⚽️ Season 21 Incoming

For most of this year, our focus has been on onboarding. We wanted more people to discover Footium, understand it faster and experience club management through free-to-play caretaker clubs. That work is paying off. We're now welcoming more than 1,000 new free-to-play managers every season.

Our plan was to shift our attention back to bigger gameplay features, just as we did with Stadiums and FC in Season 17. But with that growth came a new challenge: making sure Footium was ready to support the next stage of its journey.

That's what Season 21 is all about: Live Match V2 is now rolling out in full, including a brand new backend. This doesn't change the match engine itself, but it gives us a much stronger foundation to support more managers, more clubs and more ambitious gameplay features in the future.

We've already started testing ideas made possible by this work, including home game selection, and with these foundations now in place we're excited to turn our attention back to building the next generation of gameplay features.

Let's get into it.

📅 Season 21 Dates

Pre-season begins: 9th July, 2026

First matches kick off: 14th July, 2026

Free Agents drop: 23rd July, 2026

Matches finish: 4th August, 2026

⚡ TL;DR: Season 21

• ⚽ Live Match V2 Fully Rolls Out: The new live match frontend and backend are now live across Footium, giving us a stronger foundation for the future.
• 📈 Built for Growth: After welcoming 1,000+ new free-to-play managers each season, Live Match V2 helps Footium support more clubs, matches and managers.
• 🔧 More Reliable Season Rollovers: We've worked on improving the systems behind each new season to make rollovers and deployments smoother and more reliable.
• 🏆 Auctions Return: More Auctions are back throughout Season 21, giving you another chance to strengthen your squad.
• 🌍 Summer of Football Continues: Daily giveaways, score predictors and more rewards continue as the World Cup rolls on.
• 🚀 Gameplay Features Are Next: With the foundations now in place, we're excited to shift our focus back towards bigger gameplay features in the seasons ahead.

⚽️ Live Match V2 Fully Live

If you've been playing throughout Season 20, you've already had a taste of Live Match V2.

Over the past season, we've been gradually rolling out and testing the new live match frontend, gathering feedback and making improvements based on what you've told us. Alongside the frontend, we're now rolling the new live match backend. While this doesn't change the match engine itself or how matches are simulated, it completely upgrades the technology that powers the live match experience behind the scenes.

This is the work that solves one of Footium's biggest technical challenges: scale. As more managers join the game, Live Match V2 gives us the foundation to support more clubs, more fixtures, more live events and everything that comes with a growing football world.

You won't notice huge changes this season beyond a faster, smoother live match experience and more reliable matchdays. This work was about solving scale and giving us a platform to build on. Alongside this, we’ve already been testing gameplay ideas made possible by this work, including home game selection, and this new foundation will allow us to deliver the deeper football management features we've been excited to build in the seasons ahead.

📈 More Managers Joining the Game!

Throughout 2026, we've welcomed more than 5,000 new free-to-play managers to Footium. When we first launched Caretaker Clubs, around 140 managers joined each season. By Season 19, that number had grown to more than 1,800 in one season!

That growth is showing across the game. Every season we're seeing more active managers, more transfer market activity, larger reward pools and more competition across the leagues. It's exactly the direction we've been working towards. A bigger community creates a more active transfer market, more meaningful competition and a stronger football world for everyone.

Season 21 is about making sure Footium is ready for what comes next. With the foundations now in place, we're excited to keep growing the game while turning our attention back towards the gameplay features that growth makes possible!

🔧 Rollover, Deployment and Reliability

Season launches are some of the busiest moments in Footium for the team. Clubs move between divisions, fixtures are generated, squads update and a huge amount of game data has to be prepared before the first whistle.

Over the past few seasons we've identified areas where these rollovers could be more reliable, and Season 21 includes a number of improvements to make the process smoother and more stable.

Most of this work happens behind the scenes, but it should mean fewer issues around season launches, allowing everyone to get straight into managing their club.

🧪 Quick Growth Tests Continue

Not every improvement to Footium arrives as a headline feature. Alongside the bigger seasonal updates, we're constantly testing and shipping smaller improvements behind the scenes. Some are aimed at helping new managers get started, others improve existing flows or make everyday parts of the game a little better.

Some experiments won't stick. Others will quietly become permanent parts of Footium as we learn what works. It's an approach we'll continue throughout Season 21, allowing us to improve the game every week while we work on the bigger features still to come.

🎮 Gameplay Is Back in Focus

Season 21 has been about preparing Footium for its next stage of growth. The onboarding improvements have worked, thousands of new managers have joined the game, and Live Match V2 solves one of our biggest technical challenges.

But we also know what our community wants. Season 17 brought major additions like Stadiums and FC, and we know how exciting it is when brand new gameplay arrives. We want more of that too.

Now our focus shifts back to bringing new gameplay features to Footium in Season 22. Our goal is simple: make Footium a deeper, more rewarding football management game. More football decisions. More club-building. More reasons to check your squad, tweak your tactics and care about every matchday.

We've done the groundwork. Now it's time to build.

🪙Auctions Return

Legendary Auctions are back for Season 21.

These are the highest-potential players in Footium, with 95–99 potential, and the only way to add them to your club. A single Legendary can transform your squad for seasons to come.

We'll once again be using the expanded auction format, with each batch featuring Legendary, Gold, Silver and Bronze reward players. That means more opportunities to strengthen your club, whatever your budget.

Auction Format:

• ⏰ 24-hour auctions with full-day bidding windows
• ⌛ 5-minute extensions on last-minute bids
• 💰 No bid removals – what you bid is what you pay
• 🎁 Earn rewards when you're outbid, even if you don't win

Season 21 Auction Schedule

🔥 Batch 1 – Thursday 9th July (12pm UTC) → Friday 10th July (12pm UTC)

🔥 Batch 2 – Friday 10th July (5pm UTC) → Saturday 11th July (5pm UTC)

🔥 Batch 3 – Saturday 11th July (3pm UTC) → Sunday 12th July (3pm UTC)

Don't miss your chance to strengthen your squad before the new season gets underway!

🌎 Summer of Football Continues

The World Cup may be into the knockout stages, but the Summer of Football isn't over just yet.

We're still running community competitions and giveaways throughout the tournament, so there's plenty left to play for.

👕 Win Any World Cup Jersey

We're giving one lucky manager the chance to win any World Cup jersey of their choice.

Simply keep an eye on our X account, enter the giveaway post and you could be wearing your favourite nation's shirt before the tournament is over.

Enter Now: https://x.com/Footium/status/2072732792337703404?s=20

🔮 Daily FC Giveaways

Our daily World Cup prediction games are still running on Twitter, with 100,000 FC up for grabs every day.

Predict the full-time score and first goal minute for each match, and if nobody wins, the prize rolls over to the next game, meaning even bigger rewards are on the line.

Whether you're following every match or just dropping in for the biggest games, make sure you stay active throughout the rest of the tournament. There are still plenty of rewards left to be won.

Join the Fun: https://www.x.com/footium

🔧 SquadScoutPro

One of the best things about the Footium community is seeing managers build tools that make the game even better.

Following the launch of Estimated Market Value last season, Joe has continued shipping regular updates to SquadScoutPro, making it an even more useful companion whether you're scouting players, tracking your club or navigating the transfer market.

Recent improvements include:

• ⚡ Faster loading across the site with progressive page loading.
• ⚙️ A redesigned Settings hub bringing account, preferences and reminders together in one place.
• 💱 Improved currency support, with a clearer currency toggle and consistent pricing throughout the app.
• ✨ Dozens of quality-of-life improvements, from cleaner player tables and mobile improvements to bug fixes and visual polish across the site.

If you haven't tried SquadScoutPro yet, now's a great time. It's completely community-built and continues to evolve every season alongside Footium.

👉 Sign up: https://www.squadscout.pro

👉 Follow on X: https://x.com/squadscoutpro

🚀 Here We Go

Pre-season starts on 9th July. First matches kick off on 14th July.

Get your squad ready, check your tactics, and keep an eye on Discord for final Season 21 updates.

As always, thanks for playing, reporting issues and helping shape Footium with us.

Forza Footium ⚽️