International Domestic Soccer Discussion

[Saint-Jean-Jacques et Burnham-on-Stove]

By the way what's the minimum league size to have 3 teams in the challengers cup?

Nine.

The Burnham-on-Stove plan sounds like an excellent IC/RP opportunity, too. I urge you to take full advantage of it. (And yes, you are allowed to roleplay about your domestic league!)

Thanks, I think I'll take advantage of it and officialize the merger between the two nations during the World Cup that is coming soon. For the domestic part, I think I'll RP it as teams from Burnham were playing in a separate league and, with the merger, both leagues merged.

[Kelssek]

I miscalculated the numbers of teams that were needed at each round of the 15th Challengers Cup and corrected it in the access list post. So your first qualifying round matchup has probably changed.

[Kelssek]

I’m doing this when I’m tired at the end of a longer-than-usual work day, and it’s a bit complicated, so I’m posting the whole explanation of how I’m fixing it here, in case I’ve made some other completely silly mistake I’m not thinking of. I messed up in putting Mansandani Union into the Challengers Cup 4th qualifying round instead of Jinja City, and this has some knock-on effects because it messes up seedings.

Jinja City has a coefficient of 14.000, which would make it a seeded team in the 4th qualifying round draw. This creates a tie between Bassabook Old Boys (ZWZ) and 102d Jr.s (ZWZ) who both have a coefficient of 10.789. Through a coin flip,102d Jr.s is assigned to the seeded pot.

The draw should therefore have the following corrections:
Mansandani Union (ZIW): removed from the draw as an unseeded team
Jinja City (BNJ): put into the draw as a seeded team
Bassabook Old Boys (ZWZ): is now an unseeded team instead of a seeded team
102d Jr.s: No change, remains a seeded team

The following results were thus invalid:

(ZIW)                          Mansandani Union    5–3    102d Jr.s (ZWZ)   2–3   3–0
(TRL)                     Torquel Granittknuser    2–9    Bassabook Old Boys                        (ZWZ)   0–6   2–3

A simple swap preserving the original draw isn’t possible because two ZWZ teams cannot be paired against each other. 102d Jr.s (ZWZ) and Jinja City (BNJ) now both need unseeded opponents, while Torquel Granittknuser (TRL) and Bassabook Old Boys need different seeded opponents. To minimize the revision of existing results, but also since in principle they should have faced being drawn against all possible teams, I randomly drew one valid pairing to add to this swap: Chamberley City (SYL) vs. Ciudad Soluca (SRG).

N.b., by chance two of the affected teams were originally drawn against each other. If not, three results would have been invalid anyway.

Basically this gives us a mini-draw which looks like this:

Seeded
102d Jr.s (ZWZ)
Jinja City (BNJ)
Ciudad Soluca (SRG)

Unseeded
Bassabook Old Boys (ZWZ)
Chamberley City (SYL)
Torquel Granittknuser (TRL)

---

Chamberley City (SYL) vs. 102d Jr.s (ZWZ)
Torquel Granittknuser (TRL) vs. Ciudad Soluca (SRG)
Bassabook Old Boys (ZWZ) vs. Jinja City (BNJ)

The corrected results are as follows:

(SYL)                           Chamberley City    4–3    102d Jr.s                                 (ZWZ)   3–1   1–2  (aet)   
(TRL)                     Torquel Granittknuser    2–4    Ciudad Soluca                             (SRG)   2–2   0–2    
(ZWZ)                        Bassabook Old Boys    2–4    Jinja City FC                             (BNJ)   2–3   0–1

This now changes the playoff round. Bassabook Old Boys (unseeded) does not advance now. Jinja City and Ciudad Soluca are now in the draw which they were not previously, and both have coefficients that put them into the seeded pot. This pushes Club ESF (VAL) and Meldrum Fall (SVI) into the unseeded pot. As before, Chamberley City (SYL) advances and is in the unseeded pot so no change is necessary for them.

This means the following results were invalid:

(ELM)                           Italia Mosfleet    3–2    Club ESF                                  (VAL)   1–1   2–1 
(QUE)                               CSKA Quebec    7–2    Meldrum Fall                              (SVI)   4–0   3–2 
(ZWZ)                        Bassabook Old Boys    2–3    Marthorpe City FC (FVA) 2–1   0–2 
(ZIW)                          Mansandani Union    4–0    Tannenberg FC                             (VLD)   3–0   1–0

Following the same principle as before:

Seeded
Jinja City (BNJ)
Ciudad Soluca (SRG)
Marthorpe City (FVA)
Tannenberg FC (VLD)

Unseeded
Italia Mosfleet (ELM)
CSKA Quebec (QUE)
Meldrum Fall (SVI)
Club ESF (VAL)

---

CSKA Quebec (QUE) vs. Tannenberg FC (VLD)
Club ESF (VAL) vs. Jinja City (BNJ)
Meldrum Fall (SVI) vs. Ciudad Soluca (SRG)
Italia Mosfleet (ELM) vs. Marthorpe City (FVA)

And the corrected results:

(QUE)                               CSKA Quebec    7–1    Tannenberg FC                             (VLD)   3–1   4–0    
(VAL)                                  Club ESF    2–3    Jinja City FC                             (BNJ)   1–2   1–1    
(SVI)                              Meldrum Fall    6–8    Ciudad Soluca                             (SRG)   3–4   3–4   
(ELM)                           Italia Mosfleet    4–3    Marthorpe City FC                         (FVA)   3–0   1–3

This works out to Ciudad Soluca (SRG) and Jinja City (BNJ), both pot 2, entering the group stage instead of Marthorpe City (FVA) in pot 2 and Mansandani Union (ZIW) in pot 4. This forces CS Saint-Rémy (KSK) into pot 3 instead of pot 2, and Italia Mosfleet (ELM) into pot 4 instead of 3. And so,

• Ciudad Soluca replaces Marthorpe City in Group H as the pot 2 team, by a coin flip which also decides that...
• Jinja City replaces CS Saint-Rémy in Group J as the pot 2 team.
• CS Saint-Rémy replaces Italia Mosfleet as the pot 3 team in Group G.
• Italia Mosfleet replaces Mansandani Union as the pot 4 team in Group A.

Meaning those groups now look like this:

Group A
Italia Mosfleet (ELM)
AC Izotz Zubia (AUD)
Algolia AC (SRS)
Keppal Cosmos (ZWZ)

Group G
Lokomotive Jarnstad (SVJ)
Kionao Locals (TUR)
Nacional (VLD)
CS Saint-Rémy (KSK)

Group H
Templa United Saints (DAR)
Liria (MYT)
Ciudad Soluca (SRG)
Northern Union (BRE)

Group J
Chamberley City (SYL)
Jinja City FC (BNJ)
Starling (NPH)
KT Itzalovalle (AUD)

As Marthorpe City is a champion club that now misses out on the Challengers Cup group stage, they also move into the Associations Trophy group stage and will presumably replace one of the non-champion Challengers Cup playoff round losers.

I’m really sorry to those who may have “lost out” because of this. If it helps, you can think of the original draw as having randomly thrown you into this butterfly effect mess.

[Nephara]

No worries; it's a complicated process, with a lot of moving parts that can go wrong in a lot of different ways. Transparency and punctuality are all anyone can ask for, and that's been met.

[Naixi]

I continue to search for a home for manager Liangde HE, former boss of Sheshou in the League of the Two Sapphires. For any nation or club that is affiliated with right wing politics, he would fit in perfectly, and for any nation or club with left-wing politics, he would be an entertaining foil and fun RP opportunity.

Send me a TG or make an offer on the TW!

[IFCF]

Regarding the Associations Trophy - there were 2 main issues left over:
1) From Kelssek's changes in the Challengers Cup, it means that Ciudad Soluca (SRG) qualified for the Challengers Cup Group Stage, and instead Marthorpe City FC (FVA) dropped into the AT.
2) When we added 7 non-champions into the draw per Article 12.1, it seems that New Bremen FC (CBP) was wrongly classified as a non-champion team, resulting in them appearing in the draw twice (and yet I ignored it). So instead, after reviewing the list of non-champions clubs in the Challengers Cup Playoff Round and their club coefficients, the final team that needs to be added is Club ESF (VAL).

With that in mind, we looked at the pots. Marthorpe City FC (FVA), with 16.500 club coefficients, takes the place of one of the New Bremen FC (CBP) in Pot 1, while Club ESF (VAL), with 12.000 club coefficients, takes the spot of Ciudad Soluca (SRG) in Pot 2. This would mean 2 simple changes are required. Firstly, after drawing lots, the "New Bremen FC (CBP)" of Group I was replaced with Marthorpe City FC (FVA). Secondly, Club ESF (VAL) takes the place of Ciudad Soluca (SRG) in Group A. No other changes were necessary.

- Fregerson (PotatoFarmers)

[IFCF]

Sorry for double posting but there was another error unspotted till quite recently: AS Samita (ELM) was not entered for the Rising Stars Cup in their entry form, but they were mistakenly entered into the Rising Stars Cup. This means that we actually only have 12 teams in the Youth Champions path, and we will let one more team get a bye into the Play-offs. This would be Chalesm FC (SRS), the youth champion of the 4th highest association in the competition. This means that Venom Youth Academy (VIL) plays Southend AC Academy (CBP) instead in the First Round of the Youth Champions path.

Also, small typo here - Academia Marinos (VLD) was corrected to be the academy team of Marinos Metropolis (VLD) in the Champions League Path group stage draw.

[PotatoFarmers]

It has been brought to my attention that I forgot to transfer Venom Youth Academy (VIL) over to the Champions League path properly, and this means I should have one less team for the Youth Champions path. With that in mind, this means that I need to remove Venom Youth Academy (VIL), and give one more team a bye to the Play-offs. This would be Darmen City United U-19 (DAR), since Darmen is the highest ranked association with a youth champion playing in the First Round.

With that in mind, the following two results have to be removed:

(VIL)                       Venom Youth Academy    3–1    Southend AC Academy                       (CBP)   2–1   1–0 
(DAR)                   Darmen City United U-19    3–4    Dury Juniors                              (PFA)   2–4   1–0

In particular, Darmen City United U-19 (DAR) will make it to the Play-offs, while Venom Youth Academy (VIL) wouldn't due to their result in the Champions League path. The remaining two teams, Southend AC Academy (CBP) and Dury Juniors (PFA) will then be drawn together, with Dury Juniors (PFA) drawn to play the home game first.

Result of the scorination:

(PFA)                              Dury Juniors    2–1    Southend AC Academy                       (CBP)   1–1   1–0  (aet)

Since the same team qualified for the Play-offs, we only have one match to change, that is, originally it would be Venom Youth Academy (VIL) vs Metropolis Alligators (VLD). Now, it would be Darmen City United U-19 (DAR) hosting Metropolis Alligators (VLD) instead.

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

It has been brought to my attention that I forgot to transfer Venom Youth Academy (VIL) over to the Champions League path properly, and this means I should have one less team for the Youth Champions path.

We will definitely have to re-evaluate our continued participation in the RSC. It's little wonder why the Youth League champions field entries have dwindled. There is zero respect given to League Champions.

Maybe instead of cameo one shot appearances, League Champs could have their own Group Stage competition instead of byes.
Either that, or open the Youth League field up so that nations can enter more than one team.

Three different opponents my Champion was drawn against in the span of a week.

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

Last I checked what's supposed to matter more is the level of transparency and getting things right. Better safe than sorry.

As for why there are byes instead of group stage, isn't this because the RSC format follows UEFA Youth League?

[Kelssek]

There have been two small changes to the IFCF regulations.

The seeding procedure for the Challengers Cup first knockout round is now that 3rd-place Champions League teams are seeded by their group stage record, not by club coefficient, following the RL Europa League procedure.

Also, associations may only bid for one competition final per cycle (the LBCT and RSC always come as a package and are counted as one).

[Saterun]

Saterun Football Federation

From the Desk of Aiyla Shahvan, A Liga Coordinator

Dear Multiversal domestic league associations,

As the A Liga, Saterun's domestic football league, wound up its sixth season, we in the administrative reaches of the league decided that the A Liga was maturing enough to export its product across the Multiverse. We belive that sport brings people together, and can tie countries tighter than anything else. That's why the A Liga, in conjunction with the SFF, put out this proposal to the Multiverse of domestic football. We would like to create a tournament between the domestic clubs of Saterun and 1-3 other countries. I belive that this could forge a close bond between the participating nations, as well as give the participating clubs a stage to perform in front of international fans. This would be a friendly tournament. While it will have all of the competitiveness and excitment as a proper tournament, it is not a part of the IFCF family of competitions, and will not count towards coeffecients. It is a chance for clubs to expand the reaches of their fanbase and to bring people together through sport. I hope you all consider this offer. If you are interested, please send a telegram to Saterun.

[Xeola]

Alright i just wanna ask, how do i become a host of a World Cup or something.

[Ko-oren]

Alright i just wanna ask, how do i become a host of a World Cup or something.

The discussion thread for national team football is here, but to briefly answer your question: World Cup hosts typically first participate in a few events, then start hosting small tournaments (friendly tournaments, smaller sports, up to regional tournaments, the Cup of Harmony) and gradually build up a reputation as a good, reliable host. Integrity, impartiality, and reliability are huge factors - you'll be in charge of grading around 50 roleplays per matchday - and good communication's valuable too.

Hosts are voted on at the start of every World Cup cycle.

[Kelssek]

I am going to cut back on my involvement for at least the rest of this year, so my league will not have as much RP if at all for a while. I'll be putting up many of the foreign players on the next transfer window and/or you're always welcome to move your players out with no hard feelings at all.

[Sea Dome]

I have decided that due to the extreme economic inefficiency caused by the supermassive clash of languages, cultures and traditions here; all MSD clubs going forward will be either state owned, otherwise publicly administered (e.g. by a local body, community, university, Policlub, or a domestic Protected Social Group e.g. Wanderers), or - the bulk of the club and the league itself - foreign owned at least in a pure financial sense. See my Football League Preview for list of clubs (of all 4 SPL associations): viewtopic.php?f=7&t=521409&start=25#p40827599

Most clubs are named somewhat ambiguously as to whether they are public or private owned, so if you see one based on a neighborhood or town that you want, let me know and we may be able to retcon it easily. Of the 9 Matrian clubs in League 1, only Sea Dome University is unambiguously public only as of now. Of course, ownership of most CCO clubs or any CTZ club is potentially up for grabs. But MSD in particular will need to rely on foreign capital to keep abreast of domeward rivals, so I am interested in selling off most of their clubs and any financial or practical responsibilities toward the league. ICly, any amount of this that you buy or otherwise sponsor is one more club and/or thing that doesn't need to be sold off to those horrible capitalists right next door who killed so many of any random MSD region's populace.

Also, everyone in the league can be sponsored except SDC clubs, Red Star PC (MSD), Black Star PC (MSD) or Centuries of Resistance PC (MSD). But these can possibly be sponsored by a charity (like when UNICEF sponsored Barca), communist operation, protest leader, political party other than Black Star, bullhorn/machete/AK manufacturer, sympathetic brewer/restaurant, major union, or something else politically unobjectionable from their POV.

ETA: However, all clubs and national teams are open to hiring foreign managers. Also, note The Federation (MSD) refers to the South Califas Federation- the less anarchistic of two FSC derived multisport clubs. Either will sell out though.

[Naixi]

TW 41 is open, here's the link for the Discord-averse freaks like me.

[The Licentian Isles]

Sorry for the delay in this!

With the cutoff being posted, Transfer Window 41 is now open! Please see below for a set of FAQs previously written by Nephara.

TRANSFER WINDOW FAQ
So, what is the transfer window? The transfer system is how players move from one club to another, and this transfer spreadsheet is how transfers across the multiverse are conducted. North Americans might be more familiar with the term 'trades'. In football, player-for-player exchanges are rare (though not unknown) and players are generally bought for money.

THE TABS:
Transfers is where completed transfers - generally but not necessarily, those bought and sold in the Bids tab - are pasted to.
Bids is where clubs bid for players - generally but not necessarily, from the Transfer List.
Transfer List is where clubs list players for sale, generally either of the club's desire to move on the player or the player's desire to move on from the club. There is a space to write both their core statistics and a biography / player history, which is mandatory to fill in.
Free Agents is where players who have been released by their clubs go. They can be picked up by new clubs without a bidding process. You are permitted to put high-value free agents on the Transfer List, however. You are encouraged to write biographies.
Managers is where managers are bought and sold, in a similar way to players. Put 'bids' in the 'Job Offers' tab, which will either be rejected or confirmed.
Newsfeed is where general fluff about the transfer window, or domestic football as a whole, goes.
League Glossary is a list of all associations ordered by their IFCF ability. Feel free to add your own and write a description of it, to show the world your league's character.
Transfer and Bid Lookup are easy ways to look up every transfer or bid involving your nation's clubs and players. Insert your trigramme (TRI) in the appropriate tile (don't touch anything else).
Nations is a list of nations, their trigrammes, and how many open bids they currently have to answer.
Notation / History is a list of the standard notations (the simple form 'GK / DF / MF / FW' or the standard form 'RB / CM / LW / ST' (etc.) along with diagrams of where they go on a football pitch, as well as a link to all prior transfer windows and the credits for the people who have made them work over the years.

Where to start? Put players you would like to see sold in the Transfer List tab. Put players who are going to be released by their clubs in the Free Transfers tab. You will have to manually approve transfers for people in the Transfer List - Free Transfers are just bought on a first-come, first-served basis.

So someone bid on my player. What now? Look at the bid in the Bids tab. You'll notice there's two different columns - Club and Player accepting the bid. Generally speaking, the Club only cares about the transfer fee and if it meets its valuation. It doesn't matter how good the buying club is - the money's the same to the selling club. The player doesn't care about the money that the selling club gets, they only care about if the selling club is good, and if they meet their expectations. Selling clubs want more money, sold players are looking for clubs with more prestige.

How do I determine what leagues are good? The IFCF league rankings determine objective measures of strength. You will also want to consider the strength of the club in its given league - the Nepharan Zenith is a stronger league than the Brenecian A-League, but your player may well prefer to go to regular A-League winners Kingsgrove than Zenith strugglers Leichhardt. Most players also weigh RP quality of a given league into consideration, though only well-RPed leagues will get to the high ranks anyway. The League Glossary section of the sheet also shows the ranks of active leagues alongside short descriptions.

Can I put just anyone up? If the player isn't relevant enough for you to want to write a description for them, they aren't worth putting on the sheet.

How can I buy players? It's the same in reverse. What players do you want to see in your leagues? If they're on the Transfer List, put a Bid for them in the Bids tab. At minimum, this will probably be their cited Valuation. If the club and the player both agree by putting a Y in the relevant tab, then it's a done deal! The player is yours.

What about players who aren't on the Transfer List? You can bid for them, too! The worst that can happen is that the other person says no.

What about Free Transfers? Just put your club and trigramme in the red New Club columns. It's automatically a done deal.

How should I value my players? And how much can I reasonably bid? Fortunately, the NSS economy is far less stratified than the real-world football economy. Instead of big players changing hands for hundreds of millions of Euro, while most leagues outside Europe will never see a transfer of even one million, there's more parity across IFCF and this is reflected in more even results. If it's your first season, your top-half teams might have a full million to spend on a transfer fee, with most of the purchased foreigners being free transfers. Your best player, if they're in the prime of their career (roughly 25-29, but youth adds value, so 24-25 is probably peak value for a player), might fetch one or two million. Other starters on your national team might go for about a million, and ambitious guys in your league hoping to break into your national team will probably fetch like half a million.

Is that a hard and fast rule? No, and there are exceptions. Maybe your league is like the real-life Chinese Super League, a low-prestige league with a lot of money. It's entirely fair to throw a lot of cash around without much prestige, just as long as you're aware of that status. More generally, nobody is going to police you for Doing Things Wrong.

What should my expectations be like for my first season? Modest. Out of a few bids for less prominent players, often in their early- to mid-30s, a few will probably be accepted - and, of course, look through Free Transfers for players who appeal to you. Be realistic, of course - a guy who is like 31 and is still an active international for a strong team is probably not going to join your lower leagues just because he's in the Free Transfers tab - but beyond those obvious cases, you don't need to second-guess yourself. Also, only your top tier is going to be a viable destination for pretty much anyone good enough to be listed on the window, and I'd recommend focusing almost entirely on the top tier for your first few seasons of RPing anyway.

If I have a free agent player, but I care about their destination, can I put them on the Transfer List anyway? Yes. Any bid for them will be for 0 - there's no club with their contract to take the money - and you are free to accept whatever destination you'd like.

Can I start yet? Yes!

What are some general points of etiquette?
BLACK TABS: Anything in a black tab is not for you to edit. That's where formulas go, and messing around with them is likely to break the sheet.
ORDER OF TABS: Do not change them. It is, in fairness, easy to mistakenly click-drag them out of position; if you do, please drag it where you left it. The first four tabs are always TRANSFERS - BIDS - TRANSFER LIST - FREE AGENTS.
LEAGUE GLOSSARY: To avoid clutter, please only include up to two tiers, and ideally just your two primary associations unless there's a pressing need to have more.
SIGNING PLAYERS TO LOWER TIERS: There is an expectation that you only sign players to divisions you intend to roleplay, and when you're starting out, a strong expectation you only sign players to the top tier. As a general rule of thumb, when you are in the top 32 IFCF rankings, your second tier might start to attract foreign free agents.
WHO PUTS A SIGNED PLAYER IN 'TRANSFERS'?: Whoever places down the final 'Y' of Club or Player Accepted has to take that line and paste it into the Transfers tab in order to seal in a transfer. As a result, a player with Y/Y in Club/Player Accepts is assumed to be de facto signed. Do not input the Y in those columns unless you are genuinely putting the green light to that transfer. Obviously, do not accept or reject transfers on behalf of other users.
FREE AGENTS: Please attach a club to your signing of free agents, rather than using something to the effect of "Club TBD". While this is acceptable, if frowned upon, in the transfer window, given that there is less control over free agents it is good courtesy to be prepared with a named club the player will sign for, instead of effectively reserving a player when you are yet to decide what you will do with them.
COMMENTS AND NOTES: Use 'notes' instead of comments to cut down on clutter in the row of tabs (and so as not to email whoever is currently the owner of the transfer window sheet). These can be useful for adding details - e. g. specifying that a bid for a young prospect will see them play with the reserves for a couple of seasons - but please use in moderation.
IN GENERAL: It's okay to make a mess so long as you clean up after yourself.

How can I use the filters?
The 'pyramids' on the top rank of most of the sheets can be used to filter details, but when used they will filter for everyone. To avoid inconveniencing other users, please either make sure to use them for short periods and then 'unfilter' them afterwards, or go to 'Data > Filter views > Create a new filter' and make your own instance of the sheet's filters.
If you need to remove someone else's filters, click on the pyramid and click 'Select All'. DO NOT 'Data > Turn off filter', which removes the filters entirely and just means they have to be put back.

Have other questions, or just want to hang out and chat? Then feel free to join the NS Sport Discord channel!

[Kelssek]

I've ended up listing all foreigners in my league. If you want them to stay, simply reject any offers made. Any player who doesn't transfer out is assumed to be staying.

[Polar Islandstates]

The IFCF and Transfer Window happened before I thought they would, which means I haven't had the opportunity yet to RP the following news in regional international competitions as originally planned, but:

Divisjon One players are available now to sign pre-contract agreements for transfers that will take effect *next* transfer window.

The borders have been open for tourism and temporary business trips for a cycle already, but, to continue enabling his political smokescreen and knowing full well the effect this will have on the football-following public, not to mention knowing exactly how to prolong said effect for as long as possible... the Secretary General will soon be making the announcement that from next year, Polarians will be able to legally move and work abroad without being forced to surrender their citizenship.

Accordingly, clubs are bracing themselves for an onslaught of bids from abroad, and fully expect plenty of Polarian talent move overseas in order to test themselves in foreign leagues.

As it is a delay in federal law (as poised to individual contract lengths) that prevents any moves this transfer window, my clubs will still want fees. So, it is not a "pre-contract" agreement in the sense that many FM players might understand it. The hope is that this generates some narratives for me and my league posts next season as players look to win the title in their last year at _blank_.

Some players already have bids, and I'll respond to those at some point in the next couple of days. For the remainder, if I've mentioned a player in the WC, DBC or CR rosters, or I've mentioned them in a league post, you may take as read that they are available for bids. I will also put some players up as available for transfer, but by no means will my entire NT move abroad in the same window, even with a year's delay, and even if they all receive bids. ICly, clubs will have to decide who they afford to lose, and when, but if you want to tempt a high profile Polarian away from Divisjon One


The flip-side of this is that foreigners will also now be permitted to live and work in the Federation, albeit with close 'supervision', from next year. However, my clubs will quite understandably not be making bids for foreign players until the law comes into effect, as ICly your players would simply not have reason to move until they see how the laws will be put into practical effect.

[Sea Dome]

As I am noob again, I must ask: how likely is it that at least one round of IFCF play will be posted before the TW closes? I must stress I am not expressing impatience or criticizing anyone, I'm just confused about the timetable because different people seem to have different ideas of it, and I want to plan my ranks and RP around at least one matchday of IFCF results if possible..

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

As I am noob again, I must ask: how likely is it that at least one round of IFCF play will be posted before the TW closes? I must stress I am not expressing impatience or criticizing anyone, I'm just confused about the timetable because different people seem to have different ideas of it, and I want to plan my ranks and RP around at least one matchday of IFCF results if possible..

traditionally, the TW ran from cutoff until the beginning of Group Stages. It's a bit shorter now, but I think we'll get to the CL Playoff stage (before GS) at least?

[Sea Dome]

Thanks!

Unrelated, for anyone wondering why there's so much Sea Dome University and Independent Students SC, and what it all has to do with club football, I will have a 'good' RP explanation in my SPL preview but this NSCF RP can help start to explain why college looks so different here. viewtopic.php?p=40842920#p40842920 (Although also, a prestigious university hosting a pro football side happens in IRL top flights too)

I know it looks a little strange but keep in mind SDU won SDFA, and Eastern University won CCFAL, completely by chance. I didn't put rankings or styles in xkoranate. The RP has grown in the cracks of all that like a sort of demented mushroom. The TLDR is that both countries have an extreme labor surfeit due to the circumstances of their birth, which has previously led everyone including university affiliated clubs to rely on older players and exploit high turnover to keep things level; also universities have outsize importance because of the maintenance requirements of the facility. Now with the existence of SPL and IFCF/IUCC in their world, Supermassive Sea Dome folks have to invent a culture of training and academies from whole cloth, which leaves particularly SDU and EU scrambling to fortify their positions and many other clubs a little confused about how to stay relevant.

ETA: Forgot to mention, and this is something you may have seen if you're in the discord but enrolling at ISSC is somewhere between a formality and joining a hobby club. It's like if independent study kids ran a whole interdisciplinary college and they do. Nobody cares or will check if you're making academic progress or actually studying or writing something, and you can drop the whole thing the second you feel like it.

[Sea Dome]

Thanks everyone for your patience with me figuring out my first TW. There has been a suggestion that I should refer to all my clubs in the sheet by a trigramme for my multiassociational league Sea Peoples League or SPL instead of MSD, CCO, CTZ and SDC. But I am left confused whether this is better or worse, breaks the rules or abides by them, and whether the UICA rule about not giving automatic placements to an association applies *to* the multiassociational league itself- e.g. SPL's current "1+ team per association per flight" rule- or just to the qualifications for IFCF tournaments?

Sorry, I'm doing my best to read the original rules post and figure it out but the postviral fatigue is kicking my ass this week. I've had limited access to home care.

That being said, I have removed the detailed information on manager bids to notes and a local .txt. Apologies to everyone who felt pressured to add an extra RP thing to the bid tab, which was not my intention, but clearly was the impact. I thank the many of you who have offered advice on my NS return and, genuinely, also those who have offered criticism; it has been extremely helpful for my social skills. Where I have previously expressed ingratitude I was mistaken and I apologize.

Anyone willing to help sort out the IFCF/TW stuff, please feel free to reply, TG or scare me up on discord

[IFCF]

Hi all,

After the publication of the draws, we noticed that teams were incorrectly seeded for the Champions Cup Group Stage. Unfortunately, this has led to a full redraw being necessary for the preliminary rounds of both the Champions Cup and the Challengers Cup, as it led to quite comprehensive impacts on the rounds in which teams would enter the draw. As such, I would recommend returning to the post with the draws and having a look at the new draws. Apologies for the error and the inconvenience caused.

Ta,
Licen (on behalf of the IFCF Council)