• 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.

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-09-23

Recently, we have implemented a page which contains the ranking points of every team in a country, sorted from highest to lowest. This list can be accessed through a country's national page and specific team rankings are also available on their club page. These rankings have been calculated since Sokker began but were only visible when viewing the XML files.

Ranking points are calculated in the same way as they are for national teams. They are based on the ELO ranking formula and the amount of ranking points obtained is influenced by the results of all your matches. For more information on how ELO works check here.

As of the beginning of next season, the national cup will be based on ranking points and will not be based on league position, as is currently the case. This will be used to determine whether a team qualifies for the cup and determining the fixtures for the cup. This increases the importance of friendly matches, especially for bottom league teams, as the loss of ranking points may decide whether a team qualifies or not. The national ranking page of a country shows the teams that will qualify for the cup the following season, by highlighting those not qualified with a grey background.

• guacamole [del]
• 2008-09-23

Each League page now features a link for the best 11 players of each round. This will highlight the best performing players of the round, including 4 defenders, 4 midfielders, 2 strikers and one goalkeeper. The current formula is rather simple, but we're planning to change it and base it on more factors to make the best 11 more unpredictable.

This type of function has been requested by many users, and therefore we have decided to make it available for all users. We hope you enjoy it :)

• loop [del]
• 2008-09-15

It is election time again!


You have the opportunity to stand for election as the national team coach of any nation and vote for your preferred manager of your own nation!

To access the election page, go to the respective country homepage, then click on the National Team, and then Elections.

If you stand for election, it is recommended that you open a maximum of one thread in the forums, prefixed with [NT] , e.g. [NT] loop. Please do NOT spam forums, SK-mail people directly for votes, or spam users Guest Books. Any of these activities will result in forum banning and/or financial fine.

Please remember that an user who has been elected as NT manager will not be able to resign from their job. Therefore when you stand for the NT job, it is not only for fun, it is also your responsibility to serve the full term which the people that voted you into the job thought you should serve.

The election starts on Monday 15th September and ends on Sunday 28th September, so get preparing your speeches, asking candidates tough questions & voting!