Friendlies

A friendly is a match with no risk to your rating. It is a way to test tactics, give players minutes and earn a little money.

Three ways to play

Open "Friendlies".

• "Play with bot" — an opponent is found right away. You can play up to 5 such matches in 24 hours; the "Bots today" counter sits next to the button.
• "Join match" — you publish an open challenge, and every manager can see it. You can remove your challenge as long as nobody has accepted it.
• Someone else's challenge — the "Open challenges" list shows the rating of the club that issued it. Press "Play" to accept.
• Challenge a specific club — press "Friendly" on another club's page. A confirmation with the checks opens (line-up, whether your club is free, limits), and the request is only sent after "Send request". More below.

In every case the match starts in 5 minutes, and the game opens its page right away. You can still adjust your line-up during those minutes.

Requests to a specific club

• The club gets a notification and sees your request on the "My requests" tab, where it accepts or declines it. The number of incoming requests is shown next to "Friendlies" in the menu.
• Your own requests and your open challenge are listed there too, with the time left and a "Cancel" button.
• You can have up to 5 pending requests at once and send up to 20 in 24 hours. Two clubs can have only one request between them: if the club has already challenged you, just accept it.
• If a club declined your request, you can send it a new one after an hour.
• Bots do not take requests — use "Play with bot" for them.

What a friendly gives you

• Result reward — only for the first 3 friendlies in 24 hours, against any opponent. After that matches are played without money.
• Experience — players who took the pitch earn experience for their development, but only in the first 3 friendlies in 24 hours.
• Rating does not change, and a draw is a normal result. A friendly win adds a few fans (+0.5%); a draw or a loss changes nothing. The result goes into your win/loss record but does not affect stadium attendance — that counts official matches only.
• Cards do not lead to suspensions.

The comparison with cup matches is in "Match types".

What a friendly costs

Players get tired and can get injured just as in a cup match. Before an important cup match do not run your first team in friendlies — field the players who need minutes.

Limits

• A club has only one active match at a time. While it has a match that is about to start or is already running, a new friendly will not be created and you cannot publish a challenge.
• When a challenge is accepted, the open challenges of both clubs disappear.
• An open challenge and a request are valid for 3 hours. If nobody answers, they disappear on their own, and you get a notification about an unanswered request.
• The buttons are disabled with the "Squad not ready" hint while your starting line-up does not have 11 available players: injured, suspended and exhausted players do not count.

The "Matches for today" list at the bottom of the page shows the friendlies your club has already played today.

How to use friendlies

• Test your tactics. Play 2–3 matches with the same plan and change one thing at a time (how to tell your tactics work).
• Give the reserves a game. They earn experience while the first team rests.
• Do not chase quantity. After 3 paid matches a day the money stops, but the fatigue does not.