Frequently Asked Questions

VIP managers can apply to run one of 32 national teams alongside their club job. Elected managers pick a 25-man squad from every player of that nationality (regardless of which club owns them), set independent tactics, and compete through a World Cup qualifying campaign and, if they get there, the World Cup itself, all played out during dedicated breaks in the club calendar. Visit the National Team hub to see the current election status or your own job, if you have one.

You need to be a VIP manager. When an application window opens (every 2 seasons, for all 32 jobs at once), apply for any nation from the National Team hub; your own nationality doesn't matter. VIP status is only checked at the moment you apply, so if it lapses later you keep the job until your term naturally ends. You can only hold one national team job at a time, in addition to your club.

After the applications window closes, a short voting window opens. Any manager who owns at least one player of that nationality on their club roster gets exactly one vote among that nation's applicants; it isn't weighted by how many you own. Ties are broken by random draw. If nobody applies for a nation, it simply stays under the same bot AI that runs unclaimed clubs until the next election.

Exactly 2 seasons, with no incumbency advantage: everyone, including the outgoing manager, has to reapply from scratch at the next election if they want the job again.

From your national team's page, you can select 25 players from the entire live pool of that nationality, any club, regardless of who currently owns them: it's a selection list, not a transfer, so players never actually move. The squad must be exactly 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, 8 midfielders and 6 forwards, and you can freely add or drop players at any time during your term. Your national team also has its own Tactics page, completely independent of your club's.

All 32 nations are seeded into 8 groups of 4 by average squad strength, then play a double round-robin (6 matches each) spread across the 2 seasons of the election cycle. The top 2 in each group (16 nations total) advance to the World Cup.

The 16 qualifiers are drawn into 4 groups of 4 for a single round-robin group stage. The top 2 from each group go into a straight knockout bracket: quarter-finals, semi-finals, and a final. A knockout match still level after 90 minutes goes to extra time, then penalties if needed.

That's an international break: qualifying uses two shorter windows (one per season of the cycle), and the World Cup is one longer pause covering the whole tournament, group stage through the final. Only league and cup match simulation pauses; finance, transfers, scouting, and injury recovery all keep running as normal. This is also why the offseason between seasons sometimes runs a little longer than usual; it's making room for the World Cup to actually finish.

No, there's no extra fitness or injury cost from playing internationally, so releasing a player for national team duty never puts your club squad at extra risk.

Yes, a player selected in the starting lineup earns experience for the match, at half the rate of a normal club match. You'll also get an inbox notification whenever one of your own players is called up to or dropped from a national squad.