By David Marsden · Hamburger SV

The benefit of the doubt: how bottom-three reviews work

Every season ends the same way for fifteen managers: in the bottom three of their division, facing the sack.

In practice, most of them stay. Top 100 has always reappointed far more bottom-three managers than it has sacked. But how that decision was made has never been written down properly, and that has caused real problems: long arguments, decisions that took days, and occasionally the bad feeling that it depended on who you knew.

So from the end of Season 28, it is written down. It is in the rules, in section 3.1, and it works the same way for everyone.

The VAR standard

The principle is the one we set out after Season 25, in S25 Manager Reappointments:

Reappoint unless reappointing would be a clear and obvious error.

That puts the burden the right way round. The question isn’t whether a manager deserves to keep their job; it’s whether keeping them would plainly be a mistake. The manager gets the benefit of the doubt. Previous record and general activity count. A bad season is not enough on its own.

Three things that are never negotiable

Some things are requirements for managing in Top 100 at all. A manager who doesn’t meet them isn’t reappointed, and isn’t offered another club, even if they took over during the season:

• Gold membership. Every new manager joining Top 100 must be a Gold member, and now so must every manager being reappointed.
• Regular logins. Soccer Manager removes you after ten days without logging in. But logging in irregularly counts as inactivity too: two or more spells of seven days or more without logging in during a season. We have set up new login alerts in manager accounts here to warn you at seven days, so nobody should be caught out.
• No misconduct, and responding to the admins and to fixture requests, and setting your teams.

Clear and obvious errors

For everyone else, the S25 decisions tell us what a clear and obvious error looks like, so the list is taken straight from them:

• Forfeits: three or more in Top 100 competitions in a season. The World Club Cup is mandatory.
• A repeat: a second bottom-three finish in a row, or a manager who was told last time that it was their last chance.
• A collapse: finishing at least 12 places below where the squad’s strength said the club should finish.
• A sanction during the season, such as a transfer ban.
• A low review score (more on that below).

With one error, a second chance is up to the admin team. It isn’t automatic: each admin records a reason, and it takes a majority. A manager given a second chance is on a last chance the following season.

Two errors make reappointment a clear and obvious error. That manager is not reappointed.

Higher expectations at the top

Divisions 1 and 2 are where most managers want to be, and they carry higher expectations. That was true in Season 25 too. In the review it shows in the score: the line for a low score is 45 in Divisions 1 and 2, and 40 below that.

In Divisions 3 to 5, reviews are usually routine: the manager is reappointed, without a score or a vote, unless they ask to move or step away, or isn’t a Gold member, is inactive or has committed misconduct. The admin team can still review a case in full where there’s a reason to, and has done before.

Some cases are already decided

• A manager who took over during the season is reappointed, as long as they meet the three requirements above. You can’t be blamed for a season you only finished. That season will never count against you, here or when you apply for a club.
• Frank Hirst, Top 100’s founder, is always reappointed at Genoa.

The review score

Every bottom-three manager given a full review also gets a score out of 100. Everyone being reviewed finished in the bottom three, so the score doesn’t ask where you finished. It asks how you did with what you had:

Squad strength comes from the same ETOT measure Stats & History has used for years. If your squad was the weakest in the division and you finished 19th, you did about as well as expected. If it was the third strongest and you finished 20th, that is a collapse.

Activity covers the things that keep Top 100 alive: entering competitions, trading with other Top 100 managers, building your squad, helping to run Top 100, and taking part in the community. It also counts focus: a manager in three game worlds has more time for Top 100 than one in twelve.

A score below the line (45 in Divisions 1 and 2, 40 below) counts as one clear and obvious error. If a decision turns on a score within five points of the line, the admin team votes on it, and each admin records a reason. No admin votes on their own case.

That keeps votes to the cases that need them. No clear and obvious error means reappointed, with no vote. The admin team only votes on a second chance (one error) or a score close to the line.

The admin team’s review list, most at risk first. Clubs, managers and scores here are examples.

Not reappointed doesn’t mean the end

A manager who isn’t reappointed (other than for the three requirements above) can apply for any vacant club, including the one they’ve just left. Their club goes into the vacancy round with everyone else’s, and they are offered the clubs still open at the end.

You can also ask to move, or to take a break, whatever your score. That request is recorded with the decision. You tell the admin team in Manager Portal, under Appointments, and you can change your answer until the decision is made.

Manager Portal, Appointments. Example data.

Keeping 100 managers

Top 100 aims to have 100 managers, but it isn’t a requirement. When a club in Division 1 or 2 becomes vacant, existing Top 100 managers apply for it, and the clubs they leave are filled in turn, by other managers and by new managers joining. That movement is part of what keeps the game world active. When the decisions are published, we’ll say how many clubs still need a manager.

Everything is published

For every bottom-three manager, we’ll publish the errors (if any), the score and its breakdown, and the outcome. Any decision that departs from them has to say why. Where the admin team voted, every vote and its reason is published too.

Published decisions at tournaments.smtop100.blog/appointments. Example data.

The aim is simple: the same rules for everyone, decided quickly, and with the reasons visible.

The rule itself is section 3.1, and every change is listed in the rules’ change record.

Next: how vacancies and appointments work.