Unofficial · Champions League format

DRAFTEDThe football draft game

Drafted is a free football draft game — or a soccer draft game, depending where you’re from. Spin the wheel, draft a legendary XI from football’s greatest European sides, then chase the trophy through a league phase, two-legged knockouts and a final under the lights: a Champions League draft game from the first spin to full-time.

DraftLeague phaseKnockoutsFinal
36
Clubs, one league phase
270+
Legendary player seasons
15
Wins for the perfect run

Free · No sign-up · Plays in your browser

01The road to the final

From an empty team sheet to Europe’s throne

  1. 01

    Set up your side

    Pick a formation and name your team — or leave it blank and let the badge stay a mystery until kick-off.

  2. 02

    Draft your XI

    Spin the wheel to pull legendary players from iconic European squads, one position at a time, until your XI is complete.

  3. 03

    Appoint a manager

    Draft a manager whose signature trait bends the match engine your way — from Total Football to a Cup Specialist.

  4. 04

    Chase the big cup

    Simulate the modern Champions League format — a 36-club league phase, two-legged knockouts and a one-off final under the lights.

02Inside the game

Built for European nights

01

Hundreds of real seasons

A deep squad database of legendary teams and eras — every player rated and placed in their real positions.

02

The full Champions League format

The modern 36-club league phase, playoffs and Round of 16 through to the final — standings, aggregate scores and penalty shootouts included.

03

Managers that matter

Total Football, Iron Curtain, Cup Specialist and more — each trait nudges scoring, defending, big games or shootouts.

04

Prime Mode & difficulty

Play players at their absolute peak, or crank the difficulty to hide ratings and remove your re-spins entirely.

Curious who’s in the pool? Explore the full squad database — every legendary team and its starting XI.

03Season 1

Every run builds a career

Finish a run and it counts for something. You earn XP towards 50 manager levels, chase 38 achievements, and take a rating onto the global board — where the difficulty and draft settings you played on decide what a run is worth, so nobody tops it by grinding the easy way.

50
Manager levels
38
Achievements
8
Avatars to unlock
Untouchablelegendary

Win every match and the trophy — on Hard, Career Seasons, ratings hidden.

Fortressgold

Keep 12 clean sheets in a single run.

Catenacciosilver

Win the trophy conceding fewer than 8 goals.

Written Offsilver

Win the trophy having lost 3 or more matches.

Careers need an account so they follow you between devices — but the game never does. You can keep drafting as a guest, and the runs already on your device come with you when you sign in.

04The game explained

How the football draft game works

Every run starts with an empty team sheet. You choose a formation, which fixes the eleven positions you’ll be drafting for, and then you spin. Each spin pulls one legendary player out of a real squad and drops them into their actual role — a centre-back fills a centre-back slot, never a striker. You don’t get to choose who comes up, which is the whole point: the squad you finish with is the one the wheel handed you, and the skill is in building around it.

Difficulty decides how much of a safety net you get. On the gentler settings you can see ratings and spend a few re-spins to reject a pull; on the hardest, ratings are hidden and there are no re-spins at all. With eleven names locked in you draft a manager, whose signature trait bends the match engine slightly your way, and the tournament begins. A run takes a few minutes end to end — the full walkthrough is here.

Which squads you can draft from

The pool is 58 real squads from 28clubs, not a bag of famous names. Van Gaal’s teenage Ajax, Ancelotti’s Milan, Guardiola’s Barcelona, the treble winners at City — every side is reassembled with its actual starting XI, and every player is rated and placed where they really played. Each squad has a page of its own showing the shape and the story behind it.

If 58 squads on one wheel is too broad, a draft mode narrows it to a single era or league — the 90s, Serie A, the Premier League and more — without costing you anything on the leaderboard.

Champions League format explained

Your XI enters the modern competition format rather than an old group stage. All 36 clubs sit in one league phase and play a run of fixtures into a single combined table. Finish high and you take a direct seat in the Round of 16; finish in the pack and you drop into a two-legged play-off first. From there it’s knockouts — two legs, decided on aggregate, penalties when the tie won’t break — through the quarter-final and semi-final to a one-off final under the lights. Win fifteen and the run is perfect.

How it differs from a season simulator

A season simulator hands you a club that already exists and asks you to run it across months of fixtures, transfers and contracts. Drafted hands you nothing. The team doesn’t exist until you build it, the building is the game, and the tournament is what tells you whether you built it well. There is no save file to maintain and no season to grind — one sitting, one competition, and a different squad every time you come back.

05Before kick-off

The team talk

What is a football draft game?+

A football draft game builds the team before it plays. Instead of picking a club that already exists, you fill an empty team sheet one position at a time from a shared pool of players, then take whatever you ended up with into a competition. In Drafted the pool is legendary European squads, the positions are set by the formation you chose, and the competition is a Champions League–style league phase, knockouts and final.

Is this football draft game free?+

Yes, completely. Drafted runs entirely in your browser — nothing to buy, nothing to download, no ads between rounds and no paid mode holding anything back.

Do I need an account?+

No. You can draft, play a full tournament and finish a run as a guest without ever signing in. An account only exists so your career — XP, levels, achievements and leaderboard rating — follows you between devices, and the runs already stored on your device come with you when you make one.

Can I play with friends?+

Yes. Create a room, share the four-letter code, and everyone drafts their own XI at the same time — then all of your teams go into one Champions League together and play it out. It is free and needs no account, same as the solo game.

Is this the official Champions League?+

No. Drafted is an independent fan project. It reproduces the competition's format for fun and is not affiliated with, licensed by or endorsed by UEFA or any club, league or governing body.

Does it work on mobile?+

Yes, the whole game is designed to work on phones, tablets and desktop.

Your XI is waiting

Draft a squad of legends and take your shot at the big cup. Or send feedback, bugs and wildly wrong player ratings my way — I’d love to hear it.