach can see the same data for the National Team players as managers do for their own team.
Each national team has its own formation experience, and at the start of every Continental Cup and World Cup/Nations Cup, NT coaches will have about a week to decide which six formations will have Formidable experience, while the rest will begin at Poor. There are two selection periods: the first is from the day the election ends up to the Team Spirit and Team Confidence reset on the day before the first match for Continental Cups. The second starts runs from Week 12 up to the Team Spirit and Team Confidence reset in Week 13.
Please note that NT/U21 teams' daily updates take place every day at 03:00 AM.
Having a National Team player
If one of your players is on the National Team, their ability to play for your team will be unaffected. National Team matches and club games are typically played on separate days, so your player is always available to you. Matches for the National Team will not give your player any training, however, there is the risk of injury.
There are several benefits for your club if your player gets to play a match with the National Team:
- You will get a 33% or 40% salary reduction of the player's salary, depending on whether they are playing in a foreign team or their home country.
- The player gains a lot of experience. The amount of experience they get varies in the match type, and in descending order they are the semifinals and final of the World Cup, World Cup matches, the Continental Cup quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, then Continental Cup matches, the Nations Cup, the Contenders League, and, finally, national team friendlies.
- If a player is injured and has to leave a National Team match, the club will be compensated 100% of the player's base salary for the estimated number of weeks the injury is expected to last. This is in addition to the regular salary reduction.
There are no injuries in national team friendly matches.
Note that you are expected not to undermine National Teams through sabotaging your National Team player(s). National Team administrators, as a last resort, have the discretion to release players to the transfer market in the event of sabotage.
If you consider running for office, or if you just want more information, we recommend that you read the rules for national teams.
World Cup Schedule - Season 1
Wk |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
Sun |
1 |
Elections Voting |
Elections Voting |
Elections Voting |
Elections Voting |
Elections Voting/Live Draw /Friendlies |
Elections Voting |
Elections Voting |
2 |
Elections Results |
- |
- |
- |
Friendlies |
- |
- |
3 |
- |
- |
TS/TC Reset 100% reset |
- |
CC Match 1
C.L. Match 1
|
- |
- |
4 |
CC Match 2
C.L. Match 2
|
- |
- |
- |
CC Match 3
C.L. Match 3
|
- |
- |
5 |
CC Match 4
C.L. Match 4
|
- |
- |
- |
CC Match 5
C.L. Match 5
|
- |
- |
6 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
CC Match 6
C.L. Match 6
|
- |
- |
7 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
CC Match 7
C.L. Match 7
|
- |
- |
8 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
CC Match 8
C.L. Match 8
|
- |
- |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
CC Match 9
C.L. Match 9
|
- |
- |
10 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
CC Match 10
C.L. Match 10
|
- |
- |
11 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
CC Quarterfinals |
- |
TS/TC Reset 100% reset (Wildcards only) |
12 |
CC SemifinalsW Match 1 |
- |
- |
- |
CC FinalsW Match 2 |
- |
Live Draw |
13 |
- |
- |
TS/TC Reset 100% reset |
- |
WC R1 Match 1
N.C. Match 1
|
- |
- |
14 |
WC R1 Match 2 |
- |
- |
- |
WC R1 Match 3
N.C. Match 2
|
- |
- |
15 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R1 Match 4
N.C. Match 3
|
- |
- |
16 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R1 Match 5
N.C. Match 4
|
- |
- |
World Cup Schedule - Season 2
Wk |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
Sun |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R1 Match 6
N.C. Match 5
|
- |
- |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R1 Match 7
N.C. Match 6
|
- |
- |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R1 Match 8
N.C. Match 7
|
- |
- |
4 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R1 Match 9
N.C. Match 8
|
- |
- |
5 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R1 Match 10
N.C. Match 9
|
- |
- |
6 |
- |
- |
TS/TC Reset 80% reset (WC only) |
- |
WC R2 Match 1
N.C. Match 10
|
- |
- |
7 |
WC R2 Match 2 |
- |
- |
- |
WC R2 Match 3
N.C. Match 11
|
- |
- |
8 |
WC R2 Match 4 |
- |
- |
- |
WC R2 Match 5
N.C. Match 12
|
- |
- |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R2 Match 6
N.C. Match 13
|
- |
- |
10 |
- |
- |
TS/TC Reset60% reset (WC only) |
- |
WC R3 Match 1
N.C. Match 14
|
- |
- |
11 |
WC R3 Match 2 |
- |
- |
- |
WC R3 Match 3
N.C. Match 15
|
- |
- |
12 |
- |
- |
TS/TC Reset 40% reset (WC only) |
- |
WC R4 Match 1
N.C. Match 16
|
- |
- |
13 |
WC R4 Match 2 |
- |
|
- |
WC R4 Match 3
N.C. Match 17
|
- |
- |
14 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
WC R5 Match 1
N.C. Quarterfinals
|
- |
- |
15 |
WC R5 Match 2 |
- |
- |
- |
WC R5 Match 3
N.C. Semifinals
|
- |
- |
16 |
WC Semifinals |
|
- |
- |
WC Finals
N.C. Finals
|
- |
- |
C.C.: Continental Cup
WC: World Cup
W.: Wildcard
TS: Team Spirit
TC: Team Confidence
N.C.: Nations Cup
C.L.: Contender League
Hattrick Masters
The Hattrick Masters is the international tournament for all Cup and League winners. It is played for four weeks, starting after Round 4 each season. Matches are played on Mondays at 16.00 HT Time and Thursdays at 20.00 HT Time.
Fixtures
256 teams can participate in the Masters and it is played as a straight cup with 8 rounds. The draw for each round is completely randomized, and the matches are played on neutral grounds.
If there are not enough teams to fill up the first round completely, some lucky teams (selected randomly) will skip the first round and join the action in the second round. If any of the cup or league winners have become ownerless (or changed owner), they may not participate in the Masters. If a team wins both league and cup in the same season, they will be the only team from that nation participating in the Masters.
Special tournament rules
There are some special rules that apply to the Masters:
Card and Injuries: Cards do not matter (except red cards in the game, of course), but injuries are recorded as normal.
Team Attitude: Playing "Match of the Season" (MOTS) or "Play it Cool" (PIC) will not decrease/increase your team spirit as much as it would after a regular match. The effect during the match is the same as during a regular match, though.
Training: Masters games do not count toward a player's training.
Masters income
The home and the away team split the crowd revenue 50/50. The best teams also get some prize money as shown below.
The Hattrick Masters winner gets 800 000 US$, the runner-up gets 400 000 US$, and the two losing semifinalists each get 200 000 US$. The losing quarterfinalists each get 100 000 US$ and the losing last-sixteen teams each get 50 000 US$.
Additional club
Supporter Diamond allows you to manage up to three additional clubs, whereas Supporter Platinum lets you have one additional club, and up to three if you purchase the necessary Extra Club Licenses. You manage these clubs individually, just as you manage your primary club, which means the additional clubs have their own separate player squads, stadiums, finances, youth teams, and so on.
Start an additional club
You can start an additional club at any time. Your additional club can play in the same country as your primary club or in another country, as long as there is space available in that country.
Additional clubs will start with some initial funds (just as any other new club), but owners will not need to do the manager license.
General rules
You can have up to two additional clubs.
You will not be able to make any transfers between your clubs and you also can't buy players where the other team would either receive mother club or previous club money.
Additional club in the same country
Your primary and additional clubs will not be able to play in the same series or meet each other in a qualifier, nor meet each other in the cup (with the exception of the final). Both clubs can play at the same series level, but in different series.
In the unlikely, but not impossible, situation where three teams of the same user end up in the semi-finals, obviously one of the teams will face a sister team.
If one club is already playing in the top series, and another earns promotion to this series, the club promoting will not be allowed to advance. That spot will instead go to the team, among those that should have demoted from the top division, that finished with the highest rank. This will be processed after the qualifiers have been played.
If both clubs promote to the top series in the same season, only the primary club will get to promote.
Additional club in another country
The number of additional club spots available for "foreign" managers in a country depends on how many clubs are unused in that country, something that depends on how big the country is and how many users are already playing in it.
A minimum of 50% of the clubs in a country are reserved for local users. So, in a league with 168 clubs, at least 84 of them are reserved for local users (and the other 84 slots can be taken by any manager, local or foreign). But if a country is 90% full, the remaining slots will be reserved for local users only.
Switch series in switching window
Just like for primary clubs, it is possible for additional clubs to switch series (where possible) in the series-switching window in between seasons. Keep in mind that it is not possible to switch to a series where you have another club playing.
Flags
Flags are collected by clubs separately, additional clubs have their own flag collections.
Playing against an additional club rewards flags just as playing any other club would, and the additional club is rewarded flags for its own collection.
Achievements
Achievements are achieved by the manager, and achievements are, as such, saved for each user and not for each club.
Voting in elections
If you have an additional team in another league (except in the international leagues like Hattrick International and the Homegrown League), you get your first vote after two seasons, and a second and final seniority vote after 10 seasons.
Bankruptcy
If your primary club goes bankrupt you will also lose access to your additional club.
If your additional club goes bankrupt you can start a new one 16 weeks after the date you started your previous additional club (so if you've had your additional club for more than 16 weeks you can start a new club immediately).
Close additional club
You can close your additional club at any time. But if you close your additional club, you'll have to wait at least 16 weeks from when you started your previous additional club until you can start a new one.
Platinum/Diamond subscription expiration
If your Platinum, extra club license or Diamond subscription expires, you will still be the manager of your additional club for one more week, after this week you will no longer be able to manage it. 7 weeks after the expiration, the system will disconnect your additional club. If you purchase Platinum, a extra club license or Diamond again during these 7 weeks you will get access to your additional club again. But if you don't, the club will become ownerless and you will not be able to return to it.