Hello and welcome to all our managers for this season of FFL . I must admit to being pleasantly surprised at the amount of interest we have strongarmed, sorry, generated! With a massive 114 confirmed entrants. For the statistically minded I can confirm that this is 57 from last year’s entrants and a incredible new 57 managers (ok well some were in for 2003/04 and ‘missed’ last year) – it is to the new managers that I extend a further welcome and an introduction to what comes next.
The Updates
Every Wednesday night I will send out a review of the past week’s Premiership games and more importantly the relative FFL performance, this might be slightly later in the first week as we get going but after that it will run like clockwork (hopefully).
The Players
For some early info – the most popular players picked by FFL managers include Cech , Terry, Lampard, Gerrard and Henry – even Mystic Meg could have predicted that. But there are also some surprises in there – look out for plenty more player stats as the season progresses.
The Teams
Now you’ve picked your teams, you can see your team through My Team (once you have logged in). Unhappy with your team’s performance or one of your top guns sold/injured? Not to worry, make a transfer through the team page, but beware, you only have 11 for the entire season so don’t be too free and easy with them.
The Minileagues
These are currently being developed. But do us a favour, if you want one or think you have met the conditions, let me know who would be in it. So far we will have a Ladies, KPMG, National, PwC, Citigroup, Standard Life, Donohoes, McKies, Mullan/Martin, McAuslin (even though there are only 4 – some of my top supporters!). There are bound to be more, so just drop us a mail. No monetary prizes but certainly some prestige and bragging rights at least.
The Cup/Plate
Two separate knockout competitions will run with 57 teams in each – this to be decided by an initial knock-out round, winners into The Cup, losers into The Plate. The cup will therefore have a better prize (but not by much).
The Prizes
Oh aye, now you’re interested! Well with 114 entrants, we are looking at £570 entrance money. More info on how we’ll collect that in the coming weeks, but by all means give it to me next time you see me or one of my helpers. My early thoughts on the breakdown of cash are:
League
Champion £150
Runner up £ 50
3rd Place £ 25
Leader after 1st half of season (likely to be 31 dec) £ 25
2nd half winner (from 1 Jan) £ 25
Manager of the Month
£10 per month - £100
Cups
Cup winner £100
Plate winner £75
That’s a total of £550. I’ll hold £20 to put towards trophies (last year cost £45) which will hopefully be supplemented by massive amazon/ebay earnings which will also be used to up prize money.
Manager of the Month prize will possibly come in the form of an amazon voucher or something like that in the interests of encouraging use of the links.
The Extras
Stay tuned for an ante-post competition, courtesy of Mr Simpson (tomstips@simonsffl.com) and other competitions to be run throughout the year, some of them will include incentives and prizes.
And that’s about it – stick around for the first update and any ideas/thoughts, let us know!
Simon
