Each coach begins the league with a treasury of 1,000,000 gold pieces with which to buy his team. When creating a league team a coach can choose to save some of the money instead of spending it all when he sets up the team, so that he has some spare cash to fall back on if necessary. A coach must keep track of how much money his team has in its treasury by recording the amount on his team roster.

In order to create your team you have a treasury of 1,000,000 gold pieces. This represents the cash you have managed to raise through sponsors or by other, more underhanded, means to hire the players for your team.

Each of the players in your team will cost a number of gold pieces, as indicated on the lists. The team list also indicates the maximum number of each type of player you are allowed to take for your team. So, for example, a Human team may not have more than two Throwers. In addition your team must have at least 11 players and may not have more than 16. All of the players on your team must be from the same team list, except for up to four special players. A special player is one of the following:

1. Allies as shown on the team list. A coach may prefer to refer to these players as an exceptional player of their own race, but are then required to come up with a name for the position type and still required to pay the 150% cost due to the rarity of the player type.
2. Pre-generated Star Players
3. Generated stars using the following rules: A stock player from either your allies’ list or team players list. These players can have a total of up to seven skills added, no statistical modifications. However many skills are chosen the player is considered to have peaked. Pricing is base cost plus 10k for every regular skill and 15k for every skill that would normally require a doubles roll. An Allied Star still counts against any limitations (maximum number, or roll for availability) and must be adjusted to 150% total cost after completion. No two generated stars of the same race may be exactly alike. At least one skill must be different.

Within these restrictions, you may have any number and type of player, just so long as you have the cash to hire them.

At the start of every tourney there will be a rookie draft. A team may hire a base player who comes with a number of Star Player Points equal to their position in the end of season rankings. If this results in a Star Player roll it is to be made at the start of the first game. A team has until the end of the first game to hire the player. New teams may include a player with the same number of SPPs as the last place team of the previous tournament.

No Big Guys of any sort, manner, way, shape or form are allowed on the pitch other than as a part of the officiating crew.

Allies

Each team is allowed players from other races, within their four "special player" slots. A player of another race costs 50% more than his list price. These players contribute their list price for Team Rating purposes, not the price actually paid.

If you attempt to hire from a race which has a number in parenthesis, you must roll that number or higher on a D6. If you do so, you may purchase this player. Otherwise you must wait for five (5) games before you may try again. You do not lose any money if you fail, but you do lose any special play cards used in the attempt. 

When you create a team you do not get any team re-rolls or fan factors for free - you have to pay for them from your treasury. Each re-roll costs the number of gold pieces shown on the team list of the team you have chosen, and allows you to re-roll one dice roll per half. It is a good idea to take one or two for your team.

Your teams fan factor represents how popular the team is, and can have important effects on the results you roll on the Kick-Off Table. Each fan factor costs 10,000 gold pieces, so a fan factor of 3 would cost 30,000 gp, for example. Your team must have a fan factor of at least 1, and may not have a fan factor of higher than 9.

A teams coaching staff provide vital back-up to the teams players. Coaching staff are never allowed on the field, they must stay on the sidelines during the match. Any team may include the following coaching staff on their roster (exceptions as noted in the team lists), as long as they are represented by an appropriate miniature.

This model represents you, and so does not cost any gold to hire for the team! During a match your main job is to yell and shout at players in your team in order to inspire them, and more importantly, to yell and shout at the referee if he makes a call against your team.

In order to represent this, every time the referee sends off one or more of your players, or issues an illegal procedure call against you, or bans the use of a secret weapon, you may argue the call with him. Roll a D6. On a roll of 1 he expels you from the game, so you may not argue any more calls for the rest of the match. On a roll of 2-5 he ignores you and his call stands. On a roll of 6 he accepts your argument and reverses his decision.

Each assistant coach you add to the team costs 10,000gp and must be represented by an appropriate miniature. In addition, each assistant must be given a different job title. A full list of all the assistant coaches must be kept on the back of the team roster.

An Apothecary is a healer wise in the ways of medicine and magic who looks after the injured players in a Blood Bowl team – and so has a strenuous and full-time job!

It costs 50,000 gps to hire an Apothecary for your team, and he must be represented by an appropriate miniature. A team may not have more than one Apothecary.

Wizards, just like everybody else in the Old World, are keen sports fans and many are fanatically loyal in support of their chosen team. It is not surprising then that soon after the game was born Wizards started ‘helping out’ the team they supported with carefully selected spells. Soon, games were awash with magic as rival Wizards battled to give their teams the edge.

In the end the Colleges of Magic were forced to step in and insist that only teams that had bought a special license from the Colleges of Magic were allowed to have magical assistance. What’s more, they limited this assistance to no more than one spell per match, and even this had to be chosen from a very limited selection and cast by an officially appointed Colleges of Magic team Wizard. Although unpopular at first, Wizards and fans alike soon realised that what they really wanted to see was a football match and not a spellcasting contest and soon the new rules were universally accepted.

Any team is allowed to include one Wizard as a member of their coaching staff – as long as they can afford to pay the exorbitant 150,000gps hire fee to the College of Magic concerned. The Wizard must be represented by an appropriate miniature. A team is not allowed to have more than one Wizard.

Wizards will be limited in their positioning around the board to either sideline but not in the End Zones. You may interrupt a coach’s turn to cast a spell but not in the middle of a player's move. Please remember that blitzes are to be declared before a player stars his move. (ABBA)

Some teams may not use ordinary Wizards, but have their own specialised type of Wizard (or equivalent) that they must use instead. These are Dwarf teams, who may only take an Alchemist, Halfling teams, who may only take a Master Chef, Undead Teams, who have to take a Necromancer, and Khemri, who have to take a Liche King. The special rules for these types of Wizards are described below.

The effect of this extra stimulation is represented by allowing Halfling teams that include a Master Chef to take a number of extra team re-roll counters at the start of each half. Roll a die and halve the score, rounding down (i.e., 1=0, 2-3=1, 4-5=2, 6=3). The result is the number of extra counters the team gets for the half. In addition, the fabulous cooking smells emanating from the Halfling team’s Dugout can prove very distracting for the players in the opposing team. To represent this, the opposing coach must reduce the number of team re-roll counters he has by a number equal to the re-rolls that the Halfling team gained. So, for example, if the Halfling team gained two re-rolls, then their opponents would lose two! A team may never have the number of re-rolls it has reduced to less than 0 in this way.

In addition to his abilities as Head Coach, the Necromancer may cast a Raise the Dead spell once per match. This spell may only be cast if a player from the opposing team s killed during the match. It allows the Necromancer to raise the player from the dead, and add him to the Undead team as a new Zombie player!

The spell may only be cast on players of roughly human size (i.e., not on large monsters like Ogres or Trolls, or small players like Halflings or Goblins). The new player has standard Zombie characteristics no matter what his skills or abilities in life, and may only be added to the undead team if it has fewer than 16 players at the time. If the Undead coach has a spare Zombie model available, then the new player may be placed in the Reserves Box of the Undead teams Dugout and used immediately – much to the consternation of his former teammates!