The Squidroidian Sport Newswire
Squidroida's link to the NS Sports world
IFCF and FFI Explained - Who goes where?An explainer on international club competition before the season endsJune 11th, 2020To those following the Squidroidian Super League and the Squidroidian Challenge League, you might be confused about all the color coding and the names of the competitions the teams qualify for. Could Calamari Wanderers compete in the Champions League? Is the Challengers Cup really something that Tractor Club Sawayama really want to tackle? Can Weedpot FC handle the Liga B Champions Trophy? What is the Taça das Confederações and why are Tyranny qualifying for it?. These answers might confuse newbies to the sport of football, but these are par for the course for the veterans. We here are the Squidroidian Sport Newswire are here to explain to you these competitions and where you can expect Squidroidian teams to fall into during the course of these events.
The IFCF Champions League and Challengers CupThe International Federation for Club Football, or IFCF, is the main federation that nations qualify their teams for. At the top of the IFCF pecking order is the Champions League, the competition everyone wants to win. As Squidroidia is new to the game, only the winners of the domestic top flight, at the moment being Calamari Wanderers CFC, qualify for this prestigious event, and only in the First Preliminary Round. This is where you see teams like Kven FK, Bruland IF, Club Warder and the Plane of Possibility's very own Fighters. Survive both legs of the tie and you advance to the Second Preliminary Round. This is where the teams get slightly bigger. Sporting Clube da Lusitânia and the Royal Canterlot Hoofball Club were found last edition. Get through that and it's a straight shot to the Third Preliminary Round, where teams like Spartangrad and Metropolis Alligators can be found. Winning that tie would get you to the Playoff Round, and a win in those tricky legs will put you in the Group Stage, where teams like the defending champions Northern Union await. But a Squidroidian team could fall much earlier than the Playoff, so where will Calamari Wanderers have to go if they trip up?
This is where the IFCF Challengers Cup kicks in. Acting as the second-tier competition in this IFCF system, the Challengers Cup usually is avaliable for the 3 sides below the Champions League allocated spots (In this case Inkopolis FC, Tyranny Sports Club and Tractor Club Sawayama). But a team can reach the Challengers Cup just by being knocked out of the Champions League as a second chance. That utter calamity of a performance against Fighters in the first preliminary in the CL could be turned into a night against Istria City FC. An embarrassing second preliminary exit to Crystopolis City can be rewarded with a home game against Southern Star. And if the champions get knocked out on the final hurdle to the Champions League Group Stage, they will be compensated with a Challengers Cup group berth and a second chance to show Squidroidia what it has in store. Of course, an exit from the Challengers Cup means an exit from IFCF competition, so the competition is a one time safety net for Champions League teams. That doesn't rule out the teams who already qualify for the Challenger's Cup, as they can still qualify via the same preliminary route, where they can't face their nation's own sides up until the Round of 16 at the earliest.
If a Squidroidian side makes it to the group stage of either competition, they have to go through 6 daunting games at night, under the lights, against the best the world has to offer. Go in the top 2 and you stay alive for the knockout rounds. Finish 3rd in your CL group and you get transferred to the Challenger's Cup knockout phase. Finish 3rd or 4th in the Challengers Cup group or last in the Champions League group and there is no luck. You are out of IFCF competition, and there is no second chance. Advance, however, and you're on the path to glory. If a team is especially good or lucky, they will reach the summit, the Final, held at a neutral site venue where 90 minutes may be between glory and heartbreak.
Winning either competition gets the team an automatic berth to the Champions League group stage next season. This can override a Challenger's Cup position or add another CL berth to a league if the winning team has already qualified for the IFCF's biggest competition.
The FFI Liga dos Vencedores and Taça das ConfederaçõesNow I know what you're thinking right about now. What the hell are those competitions with the Portuguese names? Those don't belong to the IFCF, they instead belong to the FFI. The Liga dos Vencedores and the Taça das Confederações are the FFI's own version of the Champions League and Challengers Cup that the IFCF run. Finishing in the top 2 means that you qualify for the Liga, and finishing in 3rd qualifies you to the Taça. These are added on to the IFCF spots that a team gets, meaning that for the top 3 teams, no matter what, they have to play in 2 international club competitions. Taking the Super League as it stands, Calamari Wanderers get a bye to the group stage of the LIga, while Inkopolis FC has to qualify for the group stage of that competition while TSC go through Taça qualification. Unlike the Champions League it is just 1 round, no 4+ rounds like in the CL or CC. This allows teams to concentrate their energy on IFCF qualification.
The Group Stages of the Liga has the same format as the CL groups, 8 groups of 4, top 2 advance to Round of 16 and the 3rd place team goes to the Taça. However, since the Taça only has 4 groups of 4, there is only a round of 16 for that competition, as the 3rd place Liga teams face off against the top 2 group finishers from the Taça in the round of 16, quarters, semis and Final, same for the Liga. Winning the Liga dos Vencedores or Taça das Confederações also means that a team goes to the next season's competition automatically (With an exception for the Taça winner if they qualify for Liga), so there really is no rush for a Liga contending team to reach the top 2 of their domestic league.
this might not be the case anymore since the ffi user is cte'dThe IFCF Liga B Champions TrophyNow all of this means nothing for the Challenge League sides. They won't get the chance to go to CL, CC or the other 2 competitions anytime soon, so what do they do? Of course, they have their own competition too! The Liga B Champions Trophy is the IFCF competition for the best 2nd division sides in each nation, and everyone gets 3 spots. Seeing as the Challenge League only has 4 teams, that is basically almost all of the teams in the 2nd division. Again, it's more of the same, but no Liga B CT teams are guaranteed to go to the group stage automatically. Everyone has to go through some kind of preliminaries, no matter what. When a team survives this it's par for the course. Group stage with double matchdays, top 2 advance to last 16, then Quarters, Semis and Final. What makes Liga B more interesting is that
almost all of the teams are new (Unless they are yo-yoing or are in a closed league), which makes this competition more wacky than Champions League or Challengers Cup.
The IFCF Cup Winners CupAnd finally, we have the oldest IFCF competition, the Cup Winners Cup. This competition, as the name implies, is only for the winners of the domestic cup competitions for each nation. No Super Cups, no Play-offs, none of that. The Squidroidian Cup winner gets to go to this competition, and if a team is already in an IFCF competition (CL, CC or Liga B), they don't have to forfeit anything, so if a top 3 team wins the cup, they have to play in three, yes,
three international club competitions. Like a domestic cup, this one doesn't have any group stages, it's straight up knockout fun, with a Preliminary Round, a First Round Proper, then Round of 16, Quarters, Semis and Final. The winner of the Cup Winners Cup will also be invited to the next edition of the competition.
And there you have it! If you know what you're dealing with, you now understand how these competitions work. Which Squidroidian teams will book their place in the competitions, and where will they go? Stay tuned to the Squidroidian Sport Newswire to figure out the journeys of the chosen few.