League Competitions

In each country, the league system is organized into divisions, with the number of leagues increasing as you go down the divisions. At the highest level, there is only one league, the most prestigious in the country. Each lower division has three times as many leagues as the one above it. Here is how it works:

- Division 1: 1 league
- Division 2: 3 leagues
- Division 3: 9 leagues
- Division 4: 27 leagues
- And so on... (Note: The lowest division might have exceptions to this rule)

Each league comprises 12 teams, and during a single season, each team plays against every other team twice, resulting in a total of 22 matches throughout the season. The season spans 13 weeks, with the first week for warm-up matches, league matches taking place twice a week from the second to the twelfth week, and the thirteenth week designated for play-off matches.

Points are awarded as in real-life leagues, with 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. The league table order is determined based on the following criteria, from most important to least:
1. Points
2. Goal difference
3. Number of goals scored
4. Number of victories
5. Initial season position in the league (before the first round)

At the end of the season, the top divisions league winner becomes the national champion.

Promotion & Relegation

Once all league matches are completed, the league standings are determined as explained above. The top team in each league, except the highest division, will be promoted to the next division up without the need for a qualifying match. Conversely, the three lowest-performing teams in each league, except the lowest divisions, will be automatically relegated.

Teams that finish in second place in lower divisions will have to compete for promotion by facing off teams ranked 7th to 9th in the higher divisions during play-off matches. These play-off matches occur on Sundays following the last league matches (which are held on Wednesdays). The pairings for the play-offs are decided based on points and goal difference, with weaker teams from higher divisions going up against the strongest challengers. In case of a tie, extra time or penalties will be used to determine the winner, and the match is played at the stadium of the higher division team.

Please note that these rules may vary slightly in the lowest division, allowing more teams to be automatically promoted or requiring more teams to participate in qualifying matches, depending on the size of that division in relation to the division directly above it. For example, if the lowest division has 3 leagues and the division above it also has 3 leagues, there will be 3 teams promoted directly and 3 teams participating in qualifying matches in each league of the lowest division.


The Cup

National cups start before the first round of a new season. The number of teams that qualify for the cup is the highest possible exponential of 2 (up to 4096 due to number of weeks in season and how scheduling is done in Sokker). And so, in a country with 3 divisions (13 leagues, 156 teams) the number of teams participating in the cup is 128. The national cup is based on ranking points which are 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 different background.

In each round the teams will be allocated into two pots according to their seeding based on their previous seasons ranking point as of Monday of week 13, with the 1st pot containing the "stronger" 50% of teams, and the 2nd containing the "weaker" 50%. Once this is done, the pairings will then be random - i.e. any team from the 1st pot could play any team from the 2nd pot.

The teams play one match only, at the stadium of the weaker team ("weaker" by ranking on the drawing day of the Cup). Matches are played on Fridays in the cup system, with extra time and penalties if necessary.

The national cup competition provides prizes. Starting in the quarterfinals (that is, when there are 8 teams remaining in the competition), the teams are already guaranteed an amount of money in prizes, which will be greater the further they go in the cup. Money awards for cup are presented below:
- Teams eliminated in the quarterfinals: 22 500 £
- Teams eliminated in the semifinals: 45 000 £
- Runner-up: 75 000 £
- Champion: 150 000 £


Champions Cup

The top teams of each country in Sokker will take part in the Sokker Club Champions Cup. The total number of participants in the Champions Cup is exactly 128 teams.

All of the League Champions from each country (that already have a national team) will participate in the Cup. The total number of participants is completed by the National Cup winners from the countries that have the highest national ranking. Where one team wins both National Championship and National Cup, then the Champions Cup place moves down to a National Cup winner from the next country in the national ranking.

This competition is based on a knockout system similar to the national cups. The draw shall be seeded based on the teams current ranking. The matches are played on Thursdays, starting from last Thursday of the preceding season and continuing with the following season.

Similarly to National Cup competition the Champions Cup also provides prizes and their amounts are the same.


Friendlies

The teams that did not qualify for the cup or have been already eliminated have additional time in mid-week. They can join one of the friendly leagues (if such exist) or agree with another team to play a one-off friendly. The match can be played using the league system (without extra time and penalties) or using the cup system. If you want to invite a team for a friendly, go to their team page and click on "Match Invitation" where you will be able to invite the team and select what type of friendly you would like, but also where and when you would like to play it. Alternatively, if you go to your Office and click on "Friendlies" (or go to Season and click on "Play friendly match"), you will be able to publish a friendly advertisement or search for friendly advertisements from other teams.

Friendly games are usually played on Fridays, but during the mid-season break there are possibilities to play them also on Wednesdays and Sundays if the leagues did not start yet and the teams are not playing the play-off match.

The friendlies cannot be set up the day they are played and, hence, the user has 6 days to arrange a friendly match, starting from Saturday (in case of friendly game on Friday). The only exception of that rule is friendly game played during the day of play-off matches (Sunday). 6 days before it might be unknown if the team will or will not play in play-off match so to arrange friendly on that day users have to wait until the last league round is played (Wednesday) and they will be able to set up friendlies on play-off day

Friendly leagues

Only Plus subscribers can start their own friendly leagues. However, every manager can join one of the existing leagues.
The founder is allowed to set up only one friendly league. The application for setting up a league can be found on a "Friendlies" page (the same one as for arranging friendly matches).
The founder determines the following:
- when the league begins
- which of the submitted teams would take part
- whether the second leg round would be played

The founder is not allowed to give up playing in the league, they may not activate it or simply delete it.

The moment the league is set up, the teams can be submitted to it. The founder invites the teams they select for the league. Once they decided that the list of the teams is complete and is willing to start the league in the first possible term, they then approve the league.
The league can be approved under the following conditions:
- the number of teams is not odd, not less than 4 and not greater than the given max. number of teams, dependent on the number of weeks left until the end of the season.
- all teams selected for the league do not already have a friendly or cup match booked.

A League approved between Saturday and Sunday, will kick off the following Friday, the calendar would be drawn on Monday. Between Monday and Friday, you can create a new league or join one of the inactive leagues; however, you can not approve/activate your league.

The status of a league that has not been approved remains unchanged. It can be activated in the following weeks or can remain inactive forever.

A friendly league that has finished the tournament becomes inactive again, so you can start a new round, invite new teams etc.


Arcade Matches

Arcade matches are a type of friendly match possible between two Plus users. These can be played each day except on Fridays or any day where an official match is played (e.g. league match). Arcade games are purely for fun and have no effect on Sokker reality; injuries and cards are not carried forward after the game, and the matches have no impact on training, stadium revenue or clubs ranking. All players are available for selection during arcade games, even if they have acquired an injury or red card.