• guacamole [del]
• 2008-12-24

As our holiday present to our users, we're pleased to announce that for the upcoming season Under-21 National Teams will be added to Sokker. This has been one of the most requested improvements and we hope it will be a great success.

The U-21 NT matches will be played on Fridays. In this first season only friendly matches will be played; U-21 World Cup Qualifications are planned for the following season.

Please note:
- Players aged 21 or less may be called up by either the U-21 NT or the Senior NT, but may only be in one team at a time. The coaches can of course exchange players between the two teams.
- Users can be manager of only one NT at a time so the Senior and U-21 teams will have different coaches.

Currently, Friday has no special events in Sokker. Next season will bring a new opportunity to see bright new talent from all around the world as the young stars of Sokker represent their countries!

Festive greetings and best wishes for a happy New Year to all our users!

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-12-08

The following rules have been updated for clarity and to ensure consistency in translations among all Sokker countries:


CHAPTER 1: Registration (slight change to discuss email address importance)
CHAPTER 2: Sokker Rules (clarity in sharing connection rule, addition of sharing teams rule)
CHAPTER 4: The Players (additional information on defending skill)
CHAPTER 7: Sub-Junior School (maximum users joining per week)
CHAPTER 8: Transfers (clarification of transfer listing fee)

More information on the changes being done can be found in this thread.

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-12-06

In NT friendly matches starting Saturday December 6, 2008 we will test the following engine modifications:
- Instead of trying to pass to the strikers right away, players will more often try to use combination passes to move the ball upfield.
- Players will now consider if pass recipient is offsides prior to making a pass (the correctness of this judgment will be based on playmaking).
- Players will less often tackle from behind. Instead, they will try to move in front of the player in possession and look for a more favorable angle.
- Experienced defenders near the goal may be able to clear the ball immediately after a missed reception.
- Players dribbling direction will be somewhat more varied, instead of proceeding directly towards the goal in most cases.
- It will be harder to pass an opponent in the way of an attacker. A good defender will be able to either block or at least slow the attacker somewhat.

Any changes to this new engine will be assessed during NT friendlies and club friendlies, with this version of the engine being official starting next season. Playoff games will still use the current version of the match engine.

Bugs reporting: please report all engine bugs in the Bugs / Ideas (en) forum. Please include one topic for each type of bug, always include match and minute. Notice that we have changed player position evaluation, which has not really been modified since Sokker started, so input is especially needed in this version (e.g. if a player always tries to pass to wrong positioned partner). Any testing done now improves the quality of the engine for next season!

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-11-20

It is time to announce the winner of our design contest. Based on the vote of our users, we are awarding the 10 years plus to ila-a based on his winning design. Congratulations! :) Enjoy it!

We also are grateful to all participants of the contest. Thank you! Your ideas, as well as the discussions in the voting thread, will help us to improve the future design of our site.

The winner’s design, however, cannot not be implemented due to technical reasons associated with Web pages (ie: font not available on the web, etc.). Instead, a new design based on the ideas and the work of another participant is being developed. We will announce the new design when it becomes available.

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-11-19

This weekend's World Cup Quarter Finals saw four remarkable matches, with yet more shocks. In the biggest shock of all, the mighty Polish juggernaut has been defeated for the first time in WC history during the knock out stages! The resilient Italian side came from behind twice in the match to finally secure a 3-2 win against a 10 man Polish team. The Italians now progress to a semi final meeting with England who, despite having a squad hit by injuries and suspension, came from behind to defeat Argentina 2-1 in another thrilling encounter that could easily have gone either way - with the Argentines agonisingly hitting a post in the final minute of the game.

The other semi final pits the Spanish against the Dutch, with Spain now vying for supremacy in Sokker following their capture of the European Crown in real life. Yesterday saw the Spanish edge another tight match against the Czech Republic 2-1; yet again the winners of this contest came from a goal behind. The Netherlands went ahead in their game with Slovakia able to tie it in the second half. This was the closest quarter final game with neither team managing a deciding goal in the 90 minutes. In fact a further 30 minutes of extra time would not see a decisive strike, unfortunately the Slovakians forgot their penalty shoot out footwear and Holland went through 4-1 on penalty kicks.

Whatever happens now in next week's Semi Finals, for the first time ever there will be a new World Champion! Due to the nature of their win over Poland - Italy are now favourites for the title, but after yesterday's events it is clear that anything can happen with a favourable hand from lady luck being a major contributor in such tight games.

Well done to all of the successful managers and lets all cheer on the remaining teams in what is proving a very exciting World Cup so far!

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-11-11

On Friday November 14, 2008, we are going to install a new database server. This new server will be configured to use Solid State Drives (SSD) that offer faster access times than common harddrives.
The main goal of this upgrade is to reduce the time of the morning updates which currently takes about 2 hours and causes Sokker to be mostly non-accessible for that time.

We will start with the installation early in the morning, but it will take a few hours to complete due to copying the matches database that is stored on large but slow disks.
All transfers will be moved according to following list:
- Installation time less than 8 hours - deadline moved by duration of the downtime;
- Installation time more than 8 hours - deadline moved by 24 hours;

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-11-04

The following has been added to the rules for Sokker:


Programs or scripts, both standalone or browser add-ons, that
- Process or rearrange the data provided by Sokker
- Modify the interface or usage of the Sokker site
- Provide new functionality or alter existing functionality of the Sokker site
are normally welcomed by Sokker as they usually enhance the experience of our users.

Nonetheless, if aspects of one of these program or scripts is determined to be detrimental to the game (i.e. by spamming, decreasing game ad revenue, creating heavy traffic or load on Sokker), the Sokker developers and admins could:
- Prohibit any disclosure or discussion of the program or script in the Sokker forums.
- Forbid the use of such programs, and sanction its users.
- Prosecute the corresponding legal action against the author if applicable.

Additionally please note that the only approved and provided method to get data from Sokker is via the XML located at http://online.sokker.org/xmlinfo.php. This is a robust set of data that has been provided and is being allowed for tools to increase your enjoyment of Sokker.

It is allowed to use third party browser plug-ins to manipulate screen content while browsing Sokker, if they meet the above guidelines and are not deemed to be detrimental to the game. Sokker does not review the development of such plug-ins, so be careful when using them as they may have bugs that can cause random failures. When experiencing these or similar problems always first try to disable your browser plug-ins before sending us a Bug Report. In the case of an issue with one of the plug-ins, directly inform the creator or use the appropriate plug-in forum thread to discuss.

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-10-22

The World Cup has started, go support your country's team in their quest to rule Sokker!

Currently in the World Cup are the 32 teams who qualified last season. Group A, consisting of Italia, Hrvatska, Chile, and Polska is currently looking like the hardest group, based on the discussion going in the World Cup V forum. Group D seems to be the easiest to survive, with Suomi, Schweiz, Slovensko, and Island.


Will anyone be able to dethrone the Polish juggernaut, which defeated Mexico 2-1 and then shut out Italy 6-0, France 5-0 and England 4-0 on their way to their fourth consecutive WC victory?

National Teams are becoming stronger season after season. We encourage all managers to watch and cheer on their favorite countries and players in the different matches. Everyone, new or experienced, should learn from how the NT coaches employ their tactics and strategies to get the most of their players.

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-10-08

We have introduced a new "holiday mode" for those users that may go on a vacation or will not be able to connect for a longer period of time for whatever reason. This feature will ensure that your team will still be available when you log in again for a period of up to 100 days after you set this holiday mode. Your team will be held for you even if during that period your country is full.

After next login, the holiday mode option becomes automatically unlocked so you have to activate it again if you plan another long period of time without entering the game (or if, for example, you log in the next day before your vacation starts - be sure to re-check the option). The vacation checkbox is located on the user detail page (click on your name on your team home page) under the password section.

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-10-05

We are considering updating the design of Sokker in a few areas. Instead of going directly to the graphics designers we used previously, we thought we'd test out how strong the talents were among our ~60k Sokker users.

The main goals and requirements we want from the change are:
- decreased height of top bar (with that players and logo) up to 60-90 pixels, will provide a better use of screen space for users using 1024x768 screen resolution
- changing the players on the top-right (which has received some criticism), or even changing the entire top bar to seem less childish
- remove banner from forum pages, and place it on the right of all pages like it was in the very old design, so new design would be narrowed by 120 pix
- also to remove top 468x60 banner (if you remove or not depends on your design)

New design should continue to use the official Sokker logo, with colors not changed

Scheme how new design should look are here:
· Design before
· Design after

You can prepare both just 24 bit image of your design proposition or full .css skin. But if you prepare image only, don't change colors too much - middle frame should fit rest of surrounding bars you modify eg. top bar. You may need also current design Photoshop files.

Prize is 10 years of plus. Submissions should be sent to admins@sokker.org . The contest will end on 2008-10-29.

No prize will be awarded if none of the submissions meet the above requirements.