Fair Play Rules

Play fair

You may manage only your own club. Multiple accounts, satellite clubs, coordinated bidding and pre-arranged transfers used to gain an unfair advantage are not allowed.

• Do not use another club to move players or money for your benefit.
• Do not coordinate bids, prices or outcomes to manipulate the market.
• Do not evade a restriction, suspension or account closure through another account.

Community reporting

Human-to-human transfers are public so managers can help keep Goal Grid fair by reporting suspicious behaviour. Reports are private, reviewed by Goal Grid and are not proof of an offence by themselves.

Market safeguards

• Between the same two clubs, completed auctions and negotiated transfers in a rolling 30-day period are limited to at least 2 and otherwise the lower club level, with a maximum of 10.
• Clubs that Goal Grid considers linked cannot exchange with each other unless the pair is approved. Clubs at Level 4 or above automatically use the normal club-pair limit.
• A player cannot return to the same club within 60 days.
• Auctions have no price cap. Negotiated transfers may retain separate temporary limits while monitoring is established.

Severity

Goal Grid assesses the scale and impact of the confirmed conduct.

• Low: an isolated offence with limited impact.
• Medium: repeated or coordinated conduct with meaningful impact.
• High: systematic, prolonged or satellite-account conduct, or major economic or competitive distortion.

How the penalty is decided

The current strike and the offence severity determine the penalty grade.

Penalty grades

Club value and fines

Club value is cash plus the fair market value of the squad. Available cash is taken first; any remainder becomes fair-play debt recovered from future club income. Legitimately acquired players are not removed solely to pay a fine.

Auction outcomes

If a sanctioned bid affects a live auction, Goal Grid protects legitimate bidders. With no other bidder the invalid bid is removed and the auction is extended. If earlier bidders exist, the player leaves the system and the seller receives the second-highest eligible bid. A sanctioned seller's auction is cancelled and legitimate bidders are refunded.

Messaging and conduct

Messages and negotiation notes must remain respectful and safe.

• Harassment, abuse, threats, hate or discriminatory abuse are not allowed.
• Sexual, exploitative or otherwise inappropriate content is not allowed.
• Spam, scams, fraud, repeated unwanted contact and dangerous or illegal content are not allowed.

Reporting and blocking

You can report a manager from the relevant conversation. Reports are private and include relevant conversation context for Goal Grid to review. A report is not proof of an offence and does not automatically block the other club.

Blocking a club immediately prevents new direct messages in both directions while preserving evidence needed for review.

Messaging decisions and appeals

Goal Grid considers severity, context and conduct history. Messaging conduct does not use the market-cheating strike and penalty matrix above.

Goal Grid may dismiss a report, warn a manager, restrict private messaging for 7, 30 or 90 days or permanently, suspend an account for 7, 30 or 90 days, or close an account. A suspended manager may access only the current league table, fixtures and results, resolved match details, an appeal action and logout; gameplay actions remain disabled.

Affected managers receive the reason, duration and case reference and may appeal. Goal Grid may amend or reverse a decision after review.

Decisions and appeals

Affected managers receive the decision, reason, penalties and case reference. You may appeal by contacting support@goalgridapp.com with that reference. Goal Grid may amend or reverse a decision and restore effects that can be safely reversed. One strike is removed after 365 days of clean gameplay following the end of any suspension.