A guided first shift (~5 min): the whistle, cards, advantage, your assistant's flag, the vanishing spray, and a full VAR monitor run. Each drill locks until you've done it — and the match waits while you read. No pressure, that comes later.
Graduate to earn the new Full Referee achievement.
New — Crew Voice Chat (co-op)
Built-in voice for your crew: push-to-talk (default X, rebindable) or open mic, voice volume slider, and speaking indicators on the crew chips — plus a MIC LIVE pill so you always know when you're transmitting.
Co-op
Career fixtures now host for the whole crew: your assistants see your career HQ, everyone boards each fixture together, and rematch after rematch works without restarting the game.
Walkout ceremonies end together — skipping is a crew decision, not a solo one.
Assistant referees can now flag fouls near them on their half. The center takes the call with SPACE or waves it down with F — and a raised flag blinks so you can't miss it.
If the host quits or disconnects, the crew is returned to the lobby automatically instead of being stranded on a frozen pitch.
VAR — full protocol coverage
VAR now also intervenes on handballs in the build-up to goals, clear penalties and red cards the referee missed entirely, wrongly-shown reds, and mistaken identity — still strictly for clear and obvious errors, so a well-refereed match stays uninterrupted.
Play now freezes while a VAR prompt is up and your cursor is free to answer it; mouselook returns for the run to the monitor.
World
International tournaments now feature 16 real nations — England, Brazil, Germany, Argentina and more — with squads drawn from the league's players by nationality.
UI & fixes
New game-drawn cursor: no more invisible or doubled pointer in fullscreen, and it's always there when a decision panel opens.
Controls reference reorganized by role (General / Center Ref / Assistant / Assessor / Co-op Crew); voice, volume and sound toggles all live in Settings.
Themed scrollbars — the Windows-gray ones have been sent off.
The tutorial's box foul now actually happens in the box. Thanks konrad!