Game Rules
26. Behaviour
Besides very general terms of service there are some other rules which define user behaviour in the game. These rules are split into 3 different areas - user rules, communication rules and fair-play rules.
1. USER RULES
This section of rules defines what is allowed or not when it concerns account creation and control.
1.1. Any person can control only one user in game (no multiaccounting)
- A person can create only one account for himself. This means that a person cannot create multiple accounts for use in game; it also means that user is not allowed to create another accounts "for his brother" / "for his friend" / etc.
- A person cannot take control of other account for any time. This means that any form of account sitting is not allowed - not even a short term "account caretakers", not to mention taking over accounts of user who quit the game. This rule also means that users are not allowed to share their login information with other users
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Users who attempt to create a second account are usually punished with a monetary fine first. Any further attempts will lead to a ban from a game
- Users who control multiple accounts are banned from a game
Clarification
- Sometimes users make mistakes while playing the game, for example they forget to train or sign very long contracts for teams they don’t like. Users have to solve such problems using in-game functions like reset or transfer or contract termination - it is not allowed to fix these mistakes by creating another account without letting your first account become inactive first (accounts become inactive after 2 months of not logging into the game).
- As stated before - no form of “account sitting” is allowed. It doesn’t matter that you want to make only some very small adjustments to your friend’s training or to interact with his teammates before an important match - it is not allowed.
- We cannot disclose how we decide that 2 users are controlled by the same person, but we want to make a clarification about IP - it’s only a PART of the data we check. Usually same IP of 2 users is more suspicious than different IPs, but IP is never the only criterion used to decide whether it is a case of multiaccounting or not.
1.2. It is not allowed to take over other accounts
- Users are not allowed to use other user’s login information and start using other user’s account even if they decide to abandon their own account
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Users who take over other accounts are banned from a game
Clarification
- This rules is basically covered by the rule 1.1. already, however it is here to prevent users from asking / demanding login information of other users with a pretext of exchanging the current account for another one.
1.3. A user account has to be of a country a user lives in (at the time of account creation)
- A user is only allowed to create accounts with the nationality of the country where the user lives. A country is defined by IP of a user.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- This rule is mostly checked at the time an account is created and accounts which belong to wrong countries are simply not validated.
- In some cases concerning small FS countries where a specific nationality gives an in-game advantage, users who managed to get that nationality unfairly, will be asked to change nationality to the country they actually live in.
Clarification
- As mentioned above - a country of a user is defined by an IP. There are cases when a person spends a lot of time in a couple or more countries - lives in Belgium, but studies in Netherlands for example (going on vacation to San Marino does not qualify as spending a lot of time there) - in these cases it’s basically up to a user to decide which country he wants to belong to in FS and that decision has to be made by creating an account while staying in that specific country. Be warned though that it is pretty difficult to change in-game nationality and this choice is permanent.
- A rather easy way to get a different nationality is to use proxy servers. However we check whether new accounts use proxies and such check is especially thorough if it’s a new account in a small FS country. Proxies are not forbidden in FS, but in these cases hiding behind a proxy leads to rejection of a new account.
2. COMMUNICATION RULES
This section of rules covers all types of communication in the game. It’s mostly targeted at game forums, but also covers all other means of communication like blogs, FS wall, newspapers, personal messages, etc.
2.1. Language and grammar
- The main language of the game is English. This does not mean that other languages are forbidden, however there are some areas where English is the only language allowed - this mostly includes global forums (main global forums, suggestions forums, bugs forum, global help and off-topic forums).
- Other languages are allowed in the game but they are normally used in the forums / other means of communication of specific countries (e.g. Norwegian language is used in Norwegian forums and newspapers). The most common scenario is that national forums allow local language and English, but it’s up to a local forum moderator to decide whether some language is acceptable because a use of foreign language might be seen as a provocation in some scenarios. Please check local forum rules before posting messages on national forums.
- Regarding the grammar and spelling, we ask to the community to make an effort to collaborate in a good/correct writing; on the other hand we ask you to be wise regarding the way you criticize other user's writing. In case of total misunderstanding of the user's message content, please report the message to a moderator and he will take care of the situation.
- We ask you to avoid slang. Profanities and obscenities are strictly prohibited.
- Please avoid excessive use of CAPITALS. The use of capital letters is considered screaming, so this way of interacting is not wanted. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
2.2. General Conduct
- Respect the all the members of this community. Keep in mind that there are members of different ages and gaming experience. Therefore we ask you to be patient with the various questions and ideas, especially on forums. Any type of insults or threats to other members are not allowed. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- While communicating you should have a correct manner, attitude and behaviour (traditions, customs, manners, and net-etiquette ) where all of your actions are subject to moderation by the staff (moderators and Super Moderators) .
- Our team can not be responsible for any lack of compliance of these rules, when the content is not hosted in our servers.
- Users are not allowed to pretend to be FS Staff members. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- The publishing of information (on forums or via other means of communication) of some users that already got banned by the moderation team is not allowed. Restriction of possibility to communicate is a part of a punishment to a banned user and it is not allowed to circumvent that punishment by using a proxy spokesperson. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- Members are also strictly forbidden to provoke or insult the FootStar Team. Information published in order to create a personal conflict between users and the FS Team (Moderators, Super Moderators, Administration) will be deleted and the author(s) will be severely punished.
2.3. Content of public messages / posts / blogs / etc.
Rules in this section are applied to information that is published in publicly accessible areas - this means public forums (posts, signatures and avatars), blogs (blog content and comments on blogs). FS wall, chat, newspapers, community announcements, club guestbooks, team press conferences, etc. Some of the rules can be applied to team / stadium names or even team kits. A couple of rules are only relevant in specific areas - those exceptions are mentioned explicitly.
- Adult content (pornography, explicit violence) is not allowed. This includes links to external sites with adult content - such links are not allowed.
- Calling for help and / or inciting the use of illegal software is not allowed.
- Promoting the use of illegal substances or criminal activities is not allowed,
- Advertising things or services you want to buy / sell in real life is not allowed.
-- There is an exception to this rule - if player has an expiring slot and would like to get FS Coins for slot expansion as part of a transfer deal, player is allowed to create an ad about this - see section 3.3 for more details.
- Attacks on religion / nation / race / gender / sexual orientation are not allowed.
- Discussing politics and religion is not allowed.
- Cheating accusations (use the proper cheat report form or the e-mails on the contacts page) are not allowed.
- Discussing decisions taken by members of the Administration of the game is not allowed.
- Deliberately offensive messages or messages with an intent to provoke hostile reactions (trolling and flaming) are not allowed.
- Personal attacks are not allowed (this is mostly covered by section 2.2. already).
- Swearing is not allowed.
- Excessive use of CAPITAL LETTERS is considered shouting and is not allowed.
- Spam (multiple messages with the same content, or messages totally off-topic) is not allowed.
2.3.1. Additional rules for forums - On the global forum it is not allowed to post ads / suggestions / ask for help / report bugs / talk about non-FS related stuff - there´s a specific forum for these things and users should create relevant threads there. Local MODs are allowed to make exceptions regarding ads / help / non-FS related topics on national forums however - check local forum rules before posting something like this.
- Excessive off-topic messages are not allowed in a thread.
- Hijacking threads is not allowed.
- Bumping threads is not allowed (especially on bugs forum).
- Messages intending to destabilize a systematic discussion, provoke and enrage the people involved in them (trolling) are not allowed.
- Red flag abuse - reporting same user / same message multiple times in a short period - may result in a punishment.
Other guidelines of behaviour on forums:
- Multiquoting should be avoided, excessive multiquoting can lead to punishments.
- Posts with no additional information (for example "+1", "I agree", "Good idea") are not wanted and are usually considered spam. Use "Like/dislike" feature to express your opinion about the message.
- Criticism of game features is allowed and welcome but please, be constructive - do not post "hate" messages with almost no content, like "match engine is terrible, it should be changed" - try to say what you specifically don´t like and suggest a solution if you can.
2.4. Messages trying to influence community related matters
- Users are not allowed to send multiple messages trying to influence the results of some community related matters like election of the president, referendums, voting for WC host, starting a revolution. If you want to state your opinion on one of these issues, use a forum to open a dedicated topic and start a discussion. Such PMs usually provide only one side of the problem and are considered a simple spam. If the case of mass PMs actually appears and administration finds out that such messages really influenced the result, the result might be altered if that is possible (the presidential candidate might be removed for example) or the spammer might be punished.
Punishments for breaking communication rules (all chapter 2.)
- Although this is technically not a punishment, the content violating the rules is normally deleted / edited.
- Punishments depend on the severity of “crime” and on the history of a user breaking the rule - repeated offences mean bigger fines / longer bans. Keep in mind that MODs are encouraged to double the fine with each repeated offence.
- Most common punishment is a forum ban with ban length varying from 0 days (warning) to permanent ban. However if a situation requires a ban longer than 1 month it’s very likely that user will get additional penalties instead, like monetary fines or even a total closure of an account.
- Monetary fines are possible but not common.
- If a content breaking the rules is published in a newspaper, it might lead to a closure of a newspaper.
- Extreme case might lead to permanent closure of the account.
3. FAIR PLAY RULES
This section of rules covers the user behaviour within the game itself. These rules are here to ensure no one gets an unfair advantage in game.
3.1. It is not allowed to gain additional in-game money or reduce expenditure unfairly
3.1.1. No money funnelling between the clubs
- Selling players for prices way over the market value is not allowed.
- Using feeder clubs to transfer large amounts of money to/from the parent club by selling players is not allowed, even if each of those players is sold for a sum which is not way above market value.
3.1.2. No transfers via third club
- If a manager of club A wants an expensive player (playing in a club B), he cannot ask manager of club C (a friend / manager of a club which will be closed soon / manager of a feeder club etc.) to buy that player and release it immediately (or sell for a much lower price) to join the club A.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Punishments usually consist of three parts - a) money gained unfairly is removed / returned to the payer by adjusting transfer value for example; b) teams are fined with fines equal to the amount which they tried to move / save unfairly; c) managers are given monetary fines
- Repeated offences will lead to higher punishment with a possible closure of an account
3.2. Match fixing is not allowed
- Fielding a weakened (or in some extreme cases - highly strengthened) side in a match to give advantage to some team in a competition is not allowed.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- The least possible fine are huge monetary fines to clubs involved in match fixing (we’re talking millions of euro here), but this fine would only be applied if match fixing wasn’t intended to alter standings in the competitions and was done for something trivial like beating the goals scored record. Teams participating in a match fixing with an intention to actually change final standings in a competition or change the winners of ITC spots, get much harsher additional fines - removal from ITC and point deductions are almost guaranteed, relegations are also possible.
Clarification
- There are many ways to fix match results - it might be a case of using weaker players / strange tactics or it might be a use of strange IOs / sliders. Weakening of a whole team by selling / loaning out top players before a specific match has also been a case. It’s also possible to fix a match by strengthening a team significantly against one specific opponent or by simply giving your team’s tactics to the opponent so he could exploit your weaknesses. However, the main sign of a fixed match is whether the result is intended to give an unfair advantage to some specific team.
- If a match or matches had been fixed it is not allowed to fix other matches trying to make the whole situation “correct”. This will only mean that there are 2 cases of match fixing instead of one.
- Sometimes teams decide to save their players’ morale / confidence and do not play matches against specific (strong) opponent - this is allowed as long as the team ensures that this weakening of side will not influence the final standing in the competition (this can be done be fielding equally weak side against other competitors for the league title for example).
- Each case of match fixing is investigated separately and discussed by all SM team - this means it usually takes quite long to take a decision and give out fines if necessary.
3.3. Signing players for FS Fan / FS Coins is not allowed
- Offering FS Fan or FS Coins or any other RL benefit to a player as part of signing-on bonus is not allowed
- Offering FS Fan or FS Coins or any other RL benefit to a manager as part of player transfer fee is not allowed
Exception
- If paid player´s slot is expiring and there less than 1 season left until expiration and player has expressed a desire to talk about transfer if his expiring slot will be extended (either publicly in ads forum or privately as part of negotiations) buying FS Coins for that slot´s extension is allowed as part of a deal
Punishments for braking this rule
- The least possible punishment is monetary fine. However for that to be applied, the signed players would have to be of such level which does not really strengthen the team. If players signed for FS Fan / FS Coins significantly change the balance of the competition, point deductions / relegation / removal from ITC are possible fines next to monetary ones.
Clarification
- Offering any amount of coins or length of FS Fan as signing-on bonus or as a part of transfer fee is not allowed (except the aforementioned exception). This includes offering FS Fan or FS Coins to player which is being signed or to a manager of team the player has a contract with at the moment.
- Extending player contract is the same as signing completely new player in the context of this rule. This means offering FS Fan or FS Coins for extending the contract falls under same set of rules.
- "Delayed" FS Fan / FS Coins rewards are the same as immediate ones. That is explanation "player was signed normally and then received a "loyalty bonus" half a season later" will not be accepted as a valid one
- An exception is made for expiring slots because users usually spend a lot of time (and possibly RL money) to create a player and if the only way to keep that slot is to get funding from "third party", then we consider it a worthy reason to allow such transaction. However we don´t want this to become a new strategy on how to sign players so the initiative for such deal has to come from the player. This basically means that players are allowed to advertise that they are looking for managers who could pay for slot extension, but managers cannot advertise that they are looking for such players specifically and can pay for them.
- Agreements between users which include buying completely new slot, creating new player and signing him for the team are allowed. This can be done for various reasons like filling in missing positions in some project, getting user as an assistant or getting 26 year old player for first team. However such excuse cannot be used to veil the reward of FS Coins / FS Fan for transferring another player (the real target of transfer) of the same user.
3.4. Additional fair-play rules
- Transferring of players who know they’ll quit immediately after transfer is not allowed and might be punished (depends on the transfer value and the damage done to the club which bought the player)
- Trying to force the transfer of a player by threatening the manager (for example saying that his team confidence will be sabotaged) or offering some extra benefits to the owner of the player (like losing a match on purpose or buying an FS-Fan) is considered an action against the spirit of the game and will lead to punishments
- Changing the stadium location less than a few days before a game trying to sabotage the trips is not allowed.
4. GENERAL RULES - SPIRIT OF THE GAME
We understand that this set of rules might have left some loopholes and exploits. However there are a couple of more general rules which can be defined as “spirit of the game”
4.1. Getting an unfair advantage is not allowed
- It doesn’t matter what way was used to get an unfair advantage - it might be some game bug or external tool or some new way to cheat - each case will be investigated and users who gained an unfair advantage will be punished.
- A special notice about game bugs - FS, as any other software, has some bugs. If a bug gives some unintentional benefit to the user, the user is not allowed to exploit it. Bug exploits are considered cheating and might lead to various punishments depending on the benefit gained. Please report the bugs in the bugs forum.
4.2. Users are not allowed to “destroy” the game for other users
- This is a rather generic rule which is here to protect the game against users whose only purpose is to make game unplayable for others. It usually includes cases when an angry user decides to rage-quit the game and cause as much damage as possible in doing so. This might mean taking over a team and destroying training / morale of players or have the team lose / fix important matches. Other possible examples are extremely bad behaviour on forums / blogs / newspapers with insults, accusation, uncovering of some secret information; sabotaging national teams by selecting bots for important matches; fixing results of referendums / elections by mass multiaccounting etc.
Punishments for breaking these rules
- All types of punishment are possible here.
Clarification
- Although a rule says that users are not allowed to "destroy" the game for other users, it isn't a rule which can be used as an excuse to fix everything you don't like. For example if you've signed a long contract with a team and do not get enough playing time or the promised training, that does not fall under this rule, because you have actually agreed to the contract yourself and now you either have to fulfil it or look for some of the in-game ways to terminate it (by friendly termination or transfer or by simply talking to a manager and asking to improve the conditions you get). For rule 4.2. to be applied there has to be an element of intended "mischief" from a user and usually on a rather big scale. Rule 4.2. is not applied in cases where one user was too gullible to believe empty promises or simply made a mistake with his in-game choices
5. DISCLAIMER
Breaking any kind of rules can lead to ban or removal of the game. Administration will have the final decision, even if something is not on the list. By playing the game, you agree with the above. Ban or removal from the game will not lead to any monetary refund.
Besides very general terms of service there are some other rules which define user behaviour in the game. These rules are split into 3 different areas - user rules, communication rules and fair-play rules.
1. USER RULES
This section of rules defines what is allowed or not when it concerns account creation and control.
1.1. Any person can control only one user in game (no multiaccounting)
- A person can create only one account for himself. This means that a person cannot create multiple accounts for use in game; it also means that user is not allowed to create another accounts "for his brother" / "for his friend" / etc.
- A person cannot take control of other account for any time. This means that any form of account sitting is not allowed - not even a short term "account caretakers", not to mention taking over accounts of user who quit the game. This rule also means that users are not allowed to share their login information with other users
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Users who attempt to create a second account are usually punished with a monetary fine first. Any further attempts will lead to a ban from a game
- Users who control multiple accounts are banned from a game
Clarification
- Sometimes users make mistakes while playing the game, for example they forget to train or sign very long contracts for teams they don’t like. Users have to solve such problems using in-game functions like reset or transfer or contract termination - it is not allowed to fix these mistakes by creating another account without letting your first account become inactive first (accounts become inactive after 2 months of not logging into the game).
- As stated before - no form of “account sitting” is allowed. It doesn’t matter that you want to make only some very small adjustments to your friend’s training or to interact with his teammates before an important match - it is not allowed.
- We cannot disclose how we decide that 2 users are controlled by the same person, but we want to make a clarification about IP - it’s only a PART of the data we check. Usually same IP of 2 users is more suspicious than different IPs, but IP is never the only criterion used to decide whether it is a case of multiaccounting or not.
1.2. It is not allowed to take over other accounts
- Users are not allowed to use other user’s login information and start using other user’s account even if they decide to abandon their own account
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Users who take over other accounts are banned from a game
Clarification
- This rules is basically covered by the rule 1.1. already, however it is here to prevent users from asking / demanding login information of other users with a pretext of exchanging the current account for another one.
1.3. A user account has to be of a country a user lives in (at the time of account creation)
- A user is only allowed to create accounts with the nationality of the country where the user lives. A country is defined by IP of a user.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- This rule is mostly checked at the time an account is created and accounts which belong to wrong countries are simply not validated.
- In some cases concerning small FS countries where a specific nationality gives an in-game advantage, users who managed to get that nationality unfairly, will be asked to change nationality to the country they actually live in.
Clarification
- As mentioned above - a country of a user is defined by an IP. There are cases when a person spends a lot of time in a couple or more countries - lives in Belgium, but studies in Netherlands for example (going on vacation to San Marino does not qualify as spending a lot of time there) - in these cases it’s basically up to a user to decide which country he wants to belong to in FS and that decision has to be made by creating an account while staying in that specific country. Be warned though that it is pretty difficult to change in-game nationality and this choice is permanent.
- A rather easy way to get a different nationality is to use proxy servers. However we check whether new accounts use proxies and such check is especially thorough if it’s a new account in a small FS country. Proxies are not forbidden in FS, but in these cases hiding behind a proxy leads to rejection of a new account.
2. COMMUNICATION RULES
This section of rules covers all types of communication in the game. It’s mostly targeted at game forums, but also covers all other means of communication like blogs, FS wall, newspapers, personal messages, etc.
2.1. Language and grammar
- The main language of the game is English. This does not mean that other languages are forbidden, however there are some areas where English is the only language allowed - this mostly includes global forums (main global forums, suggestions forums, bugs forum, global help and off-topic forums).
- Other languages are allowed in the game but they are normally used in the forums / other means of communication of specific countries (e.g. Norwegian language is used in Norwegian forums and newspapers). The most common scenario is that national forums allow local language and English, but it’s up to a local forum moderator to decide whether some language is acceptable because a use of foreign language might be seen as a provocation in some scenarios. Please check local forum rules before posting messages on national forums.
- Regarding the grammar and spelling, we ask to the community to make an effort to collaborate in a good/correct writing; on the other hand we ask you to be wise regarding the way you criticize other user's writing. In case of total misunderstanding of the user's message content, please report the message to a moderator and he will take care of the situation.
- We ask you to avoid slang. Profanities and obscenities are strictly prohibited.
- Please avoid excessive use of CAPITALS. The use of capital letters is considered screaming, so this way of interacting is not wanted. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
2.2. General Conduct
- Respect the all the members of this community. Keep in mind that there are members of different ages and gaming experience. Therefore we ask you to be patient with the various questions and ideas, especially on forums. Any type of insults or threats to other members are not allowed. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- While communicating you should have a correct manner, attitude and behaviour (traditions, customs, manners, and net-etiquette ) where all of your actions are subject to moderation by the staff (moderators and Super Moderators) .
- Our team can not be responsible for any lack of compliance of these rules, when the content is not hosted in our servers.
- Users are not allowed to pretend to be FS Staff members. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- The publishing of information (on forums or via other means of communication) of some users that already got banned by the moderation team is not allowed. Restriction of possibility to communicate is a part of a punishment to a banned user and it is not allowed to circumvent that punishment by using a proxy spokesperson. The non-compliance of this rule will be punished.
- Members are also strictly forbidden to provoke or insult the FootStar Team. Information published in order to create a personal conflict between users and the FS Team (Moderators, Super Moderators, Administration) will be deleted and the author(s) will be severely punished.
2.3. Content of public messages / posts / blogs / etc.
Rules in this section are applied to information that is published in publicly accessible areas - this means public forums (posts, signatures and avatars), blogs (blog content and comments on blogs). FS wall, chat, newspapers, community announcements, club guestbooks, team press conferences, etc. Some of the rules can be applied to team / stadium names or even team kits. A couple of rules are only relevant in specific areas - those exceptions are mentioned explicitly.
- Adult content (pornography, explicit violence) is not allowed. This includes links to external sites with adult content - such links are not allowed.
- Calling for help and / or inciting the use of illegal software is not allowed.
- Promoting the use of illegal substances or criminal activities is not allowed,
- Advertising things or services you want to buy / sell in real life is not allowed.
-- There is an exception to this rule - if player has an expiring slot and would like to get FS Coins for slot expansion as part of a transfer deal, player is allowed to create an ad about this - see section 3.3 for more details.
- Attacks on religion / nation / race / gender / sexual orientation are not allowed.
- Discussing politics and religion is not allowed.
- Cheating accusations (use the proper cheat report form or the e-mails on the contacts page) are not allowed.
- Discussing decisions taken by members of the Administration of the game is not allowed.
- Deliberately offensive messages or messages with an intent to provoke hostile reactions (trolling and flaming) are not allowed.
- Personal attacks are not allowed (this is mostly covered by section 2.2. already).
- Swearing is not allowed.
- Excessive use of CAPITAL LETTERS is considered shouting and is not allowed.
- Spam (multiple messages with the same content, or messages totally off-topic) is not allowed.
2.3.1. Additional rules for forums - On the global forum it is not allowed to post ads / suggestions / ask for help / report bugs / talk about non-FS related stuff - there´s a specific forum for these things and users should create relevant threads there. Local MODs are allowed to make exceptions regarding ads / help / non-FS related topics on national forums however - check local forum rules before posting something like this.
- Excessive off-topic messages are not allowed in a thread.
- Hijacking threads is not allowed.
- Bumping threads is not allowed (especially on bugs forum).
- Messages intending to destabilize a systematic discussion, provoke and enrage the people involved in them (trolling) are not allowed.
- Red flag abuse - reporting same user / same message multiple times in a short period - may result in a punishment.
Other guidelines of behaviour on forums:
- Multiquoting should be avoided, excessive multiquoting can lead to punishments.
- Posts with no additional information (for example "+1", "I agree", "Good idea") are not wanted and are usually considered spam. Use "Like/dislike" feature to express your opinion about the message.
- Criticism of game features is allowed and welcome but please, be constructive - do not post "hate" messages with almost no content, like "match engine is terrible, it should be changed" - try to say what you specifically don´t like and suggest a solution if you can.
2.4. Messages trying to influence community related matters
- Users are not allowed to send multiple messages trying to influence the results of some community related matters like election of the president, referendums, voting for WC host, starting a revolution. If you want to state your opinion on one of these issues, use a forum to open a dedicated topic and start a discussion. Such PMs usually provide only one side of the problem and are considered a simple spam. If the case of mass PMs actually appears and administration finds out that such messages really influenced the result, the result might be altered if that is possible (the presidential candidate might be removed for example) or the spammer might be punished.
Punishments for breaking communication rules (all chapter 2.)
- Although this is technically not a punishment, the content violating the rules is normally deleted / edited.
- Punishments depend on the severity of “crime” and on the history of a user breaking the rule - repeated offences mean bigger fines / longer bans. Keep in mind that MODs are encouraged to double the fine with each repeated offence.
- Most common punishment is a forum ban with ban length varying from 0 days (warning) to permanent ban. However if a situation requires a ban longer than 1 month it’s very likely that user will get additional penalties instead, like monetary fines or even a total closure of an account.
- Monetary fines are possible but not common.
- If a content breaking the rules is published in a newspaper, it might lead to a closure of a newspaper.
- Extreme case might lead to permanent closure of the account.
3. FAIR PLAY RULES
This section of rules covers the user behaviour within the game itself. These rules are here to ensure no one gets an unfair advantage in game.
3.1. It is not allowed to gain additional in-game money or reduce expenditure unfairly
3.1.1. No money funnelling between the clubs
- Selling players for prices way over the market value is not allowed.
- Using feeder clubs to transfer large amounts of money to/from the parent club by selling players is not allowed, even if each of those players is sold for a sum which is not way above market value.
3.1.2. No transfers via third club
- If a manager of club A wants an expensive player (playing in a club B), he cannot ask manager of club C (a friend / manager of a club which will be closed soon / manager of a feeder club etc.) to buy that player and release it immediately (or sell for a much lower price) to join the club A.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- Punishments usually consist of three parts - a) money gained unfairly is removed / returned to the payer by adjusting transfer value for example; b) teams are fined with fines equal to the amount which they tried to move / save unfairly; c) managers are given monetary fines
- Repeated offences will lead to higher punishment with a possible closure of an account
3.2. Match fixing is not allowed
- Fielding a weakened (or in some extreme cases - highly strengthened) side in a match to give advantage to some team in a competition is not allowed.
Punishments for breaking this rule
- The least possible fine are huge monetary fines to clubs involved in match fixing (we’re talking millions of euro here), but this fine would only be applied if match fixing wasn’t intended to alter standings in the competitions and was done for something trivial like beating the goals scored record. Teams participating in a match fixing with an intention to actually change final standings in a competition or change the winners of ITC spots, get much harsher additional fines - removal from ITC and point deductions are almost guaranteed, relegations are also possible.
Clarification
- There are many ways to fix match results - it might be a case of using weaker players / strange tactics or it might be a use of strange IOs / sliders. Weakening of a whole team by selling / loaning out top players before a specific match has also been a case. It’s also possible to fix a match by strengthening a team significantly against one specific opponent or by simply giving your team’s tactics to the opponent so he could exploit your weaknesses. However, the main sign of a fixed match is whether the result is intended to give an unfair advantage to some specific team.
- If a match or matches had been fixed it is not allowed to fix other matches trying to make the whole situation “correct”. This will only mean that there are 2 cases of match fixing instead of one.
- Sometimes teams decide to save their players’ morale / confidence and do not play matches against specific (strong) opponent - this is allowed as long as the team ensures that this weakening of side will not influence the final standing in the competition (this can be done be fielding equally weak side against other competitors for the league title for example).
- Each case of match fixing is investigated separately and discussed by all SM team - this means it usually takes quite long to take a decision and give out fines if necessary.
3.3. Signing players for FS Fan / FS Coins is not allowed
- Offering FS Fan or FS Coins or any other RL benefit to a player as part of signing-on bonus is not allowed
- Offering FS Fan or FS Coins or any other RL benefit to a manager as part of player transfer fee is not allowed
Exception
- If paid player´s slot is expiring and there less than 1 season left until expiration and player has expressed a desire to talk about transfer if his expiring slot will be extended (either publicly in ads forum or privately as part of negotiations) buying FS Coins for that slot´s extension is allowed as part of a deal
Punishments for braking this rule
- The least possible punishment is monetary fine. However for that to be applied, the signed players would have to be of such level which does not really strengthen the team. If players signed for FS Fan / FS Coins significantly change the balance of the competition, point deductions / relegation / removal from ITC are possible fines next to monetary ones.
Clarification
- Offering any amount of coins or length of FS Fan as signing-on bonus or as a part of transfer fee is not allowed (except the aforementioned exception). This includes offering FS Fan or FS Coins to player which is being signed or to a manager of team the player has a contract with at the moment.
- Extending player contract is the same as signing completely new player in the context of this rule. This means offering FS Fan or FS Coins for extending the contract falls under same set of rules.
- "Delayed" FS Fan / FS Coins rewards are the same as immediate ones. That is explanation "player was signed normally and then received a "loyalty bonus" half a season later" will not be accepted as a valid one
- An exception is made for expiring slots because users usually spend a lot of time (and possibly RL money) to create a player and if the only way to keep that slot is to get funding from "third party", then we consider it a worthy reason to allow such transaction. However we don´t want this to become a new strategy on how to sign players so the initiative for such deal has to come from the player. This basically means that players are allowed to advertise that they are looking for managers who could pay for slot extension, but managers cannot advertise that they are looking for such players specifically and can pay for them.
- Agreements between users which include buying completely new slot, creating new player and signing him for the team are allowed. This can be done for various reasons like filling in missing positions in some project, getting user as an assistant or getting 26 year old player for first team. However such excuse cannot be used to veil the reward of FS Coins / FS Fan for transferring another player (the real target of transfer) of the same user.
3.4. Additional fair-play rules
- Transferring of players who know they’ll quit immediately after transfer is not allowed and might be punished (depends on the transfer value and the damage done to the club which bought the player)
- Trying to force the transfer of a player by threatening the manager (for example saying that his team confidence will be sabotaged) or offering some extra benefits to the owner of the player (like losing a match on purpose or buying an FS-Fan) is considered an action against the spirit of the game and will lead to punishments
- Changing the stadium location less than a few days before a game trying to sabotage the trips is not allowed.
4. GENERAL RULES - SPIRIT OF THE GAME
We understand that this set of rules might have left some loopholes and exploits. However there are a couple of more general rules which can be defined as “spirit of the game”
4.1. Getting an unfair advantage is not allowed
- It doesn’t matter what way was used to get an unfair advantage - it might be some game bug or external tool or some new way to cheat - each case will be investigated and users who gained an unfair advantage will be punished.
- A special notice about game bugs - FS, as any other software, has some bugs. If a bug gives some unintentional benefit to the user, the user is not allowed to exploit it. Bug exploits are considered cheating and might lead to various punishments depending on the benefit gained. Please report the bugs in the bugs forum.
4.2. Users are not allowed to “destroy” the game for other users
- This is a rather generic rule which is here to protect the game against users whose only purpose is to make game unplayable for others. It usually includes cases when an angry user decides to rage-quit the game and cause as much damage as possible in doing so. This might mean taking over a team and destroying training / morale of players or have the team lose / fix important matches. Other possible examples are extremely bad behaviour on forums / blogs / newspapers with insults, accusation, uncovering of some secret information; sabotaging national teams by selecting bots for important matches; fixing results of referendums / elections by mass multiaccounting etc.
Punishments for breaking these rules
- All types of punishment are possible here.
Clarification
- Although a rule says that users are not allowed to "destroy" the game for other users, it isn't a rule which can be used as an excuse to fix everything you don't like. For example if you've signed a long contract with a team and do not get enough playing time or the promised training, that does not fall under this rule, because you have actually agreed to the contract yourself and now you either have to fulfil it or look for some of the in-game ways to terminate it (by friendly termination or transfer or by simply talking to a manager and asking to improve the conditions you get). For rule 4.2. to be applied there has to be an element of intended "mischief" from a user and usually on a rather big scale. Rule 4.2. is not applied in cases where one user was too gullible to believe empty promises or simply made a mistake with his in-game choices
5. DISCLAIMER
Breaking any kind of rules can lead to ban or removal of the game. Administration will have the final decision, even if something is not on the list. By playing the game, you agree with the above. Ban or removal from the game will not lead to any monetary refund.
| Previous Section | All rules in the same page |
Options
- 1. Introduction
- 2. FootStar requirements
- 3. Registration, activation and character selection
- 4. User interface
- 5. Players
- 6. First steps, team selection and contract
- 7. Skills
- 8. Training
- 9. Mental skills and talents
- 10. Morale, adaptability and experience
- 11. Player relationship
- 12. Match day
- 13. Cities and Trips
- 14. Companies and Agencies
- 15. Teams
- 16. Team management
- 17. Transfers
- 18. Competitions for clubs
- 19. International competitions for NTs and CTs
- 20. Player Awards
- 21. National Federations
- 22. Foobbuteo PvP
- 23. Instant Matches and Campaigns
- 24. Community
- 25. Administration and Denominations
- 26. Behaviour