Gaffer FAQ

Gaffer is British slang for the head coach or manager of a football club. Players have used the term for generations — it comes from British working culture, where the 'gaffer' was the foreman or boss on a job site. In football, the Gaffer is the person making every tactical call: who starts, who gets subbed, which formation to switch to at half-time, whether to press high or sit deep. When Keane says 'the Gaffer pulled me aside at half-time', he means his manager. When a striker is subbed off at 60 minutes and tells the press 'the Gaffer wanted fresh legs', that's the call. Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp, José Mourinho — to their players, all of them were simply 'the Gaffer'. This app puts you in that role: make the decisions, earn the points, and prove you know better than the real manager.

Gaffer puts you in the dugout during live football matches. You make the tactical decisions — substitutions, formation changes, pressing triggers — and earn Gaffer Points for every correct call. Match the real coach's moves, spot what they should have done, and climb the leaderboard.

No. You can browse matches and start a coaching session without signing up. Creating a free account saves your session history, displays your decisions on the weekly leaderboard, and lets you track your Gaffer Points over time.

Yes. Gaffer is free with 3 coaching decisions per match — no credit card required. Gaffer Pro at €6.99/month/month unlocks unlimited decisions per match, full session history, Private Groups, and a Gaffer Match Report after every match. You can start playing immediately without a subscription.

Gaffer is a web app that works on all modern browsers — desktop, tablet, and mobile. No app download needed. Open gaffer.house in your browser and start coaching immediately.

Points are objective and outcome-based — no subjective AI rating. You earn GP when the real coach makes the same call you made (alignment bonus), when you called it before the coach (timing bonus), and when your decision had a positive match impact — like a player you brought on scoring. You also earn points for correctly identifying inaction: spotting moves the coach should have made but didn't.

Gaffer tracks situations where the real coach is slow to act — a yellow-carded defender left on too long, no striker on the pitch while losing in the 75th minute, or no change after conceding. If you flag these situations before the coach reacts, you earn bonus Gaffer Points for the early call.

Both. Gaffer automatically prompts you when a critical match event is detected. But you can also make proactive changes at any point during the match — before or after any event. Proactive changes that are well-timed are rewarded in your rating.

You can make up to 5 substitutions per match, following standard top-division rules. Each substitution is a separate decision and earns its own rating. You can also make formation changes independently of substitutions.

Yes. Your session history shows every decision you made — the minute, the change, the rating, and the feedback. Gaffer Pro users get full session replays with detailed analysis per decision.

Gaffer supports Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Turkish Süper Lig, UEFA Nations League, FIFA World Cup, and additional competitions. National team matches are fully supported alongside club football.

Yes. You can join a live match at any point during the 90 minutes. For finished matches, you can coach the match retrospectively — this is a great way to test your decisions against what actually happened.

You can update your lineup until the official XI is published and the match reaches minute 15. After that it locks — so your picks reflect your own knowledge, not a copy of the real manager's announced XI.

Match data — scores, events, timelines, head-to-head statistics — comes from API-Football, a comprehensive football statistics API covering major European competitions. Data is updated in real time during live matches.

The leaderboard ranks coaches by total Gaffer Points. Choose This Week, Season (this month), or All Time. Your score is posted automatically at the end of each match. You can also view the per-match leaderboard inside any match session.

Anonymous sessions can appear with a guest tag. Creating a free account saves your display name and links your history so your scores accumulate over time.

Private Groups are invite-only friend leagues where your Gaffer Points are compared against people you know. Create a group, share the invite link, and see who among your friends is the sharpest tactical mind. Private Groups are a Gaffer Pro feature.

Creating a Private Group requires Gaffer Pro. Joining a group via an invite link is free — anyone with the link can join and see the group leaderboard. To have your scores counted in group rankings, you'll need Gaffer Pro. Upgrade at gaffer.house/upgrade.

With Gaffer Pro, go to the Groups page, click 'Create Group', give it a name and emoji, then share the invite link with friends. Anyone with the link can join for free — no app needed. Each invite link is valid for 7 days and can be regenerated at any time.

Each group can have up to 20 members. The group leaderboard shows weekly and all-time standings — only counting matches where group members participated.

Gaffer Pro (€6.99/month/month) unlocks: unlimited coaching decisions per match (free plan: 3 per match), Private Groups & friend leagues, full session history with decision-by-decision replay, 12 Rare/Legendary/Secret badges, and a Gaffer Match Report after every match.

Yes. Cancel any time with no penalties. You keep Pro access until the end of your current billing period, then revert to the free plan.