7TH EDITION RULEBOOK - COPYRIGHT TRIDENT GAMES 2003

The league consists of four divisions, each containing sixteen teams giving a total of sixty-four teams in each league. All sixty-four teams will be controlled by other managers from various parts of the country, or indeed, from any part of the world. In general, Premier Division clubs will receive higher gates (and thus earn more cash) than those in Division Three and will feature in most of the T.V. games, but that is the only difference between the divisions.

At the end of each season, the top three clubs from divisions one, two and three will be promoted (there are no play-offs) whilst the bottom three clubs from the Premier, Division One and Division Two are relegated. Each team will play the other fifteen teams in its division twice each season -once at home and once away, giving thirty league matches per team per season. Three points are awarded for a win and one for a draw.

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As well as taking part in the league, each team will also take part in the S.L.F.A. Cup which takes place over six rounds.

The first round of the cup is played on week ten which is a special week when only the cup matches will be played. From then on any further cup rounds are played on the same week as a league match, on week 17, 20, 24, 29 and the final on week 31 (the last week of the season). Therefore, if your team is still in the Cup, you will be playing two matches on those weeks. NOTE - THERE IS NO EXTRA CHARGE FOR THIS.

The same squad is used for BOTH matches on these weeks. Should any players be injured or sent off in the first match (the league match is played before the cup match), then our computer will automatically choose the best replacement for him (if you have one) for the cup match. Should a cup match end in a draw thirty minutes extra time will be played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if extra time has still failed to separate the teams. There are no replays in the cup and all matches must be decided on that week.

The cup draw is made on week 1 and every week after a cup round (i.e weeks 11, 18, 21, 25 and 30). In general, the further you progress in the cup, the larger crowds will be. The final will be played at your league's national stadium and will always attract a huge crowd. The finalists are certain to receive a large cash bonus.

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At any time it is possible to have a maximum of fifty players employed by your club. It is also necessary to keep a minimum of at least seventeen players in both your full team and youth squads. Fines will be imposed on clubs unable to field full sides.

On every turn report, a full list of all players currently employed by your club will be shown along with their most important details. This list is arranged into full and youth squads and each is again arranged into player positions (i.e goalkeepers, defenders, etc) on your weekly turn report.

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Player's names consist of both first and second names. The full name can consist of no more than 25 characters (including spaces), Before each player's name you will also see a four or five figure number - this is his identification (I.D) code. WHENEVER YOU GIVE ANY CONCERNING YOUR OWN OR OPPOSING PLAYERS, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS GIVE BOTH NAME AND I.D CODE, FAILING TO DO SO MAY CAUSE ORDERS TO BE OMITTED.

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The player listings you will receive on every turnsheet will show the following details:

APPS (Appearanes):
Shows the number of appearances this player has made THIS SEASON for this club. Figures in brackets show appearances as substitute. Therefore, a reading of 10 (2) would show that this player has made 10 full appearances and two more as substitute this season.

NOTE - The computer does keep a record of a player's full career appearances but these are only shown under more detailed player reports.

G/CON or GOALS:
Shows the number of goals conceded (for goalkeepers) or scored THIS SEASON for this club. Again, full career records are recorded but not shown on this list.The next five columns show the player's main skills. For goalkeepers these are:-

POSN positioning
HAND handling
REFL reflexes
AGIL agility
CROSS crosses

The following four columns show SPEED, STR. (strength), FIT. (fitness) and FORM.

Under all nine of these columns, a player's current standing in that category is shown as a word, giving a rough guide to how well he's doing in that area.
NOTE : these are only rough guides. The computer actually keeps very precise ratings in each area, which may well change regularly. However, since only a rough estimate is shown on the list, any minor changes in a particular area will not be obvious although the players value will be seen to change regularly as he improves.

There are 10 different levels of ability shown on the list : in order, they are:-

ABYS abysmal
V/PR very poor
POOR poor
B/AV below average
AVER average
FAIR fair
GOOD good
V/GO very good
EXCE excellent
BRIL brilliant

The next heading (AGGR) shows a players aggression This can be either CALM, AVER (average) or WILD.

Next comes the players AGE (this will be increased by one year at the end of every season for every player which will also decrease his value by around 10%), then his WAGES Following this is a heading marked CONCT (contract) This shows how long a players contract has to run The figure will show as two
numbers (e/g 1/13), showing first how many seasons and then how many weeks the contract has left to run

The final column is DSP (disciplinary points). DSP's are increased by 3 for every booking and 7 for a sending off At 21 points, a player will be suspended for a week and the club fined £10,000.

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A player has five main skills, showing his ability to actually use the ball well on the field. These abilities do not change quickly, but through constant practice and training they will gradually rise (unless the player is doing particularly badly) These skills are described in detail below NOTE : Goalkeeper skills are shown separately below the outfield player skills. The following five descriptions apply to defenders, midfielders and attackers only

CONTROL - This skill reflects the players ability to control the ball at his feet, as well as bringing the ball under control from passes and dribbling the ball. This ability is important to all outfield players.

TACKLING - The ability to cause an opponent to lose possession of the ball, or even to gain possession from him. Tackling Is the most important rating for a defender, it is also very useful to midfielders but not especially important to an attacker.

PASSING - The ability to pass the ball precisely to a team-mate. Also includes the ability to make crosses into an opponents penalty area. Passing is most important rating for midfielders and also very useful, though not absolutely necessary, for defenders and attackers.

HEADING - The ability to win the ball in the air and to head the ball precisely, either towards goal, to a team-mate or away to a safe position. Heading is important to all outfield players and is used extensively both in attacking and defending.

SHOOTING - This skill shows the amount of power and accuracy a player can get behind the ball when striking (with his feet) at goal. Obviously, this skill is extremely important to attackers. It is also very important to midfielders who share a lot of the attacking work, but less important for defenders, who very rarely attempt shots a goal anyway.

A real top-class player will show good ability in all of these areas, regardless of his position on the pitch, but your players will still perform well with some poor ratings, so long as their main ratings are high. For example, your defenders should always have good tackling and heading and may be able to get away with poor passing and shooting, but if you're looking to build a real championship winning side, you should try to obtain players who have good all-round ability.

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A goalkeeper is a very specialised player and as such, his five main skills vary immensely from those described above. His other attributes however, described below under PHYSICAL AND MENTAL ATTRIBUTES are identical. The five goalkeeping skills are described in detail below:

POSITIONING : Getting into the right position for an incoming shot is almost as important as actually saving it, since it will subsequently be much easier to save if the goalie's positioning is good.

HANDLING : Getting to the ball is one thing, but actually catching it cleanly, especially when under challenge or catching from a powerful shot, is quite another matter.

REFLEXES : Although not important in all situations, reflex saves can often be vital. When a long shot is hit at him, a goalie doesn't need his reflexes at all, but when quick, close shots or even deflections cause the ball to fly at him suddenly, a reflex save can deny a certain goal.

AGILITY : The ability to move quickly and nimbly, in order to reach the ball through jumping and diving. Agility is extreme important to a goalkeeper.

CROSSES : Although not important in all situations, the ability to come off his line and deal with incoming crosses neatly is a vital part of a goalkeepers armoury.

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A player's physical and mental state is extremely important to him, no matter how good a player he is. Attributes such as speed, strength, fitness, form, morale, aggression and happiness are all very important.

SPEED - This reflects the player's sprinting speed and will affect all aspects of his game. Being the first to a loose ball, or outsprinting an opposing player can be more important than actually outdoing him for skill and a very high speed rating can make a good player out of an otherwise indifferent one. Speed is not especially important to goalkeepers, although there may be occasions when it helps, especially when coming out to clear a difficult pass-back.

STRENGTH - A player's physical strength can play an important role in the modern game, which is usually played with alot of aggression. A high strength rating not only helps a player during the match, by helping him to resist or dish-out hard tackling / barging etc, but also helps him to resist injury or indeed to cause injury. A weak player may well be prone to many injuries, whilst stronger players should prove more resilient. Equally a weak player is less likely to injure an opponent than a stronger player. This is only a general rule though, and even the weakest of players COULD injure a strong player through clumsy tackles etc.

FITNESS - An extremely important factor and also one of the most flexible of ratings, fitness will prove vital to your team's success. Whereas the other abilities are very slow to change, fitness can fall or rise rapidly, depending on the amount of play and training a player receives. It affects ALL other skills during a match, which will drop gradually during a game as the player becomes more tired. Extremely fit teams will find themselves to be much more effective during the end of games than those with unfit players. Goalkeepers do not tire nearly as quickly as outfield players and as such, fitness is not of paramount importance to them. Midfielders on the other hand, tend to do far more running than other players and as such, will require a higher fitness rating to be fully effective for the whole ninety minutes.

FORM - A player's current form will drastically affect the way he plays. Match results will have a minor effect on form to those players who take part in the match. Being selected to play in matches will also affect a players form and those who are left out regularly may well lose their touch. A player's morale will also have an effect on his form and there are also random factors which may affect him. Form can only be regained through good results, high morale, regular match play and perhaps a bit of luck (players will occasionally rediscover their touch suddenly). The Counsellor (see 'Training Staff) will also help to improve form

AGGRESSION - Shows a player's general behaviour on the pitch. Calmer players are much less likely to commit deliberate dirty tackles than those with an aggressive temperament and are therefore less likely to be booked or sent off. This doesn't mean that well behaved players won't go in for crunching tackles, but they won't deliberately attempt to injure opponents. They are also less likely to back-chat the ref or get involved in punch-ups / slanging matches etc. Less aggressive players are better for your team, since they won't too often become suspended for bad behaviour, but the occasional fiery player is sometimes a bonus to team, through his ability to wind up opponents.

MORALE - A player with very high morale will play much more to his true abilities and put in much more effort than a depressed player and a squad full of such high enthusiasm will perform far more impressively than a team low on confidence. Morale can change very quickly indeed and is especially influenced by match results, match appearances and other factors such as injuries, sending-offs etc. A player who is unhappy with his club is also less likely to have a very high morale. When a player changes club, through a permanent transfer (not a loan), his morale will revert to an average level.

HAPPINESS - This is not a reflection of the player's overall happiness, but instead shows his happiness WITH YOUR CLUB. If he feels hard done by (e.g. he feels he deserves a higher pay-packet), he will become unsettled at the club and this may even lead to him requesting a transfer or refusing to sign a new contract. You should note that you will very rarely know the happiness of your players, unless they become really low and start complaining. When a player moves to a new club permanently, his happiness will revert to an average level.

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Every player must be paid a reasonable wage every week while he is employed at your club, regardless of how well he plays or even if he plays at all. What you consider to be a reasonable wage may not be considered quite so reasonable by the player in question and if a player thinks he is not being paid enough he will tell you so. If you refuse to pay a player what he considers to be a decent wage, he will become unhappy at your club and will request a transfer or refuse to sign a new contract. Youth players will be paid a standing wage of £50 every week and will not complain about this while they remain in your youth squad. The minimum wage for a full team player is £250, while the maximum is £30,000 per week. With today's inflated prices, you are likely to come across many players on such high wages. Players do have a fairly decent idea of how good they are and will not usually demand unreasonable wage packets. Increasing or decreasing a player's wages will have a considerable bearing on his morale and happiness with your club.

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As an added incentive to do well, you can offer your players a win bonus which will be paid to each player every time they win a match Obviously, the more you offer, the more effect this will have. Don't expect miracles however, a win bonus will have only a VERY minor effect on a match and it simply isn't worth offering more than a couple of hundred pounds per player.

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Every player employed by your club must have signed a legal contract before he will be allowed to play in your team. A player who has no contract cannot play in any matches for your club. Whenever a player's old contract has expired, or a new player arrives at the club, he will then be required to sign a new contract before he can play for your club. If he is already unhappy at the club he may refuse to sign a new contract, in which case you must either sell or sack him. Likewise, if you are unhappy with the player, the same options are open to you.

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Players can pick up injuries at any time, either during matches or in training. Whenever a player picks up an injury, you will be informed immediately and details of the injury and it's effects will be shown. Most injuries will leave the player unable to play until the injury clears. Most will also limit the types of training the player can do - for example, an injury to the leg will make fitness, speed, ball control etc almost impossible to train and the player will have to miss out on these sessions until he is fit again. Full details of all effects of an injury will be shown in the PLAYER STATUS section of your turnsheet. NOTE - A player can only be affected by one injury at a time, if he picks up two injuries then only the most serious will be considered.

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Every club will have one physiotherapist employed, who will do his best to treat any injuries and may occasionally speed up a player's recovery. However, to help him do his job, you may also spend up to £1,000,000 on special treatment equipment. For every £100,000 you spend, the treatment facilities at your club will be increased by one level. The higher the level, the quicker your players SHOULD recover from injuries

Treatment facilities cost £250 per level per week to maintain.

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You can receive a more detailed view of up to two players every week by asking for manager's reports on them. A manager's report shows a player's ratings and history in more detail than your squad reports.

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You should always choose 11 players for a first team match and two substitutes. If you fail to do so for any reason, your coach will step in and play your best possible team (though not necessarily the best team for that particular match). This will deter deliberate cheating and also help your squad should your team selection orders fail to arrive in time for the matchday.

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Two substitutes should be chosen if possible for every match. Substitutes will automatically replace any player who is injured during the match but may also be given specific orders as to when to come on. You may choose to bring on your sub(s) when you are winning or losing (although they will not come on until half-time if you give such orders) or in a specific minute of the match. The computer will automatically choose which player(s) will be replaced - they will normally be of the same position as the sub(s) and will always be the players who appear to be flagging. You cannot give more than one condition for a substitute to come on - for example, you may not specify that a sub comes on if you're losing in the 60th minute. You may only specify, winning, losing or a specific minute for when to bring on your subs. Substitutes can sometimes swing a match since they will be full of energy when they come on and could overwhelm your opponents.

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You may change a players position permanently at any time if you think he's more suited to that role, but it may not work out well for him. However, if you're not happy, you can easily change him back to his original position again. Changing any outfield player to a goalkeeper or a goalkeeper into an outfield player is not possible.

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Along with each team selection, you are allowed to give two special orders to individual members of your squad, affecting the way he plays for this match.

MAN MARK - Order one of your players to man-mark a specific opposing player. He will stick to his opponent like glue and if he does a good job, will effectively take both players out of the match. This is very useful for negating top-class opponents and is often seen in today's football. Be careful though to ensure that your player is capable of doing the job. Giving a tough task to a poor player may end up in him taking just himself out of the game as his opponent runs rings around him. Also, man-marking a poor opposing player is pointless as both your marker and the opponent are effectively negated, benefiting neither team. Man-marking should only be used against really top-class opponents. Goalkeepers may not man-mark or be man-marked. When issuing this order, remember to specify the opposing player's I.D code clearly in the space marked 'Opposing I.D' on your turnsheet. The order will fail if you miss the ID code.

WORK HARD - Orders one of your players to put in extra effort, running around very energetically and putting pressure on your opponents. He will need to be very fit to do this effectively. This order can make your player around 20% more effective than usual. It may be useful to order a substitute on at half-time or early in the second half to replace your man as he may well become worn out by this time (although the computer will automatically choose another player to come off if one of them is even more tired). You cannot order a goalkeeper to work hard. You do not need to specify any opposing player I.D for this order.

FREE ROLE - Order one of your players to play in a 'roaming' position, usually around the centre of the field, looking to be involved with all aspects of the game. Can be pretty tiring and it's best if the player involved is quite fit. Also, due to the amount of involvement the player will get during the match, it is really only worth giving this order to one of your best players as a poor player receiving the ball too often will probably have a detrimental affect on your team. Midfielders are usually assigned this role or sometimes attackers. Goalkeepers cannot be ordered to play in a free role.

HACK DOWN OPPONENT - A nasty order, similar to the man-mark order, but far more aggressive. Your specified player will follow a particular opponent around during the match, reducing his effectiveness during the game, but using aggression to intimidate and hassle his opponent. Like the man-mark order, it is mainly used against top-class opponents only. You should note that there is a high chance of your player being booked or sent-off with this order, although there is also a chance of injuring the opposing player and having him removed from the match (the chance of a booking or dismissal is somewhat higher than the chance of injuring your opponent).

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Your youth team is a special squad of up and coming youngsters whose basic purpose within the game is to develop into full time professionals.

Like your full team squad the youth squad will play one match every week and participate in a single 64-team league table, involving every youth team in the game. Your youth teams opponents will always be the youth team of your full team's opponents that week. Therefore, although all 64 youth teams are taking part in the same league table, your youth squad will only actually play against the 15 youth teams of the teams in the same division as your full squad.

Like your full team pros, youth players will generally improve if they are given regular matches and win those matches. Unlike your youth squad however, it is not up to you to choose the squad every week. Instead, this task is left to your youth team coach, who will generally choose the best players, but may well give some of the less talented players a run-out every now and then to help assess his potential.

Youth players are always aged 16 or 17. Once they reach 18 they will be moved up to the professional ranks. Whilst under a youth contract (YTS) they will be paid a mere £50 per week and will be quite happy with this.

Youth players will train with the rest of the squad and should improve much more rapidly. They are also less likely to become upset at having extra training forced upon them. They can also make sudden huge improvements in their skills, rising an entire rating in one skill in a single week. Such improvements can quickly make star players out of otherwise ordinary looking trainees.

Should you ever wish to promote a youth player to the professional ranks before his 18th birthday, you should simply say so on your turnsheet. The following week the player will appear as a full pro with wages decided by the board and a 31 week contract.

New youth players can be signed from other clubs or found by your youth scouts (see the section headed 'Training Staff).

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Your club will employ two scouts who will operate separately from the training staff mentioned later in these rules. Unlike the other training staff, you cannot alter the level of your league scouts.

The task of your two league scouts is to scout out players from other teams in your league, or to scout out entire squads in your league. (Note - Inter-league scouting will be available in a future upgrade). If you wish to look at an individual player, you simply state his I.D code and team on the relevant scout line of your order sheet. On your next turn you will receive a detailed scout report on that player.

Alternatively, a league scout can obtain a team list and season's results of another team in your league, which will show the players used by that team last week and their results for this season. Note that you will receive one such list every week anyway, without needing to use your scouts, which will detail your next weeks opponents. To obtain a team list rather than a single player scout report, state the team name on the scouts line of your order sheet but leave blank the ID code section.

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There are two main transfer markets available within the game, the standard transfer market where the managers of both teams agree on the terms, and the auction market, where players are simply sold to the highest bidder. The auction market is described in detail below the transfer markets. Note that bidding for a player on the auction market is very different from bidding for a player on the standard markets.

The process of transferring players through the standard transfer markets is fairly simple, but must be carried out correctly for the deal to be processed without complication. First of all, both managers must agree on the transfer details and then both must write in the IDENTICAL transfer ON THE SAME WEEK. If both transfer orders are received by us and both are identical, the transfer will be carried out immediately and the player(s) involved will be available to their new clubs on the following week.

Several points need to be noted :-

If you are transferring a player within your own league, then the transfer may only consist of one player on each side of the deal, i.e you may buy a player for cash, sell a player for cash or swap a player for another player.

If you wish to transfer players to/from other leagues then you may transfer up to three players on either side of the deal. For example, you could sell one player for cash, buy three players for cash, swap one player for three players plus cash etc. You may also carry out a more complex deal of this type within your own league, but due to the complexity of the deal, it must be carried out as an inter-league transfer. The only thing you really need to remember when asking for an inter-league transfer, is to include the I.D code of the team you're dealing with. Each team has it's own unique I.D code, which looks something like 'moa43' (the league ID followed by the team number ID). Also, it is important to understand that after an inter-league deal is completed, all players bought or sold will age one year, otherwise such deals could be used to stop players ageing altogether (ageing currently takes place at the end of the season only). In a future upgrade, all players will receive unique birthdays to make this unnecessary. If you carry out an inter-league style deal with a team from your own league, for example because you wanted to do a three for one player swap, then players will not age.Loans are also possible, but only with clubs within your own league. As such, only one player can be loaned in or out with each loan deal. See the 'Directors' section for limitations on the amounts you need to pay for a loan deal.

IMPORTANT NOTE - In order to stop people gaining an unfair advantage over other players in the game through controlling more than one team etc there are certain 'House Rules' that you must obey (see the section at the end of these rules headed 'House Rules'). We will not allow certain players to spoil the game for others by taking control of multiple teams, transferring over all of the players for free and then dropping control of the other team. See the 'House Rules' for a detailed description of what is allowed and what isn't. Also, see the section marked 'DIRECTORS below for more transfer information.

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The transfer market is simply an advertising board, showing a list of all players currently unwanted by their clubs (within your own league and in other leagues) and available for transfer. Due to the large number of players on the transfer list, you are currently only allowed to view a single section (this limitation is imposed because many players still play the game by mail, and printing the entire transfer list on paper would make the turns too expensive to print and post (larger turns equal heavier postage costs)). If and when the game becomes 100% online, these limitations will be removed.

The transfer market sections have two parameters. Firstly, the position of players you wish to view followed by a value range or special category.

The positions must be set at 'Goalkeepers', 'Defenders', 'Midfielders', 'Attackers' or 'Random' (a random positional set will be shown each week).

The value/special categories are :-

Players worth over £1,000,000
Players worth between £750,000 and £1,000,000
Players worth between £500,000 and £750,000
Players worth between £250,000 and £500,000
Players worth below £250,000
Players nearing retirement (33 or older)
Youth players
Players in your own league only
So, for example, you could set the transfer market to view all defenders worth over £1,000,000, or all attackers worth below £250,000, or all youth midfielders, or all goalkeepers nearing retirement. To change the section viewed each week, write it on your orders sheet, or fill in the relevant section on the 'Transfers' screen of the email orders program.

If you wish to make a bid for another player, then you have a couple of choices. You could just send the bid in by writing it on your orders sheet or filling in the transfer bid on the transfers screen of the email orders program. The manager of the selling club will receive your bid when he receives his next turn and may then get back to you to work out a deal. Alternatively, you could contact the other manager immediately either through the messages section of the game or through real-life communications such as email / phone / mail etc to work out a deal.

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To place a player on the standard transfer markets, simply write that you wish to do so on your orders-sheet, or locate and alter the correct drop down box on the player details page of the email orders program (the player information page can be found by clicking a players name on the main squad selection screen). Remember when writing down such an order, to specify clearly that you want this player to go on the STANDARD transfer markets, and not on the auction market. Once a player is placed on the auction market you can't get him back, other than bidding for him along with everyone else.

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The auction market is a simple bidding market, where everybody gets an equal chance to bid for any player on the list. Whenever another team places a player onto the auction market, he will go onto the list for four weeks, during which teams can bid for him as many times as they wish. At the end of the four week period he will go to the highest bidder for the amount bid. Be very careful to get your bids in for a player you want before the bidding ends - this can sometimes be deceptive because leagues are processed on different days. For example, you may see a player who has one week left on the market and decide to bid for him next week, but by the time your orders are processed then his league will also have been processed again so your bid will be too late. Make sure you only bid for players who have two weeks or more left on the list.

There are a couple of limits on bidding for players on the auction market. To prevent cheating, there is an upper limit on all players but this limit differs from player to player and is never known. This will not be a problem if you have no intention of cheating as the limit is very high and will not hinder sensible bids. However, your club's directors may also step in and put a halt to any bids you make in order to protect the club's finances. For example, if you're already £5,000,000 in debt and you attempt to put in a bid for a player for £10,000,000 then the directors will almost certainly stop it, as they consider a debt of over £10,000,000 to be too excessive. IMPORTANT NOTE - If you are already the current successful bidder for a player from a pervious week, then the directors will also consider this. For example, if your club is £5,000,000 in debt, and you're currently the highest bidder for a player at £3,000,000, then the directors will consider your current debt to be £8,000,000 as far as making further bids goes, because you may well be the winner of that bid. In that case, the directors would only allow you to bid a further £2,000,000 on the auction market. See the 'Directors' section below for more details on director actions.

When a player is bought off the auction market from a different league to yours, he will age one year as all players need to age once per season. This will be addressed in a future issue when all players will be given unique birthdays. At present, this doesn't affect players bought from the auction market from teams within your own league.

You may only view a single section of the auction market, with the same limits as the standard markets. See the description of standard markets above to understand how the different sections are arranged.

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Players can be loaned between clubs just as easily as buying or selling them. First of all, both managers must agree on the loan deal and then both must write the loan order on their turnsheets or fill in the loan deal in the email orders program ON THE SAME WEEK. Assuming that both sets of orders are identical, the loaned player will appear on both managers tumsheets from then on until one of the clubs terminates the loan (any of the two cubs can terminate the loan at any time). Note that loans can currently only take place within a league. Inter-league loans will be available in a future upgrade.

The team who is receiving the player on loan will pay his wages plus a set amount of cash every week to the club who owns the player. This amount of cash must be an amount agreeable to both clubs (and indeed, their directors). See the section marked 'DIRECTORS' below to see the amounts acceptable. The player will continue to be shown on the turnsheet of the original club but the words 'OUT ON LOAN' will be written across his ratings, to show that he is not available to play until he is recalled from the loan. The player's ratings will rise or drop at the new dub as usual and when he eventually returns to his old club he may well be a completely transformed player.

Players on loan cannot be transferred, sacked or given new contracts until their loan has been terminated. Also note that if a player's contract at his old club has less than two weeks left he will automatically be recalled from his loan.

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Your club's directors can play a major role in the running of your club, but their most obvious roles in "SOCCER STAR" are to keep an eye on the transferring of players, to give warnings regarding the state of your bank balance and to give your club a boost once per season with a large cash injection.

Should you ever attempt to sell or buy a player for more than one and a half times his value, or less than three quarters of his value, then the directors of one of the clubs involved in the deal will almost certainly step in and stop the deal, since they will feel that their cub is losing out cash-wise because of the deal. For example, a £1 million player could not be sold for more than £1.5 million or less than £750,00 without the intervention of the directors.

In a loan deal, the directors will expect you to pay around five times a player's wage to the other club every week for his services - again, anything over 1.5 times or below 0.75 times that value will be stooped.

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Your directors will boost your finances once per season with a large cash injection. This will arrive every season, without fail. You do not need to ask for the injection or give any orders, it will arrive automatically. Each clubs receives their injection on a different week, but will all receive a single injection once per season. Which week you receive your injection will depend upon your placement within the league structure (not within the league tables), so you will receive your injection on the same week each season until you're promoted or relegated, at which time your placement within the league alters. The amount paid out by the directors is totally random and is not affected by external forces. The injection may be as low as £1,000,000 or as high as £3,000,000.

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Although there is no substitute for real match experience, a player would achieve very little without regular training. The purpose of training is to keep a player's skills finely tuned, teach him how to improve those skills and to teach new match techniques (setpiece play etc).

In "SOCCER STAR" you will have a choice of five main training routines, each of which covers vastly different aspects of the game. The five routines are described in detail below:

1. SKILLS TRAINING.
The most basic type of training, used mainly to keep a player's ball skills finely tuned, although it might actually improve those skills slightly. Most of this type of training involves simple games, such as dribbling around obstacles, games of one-on-one, group volleyball etc. Due to the simplicity of these games, physical contact is kept at a minimum and therefore the chance of picking up an injury is very slight. Skills training should be fairly regular, otherwise you may find your player's skills beginning to drop - especially those who haven't had a match.

SETPIECE / CORNER TRAINING
In modern football, a large percentage of goals come from setpieces, therefore it is wise to spend some time practising such moves. This type of training involves not only the execution of these moves, but also how to defend against them. The main areas practised will be the taking of free kicks from various positions around the opponent's penalty-box and the taking of corners. The idea, of course, is to discover new patterns and methods of getting the ball into the net (or keeping it out if you're a defender). All teams have a rating for setpieces and corners, shown on your turnsheet, which is used in the correct situations to determine your deadliness in such moves in a match or to determine your skill at keeping out free-kicks and corners by your opponent. If your opponent has been doing more setpiece training than yourself then he will be at a considerable advantage. Although such training does require physical contact, most of it should be fairly harmless, since the idea is simply to learn methods of play rather than actually "get stuck in". Therefore, injuries shouldn't be too common.

3. FITNESS TRAINING
Without doubt the most important training routine. It is vital to keep your players in tip-top condition and is especially important for those players who have been left out of the first team. Without regular fitness training your players will rapidly lose their stamina. Fitness training consists mainly of gym work, normally followed by a long run. Picking up an injury in fitness training is rather difficult, although pulled / strained muscles are sometimes a problem.

4. COMPETITIVE TRAINING
This involves competitive games of 5-a-side or 7-a-side football, or even full matches, where the idea is to win the match, not to learn! Consequently there will be plenty of physical contact and the chances of picking up an injury are almost as high as they would be in a proper match. Effectively, competitive training is just like playing in a full match and is therefore extremely useful in keeping all skills, including fitness, up to scratch.

5. ATTACK ON DEFENCE
In these sessions the players are split into attackers and defenders, with the midfielders taking equal time in both groups. The idea is simple - the attackers must score past the defenders, trying various routes to goal. New methods and tactics will be attempted and if they work, can be used in matches. This type of training affects matches in the same way as does setpiece training - in other words, the more training you've done in this area, the better your tactics will be in a match (unless your opponent has done an equal amount of such training). The risk of injury is not particularly high, but does sometimes occur.

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All training will take place on weekdays - Monday through to Friday (game time, not real time). It is assumed that Saturdays are set aside for match days and Sunday training is discouraged and will not be tolerated by some players. For each of the five training days, a space will be provided on your order sheet to specify the type of training that your squad will be doing. If you're using the email orders program, a special page is set aside for training - hit the training icon at the top of the screen and alter the training patterns in the drop-down boxes accordingly. Any of the five training methods may be chosen any number of times - for example, you may wish to set five solid days of non-stop fitness training to get your squad into shape.

Note that it isn't important which order you do your squad training. Each training session has a set effect and it makes no difference which day it is carried out on. There's no point rearranging all your training patterns so that they're the same patterns but carried out on different days as the effects will be identical.

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Forcing your players to train constantly, every weekday of every week may cause a general loss of morale throughout your team, especially if results are also going badly. Therefore, you may wish to give your squad the occasional break, in which case they may be given the day-off, or a special team-outing to improve morale. Team outings cost £1,000 per day, but will improve morale at a faster rate than a day-off.

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On top of the normal training that your squad is required to do, it is also possible to give special extra training routines to individual players. The number of players who may be coached individually is limited to five per week, since the player must be coached separately for several extra hours per week by your team trainer.

Such training can be extremely useful as it concentrates solely on the player at hand and his particular capabilities. Training can be concentrated on any one of the five main ball skills (i.e control, passing, heading, tackling, shooting or the five goalkeeping skills if he's a keeper) or strength, speed or fitness.

It should be noted that each player can only be trained in one of these areas at a time, in other words, you can't give one of your players two special training routines, It is also important to realise that many players will become annoyed at the extra work they are being asked to do and will possibly lose morale and happiness at your club. However, the benefits they gain from such work should be worth all the hassle. Special training is far more likely to have an effect on player skills than normal training.

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Most training can be done on a football pitch, but there may be times when indoor training facilities are much more useful. Your squad may initially have no special training facilities but these can be improved at a cost of £50,000 per level up to a maximum level of 10 (brilliant). Level 10 facilities include large indoor training areas and all the latest equipment. The better your training facilities, the more your players will improve during training sessions. The cost of maintaining training facilities is £250 per level per week.

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Your club can also employ 14 different types of training staff to help improve your players and club situation. There are 10 'Levels' of trainer skill, from level 1 (abysmal) to level 10 (brilliant).

The wage paid per week to each of the 14 trainers is calculated as follows - £(Level * Level * 100). Therefore, a level 1 trainer (abysmal) will be paid (1*1*100) = £100 per week. A level 5 trainer (average) will be paid (5*5*100) = £2,500 per week and a level 10 trainer (brilliant - the best), will be paid (10*10*100) = £10,000 per week.

NOTE 1 - Although a level 10 trainer is paid 100 times more than a level 1 trainer, he is still only 10 times as good. Therefore, employing very high level trainers is really only for those with alot of cash to spend and is certainly a risky business. Level 1 trainers, although very slow to show any real results, aree far more cost effective than level 10 trainers. Be careful that you don't overspend - employing all level 10 trainers will cost you a grand total of £140,000 EVERY WEEK. That's over half a million pounds per month!!

NOTE 2 - If you have a large debt with your club (over £2,000,000 total debt, including overdraft), your directors will limit the level of trainer allowed to level 2 (very poor). You will not be allowed to employ any higher level trainer until your bank account is improved above a £2,000,000 debt.

To employ a new trainer, simply tell us on your turnsheet which trainer you would like to employ and which level you would like or use the training screen in the email orders program. You can alter training staff at any time.

Your trainers will be named automatically, you cannot rename your trainers. Also, where a single player is chosen for training, you cannot specify which player this will be - you will have to accept your trainers decisions (this is a limitation imposed by mail turns as it would involve far too much input time to do this manually. As more players move over to email play, the option to specify which players see which trainers each week may be implemented).

The different types of trainer and their abilities are as follows -

FULL TEAM COACH - This coach will choose a single first team player every week and will work closely with him, improving all of his main skills (control, tackling etc). The full team coach will not affect temporary ratings such as fitness or morale. The amount of improvement to the player depends upon the level of trainer, but it may not improve the players value by as much as the trainers' wages - in other words, don't expect a level 10 full team coach, costing £10,000 per week to necessarily add £10,000 value to the player he works with.

GOALKEEPER COACH - Will choose one of your first team goalkeepers and work closely with him, improving his main goalkeeping skills (positioning, handling etc). Otherwise, works the same as the full team coach above.

DEFENDER COACH - As the goalkeeper coach, except works with a first team defender.

MIDFIELDER COACH - As the goalkeeper coach, except works with a first team midfielder.

ATTACKER COACH - As the goalkeeper coach, except works with a first team attacker.<