THE FOOTBALL TEXT ADVENTURE · AN AI NARRATES

Read a passage. Write what you do. Read what happens.

You are the FIFA president at ten past three in the morning with a stadium roof failing. The chairman of your club the night the owner sells. The FA president whose squad will not board the plane. Type anything — a phone call, a sacking, a sulk — and the narrator writes the world's answer.

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Free to play · no download · plays in the browser · fiction for adults

Story Mode: the FIFA president on a video call with the stadium's chief engineer six days before the World Cup final

67scenarios

494clubs, five pyramids

27federations

22voices who walk in

1 · THE OPENING

Pick a chair and a crisis

FIFA, a club or a federation. The story opens instantly on a passage written for your exact size of club — a giant gets a sovereign owner selling up, a non-league side gets the main stand condemned.

“The draw is on the television in the club bar and the ball with your number on it comes out second, after the ball with Arsenl's number…”

2 · THE TURN

Type what you do

No menus, no dice. Ring the engineer. Dock them ten points. Tell the minister to stand under the roof with you. Or skip ahead an hour, a morning, a week — and see what festered.

“Suspend all four referees tonight, before the paper goes.”

3 · THE ANSWER

The narrator writes back

Two hundred words of consequence in about ten seconds: who rang, who leaked, what the sponsor emailed, what the fans unfurled. It always ends on an open situation. Your move again.

“The fourth, the organiser, is already unreachable — his agent says he has gone abroad for family reasons.”

THE FIFA CHAIR

You run world football. The roof is failing.

Six days to the World Cup final and the engineers say the north stand moves in the wind. The host minister says it's fine. The broadcaster wants a venue by nine. 1.9 billion people are watching on Sunday.

“The stand is two centimetres lower on the north-east corner than it was last week. It moves when the wind picks up.”

The chief engineer shows the cracked welds on a video call

EVERY CLUB IN THE PYRAMID

Your club. Your size of story.

Pick any of 494 clubs across England, Scotland, Germany, Spain and Italy. The stories are written to the club's size: nine-figure transfers at the top, a padlock on the 1954 main stand at the bottom, and fifteen marquee clubs with stories written just for them.

“Cost eleven hundred quid and a barrel of Federation at the Lion. Roof came from a cricket pavilion they knocked down in Darlington.”

A non-league chairman sits on the wall with the supporters' club chairman after the main stand is condemned

THE POWER

Dock points. Ban players. Replay the title.

Three referees on tape and eighteen minutes to answer a journalist. Twelve clubs announcing a breakaway at midnight. The decisions every fan has wanted to make are yours — and every one has a morning after. A hidden gauge moves with every line you type.

“Replay our title? You'll hear from our lawyers by breakfast.”

The FA president suspends four referees and orders the title match replayed

THE BIG CHAIRS

The night the owners sell.

A Gulf state, an American sports group and a British consortium a billion short. A manager six games unbeaten asking whether to plan for the summer. You have the phone. Liverpol, Arsenl, Rael Madrid, Bayrn, Juventis — one letter off, all yours.

“Tell me tonight whether you think the bank will let me restructure, or whether I am about to look a bloody fool.”

The Manchestr United chairman on the phone to the minority partner on the night the owners announce a sale

SAY A NAME AND THEY WALK IN

Twenty-two voices, in their own words.

Type “get Dermot Mackey on the phone” and the warehouse team leader with a spreadsheet of fixture clashes joins the story and stays in it. A Qatari chairman, a YouTuber, a Belgian winger, an investigative reporter — the game's council characters speak for themselves, and they can be rude about you.

“Hartlepol in a tent is a novelty for one week. Then it's a relegation scrap on a building site.”

The FIFA president bans Super League players from the World Cup at 07:00

Pick your crisis

Eight scenarios for the FIFA chair, thirty-five for clubs and twenty-four for federations — plus a sandbox for each, where nothing is wrong until you make it so.

FIFA

Zurich, 03:10

Six days before the final, the host's main stadium has failed a safety inspection. The host says it hasn't.

FIFA

The breakaway at midnight

Twelve clubs, a $5bn bank and a press release. UEFA wants a ban. The players want to know if they can still play a World Cup.

CLUB · GIANT

The owner is selling. Tonight.

At 23:00 the man who owns the club tells you he's selling to the highest bidder by Friday.

CLUB · GIANT

The agent is in the lobby

Two days before the window shuts: a £300m offer from Saudi Arabia and a player who has already said yes.

CLUB · SMALL

The petition is Wednesday

A winding-up petition for £1.1m. The previous owner is in Portugal. The hearing is in forty-seven hours.

CLUB · NON-LEAGUE

The main stand is condemned

Four days to a home game. The roof is the problem. The money is £180,000. The club has £9,000.

The squad will not fly

The charter leaves at 14:00 and twenty-three players are sitting in the hotel lobby over unpaid bonuses.

FA · MICRO

The point

San Marino at home to a side ranked a hundred places higher, and the whole republic has decided this is the night.

Premium members can also write their own: a title, an opening passage word for word, and private notes the narrator keeps to itself.

Is my club in it?

If it plays in the top five tiers of England, the top four of Scotland, Germany or Italy, or the top three of Spain — yes, 494 first teams. The club's own ground, city, history and rivals are the narrator's to use; the name is spelled a letter off, as it is across Football President.

Who writes it?

An AI narrator (Grok), briefed with the scenario's private director's notes, your club's real scale and the game's council characters. It writes in second person, present tense, British English, 120 to 280 words a turn, and it is not allowed to make your decisions for you.

Can I type anything?

Anything up to 600 characters. Short works as well as long — “Sulk”, “Attend”, “Sack him” all get a world's worth of answer. If an action is impossible or absurd, the world reacts to the attempt. Real public figures of football can appear doing their public jobs; the narrator will not invent crimes or private lives for them.

Is it suitable for children?

No. Story Mode is fiction for adults who like football drama: it can be dark, cynical, funny or strange. You tick an 18+ acknowledgement before your first story.