Aphrilia at one point had a lot of clubs.
When the sport was introduced to the country in 1902, during a time where the nation was still isolated from the rest of Eluwa, amateur teams would pop up here and there throughout the country. However, it wasn't until 1919 where professional clubs were actually being formed. Up until then, they were the run-of-the-mill teams formed by a random sortie of players who decided to just make a team for the sake of it. But when that year came, these teams would start popping up as actual organized, well, organizations. With full time players, staff, home ground, and everything else that would make a team into a football club. This was the start of actual, professional football in Aphrilia.
Even though there were already three football leagues within the country that were claiming to be the national league to represent the nation as a whole, the amateur teams that made up those leagues caught up and became professional too. However, not all of them would be successful. The Aphrilian National Division, the Football League of Aphrilia, and the Aphrilian First Conference had names that no longer existed. When these leagues dissolved, some of those names also went down with it while a few would make it to the National Aphrilian Football Association's attempt at a structured national league in the Aphrilian National Conference League until that dissolved too in 1972. That left clubs without a professional league.
And some teams disappeared forever because of it.
Whether it was because they went bankrupt or they just couldn't keep themselves together, many clubs just up and left the world. Gone, never to be resurrected ever. Although amateur leagues formed by the clubs themselves helped some teams survive the lack of an organized football league, it wasn't able to save everyone. Heck, most of them were at their own breaking point too. The only reason why they didn't break completely was due to Aphrilia's domestic policy during the Eluwan World War, as well as some other specific conditions that were fulfilled. Then 1997 came, where NAFA decided to revive the domestic Aphrilian football scene with the Aphrilian Ultra League.
18 clubs would have been in it, but one was voluntarily dissolved and the other had it's facilities burned down, never to be recovered.
And thus the AUL was formed with just 16 clubs. The Camberville Cup meanwhile had been continued even though there was no league between 1972 and 1997, meaning that the competition was still considered the legitimate national cup of Aphrilian football. And for a while, despite a rocky start, things were going somewhat smoothly within Aphrilian football... That was until the multiverse was found to be true and Aphrilia was participating in the 95th World Cup. That kind of put a new spotlight on the nation. A spotlight that brought them positive things, to say the least. There was increased viewership, money was indeed naturally rolling in. Things seemed to be going great, domestically and now multiversally.
Came in the Champions League. It was something no Aphrilian had ever seen before. Despite the other countries in Eluwa having domestic football leagues, they never really convened to discuss an international club tournament. But this was much better than what the six nations could have possibly thought of. Though there was something about these new teams Aphrilian ones were facing that stood out... In that a lot of these teams had foreign players. By that we mean players from other countries throughout the multiverse. It was a bit of an odd sight for Aphrilia, something they hadn't thought of and continued to ignore or not care about until rather recently where they realized multiversal connections could be helpful.
Which is why Aphrilia reached out to a fellow nation within the multiverse. Biyambi was a nation moving at an upwards trajectory when it came to their football, and continues to do so. The two nations decided that a mutual collaboration would be beneficial after some discussions. The Aphrilian U21 team that participated in the 57th Di Bradini Cup would play against Biyambi's U23 team, and it resulted in an entertaining match. The two countries as well as their footballing associations also agreed upon a sports memorandum of understanding, where both nation's domestic teams would play against each other as well as the two nations exchanging sporting knowledge between each other.
Eventually, this led to further cooperation in where there'd be a player exchange between the two countries. Biyambi sent some players to Aphrilia, and vice versa. Fourteen players, sixteen teams. It was decided that last season's two best teams would not get a player, as their skill level seems to be quite above the rest. That means Luther City FC and Topaz Cove City will not get a player from Biyambi. This may motivate them, and the other clubs within Aphrilia to broaden horizons and perhaps find players from outside Eluwa to play within the Aphrilian Ultra League in the near future. This also gives NAFA the perfect opportunity to do something they planned on doing, which was a league expansion.
The Founder and President of NAFA, Clark Thompson had received complaint from national team manager Christopher Vermont that a single league wouldn't be enough for Aphrilia's future talent pool, and so Thompson agreed to expand the AUL. However, expanding to make two leagues would be difficult even with Aphrilia's current footballing stability. Hence after even further discussions behind the scenes, it was agreed that several teams would be introduced into the league instead of expanding to make a footballing pyramid system. The Aphrilian Ultra League welcomes Pallas City Saints, Halifax Freeze FC, Myrtle SC, and Stallend Rangers into the family. A long awaited opportunity has officially been bestowed.
And thus a completely new season of Aphrilian football was ushered.
NOTE: Due to the addition of new teams, The Camberville Cup has been changed to include the newcomers sufficiently.
-- APH Ultra League Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Topaz Cove City 38 21 10 7 48 24 +24 73
2 Luther City FC 38 20 10 8 72 50 +22 70
3 Pallas City Saints 38 18 11 9 65 53 +12 65
4 Crownford Athletic 38 18 10 10 46 27 +19 64
5 FC Vynemill Row 38 17 9 12 42 41 +1 60
6 Trosspine Athletic 38 17 8 13 30 20 +10 59
7 Darlingtown Rovers 38 16 11 11 40 38 +2 59
8 Firewatch ASC 38 15 13 10 63 52 +11 58
9 Stallend Rangers 38 15 12 11 43 35 +8 57
10 Halifax Freeze FC 38 17 6 15 57 53 +4 57
11 Axlerow United FC 38 15 11 12 41 31 +10 56
12 Lower Hearths ASC 38 15 7 16 56 58 −2 52
13 Myrtle SC 38 14 9 15 30 33 −3 51
14 Koffdif City 38 13 9 16 47 59 −12 48
15 Higher Hearths AFC 38 11 12 15 53 60 −7 45
16 Edenwood United 38 10 9 19 47 61 −14 39
17 Exterton SC 38 10 8 20 25 36 −11 38
18 Norminley Town FC 38 9 11 18 53 70 −17 38
19 Chapelstove Docks FC 38 5 13 20 61 84 −23 28
20 Briar Glenn CFC 38 5 9 24 22 56 −34 24
-- Group A Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Luther City FC 9 5 3 1 19 12 +7 18
2 Crownford Athletic 9 5 1 3 16 14 +2 16
3 Pallas City Saints 9 4 3 2 18 10 +8 15
4 Halifax Freeze FC 9 4 2 3 18 16 +2 14
5 Higher Hearths AFC 9 3 4 2 18 17 +1 13
6 Koffdif City 9 3 4 2 8 9 −1 13
7 Trosspine Athletic 9 2 4 3 7 8 −1 10
8 Exterton SC 9 2 3 4 4 8 −4 9
9 Norminley Town FC 9 0 6 3 16 20 −4 6
10 Chapelstove Docks FC 9 1 2 6 10 20 −10 5
-- Group B Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Lower Hearths ASC 9 7 0 2 16 6 +10 21
2 Darlingtown Rovers 9 5 3 1 14 6 +8 18
3 Firewatch ASC 9 5 2 2 11 7 +4 17
4 Stallend Rangers 9 4 3 2 7 7 0 15
5 Axlerow United FC 9 4 1 4 7 7 0 13
6 Myrtle SC 9 3 3 3 6 6 0 12
7 Topaz Cove City 9 2 4 3 5 6 −1 10
8 FC Vynemill Row 9 2 1 6 3 8 −5 7
9 Edenwood United 9 1 3 5 7 14 −7 6
10 Briar Glenn CFC 9 1 2 6 3 12 −9 5
QUARTERFINALS
Luther City FC v Stallend Rangers
Darlingtown Rovers v Pallas City Saints
Crownford Athletic v Firewatch ASC
Lower Hearths ASC v Halifax Freeze FC
Luther City FC 4–0 Stallend Rangers
Darlingtown Rovers 2–2 Pallas City Saints (3–3 AET) (3–5 pen.)
Crownford Athletic 3–4 Firewatch ASC
Lower Hearths ASC 3–3 Halifax Freeze FC (3–4 AET)
SEMIFINALS
Luther City FC v Pallas City Saints
Firewatch ASC v Halifax Freeze FC
Luther City FC 1–1 Pallas City Saints (1–1 AET) (6–7 pen.)
Firewatch ASC 1–2 Halifax Freeze FC
FINALS & THIRD PLACE PLAYOFF
Pallas City Saints v Halifax Freeze FC
Luther City FC v Firewatch ASC
Pallas City Saints 1-2 Halifax Freeze FC
Luther City FC 3–3 Firewatch ASC (3–4 AET)
Aphrilia (APH) Qualifiers
IFCF Champions League: Topaz Cove City
IFCF Challengers Cup: Luther City FC, Pallas City Saints, Crownford Athletic
IFCF Cup Winners’ Cup: Halifax Freeze FC
FFI League of Victors: Topaz Cove City, Luther City FC
FFI Confederations' Trophy: Pallas City Saints
Origones Auprus 42 20 11 11 57 50 +7 71
Ostrogia Arca 42 20 10 12 59 49 +10 70
Beorun 42 20 8 14 65 49 +16 68
Angevines 42 18 13 11 52 44 +8 67
Prus Ostissia 42 16 13 13 53 52 +1 61
Noechatel Athletike 42 16 8 18 50 52 −2 56
Ostissiennes 42 15 9 18 58 63 −5 54
VS Frisia 42 13 14 15 47 53 −6 53
Prus Ostrogia 42 14 11 17 48 55 −7 53
De Guirre 42 12 14 16 49 56 −7 50
Astellavoce 42 12 11 19 52 64 −12 47
Alexia 42 10 16 16 47 55 −8 46
Lorent Cardinaux 42 11 13 18 48 60 −12 46
Chagris NF 42 11 13 18 50 64 −14 46
Morgavin 42 12 9 21 46 71 −25 45
