The BFFA Cup kicks off next weekend. All forty teams will be involved.
And each teams’ opening fixtures are here!
BFFA Cup First Round // BFFA Cup Second Round // BFFA Cup Third Round
Round One
The current holders, Mighty fine feeling, will begin their title defence at home against League Two’s Shams army. Despite sitting quite low down in the league, the Army have won three of their last four games including a 34-29 victory over League Two leaders The Phenoms.
The Winter Cup winners StillluvQPR are also drawn against newcomers. They get Don’t Tripp on Silva in Round One. Stillluv are winless in five, while DToS have won three games in that period, including a big win over Ole’s at the Wheel, a team 30 places above them in the World Rankings.
The #40 team today are FC Santa Barbara. They were the first name out of the box this year and they start their bid for the Cup at home against Premier League strugglers Barons FC. Both have suffered first round exits twice in their history, and both have made the final eight. FCSB have gone one better and made the Semis, twice, but Barons had the better run last year, going out in Round Three.
Your First Round fixtures look like this:
| Game # | Home | – | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Game #1 | FC Santa Barbara | v | Barons |
| Game #2 | GoFys FC | v | Chicken and Bane San |
| Game #3 | Harambe Hotspur | v | Allison Wonderland |
| Game #4 | Mighty fine feeling | v | Shams army |
| Game #5 | Boss | v | Farkelife |
| Game #6 | Don’t Tripp on Silva | v | StillluvQPR |
| Game #7 | Ole’s at the Wheel | v | Boudi’s Crew |
| Game #8 | A.F.C. Chester | v | Whiskey De Bruyne |
Waivers: 11am GMT (6am ET), Fri. 12th January
Deadline: 11am GMT (6am ET), Sat. 13th January
Kicks off: 12:30pm (7:30am ET)
Replays: Gameweek 23
Round Two
Current #1 team Peltier will of course join the Cup at the Second Round stage and they will await the winner of A.F.C. Chester vs. Whiskey de Bruyne.
The Championship league leaders Vanishing Spray and their opponents East Loop United played each other twenty-five times in the first five seasons of the BFFA, but haven’t played again since. It will be approaching five years since their last meeting when they face-off in the Second Round next month. It will also be ELU’s 400th match in the BFFA! Only three teams have played more games, and Vanishing Spray is one of them.
From League Two, The Phenoms are ahead by a nose. Not only do they have an incredibly difficult league title challenge to navigate, they will also have to begin their BFFA Cup journey against Premier League-quality Cullen the herd #6. Cullen the herd have won four of their last five games and scored better over that spell, but there will likely be a lot of change over the next three weeks.
The outstanding fixture of the Second Round has to be the current World #1’s Sporting Wicker Park against their closest rivals Smash & Grab. The pair currently sit #13 & #7 in the Best-ish rankings and have had very similar form in the Premier League. In the last eight, both broke a 4-game losing streak by winning in GW17, and both won their most recent match against relegation-threatened teams. However, deeper history is very much on the side of the higher-ranked S&G; they have won nine of their last ten meetings and drawing the other 36-36. This season they have come out victors 46-39 (GW9) and 27-22 (GW18), but the last time the pair met in the Cup, SWP knocked out their rivals 74-56 in the 2016 Semi-Final.
There will be at least two more fixtures pairing up league rivals. The Championship’s Fergi Time #10 and All Star Gunners #3 will meet up again in GW24, and Goleta Hotspur #16 will play SkyPlayerInFPL BFFA #5 from League Two. Fergi Time have won both of their previous two meetings and they will also play each other next week. Goleta & SkyPlayer drew their first encounter 44-44 in GW9, but then Goleta got the better of their opponents 38-23 nine gameweeks later.
And here are your Second Round fixtures:
Waivers: 11am GMT (6am ET), Fri. 9th February
Deadline: 11am GMT (6am ET), Sat. 10th February
Kicks off: 12:30pm (7:30am ET)
Replays: Gameweek 25
| Home | – | Away |
|---|---|---|
| Atletico Topo Chico #22 | – v – | GoFys / C&BS |
| Boss / Farkelife | – v – | Jaysokker #9 |
| CG XI #21 | – v – | Webuiltthis City #18 |
| Cullen the herd #6 | – v – | The Phenoms #4 |
| Fergi Time #10 | – v – | All Star Gunners #3 |
| Gloopy Yarbles #2 | – v – | De Bruyne Trousers #14 |
| Goleta Hotspur #16 | – v – | The SkyPlayerinFPL #5 |
| Harambe / Allison | – v – | BattleVAR Galactico #23 |
| Housewives Favourite #24 | – v – | Don’t Tripp / Stillluv |
| Hung like a Bony #8 | – v – | Uncle Monty BFF #11 |
| MFF / Shams army | – v – | FCSB / Barons |
| Ole’s ATW / Boudi | – v – | El Dude Bros #15 |
| Peltier #1 | – v – | Chester / Whiskey dB |
| Route 57 FC #20 | – v – | Alleviate the Tedium #17 |
| Sporting Wicker Park #13 | – v – | Smash & Grab #7 |
| Vanishing Spray FC #19 | – v – | East Loop United #12 |
The Third Round onwards
The rest of the competition will follow a bracket to The Final.
The Last Sixteen will (prospectively) be drawn during Gameweek 26 to co-incide with the FA Cup 5th Round / QF Draw. We will then be able to map out each team’s route to The Final and assess the difficulty of each, although that means not a lot to anyone who remembers Mourinho-lo#39 (Quarter-Finalists, 2019) or Fossvogur#39 (2021 WC Runners-up).
Thankfully this season, we can all see each other’s squads (albeit at the previous gameweek), and so have the ability to plan against them. Please feel free to make good use of the FPL ID’s on the Teams page and, of course, follow the League Standings after each gameweek to see how all forty teams are progressing as we enter the second half of the season.
The Dates
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