Background
The following are rules clarifications which have appeared in the messages for ages, and I’m now going to move to a web-page. As time goes on, and we perhaps introduce some changes to the game, expect more to appear here.
Free Agents
If you think a player you want to bid for isn’t currently on the list, then you can make a bid by name, but please make sure you have checked first they aren’t on the list somewhere (you do receive a list of unsigned players). Occasionally players have aliases, and if you add a player to the list a second time, you’ll find you don’t have the player you want, and may miss out. A couple of minutes due diligence and any stress goes away.
Transfers
I do try and keep up with transfers, but if one of your players moves clubs, and it isn’t updated in Soccer Stats, then please tell me. If I haven’t realised a player has moved clubs, and he scores for his new club, don’t be surprised if I don’t allocate the goal. Again, a couple of minues due diligence….
Corrections
I try to avoid needing to correct scores, but if I do miss a scorer (or allocate a goal to the wrong player) then to preserve the integrity of the season, I will generally correct the scoreline, and adjust any points if necessary. However, that’s as far as it goes – I won’t mess around with income, marketing, bonuses etc if I get a scorer wrong. There are better things to do with life!!!
Goalkeepers
Cannot score goals in Soccer Stats. The software doesn’t allow a player to score goals and keep clean sheets, so the same field is used for goals (for outfield players) and clean sheets (for goalkeepers). Trying to change it would mean reducing the size of the player list, and it happens so rarely we aren’t going to worry about it.
There is currently an obscure piece of code whereby if you pick one goalkeeper from a club, and he doesn’t play but a different keeper from the same club who you also have signed keeps a clean sheet then you are credited with it. Don’t ask me why, and at some point I’ll remove the coding for this (quite possibly this summer, as I now have this web-page live).
Scouting Free Agents
You can “scout” the player list by putting in a bid of -1 for a player along with their name. If they exist, it’ll tell you back their player number. If they don’t, then it won’t (because they’re not there). However, it’s smarter (see above) to look at the Players Available section!!!
Substitutes
The two striker subs can be from the Championship, but the midfielder substitute has to be a Premier League player for any goals to count (this is to prevent the player list being clogged up with Championship midfielders).