How to Play Sunday Manager

The short version: you have 4 weeks of preseason at an amateur football club to build a squad of four players through ruthless auctions, while managing your budget, training and the occasional hungover striker. Most points at the end wins. No dice, no luck excuses. A full game takes 45-60 minutes, learning it takes about 11.

The goal

You win by scoring the most Prestige Points. All points are counted only at the very end, when the board flips to its scoring side, so nobody knows the exact score during the game. Like in a real relegation battle, even the last move can decide everything.

The game gives you more than 10 ways to score: signing players your chairman wants (transfer targets), collecting players that match your club's DNA, pairing compatriots, building the perfect locker room age hierarchy, winning the training trophy and more. The base game alone offers 26,880 unique starting combinations, so no two preseasons tell the same story.

The setup

Every manager starts with a club identity: a Club DNA card (your sacred, non-negotiable playstyle), secret Transfer Targets (the four players your chairman demands), and a Sponsor (your budget and side tasks). In the advanced mode you also get a Staff card with a unique perk. Shuffle 48 unique players into a deck, each with a name, a face, a backstory and an opinion of their own.

The week

The game runs on a weekly calendar and every day means something:

Saturday and Sunday are auction days, the heart of the game. Three players arrive at the auction hall and managers bid, bluff, overbid and sabotage. You get exactly 9 auction rounds in a game to build your squad. Instead of bidding you can take a side activity: a gym session, a friendly match, a season ticket sale or a Finnish sauna that heals an injury.
Monday you draw event cards.
Tuesday you play them: upgrades for your lads, or cold revenge for your rivals.
Wednesday you can sell a player who no longer fits.
Thursday the locker rooms are compared and the turn order changes. Strength has its privileges.
Friday is payday. Your sponsor pays out, you audit your rivals for creative accounting.

Four weeks of this, then the final counting. Handshakes optional.

Rookie Mode vs Full Experience

The rulebook ships with a Rookie Mode that strips the game to its basics so you can learn while playing. Once you have survived your first post-match press conference, the Full Experience adds staff perks, deeper event play and all the mind games.

The fastest way to learn

We built a free digital Coach that teaches you the game in your browser in about 11 minutes, no download, no signup. Prefer paper? Download the full rulebook PDF or check the FAQ.