Hattrick Introductions

Welcome!

Hattrick is the world’s greatest and most popular online football manager game.

And it's completely free!

In Hattrick, you run your own football team and compete against 931 037 human users from all over the world. All you need is a web browser. Matches are played in real time a couple of times a week. You can log on at any time to check the status of your team, issue training orders, trade players - or just hang out with other Hattrick users.

Introduction

Hattrick is a game where you get to lead a virtual football team to glory, in competition with other participants from all over the world.

You perform the duties of both club owner and manager. You buy and sell players, invest the club's money in utilities like a bigger stadium, or in the youth squad. You select a team from the players who are in top form at the time, plan your tactics before the next match, decide on what sort of training is needed, and much, much more.

You can keep yourself continuously updated on the state of your team by logging on to the Hattrick website, reading your team reports and checking out the latest news on the transfer market. This is also where you give your team orders for upcoming games and where you decide on how the team will train during the week.

Applying and Activating

The first thing you need to do is apply for a team on the Hattrick site. Hattrick has a limited amount of teams available and has had a waiting list in the past. Occasionally the waiting list will take a little while, but that is much rarer nowadays.

If a Hattrick team is available, it will be activated when your application has been approved by our GameMasters. You can expect this process to take a couple of days or so. The waiting period allows us to remove applications of teams and owners previously barred from the game, or from owners submitting a second team. Duplicate applications and obviously non-serious applications are also removed.

Existing owners can lose their teams, making room for new players. There are a number of reasons why an owner is sacked. These include not giving your team orders during the last month or so, despite reminders, or because of bans due to cheating or violations of our "House Rules".

When you take charge of the team, the old players are exchanged for new ones. In addition, the bank account is reset with all old debts being cleared, a start-up sum of cash is available for use, and the stadium is remodelled. In many ways the team will be new, but you'll start off in an already existing slot in the league system. As a new manager you may need to spend some time repairing the damage caused by the previous owner.

Only teams playing in the two lowest divisions can get new owners during the season. If a team playing higher up in the series system is abandoned, it will fall through the series system until it reaches a level where a new owner can take over.

You'll find the signup form by clicking the "Join" button.

Finding your way around Hattrick

The Site

Hattrick's website can be compared to a small community, where you're able to tend to your team, communicate with other team owners, do business, and follow the matches live. Your most important tool on the site is the Main menu, on the left hand side of the screen, and the sub-menus for your club, where you'll find team reports and team orders.

Hattrick is an international game with leagues in different countries. You'll be placed in one of these leagues, and when you log in to your team, you'll automatically enter your country's league site. In the left column you're able to check out other leagues, maybe to scout for foreign talent, or to follow the Italian cup final.


Main Menu - My Hattrick

My Hattrick is your personal news page for the Hattrick world. The page has two main functions. First, it provides official messages from Hattrick to all players, like information on new services and functions, or updates on bugs and other technical problems. Make it a habit to always read the page, as this is where you'll enter once you've logged in. Second, on the right hand side of the My Hattrick page you'll find a news column dedicated entirely to your club. This is where you'll see if someone is attempting to outbid you in the transfer market, if you receive new bids for your own players, if someone has challenged you to a friendly game or if you have had an application to a Federation accepted. On rare occasions there might be personal messages from the Hattrick team here.

* License/Email validation
    If you have just signed up for a Hattrick account, the email validation page is the first page you will see when you log on. We need to have your correct email address since it is needed, for example, to send you your password in case you forget it. You will not be able to get a team before you have validated your email address.

In order to become a fully licensed Hattrick Manager you need to complete the Hattrick Manager Licence Challenge (MLC). In the process, you will learn to play the game. There are a total of 24 challenges to complete in the MLC and for every step you complete, you earn money in the game. You will also gain access to more parts of Hattrick as you complete the challenges.

If you have played the game for a long time, you only need to complete 6 challenges and you will always have full access to every part of Hattrick.


Main Menu - Your Club

In the main menu, all information concerning your local league is collected. It's divided into "My Hattrick", "Your Club", "Youth" (if you choose to invest in a youth academy), "Tools", "Your League", "International", "Help", "Mobile" and "Shop". We'll start off by looking at the most important sub-menu, which is "Your Club". This is a link which will be displayed with the abbreviated form of your club's name, i.e. if your team is called "Warrington Warriors" it will say "Warrington", if it is "Cheltenham Chasers" it will say "Cheltenham".

* Overview
    When you click on your club name, you will automatically have your club's information page displayed in the main window. This is an official club page containing many facts concerning the club that might be of interest to you and other readers, such as what division the team is in, who owns the club, the stadium name and the region to which the club belongs. You can always get back to this page by clicking on your club's name, no matter where in the game you might be.

* Players
    This is a list of your club's players and your coach. The player list is the best way to get an assessment of your squad. You'll see skills, form, TSI, leadership abilities, and information concerning bookings, suspensions, or injuries. If you need detailed information, click on the individual player to bring up his individual player page, where you can also see his salary, personality, and scoring statistics. From here you can place players on the transfer list, and set the starting bid. You'll find links to players' pages in many places around the Hattrick game, like the transfer market and the game reports. Your opponents can also see a limited overview of this same information, unless the player is transfer listed, when all details about him can be seen by everyone.

* Training
    It's important to have a good strategy for your team's future development, and training is the key to this. The training updates start on Thursday, after the last of the midweek games, and continue into Friday for each country in turn. Before training starts you need to have selected what type of training the squad is to have for the week. Read more about the different alternatives in the "Training" section in this manual. This is also where you choose the intensity of training, and check out your squad's experience with different types of formations. Also, if you're unhappy with your coach and want to replace him, this is where you do it.

* Matches
    This is where you can check the results of old matches, and find links to the match reports. This is also where you'll find the orders for upcoming games, where you select the team, and what tactics should be used.

* Arena
    This page tells you more about your club's ground, and it is also where you can increase or decrease your stadium capacity. If most games are sell-outs, then you will probably want to upgrade your stadium here. However, you need to be realistic about your team's chances of promotion and success, because over-estimating ticket demand can result in large debts. You may also change your stadium name here, for a fee.

* Economy
    The economic report is important reading, where you'll find the forecast for the week and last week's results.

* The Club
    This is where you take care of staff policy matters and youth squad activities. You can hire and fire assistant coaches, physiotherapists, doctors, economists, spokespersons and others. You can also make decisions concerning youth squad activities, which is a costly project that can pay off in the long run. Between seasons, the option of changing your club name, at a cost to you financially as well as in terms of supporter loyalty, will be found here. Changing the club name will cause the fan club to shrink by a few percent as your most conservative supporters abandon the club in disgust.