KickAbout Rulebook

The Squad Sheet

Each session you will receive a squad sheet explaining your current club situation

The squad sheet will be headed with your team name and to the right of that is the current Session number. Below you will see that there are four columns of information, some of which will change every session, some of which will remain constant throughout the whole season. The first column lists the manager’s name, the clubs selected for Derby Games, either by you, or by the computer, to a maximum of two teams. If there is no name in here, then you will have no derby opponents; only those clubs listed in these slots will play against you using the derby conditions outlined earlier in the rulebook. Directly below them is an area where you will be told whether or not your club currently employs a Super Scout and/or Super Physio, with the area left blank if not.

And at the base of this column is where you will find your selected Club Captain, along with the current bonus levels he will give you for this session.

Starting from the top of the second column, we can see that it shows the number of Success Points you have available for coaching on the coming sessions orders, the Motivation Points and Physio Points remaining for the rest of the season, Disciplinary Points accrued so far this season, and the number of games your current captain has played. The third column lists the amount of cash your club has (or the size of its overdraft), the wages you will need to pay your players at the end of the session, how much money you have ploughed into the youth team, the maximum Capacity of your ground, and the average size of your own Supporters Club. These last two figures should help you realise when it is time to begin adding seats to your stadium, bearing in mind that the visiting teams will be bringing a portion of their own fans with them.

Listed in the final column is the division your team is in, along with your current position in that division, your Managerial Rating (only for fun really!), the number of APP’s discovered by you this season, and finally, your current account balance. If this figure is too low to cover the next session’s fees, then you must send money with your next turn.

The Managerial Rating is based on the strength of your squad, the amount of cash you have (or haven’t) got, your DP total, and other factors which represent sound management of your team. The rating will range from 1 to 48 where 1 is the best and 48 the worst. Don’t worry too much about this rating, it’s not the definitive judgment on your ability as a Kickabout manager, it’s just there to give you some idea of how well you are doing relative to the other managers.

All the players in your squad are then displayed in a table…

Name,
Age,
Performance Level,
Category,
Position,
Type (SBY, FUT, APP, STAR),
Number of games he is unavailable for
Whether he is Injured (I) or Suspended (S)
Number of games he has played so far this season,
Number of goals he has scored this season,
Personal Disciplinary Point total,
Number of Qualification games he has played this season (if he is an unqualified player) or the percentage of training he has been given towards qualifying as a P/S player,
Number of qualifying points played Out Of Position this season.
Current wages (in 1000’s per session)
Length of time his current contract lasts for.

The qualification games and points should not be confused, as the first is used solely to gauge how near a player is to completing his period of unqualified play, or how close he is to becoming a fully-fledged P/S player, while the second column shows how near the player is to becoming a UT player.

Immediately below this part are any mentions of players whom are deemed exceptional or poor when man-marking opponents. Unless this part appears on your printout you can assume that all your players are of average skill for their positions. Then there is a list of all contracts we negotiated over the last session, how successful they were, and how many players are still in need of new talks over the next session. Keep an eye out for players who have reached the last session of their current deals, as one more missed chance will mean that they leave the club, either directly to the Nonleague, or off into the Auction if they are skilled enough.

Below this are the details concerning your clubs finances over the last session, shown as a simplistic balance sheet. Certain things that may have affected your clubs finances, such as players being paid for their inclusion in the International or Representative squads, do not appear within these figures; simply rest assured that your cash total will be correct. If you think there might be a mistake, double and triple check your calculations before bringing the matter before us.

On your second sheet you will see the more long-term records concerning your players, shown in a manner similar to the first set. From the left, the columns indicate for each player…

Total number of matches played throughout his career,
Career goal tally,
Number or Representative caps
Number or Representative goals
Nationality,
Number of International Caps
Number of International goals
Number of games played in the Captain’s role
Ballwinner/Creative stats

Below this table is shown the results of your coaching, detailing the new performance levels of your players as well as any mistakes made in this part of processing, along with other miscellaneous reports, such as the appearance of players from the Youth Squad, changes of Captain, players gaining STAR status, use of Physio points and many other bits of information that may or may not appear before a match is actually played.

The DUGOUT REPORT then shows you which teams you played last session and any events that occurred through that game, such as players qualifying as APP’s, surprise discoveries, levels gained through experience, errors with your team selection, and other similar things. If you think that there has been mistake made in your team selection, then this is a good place to check, a it will show any obvious errors made on your own selection (such as breaking the `Three times’ rule). If we have anything to say to you then this will be communicated below the Dugout Reports.

The last line of this sheet shows the date we expect you to return your orders for the next session. This is the date that they should be on our desk in the office, not when you should consider dropping them in the post box. Managers that constantly get their orders in late are the ones that will suffer from a shortage of Success Points over the length of a whole season.

The third page of your Squad Sheet details the exact formation and strength of the sides that played in each of your games, showing…

Players used,
Area totals,
Aggression,
Motivation and such like, for each game.

Some of the players may carry symbols prefixed to their names

'c' shows if they have been designated as a Captain for that game

'* selected as the Penalty Taker for the match

The totals down the right-hand side of the players show the final totals of your team selection, after all additional points have been added, and what the playing style qualification gained for your team. This style labels will line up with the part of your team that gained the bonus, so, if you qualified for a Positive style, the label `POS’ will appear next to you Forward line. Directly below the team you will be informed of how any marking, on either side, affected the game.

After your team has been shown, there is a comparison of the two sides, outlining how well both teams played, along with other match statistics. Last but not least, there is a Man-of-the-Match rating for each of your players, ranging from 1 to 10. The player highlighted with stars is the one selected as your best player in that specific match.

If you scouted another team then that team’s details will be shown below your team totals, showing the team’s area totals, the number of MP’s and Aggression Points used, their tactics for that game, whether they played the offside trap or used a Physio Point, and their penalty taker. It also shows whether the team played defensively and what category of team it was (POWER, SKILL, P/S). No entry for a team category implies that the team did not qualify for any of these categories, and the same applies to any playing style (Positive, Neutral, Adaptive, Negative or Diamond).

If you spent money on gaining Extra Info on this scouted side, then you might be lucky enough to gain a list of all their players currently in the squad, along with a specific number, which can be used exclusively by your team for marking purposes. It is only through these numbers that you can mark a specific player in a match, and as they are encoded in a manner that makes them unique to your scout, they cannot be passed on to other managers and still be of any use. These numbers remain constant for the whole of the season, though they will change before the start of the next one.