The fun never stops at Footium — Season 5 is just around the corner, bringing another opportunity for your club to chase glory and demonstrate your management skills against real players!The team remains focused on match engine improvements for future seasons currently; however, we’ve managed to sneak in a few improvements for this season as well to keep the game fresh!

• Pre-Season Begins: 20th February 2025
• Season 5 Matches Begin: 25th February 2025

Remember to hop into our Discord. With thousands of active clubs and even more new arrivals each season, it’s the best place to learn the ropes and stay informed.

tl;dr

• Real Money Reward Claiming : Final Season 4 rewards can be claimed in the Footium Hub when it launches.
• Payout Places : Rewards still pay out to the top 7 teams in each league, rewarding more clubs.
• Mentality Nerfed : We’ve reduced the impact of extreme mentalities (e.g., Ultra Attacking/Defensive) to address unintended usage and encourage more balanced tactics.
• Legendary Players : 12 new 95–99 potential players auctioned in batches, with proceeds split equally by division.
• Injuries & Condition : Same system as last season — players below 45% condition risk 50-hour injuries from day 1.
• Limited Window Improvements : A two-day mid-season limited window lets you unregister up to 5 players , instantly making them free agents (clearly tagged both in-game and on OpenSea). You can sign free agents at any time , but registered players sold outside this window remain tied to your club until they’re automatically unregistered at the start of the next unlimited registration window (the beginning of next season)
• Commentary Improvements : Enhanced in-match commentary for more engaging highlights and play-by-play insights.
• Reserve Players Adjustment: No longer visible in tactics UI or manually movable, but still auto-fill squad gaps.

Key Features and Updates

Real Money Rewards Claiming

You’ll continue to be able to claim rewards in Season 5, so make sure to redeem your real money rewards on the Footium hub from February 20th.

The Hub’s one-click claim system also lets you combine all your clubs’ rewards into a single transaction, with a clear breakdown showing which clubs won what. Make sure you don’t miss out on the rewards you have fought hard to secure!

Season 5’s rewards will also be updated in-game throughout the season. To view your league’s current rewards, simply head to the Leagues tab in your Footium Hub and click on the Rewards tab. The total will rise periodically as Club Owners in your division sign academy players, make transfers and participate in legendary auctions, all of which contribute directly to the rewards.

For more information on exactly how Rewards are calculated and who’s eligible for payouts, check out our Rewards Guide.

Season 4 Final Rewards

Season 4 Rewards — awarded to clubs that finished in the top 7 of their league and remained active — will be claimable starting at the Season 5 Pre-Season. These rewards must be claimed before Season 5 ends, or they will be marked as unclaimed and forfeited.

Limited Transfer Window Arrives

We’re excited to enhance Footium’s transfer and registration system with a two-day Limited Transfer Window in Season 5, addressing challenges around mid-season transfers and squad flexibility. By blending unlimited windows (for ongoing squad management) with mid-season limited windows (for targeted unregistering and free-agent signings), we’re adding clarity, fairness, and strategic depth to your transfer decisions.

Key Highlights:

• Mid-Season Limited Window (Matchday 9 & 10)

Unregister up to 5 players from your squad during these two days, instantly converting them into free agents for you to sell/transfer. The limited window will be open on Matchday 9 & 10 (Tuesday 3rd — 4th March).

• Free Agents & Metadata Tag

When you unregister a player, they become a free agent in your ownership, ready to be sold or transferred. Another manager can then pick them up and register them to their squad. These unregistered players now feature a distinct metadata filter on OpenSea, making it easier for potential buyers to spot top talent.

• Unlimited vs. Limited

Unlimited Windows: Happen between seasons, allowing you to freely unregister players without limits. Additionally, any players currently playing for clubs owned by someone else will be automatically unregistered during this period.Limited Window: A single 2-day slot mid-season (Matchday 9 & 10) for targeted changes, without overhauling entire squads at once.

• Anytime Free-Agent Signing

Free agents can be signed at any time. However, if you sell a registered player outside a window, they remain registered to your squad until you unregister them in a future limited or automatically in the next unlimited window — ensuring both squad stability and strategic opportunities.

Legendary Players

Legendary Players return for Season 5, offering a limited supply of stars with 95–99 potential — the highest in Footium. Although they still require focused training, they deliver unparalleled chemistry and can elevate any squad to the next level.Auction Format: 12 Legendary Players will be auctioned across multiple batches, each featuring at least one central defender, midfielder, and forward.

• Divisional Split : 50% of auction proceeds (after fees) are allocated directly to rewards, equally split across all divisions and distributed over future seasons (60:30:10).
• Enhanced Potential Unlock : Legendary players gain rating at a slightly faster pace than standard prospects.
• Auction Platform Auctions will take place on OpenSea , where you can view and bid on each legend.

The Legend auctions will take place in 3 batches of 4 legends (all times in UTC):Batch 1: Thursday 20th February 4pm — Friday 21st February 4pmBatch 2: Friday 21st February 5pm — Saturday 22nd February 5pmBatch 3: Saturday 22nd February 6pm — Sunday 23rd February 6pm

Inactive Clubs

Clubs that remain inactive in Footium — i.e., not training, not playing matches, and not signing new players — are ineligible for rewards. If your club has dropped to the Amateur League, you can request to rejoin the Footium Football League (FFL) by visiting your club page and clicking the Rejoin button.A few clubs will be returning from the Amateur League this season, further reducing the number of inactive teams. Keep a close eye on whether your club is flagged as inactive:

• Inactive clubs in Division 8 or the Division 7 relegation zone risk being relegated to the Amateur League.
• Your club’s inactive status appears on the Hub homepage and as green strikes in your club’s dropdown menu.

Training Updates

Training for Season 5 will run from 12pm UTC on Gameday 1 (Tuesday 25th February) until 12pm UTC on Gameday 22 (Tuesday 18th March). Any ongoing training sessions when this window closes will automatically complete, with all intended rating increases, potential point usage, and condition impacts applied as usual. We’ve also introduced a star icon to indicate when a player has fully reached their potential, making it easier to spot which members of your squad have maxed out their growth capacity.

Academy Refresh

As with every new Footium season, you’ll receive a fresh batch of 7 academy prospects on your academy page at the start of Season 5.

• 7 Prospects Total : The number of prospects remains at seven per club, keeping rare spawn rates unchanged.
• Arbitrum & ETH Required : You’ll need Ethereum on the Arbitrum Network to sign these players. 90% of the mint cost goes to your division’s rewards, fueling competition.
• Straight to Your Squad : Once signed, academy players immediately join your squad, even if the transfer window is closed — providing a quick way to strengthen your team mid-season.

The minting prices for Season 5 can be found below.

Remember: Academy players when signed go straight into the squad even if the transfer window is closed. Academy Player prices are set per division, with an increase towards Division 1, to reflect the talent of the players coming through each division.

Reserve Players Update

To improve fairness and squad management, reserve players will no longer be visible in the tactics UI starting from Season 5. This means you won’t be able to manually move them around or select them to play in specific positions.

However, they will still automatically fill gaps in your squad if you don’t have available players. This adjustment encourages more strategic squad depth planning and is just the first step in refining how reserve players work, with further changes coming in future updates.

Mentality Adjustments

This season, we’ve reduced the impact of mentalities (Ultra Defensive to Ultra Attacking slider) to promote more balanced tactics from the outset. Coupled with injuries now in effect from Day 1, managers must weigh every push for a goal against the risk of exhausting key players below 45% condition — the threshold where a 50-hour injury can strike.

• Less Extreme Boost : Mentalities offer a smaller advantage, curbing the all-or-nothing approach.
• Condition & Injury Synergy : Aggressive or defensive tactics consume more stamina, raising the chances of players dropping below 45% and getting injured.
• Risk vs. Reward : The mentality slider still allows you to tilt your strategy, but overreliance on extremes can backfire if critical players end up sidelined.
• Excessive Effect : We’ve observed that mentalities have become too powerful in conjunction with other changes (e.g the lineup set changes). These tweaks address that imbalance, and further match engine improvements are on the horizon, which may bring additional refinements in future updates.

By introducing injuries from Day 1 and toning down the power of extreme tactics, Season 5 encourages thoughtful adjustments — helping you find the sweet spot between going all out and conserving your squad’s fitness.

Commentary Improvements

For Season 5, we’ve added additional in-match commentary events to bring more life to each fixture, making highlights and goals more engaging.

These commentary tweaks aim to make spectating more engaging and give managers better feedback during each match. As always, let us know in Discord if you spot any commentary oddities or have suggestions for further improvements!

Notable Known Bugs

• Division + League in search bar doesn’t update with promotion + relegation
• Players in training don’t show in the best alternatives list on tactics
• Sometimes events will freeze when streaming a live match (refresh fixes)
• Sometimes players are unable to train when showing 45% condition in the UI (this is due to rounding, they are likely 44.8 for example, and you’ll need to wait up to an hour for them to actually reach 45% before you can train them currently)
• Can’t move red-carded players into different positions on the pitch during games
• It sometimes takes a while to be able to access matches when they start, meaning you miss the first few minutes of the game
• Penalties aren’t counted as shots in stats
• Shots can be cut off by half or full time before their result occurs

How do I prepare for Season 5?

• Step 1: If you haven’t already, set up your wallet on Arbitrum, and transfer ETH in preparation — find out how here:
• Step 2: Buy a club! Make sure you’ve budgeted for players, or negotiated a deal with a club owner in our discord for a club & players. Here’s our official guide:
• Step 3: Use the transfer market and academy effectively to strengthen your team, keeping an eye on the strategic composition and potential of your squad.
• Step 4: Get involved with our Twitter, Discord and Newsletter for upcoming announcements and competitions for the chance to upgrade your club for the launch of Season 3.

How you can help

Word of Mouth

As we gear up for the full launch of Footium’s Season 5, we need your help! If you know anyone who already owns a Footium club — friends, fellow managers, or people you’ve convinced to join in the past — give them a nudge. Let them know that Season 4 is about to start, and they’ll want to get their club sorted ASAP for to be able to excersise their skill to earn another season of real money rewards.

The same goes for anyone who’s shown interest before, or members of the web3 groups you’re part of. Now’s the time to remind them that Footium is LIVE with serious rewards on the line.

User Feedback

As always, your feedback and thoughts are important to us. Your feedback is invaluable, and this season provides another opportunity to gather insights and make adjustments based on your experiences and suggestions.

To submit feedback, bug reports, or to request help, make sure to head over to our official discord, and keep an eye out for feedback forms at the end of the season.

What’s Next?

Post-Season 5

Footium is continuing this path with Season 5, with development full steam ahead.

Get ready for the Season 5 launch on 20th February, and prepare your club for the exciting updates ahead. Make sure to join our Discord for real-time updates, Q&As, and to stay connected with the Footium community.

Your football management journey is about to kick into high gear — see you on the pitch!

Love Sam (Glad to be back home at Footium) & the rest of the team!