Last updated: 13 September 2026

Top 100 is competitive, but it is also a community. The rules exist to keep the game world fair, active and enjoyable — not to create administration for its own sake.

This page is the canonical Top 100 rulebook. Competition-specific rules published by the Tournament Centre take precedence where they are more specific than the general game-world rules below.

1. Core principles

Top 100 is built around four simple expectations:

• Fair play — do not exploit loopholes, bugs, inactive managers or administrative ambiguity for an unfair advantage.
• Activity — manage your club, participate in fixtures and respond when other managers or administrators reasonably need an answer.
• Respect — disagreements are fine; abuse, harassment and deliberately disruptive behaviour are not.
• Good faith — agreed deals, competition arrangements and community decisions should be honoured.

Managers are expected to know the rules relevant to their club. If something is unclear, ask before acting rather than relying on an assumed loophole.

2. Game-world structure

Top 100 consists of five divisions of 20 clubs.

At the end of a normal league season:

• four clubs are promoted from each of Divisions 2–5;
• four clubs are relegated from each of Divisions 1–4;
• the bottom three managers in each division are normally subject to the game world’s automatic sacking rule.

Where a season requires a temporary variation because of vacancies, game-platform changes or another exceptional circumstance, the administrators will publish the change before it is applied.

3. Manager activity and conduct

Managers should:

• log in and manage their club regularly;
• make a reasonable effort to field competitive teams;
• respond to transfer negotiations and administrative messages where a response is needed;
• arrange or complete competition requirements by published deadlines;
• treat other managers and administrators with respect;
• avoid conduct intended to manipulate results, transfers, ownership or other game systems.

Repeated inactivity, serious misconduct or deliberate attempts to undermine the game world can lead to sanctions or removal.

Formal historic manager contracts are no longer the governing system. Performance-related sackings and the published bottom-three rule remain part of Top 100.

4. Squad management

4.1 Squad limit

A club may have a maximum of 50 players associated with its squad.

The limit is intended to prevent player hoarding and protect competitive balance. Managers are responsible for keeping their squad compliant.

4.2 Loans and the squad limit

Loan players count towards the 50-player limit in both directions:

• a player loaned to your club counts;
• a player loaned out from your club also counts.

A loan therefore does not create an extra squad place.

4.3 Youth Cup loans

Loans are not permitted in the Youth Cup. The current Youth Cup eligibility rules are maintained by the Tournament Centre and must be followed in addition to the general squad rules.

5. Transfers

5.1 Agreed deals are binding

An unambiguous transfer agreement between managers is binding.

Once both managers have clearly agreed the deal, either privately or publicly, neither party should withdraw simply because circumstances later change or a better offer appears.

5.2 Genuine mistakes

A five-minute grace period applies to a genuine mistake on a system bid where there was no prior agreement between managers.

This exception is for mistakes, not buyer’s remorse. Where a deal had already been agreed, the binding-agreement rule applies.

5.3 Multi-part and future deals

Deals involving several stages, future completion or other conditions should be recorded clearly so both managers — and, if necessary, administrators — can establish what was agreed.

Where the platform or current administrative process provides a dedicated place for future transfers, managers should use it.

5.4 Newly added players

Special bidding rules apply to players newly added to the Soccer Manager database:

• bids must be public, not hidden;
• the maximum bid is £1,000,000 cash;
• managers must not use side deals or other devices to evade the limit.

Breaching the new-player bidding rules can result in a transfer ban.

5.5 Third-party and artificial arrangements

Managers must not use another club as a device to evade a transfer restriction, squad rule, transfer ban or other rule. Transfers should reflect genuine management decisions by the clubs involved.

If an unusual deal may fall into a grey area, check with the administrators before proceeding.

6. Competitions

Top 100 runs competitions in addition to the five league divisions. Each competition may publish rules covering entry, player eligibility, scheduling, forfeits, tie-breaking and other competition-specific matters.

Where those rules are more specific, the competition rules take precedence for that competition.

Youth Cup

The Top 100 Youth Cup is administered through the Tournament Centre.

The full Youth Cup rules cover player eligibility, squad restrictions, loans, fixture arrangements, forfeits and Fictional Extra Time.

For Saturday fixtures, managers must now work to the current Soccer Manager arranging window: fixtures are normally available by Sunday evening; the home manager sends the friendly request promptly and no later than Wednesday; the away manager checks proactively and chases before Wednesday if no request has arrived. The responsibility remains shared, but the two duties are not identical. Evidence of a timely request, message or attempt to resolve a problem may distinguish an individual forfeit from a double failure.

World Club Cup

Historical World Club Cup coverage is preserved in the World Club Cup archive. Current tournament administration will move through the Tournament Centre as the competition is brought into the newer system.

7. Breaches and sanctions

Rules only work if they can be enforced consistently. Depending on the seriousness and circumstances of a breach, sanctions may include:

• a warning or reprimand;
• reversal or correction of an action where that is practical;
• a transfer ban;
• a competition forfeit or other competition sanction;
• removal from a competition;
• dismissal from a club or removal from the game world in serious or repeated cases.

Administrators should take account of intent, impact, previous breaches and whether the manager acted promptly to correct an honest mistake.

A sanction in one area does not automatically prevent a separate competition-specific sanction where both are relevant.

8. Reporting a possible breach

If you think a rule has been broken, provide enough information for the issue to be checked: the clubs or managers involved, what happened, when it happened and any relevant screenshots or messages.

Reports should be made in good faith. The purpose is to protect the game world, not to weaponise the rules against rivals.

Use Contact / Join or email admin@smtop100.blog if a matter needs administrator attention.

9. Rule changes and community decisions

Top 100 has always combined administration with manager democracy.

Significant rule changes and wider game-world decisions can be put to Community Polls so managers can help shape how the world is run.

Minor clarifications, corrections and administrative procedures may be updated without a full vote where they do not materially change the substance of a rule.

When a substantive rule changes, the effective date should be clear. Historical decisions should be preserved rather than silently rewritten so that an older dispute can be judged against the rule that applied at the time.

Change record

13 September 2026 — Youth Cup fixture arrangements. The Youth Cup arranging procedure was updated because changes to Soccer Manager mean Wednesday can now be the last opportunity to arrange a Saturday friendly. The obsolete instruction for the away manager to wait until 24 hours before kick-off was replaced by the Sunday-to-Wednesday procedure in the current Youth Cup rules. The clarification applies from 13 September 2026 and does not retrospectively reopen S28 Youth Shield Round of 32 decisions from 12 September 2026.

10. Top 100 Regen

Top 100 Regen is a separate sister game world.

Regen uses this Top 100 rulebook as its foundation unless a Regen-specific rule says otherwise. Its own requirements and exceptions are published on the Top 100 Regen rules page.

Where the two rule sets differ, the Regen-specific rule applies inside Regen.

11. Which rule takes precedence?

If two pages appear to conflict, use this order:

1. a current competition-specific rule for the competition concerned;
2. a current Regen-specific rule for Top 100 Regen;
3. this canonical Top 100 rulebook;
4. older archived posts or historic versions of the rules.

If the answer is still unclear, ask the administrators before acting.

12. Historical rulebooks

Older versions of the Top 100 rules are part of the history of the game world and should remain available as archived records, but they are not current authority once superseded by this page.

The former standalone rulebook at rules.smtop100.blog is being retired in favour of this canonical page.