How Tunnelside works

Your club

You choose a name, colours and a crest, and a squad of generated players joins your club. Every player in the game is fictional: names, faces and attributes are made up, so no real person is depicted. You manage everything from the browser of your phone, tablet or computer, and there is nothing to install.

Leagues and seasons

A league has sixteen clubs. When you create a club it joins a league that is filling up. The season starts once sixteen clubs have joined, or after a day of waiting, when computer-managed clubs take any empty places.

Every club plays every other club twice, which makes thirty league matchdays, and a knockout cup for all sixteen clubs runs alongside the league in four rounds, the last of which, the final, closes the season. One matchday is played each day, so a season lasts thirty-four days. After the final the league takes a short break before the next season begins, and prize money is paid according to where every club finished.

The Nations Cup

Every player belongs to a nation, and the nations play each other too. The eight strongest nations, judged by the players each could call up, meet in a knockout of quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final. Nations are managed by the computer and name their squads when their matches kick off. A player is called up only when his club has no match at the same time; he is away from his club until the match is over and cannot be sold in the meantime. See the Nations Cup.

Matches in real time

A match lasts ninety real minutes with a break at half-time, and every minute is simulated as it passes. Sign in during a match to follow it live: shots, saves, cards, injuries, substitutions and goals appear as they happen, with statistics that update through the match. When the whistle goes, the match report with player ratings is kept on the public match page.

You do not have to be there. Your assistant manager plays to the tactics you saved and makes the substitutions you set up, so your club is never left unmanaged. If you are watching, you can change the tactics and make substitutions yourself while the match is on.

Tactics for attack and defence

Choose a formation and a role for every player for when your team has the ball, and a separate formation and roles for when it does not. Then shape how the team plays: its tempo and width, how direct the passing is, how much players dribble and shoot, how high the defensive line sits, how hard the team presses and tackles, whether it presses straight after losing the ball or breaks quickly after winning it, and who takes the set pieces. Presets give you a sensible starting point for a style, such as possession, counter-attack or high press.

Players are suited to some positions and roles more than others, so the best tactic is the one that fits the players you have.

Players, scouting and contracts

Players have technical, mental and physical attributes, and goalkeepers have their own. Each can play one or more positions, has a contract and a wage, gets fitter or tired from match to match, and gets better or worse as the years pass. For players that are not yours you see a range instead of the exact number; scouts on your staff narrow it down.

The daily market

Every day new players are listed for auction. Bid with the coins in your club’s wallet, and watch the clock: a bid close to the end extends the auction, so nobody wins by waiting for the last second. The player goes to the highest bidder and the coins move at once. Players you no longer need can be released from the squad.

Running the club

Your club earns from matches and prize money and pays wages and the running costs of its staff and facilities. You decide how the squad trains, which coaches, scouts and physios to hire, and when to upgrade the training ground and the stadium. The finance page shows every coin that comes in and goes out.

Coins, and what real money buys

Tunnelside is free to play. Coins are the in-game currency, and the only thing real money ever buys is bundles of coins. There are no random player packs, loot boxes or card openings: players come from the daily auction and from your academy.