How it works
1. The window
You have £900M and eleven slots in the formation of your choice. Each turn deals a random squad from 2009-10 to 2017-18, across the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Eredivisie and Primeira Liga. You sign one player from it.
2. The price
A player costs what he was worth that season, using Transfermarkt market values. The fee is then converted to today's money for transfer inflation, and three seasons of wages are added. Occasionally a fictional extra turns up on the receipt. Bigger clubs come up more often, and so does temptation.
You get one other-season swap (same club, different year), one other-club swap (same year, different club) and one reroll. Tap a signed player to release him for a full refund.
3. The peak
Every player plays at his peak rating within 2009–2018, but ratings stay redacted until full time. A 2012 De Bruyne costs a fraction of a 2015 one and plays exactly the same.
4. The nine champions
Your XI plays the Premier League champions of each charged season, in order: Chelsea 09-10, United 10-11, City 11-12, United 12-13, City 13-14, Chelsea 14-15, Leicester 15-16, Chelsea 16-17 and City 17-18. Win all nine for a perfect 9-0-0.
5. Creative accounting
Short of cash? File a scheme. Each one adds budget and charges, and raises the odds of a finding:
- Airline sponsorship top-up: +£150M, +30 charges. The sponsor pays a fraction. The owner quietly covers the rest.
- “Commercial partners”: +£100M, +25 charges. More deals with companies that happen to share an owner.
- Image rights via a third party: +£75.0M, +15 charges. Part of the wage bill gets paid by a company that isn't the club.
- Manager consultancy deal: +£40.0M, +10 charges. A second contract, with a second club, for some light advisory work.
- Non-cooperation: no money, +35 charges. Adds no money, but lowers the odds of a finding. If you're caught anyway, the verdict is harsher.
After the ninth match, our entirely fictional Independent Commission rules. The outcome is Cleared, a points deduction (your most recent wins struck off) or titles stripped (all of them). Clean runs go on the CLEAN board and everything else on ALLEGEDLY*.
Fair play
Results are simulated on our server from a seed fixed at kick-off. Every leaderboard entry is re-played before it counts, so nobody can post a result they didn't get.