Rugby Chairman FAQ

Yes, it's free, and there's no sign-up, download or account. Open the game in your browser and take the chair. Your club saves automatically as you play.

On iPhone and iPad: open the game in Safari, tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen. On Android, Chrome and Edge: use the Install option the game offers (or Install app in the browser menu). It then opens like an app, full screen, with its own icon.

Your club saves in the browser on the device you play on. To carry on somewhere else, use Play on another device to make a link to your club and open it on your phone, tablet or another computer. You can also download a backup file of any club from Your clubs.

Yes. You can keep up to three clubs on one device, each with its own save, and switch between them whenever you like. Start a new club from Your clubs; if all three slots are full, download a backup first.

Tag Rugby (easy) has a patient board and three warnings. Pint & a Pie (normal) makes you earn your profits, and bad pricing costs you. Rolling Maul (hard) has tight margins, a demanding board, rivals who spend, and only two warnings. Front Row Ironman (brutal) is Rolling Maul with one life: a single board warning ends the campaign.

Yes. When you take the chair you choose the men's or the women's game. The women's game has its own players, competitions (the Women's Six Nations, WXV and the Women's Rugby World Cup) and leaderboard badges.

Each league has a weekly cap on your players' wages: about £140,000 in the Premiership, £95,000 in the Championship and £72,000 in National League One. Your marquee player, triallists and part of your homegrown players' wages don't count. The cap can rise each summer at the League AGM.

One marquee player's wages are left out of the cap: your highest-paid one. Marquee players carry the gold SUPERSTAR tag, and most play in the overseas leagues. Find them in Transfers by filtering to Overseas, then scout and bid as normal. Stars won't drop down a league for a small club: you need reputation 50+ in National League One or 40+ in the Championship. They also lift your reputation and following.

Players you bring through yourself, such as academy graduates and amateurs you turn pro, count only half their wages against the cap for their first two seasons. It rewards growing your own.

You can still make changes, but only by replacing wages, not adding to them: one in, one out, until you're back under. Summer pay rises for improved players can push you over, so keep an eye on the cap before renewing contracts.

Gate receipts and VIP seats, pints and pies on matchday, the club shop, sponsors in every slot, prize money, TV money, a fan zone and stadium developments all bring money in. Getting prices right matters most: too high and the crowd stays away, too low and you leave money on the table.

You can run an overdraft, and the bank offers loans in Finances, but debt costs interest and the bank can impose a wage freeze. If your cash falls below −£1.5M, the club goes into administration and your time in the chair is over.

Each summer the chairmen vote on raising the salary cap and prize money. You get a ballot in your mailbag: vote for the rise, push for more, or vote to freeze it. Richer clubs want more room, clubs in debt want a freeze. If it passes, wage demands rise by the same amount.

Every season the board sets objectives, such as a league position, cash above zero at season end, a facility upgrade or a crowd target. Miss two or more and you get a formal warning: three warnings end your time on easy and normal, two on hard, and one on Front Row Ironman. You're also out if board confidence hits rock bottom or falls too low at the annual review.

From time to time someone wants to buy the club: a local businessman, an overseas consortium, a private equity firm or a group of former players. Selling brings in millions and you stay as chairman, but the new owners set their own targets, and if you miss them they can remove you. Some bring extras, like an overseas consortium's marquee fund.

Transfer Targets lists every player in the game, from rival clubs, the 500 players abroad and free agents to grassroots talent. Until you scout a player you only see a rating range. Send your scout for a report, or pay for an express report straight away, then bid. Agents and sell-on clauses affect the final cost, and you can also loan players in and out.

Hidden gems are unattached 16 to 18-year-olds nobody else has spotted. Leads come from fans' letters, the local paper and the sevens circuit (more if you spend on marketing), or hold an open trials day early in the season. Follow up a lead, then offer a scholarship before rivals hear about him.

Each summer a new intake of youngsters joins your academy. Better academy facilities and a youth-minded coach bring better prospects, and partner schools and clubs send extra talent. Promote the best to the first team when they're ready, and they count as homegrown for the salary cap.

Yes. Players can fill in at a nearby position for a small penalty (a centre on the wing, a lock at No.8), and a bigger one further away. You can also retrain a player for a new position over a few weeks, up to two players at a time. A trained second position shows next to his name and adds a little to his value.

Players can retire from 34, and always do by 37. Before each season the coach tells you who is playing their final season, and those players get a Final season badge and can't be renewed. You can try to talk one of them into one more year: about a 1 in 3 chance, for a pay rise.

During the Autumn Internationals, the Six Nations and the World Cup, the best players are called up by their countries and miss club games. International caps add to a player's value, but plan your squad for those weeks.

No: you're the chairman, not the coach. Your head coach picks the side and runs the training. You appoint and pay the coach and staff, choose the captain, set the budget and decide whether to watch matches live from the box or take an instant result.

Specialist coaches (attack, defence, kicking, forwards, and strength & conditioning) each improve one part of the team's play. The Director of Rugby is your link to the dressing room: you meet him for promises, press conferences and transfer talk, and how you treat him affects trust, results and whether rivals try to poach your coach.

First take every stand and corner to level 5, then, as a Premiership club in the close season, commission The Bowl (about 40,000 seats). Keep it at least 90% full and, after a top-four finish, add The Colosseum (about 50,000). Win the Premiership or the European Cup and you can build the 60,000-seat National Stadium, the rugbychairman.com Stadium.

Build the National Stadium, win a trophy and last at least six seasons, and the Union board will write to you. Accept and you choose a nation from the Six Nations, appoint its head coach, decide how hard to push clubs to release players, and host home Tests at your ground.

A top-four Premiership finish qualifies you for next season's European Cup, played alongside the league, with prize money for every round. The Daily Chairman Challenge is a separate game: a new matchday every day, the same for everyone. Set four prices, earn as much as you can without upsetting the fans, and see where you rank.

Finish a season with a top-10 chairman rating for your difficulty and you can sign the Hall of Fame with your initials. The other boards fill themselves as you play: records, dedication, Daily Challenge, talent spotting, followings, recruits and Legends (World Cup winners, Grand Slams and the National Stadium club). Only club names and the initials you choose are shown.

Share your personal link. A friend who starts a new club through it gets a £150,000 welcome sponsor. Once they've played five matches, you get an ambassador fee (at least £250,000, more in higher leagues), a new supporters' club member and a place on the Recruits board, for up to ten friends.

Real businesses can put their name on the shirts of clubs that sign them, with a clickable link and logo in the game, from £40 a day, £200 a week or £600 a month. Every booking is checked by hand.

Use the feedback tab in the game: tell us what you'd like, or what went wrong, and it comes straight to us with your club and week, so we can find it. Many of the features above started as players' suggestions; look for "You asked" in the dev log.