How Onlygoals works
The game is simple: pick four players, score when they score or assist. This is the long version — every rule and edge case, in eleven chapters. Read straight through or jump to the one you need.
Two rounds a week, six competitions
Every week splits into two rounds. One runs midweek, Tuesday to Thursday, and one at the weekend, Friday to Monday. Each round is scored on its own and has its own squad. Rounds are numbered in one sequence for the season, so Round 27 follows Round 26 whatever days it covers.
A round's number is fixed when the round opens for play and never changes, so a link to Round 27 always means the same three or four days of football.
A round includes every fixture from the six competitions we cover. Domestic competitions fill the weekends, and the Champions League and Europa League fill the midweeks. Real football never schedules a club twice in one round, so each of your Picks has at most one match per round.
The schedule can vary. International breaks and cup weeks can leave a week with only a midweek round, or put two midweek rounds in a row. Every rule counts rounds, never calendar days, so a week without a round pauses the game and nothing closes.
- ThuYou pick B. Saka for Round 27. Arsenal play on Sunday.
- SatThe pitch is frozen and Sunday’s match is postponed.
- SatSaka never takes the pitch, so his Pick is still open. You can swap him for a Monday player.
- CloseIf you leave him in, he scores 0. The replay usually counts in the round it is rescheduled into.
The fixture keeps its slot and scores 0, and the rearranged match usually counts in a later round. In the Marathon, a 0 is usually the round that best 5 of 6 drops.
Your squad is up to four Picks
Your squad is up to four Picks, from any of the six competitions. Four is the ceiling, not a requirement. An Entry with fewer than four, called an understrength Entry, is legal, but it is never an advantage, because an extra Pick never scores less than an empty slot. There is no bench, no formation and no position quota. No goalkeepers either: only goals and assists score.
Each Pick must come from a different club, so a full squad is spread across four different clubs. There is one exception. In a round with only a single fixture, the limit is two per club, and your four can be two from each side. The game calls this doubling up.
A squad doesn't persist between rounds. It is always the current round's Entry, which starts blank and which you submit from scratch. Nothing carries over from the previous round, so there is no template to maintain. If you skip a round, you score 0 for it.
The longshot model
Every player has a rate for the round, which is the points he pays per goal or assist. Rates run from 2.0 to 12.0, and they work the opposite way to most fantasy games. A high rate marks an unlikely scorer and a low rate marks a likely one. A prolific striker against a struggling side sits near the bottom of the range. A full-back away at a title contender sits near the top.
We recalculate rates every round from five signals: how often the player contributes goals and assists (this season, last season and recent form), how his club matches up against the opponent, his position (a small tilt, DEF above MID above ATT), a lift for fringe players who might start because of rotation, and how many squads already pick from his club.
A rate stays live until one hour before that player's own kickoff, then locks for the round. His ownership is fixed at the same moment. The lock is per fixture, not per round, so players in the same round lock at different times. The rate you see when you make your final choice is the rate he scores at.
- Fri 19:00One hour before Liverpool kick off, M. Salah’s rate locks at 3.1 and his ownership is fixed.
- Fri 20:00Liverpool kick off.
- SunC. Palmer plays on Monday. His rate is still moving, and it falls from 5.4 to 5.1 as more squads pick him.
- Mon 18:30You add Palmer at 5.1.
- Mon 19:00One hour before his kickoff, his rate locks at 5.1. That is the rate he scores at.
Two Picks lock at two different times. Friday's kickoff has no effect on a Monday player's rate.
Only goals and assists count
A Pick's contribution is (g+a) × min(rate × M, 20). Goals and assists count equally. Each one pays the player's rate times a captaincy multiplier M, which is 1.0 for an ordinary Pick and higher only for the captain. The cap of 20 points applies to rate × M, after the multiplier, and the result is then multiplied by the number of goals and assists.
Only goals and assists score. Clean sheets, saves, bonuses, cards and minutes played change nothing. A striker's two goals are worth the same whether his side wins 4–0 or loses 1–4, and a booking never costs a point. A Pick whose match is postponed, or who never takes the pitch, scores 0, the same as a Pick who plays 90 minutes without a goal or assist.
An Entry's round score is the sum of its Picks' contributions. There is no bonus for balance and no penalty for backing one match heavily.
One armband, multiplied by position
Each round you name one captain. The captaincy multiplier M scales the captain's contributions, and the other three Picks score at ×1.0. There is no vice-captain. The base multiplier depends on position. Defenders get the largest because they score least often, which is the same reasoning the rate uses.
The base then moves by up to ±0.3 for Pick popularity, meaning how many squads hold the player, not how many captain him. A widely held Pick gets a lower multiplier and a rarely held one gets a higher multiplier. ATT lands between 1.2 and 1.8, MID between 1.45 and 2.05, and DEF between 1.7 and 2.3. The multiplier never changes the rate itself. A captain scores (g+a) × rate × M, capped at 20 per goal or assist.
The armband locks when the captain's own match kicks off. Until then you can move it between Picks whose matches haven't started. You can never move it to a Pick whose match has kicked off. Once locked, it stays with that player. If you drop the captain after that, you lose the captaincy multiplier for the rest of the round, and no other Pick can take the armband. There is no round-wide deadline for naming a captain. You can name one as long as any Pick has yet to kick off, and you lose the multiplier only when the last of them kicks off without a captain named.
Two locks, two freezes, no single deadline
Onlygoals has no single deadline when everything locks. Four separate events each fix a different thing at a different time: a rate, a round's fixture list, a Pick's place in your squad, and the armband. Missing one has no effect on the others.
A confirmed lineup is information, not a lock. It tells you who is about to play, but it freezes nothing. A Pick freezes only when that player has played at least one minute in a fixture that has started. If a lineup changes late, you still have until kickoff to react.
Adding and dropping follow different rules
Two rules cover changes to your four during the round. You may add a Pick from the market, and you may drop one from your squad. The two rules are not mirror images. Each closes at a different time, and each behaves differently when match data is missing.
Adding closes at the player's own fixture kickoff. From that moment we refuse the add when you submit it, whatever the match data shows. This is deliberate. If an outage left a player addable after his match had started, you could pick him after seeing him score, at every other Manager's expense. A substitute who hasn't come on gets no exception, because the rule uses the fixture's kickoff, not his first minute.
Dropping stays open until the player has played at least one minute in a fixture that has started. His fixture kicking off does not close it. This is also deliberate. If a data outage leaves a Pick droppable, it costs you nothing, so we don't freeze him on stale data. Once he has played a minute in a live match, that Pick is frozen for the rest of the round.
The difference has a consequence. If you drop a Pick after his fixture has kicked off, your Entry can go down to three, but no player from that fixture's two clubs can fill the fourth slot. Adding one would be a hindsight add, which the add rule refuses.
The same gap applies to your captain. The armband locks at his kickoff, but his Pick stays droppable until he has played a minute. Minutes played can reach us a little late, so we freeze a Pick on the first minute we see, not at kickoff, and give you the benefit of the doubt. You can use that gap to drop the captain, but the armband stays with him. It can't move to another Pick, so every Pick scores at ×1.0 for the rest of the round.
- ThuYou pick a forward who ends up on the bench.
- Sat 15:00His fixture kicks off. He starts on the bench.
- Sat 15:40He is still an unused substitute with 0 minutes. You drop him for a Monday Pick.
A Pick freezes on his first minute played, not on his fixture's kickoff. An unused substitute stays droppable however long his match has been running.
- ThuYou pick a starting striker.
- Sat 15:00Kickoff. He starts.
- Sat 15:01He plays his first minute, so his Pick is frozen.
- Sat 15:25You try to drop him for a Monday Pick.
His Pick froze once he had played a minute in a started fixture. The drop is refused for the rest of the round.
- Sat 15:00A fixture kicks off. You hold none of its players.
- Sat 15:30A substitute on the bench still hasn’t come on. He has 0 minutes, the same as before kickoff.
- Sat 15:30You try to add him.
The add rule uses the fixture's kickoff, not the substitute's first minute. An unused player can't be added once his match starts.
- Sat 15:00Kickoff.
- Sat 15:04He scores inside the first five minutes.
- Sat 15:10You try to add him to get the goal he has already scored.
This is the case the hindsight-add rule exists for. No Pick can be added once part of the outcome is known, so we refuse the add when you submit it.
- ThuYour four includes a forward for Saturday’s early kickoff. He ends up on the bench.
- Sat 15:00His fixture kicks off. He is still unused, with 0 minutes.
- Sat 15:30You drop him without naming a replacement. Your Entry goes down to three.
- CloseNo player from that fixture’s two clubs can fill the fourth slot. The fixture has kicked off, so adding one would be a hindsight add.
The drop is legal, but a player from that fixture can't undo it. The Entry may go down to three, and no player from that fixture's clubs can bring it back to four.
- ThuYou pick a midfielder who ends up on the bench.
- Sat 15:00Kickoff.
- Sat 16:50Full time. He never came on and has 0 minutes.
He never played a minute, so his Pick never froze. He is still droppable for the rest of the round, even though his fixture is over.
- ThuYou submit your four and name Pick A as captain.
- Sat 11:00Neither Pick A’s nor Pick B’s fixture has kicked off.
- Sat 11:30You move the armband from Pick A to Pick B.
You can move the armband between any Picks that haven't kicked off, because the armband isn't locked yet.
- ThuYou submit your four and name your captain.
- Sat 15:00The captain’s fixture kicks off. The armband locks to him.
- Sat 15:45He still has 0 minutes, so his Pick hasn’t frozen. You drop him for a Monday Pick.
The drop is legal, but the armband doesn't move to anyone else. Every Pick scores at ×1.0 for the rest of the round.
One squad, three races
There are three public leagues, one per window type. Every Manager plays Flash, guests included. Signing in adds Sprint and Marathon. You submit one squad for a round and it scores in each of your leagues at once. Each league ranks the same Picks over a different set of rounds.
Flash counts one round, your score for that round, and closes about fifty times a season. Sprint adds up your trailing three rounds, and all three count. Marathon covers your trailing six rounds but counts only the best five. Your worst round drops, and we recalculate which one that is as scores come in.
A new contest every round. Closes about fifty times a season.
Your last three rounds, all counting. Moves forward one round at a time once full.
Your last six rounds with the worst one dropped. One bad or missed round doesn't count against you.
Sprint and Marathon award nothing until their window is full for the first time, which takes three rounds for Sprint and six for Marathon. After that, every league pays out each time its window closes, which is every round. Your standing counts as qualified once you have played enough rounds of the window yourself: 1 for Flash, 3 for Sprint, 5 for Marathon. Qualifying changes how your standing is shown, not whether you can win a trophy.
- R 22–23You score 12.0, then 8.5.
- R 24You submit no squad. The round scores 0.
- R 25–27You score 15.5, 9.0, then 11.0.
- CloseThe Marathon closes at Round 27 and covers Rounds 22 to 27. The worst of the six is the 0, so it drops.
- ScoreBest 5 of 6 = 12.0 + 8.5 + 15.5 + 9.0 + 11.0 = 56.0. The missed round cost you nothing.
The Marathon counts only the best 5 of its trailing 6 rounds. A missed round scores 0, which makes it the worst of the six, so it is the one that drops. We recalculate the drop as later rounds are scored.
Shape shows the race, metal shows the finish
When a public league's window closes, we rank every participant by window score, and the top of the field takes a trophy. You take one trophy per closed window, at the highest tier you reached. The shape shows the race: a medal for Flash, a shield for Sprint, a cup for Marathon. The metal shows how well you finished: Gold, Silver or Bronze.
The first rule is the cut, which pays a top share of that window's participants. Participants are the Managers who played that window, not every Manager in the game, so the number of trophies grows with turnout.
The cut is one of two ways to win a trophy. The other is the podium ladder, which pays Gold to 1st, Silver to 2nd and Bronze to 3rd. Each rung unlocks only when the field is big enough: 2 to 4 participants unlock Gold only, 5 to 9 add Silver, and 10 or more add Bronze. A trophy’s tier is the better of the two rules, whichever pays the higher metal, so a small field can still win trophies.
Two cases pay nobody under either rule. A scoreless finish, a window score of 0, earns no reward at any position. A no contest, where no participant finished ahead of another, awards nothing to anyone.
- CloseRound 27’s Flash window closes with twelve participants.
- CutThe top 10% of twelve is 1.2, which rounds down to 1. The cut alone reaches only 1st place.
- PodiumTwelve participants unlock every rung of the podium ladder: Gold at 2 or more, Silver at 5 or more, Bronze at 10 or more.
- YouYou finish 3rd with 24.5 points.
In a field this size the cut pays only 1st place. Twelve participants unlock the podium ladder's Bronze rung, so under the better of the two rules you take Bronze.
Same races, coins instead of trophies
A private league is an invite-only view of the same window scores. There is no separate squad and no separate scoring. It tracks all three races, Flash, Sprint and Marathon, as a public league does. The reward is different. When a window closes, a private league pays a coin instead of a trophy, at whichever tier is higher under two rules.
The first rule is the coin band, which pays a top share of the Managers who played. It is wider than a public league's 1%, 5% and 10% cut because a private league has dozens of Managers, not thousands.
The band is one of two ways to win a coin. The podium ladder pays Gold to 1st, Silver to 2nd and Bronze to 3rd, and its rungs unlock by the league's membership at close, not by who played: 2 or more members unlock Gold, 5 or more add Silver, 10 or more add Bronze. A position still needs someone to finish in it, so an unlocked rung can go unawarded. A coin's tier is the better of the two rules, whichever pays the higher metal. As with trophies, a scoreless finish or a no contest pays no coin.
Below 20 participants the band can't pay more than the ladder, since the top 5% of 19 is nobody, so the ladder alone decides a small private league. Above 20, a bigger field creates more coins and never makes them harder to win. Inviting another friend can never cost an existing member a coin they would otherwise have won.
- RosterYour private league has twelve members, so every rung of the podium ladder is unlocked: Gold at 2 or more, Silver at 5 or more, Bronze at 10 or more.
- WindowOnly two members set a squad for the round.
- YouYou finish 2nd and take Silver.
- 3rdNobody finished 3rd. Bronze is unlocked but not awarded.
Membership unlocks the rungs, and the Managers who played fill the positions. Twelve members unlock every rung including Bronze, but with only two finishers nobody takes it.
Play now, sign in whenever you like
Until you sign in, only submitting your first Entry creates an identity. Browsing the market, checking fixtures and reading the Rules never do. When you submit an Entry, we create a guest Manager on this device using a signed cookie. A guest has the same rates, the same captaincy multiplier and the same Flash standings as a signed-in Manager.
Signing in doesn't create a new identity. It upgrades the same Manager, so a guest's Entries, scores and Flash trophies carry over with nothing lost. You can sign in with a six-digit code we email you, valid for ten minutes, or with Continue with Google. Either way signs in an existing Manager or creates one for a new address, so there is no separate sign-up step.
There is one case where signing in doesn't upgrade the guest. If the email you sign in with already belongs to a different Manager and your guest has an Entry of its own, we refuse the sign-in. We never merge two Managers' histories. You can keep playing as the guest, or sign out and sign back in as the Manager that email belongs to.