Online football leagues with friends

1. What an online league is

An online league is a proper Legends XI competition played by several people at the same time. Each of you drafts your own squad, and everyone competes in the same tournament, round by round. In a domestic league everybody shares the same table; in competitions with groups, each person sees the standings of their own group.

There are not always enough people to fill a competition. The spots that are left over do not stay empty: they are filled with real clubs from that competition, run by the game, and you play against them too.

To take part you need an account, and the account is free. Leagues can only be played while signed in.

2. How many people can join

The size of a league is the size of the draw for the competition you pick. Right now that means 8 to 48 people, depending on the competition — each competition has its own draw. Once a league is full, it stops accepting sign-ups.

The table shows the size for every competition that can host a league at the moment. It comes straight from the game, and it updates itself when a new competition arrives.

3. Creating a league and inviting friends

Any account can create a league, and whoever creates it joins it straight away. When you set it up you choose the competition, an optional name, and whether the league is public or private.

• Public — it shows up in the list of open leagues until it starts, and anyone can join.
• Private — only people with the league's link can get in. Send it to whoever you want, in the group chat or wherever suits you.

You also pick the start date and time, anywhere from 30 minutes to 30 days ahead, and how many matches are played per day: one, two or four. The difficulty can be Normal, Hard or Legendary, and from Hard upwards the draft is blind. The market economy can be tight, balanced or generous.

The person who creates a league can remove someone or delete it, but only before it starts. Each person can have at most three leagues running at the same time, not counting the official one.

4. The clock is in charge

There is no start button. When the start time arrives, sign-ups close and the league begins. From then on every round is played at its own time, worked out from the start and the number of matches per day.

Nobody waits for anybody. If you miss a round, your team plays with the last line-up you saved, with no penalty at all, and set pieces and tie-break penalties are settled automatically. That way a league never sits idle waiting for one distracted person.

About half an hour before each round, apart from the first, you get a reminder by email. And if life gets in the way, you can leave the league at any moment: your team carries on playing by itself until the end.

5. The format is the competition's own

A league takes the shape of the competition it is played in. The domestic leagues — the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Primeira Liga or Ligue 1 — are played over 38 rounds. The Champions League and the Copa Libertadores have a group stage and knockouts, 13 rounds in all. The Portuguese League Cup is three knockout rounds.

In the knockouts, whoever loses is out and watches the rest. So a league with knockouts can end before its last scheduled round, when the last person is eliminated.

6. Squad and transfer market

In a league you play in competitive mode: you draft 11 starters and 7 substitutes, and the game brings fatigue, injuries and cards. The squad can grow to 25 players, and the bench has to hold between 5 and 7.

The market refreshes every round and offers cards from any competition, not only the one you are playing. You receive money when you join, depending on your squad and the economy the league was set up with, and every match pays a prize: a win pays the full amount, a draw 40% of it and a defeat 15%. Reserves, in turn, cost upkeep.

You can sell players to other people in the league, make offers and counter-offers, and rely on a scout to find talent.

The money exists only inside the game. It cannot be bought with real money, and it disappears when the league ends.

7. Staff: training, physio and lawyer

You can put several players into training at the same time. Their rating goes up to 99, never reaches 100, and only counts inside that league: the card in the catalogue does not change. Training has a cost, which is fatigue, so training someone who does not play is not free.

The physio treats one player at a time and only takes injuries with more than one match still to miss. You pick the player, press apply and, once the waiting time is over, the injury drops by one match; you can ask again while more than one remains. The wait follows the league's pace: twelve hours in a league with one round a day, and half that with two.

The lawyer appeals a ban of more than one match. In an online league a straight red card can cost from one to five matches, as in real football; a second yellow and five accumulated yellows still cost one. The lawyer can take one or more matches off the ban, by luck, but the last one is always served, and each ban only goes to the lawyer once. None of these services costs money.

8. The official league and the title 🥇 The Champion

Besides the leagues people create, there is an official league that comes back on its own. It rotates through La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A, with one round a day, Hard difficulty, a balanced economy and a start at 18:00 Lisbon time.

Each edition is born when the previous one ends, and stays open for sign-ups for 14 days. Whoever wins the official league takes the title 🥇 The Champion, which is unique: there is only one holder at a time. If a computer-run club finishes first, the title goes to the best-placed person.

9. And if there are only two of you: the duel

To play against a friend without setting up a league, there is the two-player duel, always live and with an account. One click creates the room and you send the link. The person who created it asks to start, and the guest accepts.

You both draft at the same time, with the same mode and the same formation, but each with your own draw. Then you play a shared campaign, in different groups, and a knockout tie between the two of you is a derby.

A round starts as soon as you both press play — or 10 seconds after the first of you does, if the other is slow. And if one of you disappears for two minutes, the other can carry on alone.

10. How to get started

Create your account, which is free, pick a competition and open your first league — or join one of the open ones. If you are not sure yet how the game works, start with the guide.

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