Last season didn't disappoint, in both the real world, and in our more bespoke FootyCompetition world.

In the real world, Spurs messed up Arsenal’s title hopes by losing at home to Manchester City. Their second, consecutive second place, apparently had nothing to do with Woolwich only managing 3 points against West Ham, 1 (ONE) point against Fulham and ZERO points against Villa. Nope, in spite of spending £247 million in the summer, and showing no improvement in their league position, the failure was all down to Son Heing-Min. 😂😂
Meanwhile, whilst all that was going on, in our little competition, the League proved to be one of the closest run, ever.
I've been running these competitions on/off for probably 20 years now, 4/5 of those in the current format, and I can't remember four teams going so close at the end of the campaign.
Lard Lovers XI finally saw it safely over the line though, and finished off an impressive season, with their second League Win in three seasons, runners-up in The Picks, and winner of The Magnificent 7 run-in.
2 T’Wire took it there, to the wire, but despite leading for a long time had to settle for second for a second season on the bounce. No they don’t support Arsenal and they didn’t feel Sonny was in anyway to blame for missing out on top spot.
Racing Todabogs won The Picks. They edged out Lard Lovers, both swapping places a number of times in the second half of the season, as they left the chasing pack behind.
In the cups, The WolfPack won The Grand Prix Trophy, SpursCollectables collected The Last Team Standing Trophy (I obviously don’t mean they actually win a trophy…)
I Should Be So Lucky, finally were, and took the standalone Cup Competition. Their early Coventry 5 Maidstone United 0 prediction helped settled the nerves, and they saw the contest home in style with a predicted, and banked, Real Madrid 2-0 win in the Champions League Final
If you're new, you'll be thinking WTF does that all mean. In truth most of the 60 involved last time round will probably think the same. So let me explain, or at the very least make an attempt to.
But, before I start going through 24/25, and what's in store, let me confirm the charity being supported by us for this Season’s competition
We’ve now settled on 8 different charities we rotate between each season/competition, and this time it’s the turn of The British Heart Foundation.

We last supported them for the 2023 Cup competition, sending them £561.00. With a percentage of all signing on fees and any other kind donations made by you, I'm sure we'll match that again sum again from 24/25.
It will bring the total raised to £5,000 over the last couple of years from these competitions, more than any individual has managed to win in the same time. Thanks everyone. (Details of sums sent to the seven charities so far are on The Prize Money page on the website, as well as links to each of their sites)
And so, here's a summary of what you'll be getting involved in during the 24/25 season, if you decide to come and have a go.
THE LEAGUE
Every round, 12 games are chosen to predict the scores on.
An expanded Super Six if you like
Most of the time it's the 10 Premier League games plus two, but there are some rounds when we go rogue, and either include a mid-week Carabao round, or European Cup round, or even International rounds at the weekend, when qualifiers are being played.
Sometimes the result of the Aston Villa Women versus Bristol City Women on a Sunday night could become a key part of your weekend 🤔
We start with the first round of EFL games over the weekend of 10th August, and focus on teams that have been promoted and relegated, and we end this time with the final round including playoffs and finals across Europe with the very last game of Round 50, and The League, being the Champions League Final.
Effectively we’re taking it from the first kick off the season, to the last
Here's the 24/25 Schedule, and yes it does mention ‘Transfer Window’ three times. More on that a bit later.

And the aim.
Well it’s simple really. Get as many scores, and/or results correct as you can.
Scores get you more points than just getting the result right, and if you can pick some ‘special ones’ then the point haul can be lucrative. (Our best prediction last season was Manchester City 3 Spurs 3, worth 16.77 points).
If you bank on these scores then the points can double or treble.
Avoid really wrong guesses (you say it's a home win, but it ends up an away one), as these will result in a points deduction, and if you're going to Bank, get it right.
Banking, betting on scores, is a whole separate issue, if you hunt around on the website you’ll find more information on it somewhere 🤔 Or just shout and I will be happy to send you some info
Get guesses correct, and do it consistently, and you might just be crowned Champions when the final ball is kicked in Munich.
And guess what. The fixtures for Round 1 are on the website already. And this is the link to them 😳😳
Your predictions/guesses (delete as you feel appropriate) also automatically enter you into a few other competitions
GRAND PRIX & LAST TEAM STANDING
Your ‘predictions’ will also decide how you fair in the two cup competitions held during the season
In the first half of the season, The Grand Prix trophy awards the same points total each round to the teams finishing in the top 10, that the first ten drivers get in the F1 races
So 25 points for first, 18 for second, 15 for third and so on

Come the Boxing Day fixtures, the final round is played and then the eventual winner is crowned
The GPT is a little different from everything else as it only awards Pure Points. Effectively it ignores Bankers and Wrong Predictions and just focuses on games you got right.
So the best points scorer each round might not be the winner of the Grand Prix each round
The Last Team Standing competition then begins in the New Year and runs through to the final round
The worst players fall by the wayside each round, finishing with 6/7 survivors in the Final round, with the team then performing best being declared the winner
And new this season, for the last seven rounds of the season, The Magnificent 7 will be contested, with the winner being the team that has the best run in
THE PICKS
However, Before a ball is kicked, you'll get to make Your Picks
You’ll need to pick teams you think will perform on par with last season, or perhaps even surpass it. Every team has a coefficient set by the previous seasons performance and these ‘handicaps’ influence the points the teams (and players of those teams) get every game

These rankings are set to reward the unexpected, but worthy, results, and level the playing field a little. I think we’d all agree that Liverpool beating Leicester 2-0 at Anfield is much more likely than Leicester beating Liverpool 2-0, so the coefficients reflect that. You’ll get more points for a Leicester 2-0 win (17.43) than you would a Liverpool 2-0 win (9.09).
So you're looking to spot teams that will ideally excel above and beyond what they did in 23/24. Ipswich we’re the top League team across all divisions included last year, just ahead of Bayer Leverkusen and Wrexham
Coventry we’re the best in the FA Cup, Middlesbrough the best in the Carabao
Promoted teams get the same coefficient as the team that just survived relegation in 23/24 (Leicester, Southampton and Ipswich have Forest's coeff), relegated teams get the same coefficient as the team that just missed out on promotion (Burnley get Leeds coeff) . All teams that had points deducted, have had these included in their totals to work out a correct coefficient this season.
All The Coefficients are on the website on Archive Page for 24/25 Season
We need to Pick League Teams, Cup Teams, and Players, across Europe and beyond to make up our Picks. All then win (or lose) us points whenever they play in the league and cup.
Players only score points in League games, cup games are not included (yet 🤔)
Teams will come from the top five tiers of the English League, and the top two tiers in Scotland
Across Europe you’ll have a team from the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A and La Liga, and two teams from a combined division of four other nations.
The top two tiers of the women’s league will also be included, as will the Saudi Pro League for the first time.
And, ridiculously, the points will start accumulating in two weeks time, with The Belgian League (if you're inclined to opt for a team from their in the Mixed European Group) kicking off on 26th July and the Scottish Leagues a week later!!!!
The Domestic equivalents to FA Cups across the leagues mentioned above are all included, as is the Cararbao Cup and Women's Cup. The Champions League and the Europa Competitions are also included, with Picks from home and abroad needed.
In the cup competitions, the points increase for wins and draws as the rounds progress, so teams going deep into competitions will score more and bigger points.
I’ve not quite moved to full-on Fantasy League Management, but have edged a little closer this season with transfer windows introduced
It’s a step up from last season with more player options, and, in reality is ahead of the game as it allows player selection FROM OUTSIDE THE PREMIER LEAGUE
Players will earn points every league game awarded by SofaScore (the app I use to collate most of the match data).

The player scores will be adjusted to reflect the time spent on the pitch, and also be further influenced by the opponent, and outcome. (This is where the coefficients kick in)
A 10 from SofaScore for a Manchester City player in a win against Southampton would not, once the coefficients have taken affect, be worth as much as a 10 in a win for a Southampton player against City, in my scores. (well not this season anyway)
Goals will be worth an additional 7 points, for the first goal in a game, and then 4 points for every other goal in the same game. Assists will be worth 1 point.
The points total will be adjusted by coefficients, a Cole Palmer goal against Ipswich will not be as valuable as a Conor Chaplin goal against Chelsea. And goals scored in a win are more valuable than consolation goals scored in a defeat.

All players will also have their own XG points deducted from their goals points total
If you’re a Uruguayan forward playing for a Merseyside club and it takes you 20 attempts to hit the target, your XG is going to hurt.
So your forward choices may be influenced by who they play for, and whether they have a habit of scoring regularly, or not so regular but when they do score it’s hat tricks all the way
For the record, last season, Haaland finished 4th in the forwards table, behind Ollie Watkins, Mohamed Salah and Jarrod Bowen.

You will also need to pick two Goalies from the Premier League.
Clean sheets will be worth 5 points for a keeper, 3.5 points for a defender and 1 point for a midfielder.
The points will be adjusted to reflect the time on the pitch for each player, and the opponent

Keepers will also get 1 point for every save they make, 2 for a penalty save, but they will be penalised a point per goal conceded. Their scores will either be added to, or reduced by, their Goals Prevented number.
Jordan Pickford topped the keepers last season, ahead of Martinez.
You will need to pick 3 more players from the Premier League.
You can pick any that are not on the Forward or Keeper lists on the Entry form, and obviously any defenders or midfielders. The only rule is that all the 'Wild Cards' must play for different teams.
In addition you’ll add a couple of players that you expect to excel in the Dark Arts of fouling and getting cards. They can even be players you've picked in other categories. Anthony Gordon would have doubled up nicely last season as a Wild Card and a dirty bas¥#*rd
From outside the Premier League you’ll need 2 more forwards and a couple of Wild Cards. They can play in ANY League, other than the Premier League, covered by the competition. If you want to pick a player from the Dutch Eredivisie, go ahead, if you fancy James Collins to set the Championship alight for Derby or you think Paul Mullin will have another big season for Wrexham, then Pick them.
New for this season you’ll also recruit a player that once played for the team you support
Effectively a Shout Out to your Ex 😳😳. Again they can play in any League included in the competition, the only rules they need to fulfil is that they played at least once for your lot’s first team AND they cannot currently be out on loan from your club, they must be an Ex, not a ‘hanger-on’. If you can't think of one, the last player to leave your club will be allocated for you.
And Last, but not least, you can nominate a player as your Captain. They will score double points whilst Captain, but you can change them at the Transfer Windows.

The final category is influenced by players in the Premier League and the Nation they represent. You’ll pick a country outside the British Isles, and every time a player from that Nation plays in the Premier League, they will earn you points. Yep. Every time. Every player from your Nation walks onto a field of play, they will earn you points
The Best Manager will be confirmed at the end of the season as a result of 'just' the player points won and lost, with it's own pot being split between the top three managers. (Just to add an edge, Southgate's Euro Picks will also compete in this category!!)
And a final couple of bits to point out.
If you fancy a random choice, either select random/lottery on the League sheet and everything will be set randomly, or when it comes to the players, just pick the first 2 or 3 players, they actually shuffle every time the site is visited to make it random (hit refresh and give it a go if you don’t believe me 😂)
AND, again I just want to confirm, you are not restricted to the players named in the lists, you can name your own picks if you want to, I've already had Championship Players 'Picked'.
As mentioned earlier, new to this season you will be allowed to make player changes in the season, across any of the player categories, so if you wanted to ditch your Ex for another one that’s fine by me, or you want to change all three Premier Wild Cards, then go for it
This transfer window will stay open until 6pm on Friday 9th August. Even if you’ve submitted your Picks early, you can still change squads around up until that point.
There will be three windows (highlighted in the 24/25 schedule above) when the changes can be made. The first window will open in the last week in September between rounds 8-9.
Window two will open in the weekend of the FA Cup 3rd Rd in January and Window 3 after the first set of fixtures in April
There’s none of this FFP Rules Rubish to worry about (yet) 😉, you can have as many stars as you want as long as you read and adhere to the rules (listed at the end of this document for anyone that wants to read them)
Everything you need to know will be on the website, or most of it will appear on your own Dash
Your Own Dash

On your Dash (🤞) you will be able to see instantly where you are in every competition.
It will keep a record of your best (and worst) rounds, and even tell you if you owe me any joining fees, or the balance of your winnings left in the pot for you

It will show how your Picks are doing, post a copy of your guesswork for the current round as soon as you send it, and once the round goes live show you how your points are mounting up (or not) for each of the guesses you’ve made
And there's more

The graphs will track your points, round by round (top), and also track your league position (bottom).
Finally, If you let me know your frenemies who are also in the competition, I can separate them out so you can see how you’re doing just against them, and for those that need it, there’s a record of your successes over the time you've been part of this.
So after a summer break, we’ll there was the Euros, and there’s F1 which still runs in till December, and of course the cricket, don’t forget the cricket, running through to the end of September, rewind
So after no break at all, we’re back
24/25 gets underway 9th August, with deadlines for Picks and Round 1 before then
Time to get moving.
Almost forgot, £45.00 for the season gets you into everything above. And, if it’s easier, send it in instalments 👍
If you don’t want to send in the scores every round, but fancy sending in Picks the. You can join that competition for £20.
AND EVERY NEW PLAYER JOINING THIS SEASON WILL RESULT IN £20 BEING SENT TO THE BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
You can join in The Picks, set your selections to Random, have a chance of winning some pennies and know that the £20 you sign up with will result in the charity receiving £20.
I will send out payment details for ALL FEES once you've sent in your first piece of Guesswork.
So make sure you share, the more the merrier
All the winnings will be paid out at the end of the Season, and if Sutton’s or Southgate’s teams win, half the prize money will go to charity, the other half spread across the other winners
Now for those of you really bothered, the detail is below
The Scoring & The Rules (The SmallPrint).
I'd recommend everyone has a read through, although it's not complusory, and I mainly write it up to remind me of how it all works
FootyCompetition 24/25
The Competition will be made up of 2 parts, The Scores & The Picks.
You will need to make League, Cup & Player Picks before a ball is kicked.
There will then be 12 games every round that you will need to submit your predictions/guesses (delete as appropriate) on.
Deadlines will be set for the guesswork to be submitted, and once all guesses have been received then ALL guesswork will appear on the website, before the Round Kicks Off.
In addition there will be cup competitions that your Guesswork will automatically enter you into, there's no need to do anything additional
Notification of receipt of your Guesses will be shown on the Guesses Page on the website, on the League Table and Dashboard on the website, or on YOUR OWN DASH on the website.
You can request an emailed copy of your own guesswork when you submit it, which will be sent to you by return
I will chase a few times before the Deadline for outstanding predictions arrives
If Guesses are received after the Guesswork has been posted, no bankers will be allowed in the Round.
If Guesses are received after Game 1 has kicked off, no bankers will be allowed, AND the results for the games that have kicked off will be treated as Wrong Guesses, with the penalty points applied
SCORING POINTS
The more correct scores and the more correct results you 'guess', the more points you win.
A correct score is worth a base of 11.7 points, plus add-ons for goals scored, multiple goalscorers and clean sheets
If you don't get the score right, but the margin of victory is correct, you guessed 2-0 instead of the 3-1 final score, you'll get 5.2 points, plus the goal scorer and clean sheet add ons .
If you got the result right, but not the margin (you said 1-0 in the example above), you'll get 2.6 points, plus the goal scorer and clean sheet add ons
Correct Draws earn you 4.5 points for each team plus the goals they score, and any goal scorer and clean sheet add ons
All points scored are then adjusted by the teams coefficients and enhanced again by 10% if the points won are in an away game.
I think we’d all agree, for example, that predicting a Brentford 2-1 win at City, should carry more points than predicting a City 2-1 win at home to Brentford. The coefficients and you the away enhancement reflect this.
If the game ends in a draw, and you predicted a win, then you lose no points, you only got your guess wrong.
BUT if you get the outcome totally wrong, you guess a home win, and it's an away win, then you’ll lose points, equivalent to the ‘correct result points’ for this game.
This will be recorded in the table as 'Wrong Result' ('WX')
Every round you can use 5 points to buy 'Bankers' that will increase the points you win if you're correct.
An Enhanced Banker costs you 1 point. It will double any points you win. But get the prediction wrong, and as well as the point you spent, you’ll lose the ‘correct’ margin points for that game.
A Guaranteed Banker costs you 2 points, and it will triple the points you win. Get this wrong and you lose points equivalent to the correct score for that game.
2% of all The Picks Points you win will be added to your League total.
The winner will have the most points at the end of the season (50 rounds).
The Picks
Before the Season begins, Picks must be submitted.
Deadline for the Picks will be Friday Midday (UK Time) 9th August 2024
Teams you select in the Leagues can earn points in every league game they play, calculated in the same way as the Points described above.
Wins, draws, clean sheets & multiple goalscorer will all earn additional points, a defeat will result in a points deduction
Wins in Domestic Cup Games will be worth the same, in the first round played, and then increase as the rounds progress, x2 round 2, x3 round 3, and so on.
The round played is relevant to the team, not the cup round, so in the FA Cup 3rd round, if Wolves were drawn to play Bromley it’s the first round for Wolves but the third round for Bromley
The result used, will be the score at the end of Normal Time, therefore extra-time and penalties will be ignored
Replays WILL NOT count as additional games
Teams will be awarded additional points for goalscorers of 2 or more in the game and clean sheets, and away wins, as per the League games, and coefficients will count, making 'Giant Killers' extremely valuable.
Champions League and Europa League Group games will count as Round 1 Cup Games.
Points for the Knock-out games will increase each round as per cup games and both legs will count as 'Individual' games..
Player points will be scored in league games ONLY
Player Points will be given as per points awarded on SofaScore.
All players will receive 7 additional points for a goal scored in a game, 4 for any additional goals scored in the same game. Assists will be worth 1 point.
The XG (Expected Goals) for the player during the game will be deducted from points won before coefficients are applied.
Player Points will then be enhanced if the game was won, reduced if the game was lost. (Minus points will be INCREASED if games are lost)
The XG factor will reward wordlies, and adjust points won for penalties being scored and missed. (A penalty has an XG of 0.79, a shot from 30 yards typically carries an XG of 0.02)
Where no specific XG is provided, shots on target will carry a 0.2 mark, shots of target 0.05. A penalty miss 0.7
Goalkeepers will get 5 points for a clean sheet.
In addition they get a point for every save made in the game. A penalty save is worth an additional 2 points.
Each goal conceded carries a 1 point penalty, and obviously the clean sheet points have been forfeited as well
Keeper scores will also be adjusted by their Goals Prevented score.
Defenders will score 3.5 points for a clean sheet, midfielders will score a point. (Positions will be determined by the position shown on SofaScore/Me)
Team coefficients will be taken into account, and the amount of time spent on the pitch will also adjust the points finally won each games, as well as the outcome of the game (win, draw or loss)
Wild Cards can be a player from any position, including Forwards or Keepers if they ARE NOT listed in the published Forward or Goalkeeper groups on the Entry form.
All Wild Card players 'MUST" play for different teams, but can play for same teams as any Forwards or Keepers that have been chosen.
IF, at any time, players change clubs, which brings you in breach of the same club rule above (say you Pick Maddison and Bellingham as Wild Cards and then in January Bellingham joins Spurs as well), you DO NOT HAVE TO CHANGE any of the players.
If you don't nominate an 'Ex", then the last player to leave your club, to join another team playing in one of the leagues covered by the competition, will be allocated for you. (As shown on transfermarkt.com)
Finally you can nominate a Captain, who will score double points whilst they wear your armband. If you don’t nominate your first choice will be named as captain
The Player & Their club for your Picks will be determined at the time they have been received by me
NEW TO 24/25, there will be THREE TRANSFER windows opened during the season, where transfers can be made.
There will be no limit to the number of transfers you can make (none of this PSR/FFP stuff here)
The first window will be at the end of September, the second during the FA Cup 3rd Round weekend, and the final window at the beginning of April.
Captains can also be changed during the Transfer Window.
If any of your players are legitimately missing games through injury, then an alternative (randomly selected before the Round begins) player will be subbed in for your points award that round. You will be awarded HALF that players points total for that round.
There will also be a substitute named if the league your player competes in is not playing in the Round (Women's Super League players for example in the early rounds)
If your Captain is injured, you will only be awarded the sub points. There will be no further adjustment as a result of their Captain Status.
The named subs will be shown on the website for each round
If your Picks are on the bench for the game and do not get on the field, they will be awarded a point, adjusted by coefficients and result, getting on for the final minutes in a game might be more harmful than staying on the bench.
If they are suspended, they will not be awarded any points.
Goalkeepers will though have a substitute allocated, even if they make the team bench, BUT DON'T get on the field of play. They will be awarded half the substitute goalkeepers points total.
The 'Dark Arts' players win points for collecting disciplinary points, and fouls committed by them
Cards awarded carry points. 2 for Yellow, 3 more for second Yellow or 8 for a straight Red.
Fouls committed during the games earn a point each, and all points are enhanced if the team wins, and reduced if the team loses.
Dark Arts Players will also have substitutes allocated at half the points total of the substitute. if injured.
HOWEVER, substitute points will be DOUBLED if the player is missing due to a suspension picked up in the 24/25 Season
Suspension must be due to Dark Arts, off pitch activities (gambling) will not be treated as a suspension
Dark Arts players MUST play for a Premier League side when picked, but if they then transfer to a team outside the Premier League they will continue to collect you points, as long as the league they play in is covered by the competition.
Your Ex can now play in any League covered by the competition. Even If they’ve fallen from grace and are in the National league then you can name them
To be classified as an Ex, they must have at least done it for you once (played for your first team) and they must have left the club, no lingering hopes of reigniting the relationship must exist (players out on loan are not Exs)
Nation Picks will win you 10% of the score of ANY player from that Nation making an appearance in Premier League games or on the bench
Non-Premier League players and 'Your Ex' will score points in the same way as the Premier League Players.
The Add-Ons will all score you 75 Points for getting the answer spot on, 50 points if within 10% of the correct number, 25 points if within 20% and 10 points if within 30%.
The Add-ons will be
The Number of Goals scored in the 600
The Number of Cards awarded in the 600 (Yellows count as 1, Red as 2)
The Number of Own Goals scored in the 600
The Number of Penalties scored in the 600
The Number of times a team scores 4 or more
The Number of times a team fails to score
Any Cash Prizes Won during the season, will be paid out after The Champions League Final and the final prizes have been settled.
Your account balance will be shown on your own 'Dash' page
Any monies won by the charity sides included in the competions (Sutton Who ???, Southgate's Eleven) will result in half the winnings (subject to a maximum of £50.00) going to charity, with the 'next' team in the the competition being added to the prize winners and the balance of the money from the charity win being spread across the winning places, proportionately.
Most important rule last. It is all just for a bit of fun really, and ultimately, whatever I say, goes.
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