Chapter 12 · Championship Soccer 2026
Options, display and sound
Choose the pace, controls, match balance, graphics, audio and personal preferences that suit your game.
Finding and keeping your settings
Open Options from the menu. The main page contains general preferences, with buttons for Advanced options, Advanced video options and Match controls. Longer pages scroll. Use the mouse wheel or the slim scrollbar to see all the choices, and point at a row to read its explanation.
Use the arrows beside a value to change it and the on/off controls for switches. Save keeps the options for later sessions. Load restores the saved options. Default restores the relevant defaults. A saved career and saved options serve different purposes: Save game keeps your football world, while the options screen saves your preferences.
The control-mapping page has its own saved keyboard and controller layouts. Camera presets are managed in the match camera screen, and the current career's camera is remembered when you save that career. See remapping controls and camera views.
General options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Display | Open the display-mode and resolution selector. |
| Graphics quality | Select a complete graphics preset. Advanced video options let you tune the details. |
| Select language | Choose the language used for the game's menus and messages. |
| Physics update rate / game speed | Set the pace of the displayed football. The accompanying timing choice offers Compatible, Precise and Decoupled. |
| Audio output | Choose SDL, XAudio2 on Windows, or Disabled. |
| Sound | Enable or disable game sound effects. |
| Fan sounds | Enable or disable the crowd sounds separately. |
| Always create fantasy players | Use generated footballers when creating a football world, including when supplied player lists are available. It does not rebuild an existing career's players. |
| Control goalie in team-mode | Allow the whole-team human control to include the goalkeeper. Turning it off leaves that job to the computer in team mode. |
| Transfer offers for human players | Allow transfer offers for human career footballers. |
| Transfer offers for computer-controlled players | Enable the corresponding transfer activity for computer-controlled footballers. |
| Save compressed | Use the smaller compressed career-save format. The career information remains the same. |
| Keep match moments as videos | After you save a match moment, also prepare a shareable video. |
| Other match scores | Show available scores from other fixtures during the match. |
| Pitch wear | Enable the visible pitch-wear presentation. |
| Match video quality | Choose Compact, Balanced or Detailed for saved-moment videos. |
| Maximum length | Choose a video limit of 20, 25 or 30 seconds. |
| Storage folder | Choose the destination for new saves, autosaves, replays and screenshots. |
| Real weather (METAR) | Allow an internet weather observation to inform match conditions. |
The transfer-offer switches concern footballers. They are separate from your manager's job applications, contract and security. Transfer interest still depends on football circumstances and is not a promise of an offer every week. The advanced Offers for human players value increases the volume when human-player offers are enabled.
Changing the storage location does not move existing files. DataSets, Teamsounds and personal Data keep their own Documents content location. Follow Saving and personal files when moving saves or choosing a custom folder. Preferences normally live separately under your Windows user account.
Match duration and ready-made settings
Use Match duration when you want shorter or longer football. The in-game clock still represents the regulation halves. The amount of real time you spend also depends on the game speed, stoppages, replay viewing, half-time and how long you leave menus open.
The Choose default settings row offers 2× 2:30, 2× 3:30, 2× 5:00, 2× 10:00 and 2× 45:00. These are match-balance presets. They adjust several football settings together to suit the intended length, including possession speed, the influence of speed and stamina, shot power and goalkeeper/reflex boosts.
2× 3:30 is the starting reference. The retained 2× 2:30 button selects the same short-match setup. Treat these labels as preset names, not as a stopwatch guarantee. The longer choices also tune build-up patience and computer tackling to suit a longer contest.
Choose a preset first, then make individual adjustments. Selecting another preset later can replace those balance choices. Changing the duration by itself is different from selecting a complete preset. Injury and card frequencies are interpreted relative to the chosen duration, so 100% means that duration's normal incident rate.
Game speed, fast-forward and stoppages
Physics update rate / game speed defaults to 60 updates per second and can be selected from 40 to 90. This changes the real-time pace of the football. It is separate from the length of a half and from the number of pictures your monitor displays.
| Choice or command | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Compatible | Use the compatibility timing behaviour, including the display driver's synchronisation behaviour. |
| Precise | Use the game's timing to keep the selected update pace. This is the normal starting choice. |
| Decoupled | Let display output run separately from the match's update pace. |
| Numeric + / − during the match | Adjust the current live game speed within the match's permitted range. |
| Page Up / Page Down | Adjust fast-forward while following the match without a human footballer on the pitch, including waiting on the bench. |
| PageUp fast-forward: Every tick, unpaced | Show each step of the football as quickly as the computer can display it. |
| PageUp fast-forward: Multiple ticks per frame | Advance several steps between displayed pictures. This can pass an off-field waiting period faster. |
| Speed up stoppages | Automatically shorten permitted pauses, smoothly increasing speed up to 16× and slowing before play resumes. A higher manual speed takes priority. |
| Space | Advance only a waiting or presentation stage that currently permits skipping. |
A higher menu frame limit or Match VSync setting is a display preference, not a request for faster football. If play feels too fast, first check the game-speed value. If the football pace feels right but movement looks uneven, start with the display and video options.
Advanced football balance
| Option | Effect and useful interpretation |
|---|---|
| Player speed in possession | Change movement speed while carrying the ball. More speed in possession can create more chances. |
| Influence of speed and stamina | Reduce how strongly these attributes separate players. Lower influence can make teams more even during long matches. |
| Shot power | Change the shared strength of kicked ball actions. This affects passes, through balls, crosses, shots and relevant kicked restarts or goalkeeper releases, so reducing it also shortens passing range. |
| Goalie boost | Strengthen goalkeeper handling and jumping. This can make finishing harder. |
| Reflexes boost | Increase player reactions, including those of goalkeepers. |
| Injury frequency | Choose 25–200% of the incident rate appropriate to the match-duration setup. |
| Card frequency | Choose 25–200% of the yellow- and red-card rate appropriate to the match-duration setup. |
| Build-up patience | Increase from 100% toward 400% for more patient computer build-up and a greater willingness to use safer combinations. |
| Offers for human players | Increase transfer-offer volume for human footballers when their offers are enabled. |
| Daily form influence | Choose how strongly the day's form changes the match performance. A low value makes that daily variation less influential. |
| Off-ball player speed | Reduce the speed of players without possession relative to the normal setting. |
| Collision fall threshold | A higher threshold makes ordinary body contacts less likely to knock players over. It does not remove deliberate tackles or their consequences. |
| AI sliding tackle frequency | Adjust how readily computer-controlled players attempt slide tackles. Zero suppresses those computer slide attempts, while your manual challenge controls remain available. |
These are shared match settings. They do not change just the team you control. Adjust a small number at a time and use the same sides in a friendly to judge the difference. A player can still make a mistake, a goalkeeper can still concede and a high percentage does not guarantee a particular score.
Movement, aiming and ball control options
| Option | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Aftertouch | Set how strongly direction input can influence a ball after contact. This also forms part of the computer players' ball control. |
| Aiming mode: Independent aiming | The default. Hold an action, keep your existing run and change direction input to aim the kick. Release the action to play it, or let the full charge release automatically. |
| Aiming mode: Player facing | Passes and shots follow the player's facing direction. Movement and facing become more directly involved in the kick. |
| Aim arrow visibility | Adjust the opacity of the independent-aim arrow. At 0% it is hidden. |
| Aim arrow size | Change the arrow's display size without changing kick strength. |
| Coasting time | Set how long a player takes to stop at normal pace. 0 ms removes that added coasting behaviour. |
| Coasting distance | Adjust how far a player coasts at normal pace independently of the time. Very short stopping times limit the available distance. Speed, agility and the camera affect the distance you actually see. |
| CPU movement reaction | Set the delay when computer players track the ball and opponents. Their reflexes modify the response. 0 ms disables this added delay. Goalkeeper actions retain their own behaviour. |
Aftertouch happens after the kick. Independent aiming happens before it. On an Xbox controller the left stick aims during the charge, while the right stick is available for influencing the ball in flight. The controls chapter explains ordinary passing, lofted balls, first-time actions and the difference between a team switch and a tackle.
Kits, player labels and match panels
Kit preference controls automatic choice. At 0 the game prioritises the clearest contrast. Higher values increasingly favour the home side's home kit and the visitors' away kit when there is sufficient contrast. Choose kits before match lets you choose the available strips yourself before kick-off.
Player numbers and Player names can be off, limited to the ball carrier, include the ball carrier and selection, or show all players. In a manager's watching view, the selection includes hovered and marked footballers. Names use initials and surname. The camera screen can override these general choices for an individual camera preset.
Match panels determines when the management and timeline controls appear. Choose permanently off, always for managers, on mouse movement, managers plus mouse movement, or always. The matchday guide explains those controls and the review timeline.
Display mode, resolution and synchronisation
- Open Display from Options or Advanced video options.
- Choose Standard, Windowed, Borderless or Fullscreen, and a resolution where applicable.
- Choose Apply. If the picture is usable, confirm Keep within 15 seconds. Otherwise select Revert, or wait for the previous setting to return.
- Back in Options, choose Save to keep the confirmed choice for later starts.
Borderless and fullscreen use the desktop resolution. For a window, the Desktop choice maximises it within the available screen area. Alt + Enter provides a quick window/fullscreen toggle, but use the options selector and Save when setting up your normal start preference.
Menu VSync and Match VSync have Standard, Off, On and Adaptive choices. VSync synchronises pictures with the monitor. Adaptive uses the supported driver behaviour and may fall back to normal VSync. Match synchronisation keeps the intended football pace.
Menu frame limit offers Standard, 60, 120 or 144. This is an upper limit, not a promise of the achieved frame rate. VSync can impose a lower limit. Menu and match settings are separate so you can choose a comfortable menu display without changing the speed of a match.
Graphics quality and Advanced video options
Start with a complete Very low, Low, Medium or High graphics preset. Changing individual components produces a Custom setup. Use lower settings if the stadium presentation struggles to keep up, and increase individual details only after the game feels comfortable.
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Spectators | Draw or hide the crowd. |
| Spectator animation | Animate the spectators when they are shown. |
| Spectator shadows | Show or hide the crowd's shadows. |
| Dynamic shadows | Select Off, Low or High for the changing shadows in the scene. |
| Internal render resolution | Draw the match scene at 50%, 75% or 100% of the output size. Lower values reduce the graphics workload but soften the scene. Menus and the match information remain at their normal output resolution. |
| MSAA | Smooth geometry edges with Off, 2×, 4× or 8× sampling. Higher choices require more graphics resources and depend on support. |
| FXAA | Apply an additional edge-smoothing filter at Off, Low or High. It can soften fine details as well as jagged edges. |
| Goal net density | Adjust how strongly the net material is drawn, from 25% to 150%. |
| Goal net mesh size | Adjust the visible size of the net pattern, from 50% to 200%. |
| Outlines | Choose Off, Reduced or Full for the outlines that help distinguish objects. |
| Sharpening | Choose Off, Low or High for the image-sharpening filter. |
| Ball size | Choose the ball's displayed size, from 70% to 100%, to suit your view and preference. |
| Weather effects | Choose Off, Classic or 2026 for the way rain, snow and other weather effects are presented. The match conditions themselves still apply. |
If a moving scene is slow, reduce demanding presentation choices such as shadows, spectators and internal resolution. If the scene is smooth but edges look rough, compare MSAA and FXAA. If the ball is hard to follow, adjust its displayed size and the camera. There is no requirement to use one particular ball size.
Sound and audio output
Audio output selects the sound system. SDL is available as the general output path, XAudio2 is an alternative on Windows and Disabled turns audio output off. Use Sound and Fan sounds to choose effects and crowd ambience without changing the whole output system.
If sound is missing, first check that output is not Disabled, that the relevant sound switch is on and that Windows is sending the game to the intended speakers or headset. After changing the output system, save the preference and restart the game if the previous output is still in use.
Clubs can also have personal entrance music and goal music. Those are club-content choices described in Custom football worlds and personal content, while these options control how the game plays audio.
Weather, video and storage preferences
With Real weather (METAR) enabled, the game can fetch an observation before a suitable match and translate it into conditions at the ground. Thunderstorms are included. When no observation is available or the connection fails, the game supplies match weather itself. This setting does not require you to find a weather report manually.
Keep match moments as videos applies to moments you deliberately save. It does not record the whole match automatically. Match video quality and Maximum length control the exported clip. The saved in-game replay is kept as well. See Replays and videos for the exact save keys and export workflow.
Storage folder chooses where new saves, autosaves, replays and screenshots are written. The location shown in the game is authoritative, especially if Windows Documents is redirected. This choice does not relocate DataSets, Teamsounds or personal Data. Save compressed changes the file format used for career saves, without discarding career content. See Saving and personal files for locations, copies and backups.
Using Video diagnosis
If you cannot resolve uneven or slow display by adjusting options, open Advanced video options → Video diagnosis. Read the explanation and choose Start. The automated test takes about six minutes, compares menus and a short match under different settings and leaves your career unchanged.
Press Esc to stop early. When the test finishes or is stopped, it produces a local support report containing the available results and shows its location. The game does not send the report automatically. If you are asking the developer to investigate a display problem, send that ZIP with a description of what you saw.
For start-up, controller, storage and other practical problems, use Troubleshooting.