So this year we have 3 Cup Competitions……wahey! Now you are calm and over that rush of excitement, let me explain.
THE MAIN EVENT - THE CUP
The FFL Cup is presented to the team who progresses through our various hurdles beating all and sundry on the way through. To ‘beat’ a team you must score more points than your opponents if you are drawn against them.
THE CONSOLATION CUP - THE FFL TROPHY (nee plate)
Rebranded the Trophy this year (Plates are oddly more expensive than cups!). To get into this you must lose your first game then beat the other duffers you are drawn against.
THE FORMATS
We have 132 teams this year as you may have noticed, all teams will enter the Qualifying Round - the winners (66 of them) head into the Cup, the losers (also 66) head into the Plate. There will then be a Prelim round in each comp to trim the teams to 64, then consecutive rounds to be 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 etc. Matches will be played across an entire matchday (ie one full Premiership card). If there is freak weather and postponements, as long as 7 matches go ahead, so will the Cup/Trophy match.
DATES
| Qualifying Round (all 132 teams) | 20 October |
|---|---|
| Prelim Round (only 4 teams in each comp will play) | 10 November |
| 1st Round | 1 December |
| 2nd Round | 22 December |
| 3rd Round | 19 January |
| Q-Finals | 2 February |
| Semi-Finals | 1 March |
| Finals | 15 March |
SO WHAT ABOUT THE 3RD COMP?
This is new for this year - the Super 16s. If you are in the top 16 after the matchday on 15 March you will enter an elitist competition with another trophy at the end. The main league will continue onto the bitter end in parallel to this, but hopefully this will provide extended interest.
