The "Preferences" window that pops-up when you select "File > Preferences" or
click the "Preferences" tool bar button or press O (for Options)
allows you to change the behaviour and appearance of the game. All options
have tooltips, so this documentation section isn't very extensive.
From top to bottom, these are the available options:
Whether Bygfoot should ask for confirmation every time you tell it to start a new week, start a new week with injured or banned players in your team or quit without having saved.
Here you can switch live games on and off, configure the message bar and the font the game uses, change the name of your team and a lot more.
What information to show about your players. You can uncheck any of those that are shown by default or check others that are not. Extra information tabs not displayed by default are "yellow cards", "wage" and "value".
Options concering the general behaviour of the game. Among others, you can specify here whether Bygfoot should warn you when an interesting player appears on the transfer list and whether you'd like the transfer list to be sorted.
If you click on "OK", your settings will be saved for your current
game. If you'd like to save them for future games, too, you can check
the "Save to file" box on the left of the "OK" button. Clicking on "OK"
will save your settings to $HOME/.bygfoot/text_files/bygfoot.conf, and
each time you start Bygfoot, they get loaded automatically.
There is one reason for other teams to try and hire you: your team's success. So if you're first in a league for 20 consecutive weeks don't be surprised if they try to contract you. If it gets on your nerves, you can switch it off in the options window or via the quick options menu.
If you get promoted, you'll count as quite successful. If you get relegated (or your team's last for 20 consecutive weeks or so), you'll count as rather unsuccessful and your team owners might consider firing you.
There are two additional reasons why you could get fired. First, if you fail to pay back a loan. Second, if you're financial management is bad and you're bank account gets below your drawing credit three times in a season. Each time you'll get some weeks to get positive, but each time the limit will be shorter.
If you finish in a league among the last 4 teams, you get relegated (except, of course, the last division).
If you finish in a league among the first three, you get promoted (except, of course, the first Division).
If you finish in a league (except the Premier Division) from 4th to 7th, you will play promotion games: one round of home/away games, and if you win, a game on neutral ground against the other winner. If you win this one, you're promoted.
Parts of a season's fixtures are generated while playing (e.g. FA Cup from round 2 upwards) because they depend on previous results.
You can see how your team fared against your league opponents (i.e.,
the results of the two league games against team XYZ) if you click
on the (quite colorful) Show league results button that appears
below the right panel when you click on Fixtures.
At the end of each season a history page will be written. It contains your result at the end of the season (rank, team and league), champions and cup winners and the best players.
Also at the end of a season there's prize money for:
One of the most frequently asked questions about Bygfoot is, How does the fitness value influence the probability of a player getting injured? (see FAQ) The answer is short and simple: the probability is inversely proportional to the fitness value. If your player has only fitness 50%, the probability is twice as high as the probability with fitness 99%. This sounds very dangerous, but in fact the normal probability (i.e. with maximum fitness) is only 1,5% for a field player and 0,75% for a goalie. So a 50%-player is still unlikely (3% probability) to get injured.