The seventh BFFA Champions League begins THIS SATURDAY at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with Spurs hosting Wolves for the first time since the Lilywhites lost 2-0 to Bruno Lage’s men in February. CL Semi-Finalists Man City travel to Newcastle – a team they’ve thrashed in all of their last six meetings, keeping five clean sheets and scoring twenty-two, and Champions League Runners-Up Liverpool relight the fuse against a Man United side still struggling to perform.
But before the Gameweek begins, we need to draw the sixteen hopefuls into their groups for the First Round. For your entertainment, we will showcase the best teams from last season – including the top three from each league, the BFFA Cup Winners The El Dude Bros, last season’s top pointscoring team We have Kompany and, of course, the reigning Champions League Winners Mighty Fine Feeling!
The teams are divided into four pots of four teams.
As in previous years, Pot #1 will contain the four League Champions – Atletico Topo Chico, Boss, Housewives Favourite & Route 57 FC. They will be drawn out into different groups, neatly avoiding each other until the Quarter-Finals, should they make it that far of course.
Pot #2 features The BFFA Champions League holders Mighty Fine Feeling, the BFFA Cup champions The El Dude Bros, the #1 Best(-ish) team We have Kompany, and then the rest are ordered by number of points scored last season. The fourth team into this pot will be the winningest runners-up, Peltier, who finished with an impressive 26 wins and 1833FPts.
Pot #3 will separate the next best pointscorers – Smash & Grab (1768FPts), Fergi Time (1757FPts), Sporting Wicker Park (1750FPts) and Wijnaldum Leviosa (1718FPts).
And finally, Pot #4 will fill out the groups with Barons, C&BS, Gloopy Yarbles and Hung Like a Bony.
The draw will take place LIVE tomorrow at 12noon UK time (Wednesday 17th) in our new dedicated Champions League room on Discord – https://discord.gg/vfXCPnCVkh
The groups and the First Round fixtures will be published there immediately after the draw and the full schedule will appear here on the BFFA website later on in the day.
For an outline of this year’s tournament, here is the calendar and the fixture set-up for the Champions League and also the IntraMural League too; more details on that below.
All sixteen teams will play six matches in the group stage, playing their three group opponents “home” and “away”. The top two teams from each group go through to the Quarter-Finals, the third placed teams go out, but receive the consolation of a spot in the IML QF’s for a shot at a smaller trophy. The fourth placed teams simply go out and will focus on building for the BFFA Cup in January.
The holders Mighty Fine Feeling come into this season’s tournament having kicked off their Premier League campaign with two wins from two games. They also won their final match of the 21/22 season, dramatically lifting them up into third place on the final day and into the prize money again.
The BFFA Cup holders are also firmly holding on to their 100% record in the new league. Promoted from fourth place in League One, also dramatically moving up a place with a win in the final gameweek, they are now second in the Championship. Either side of them, two other teams are enjoying back-to-back wins in the Championship – Hung LaB and Gloopy Yarbles have launched their own bids for the title with convincing wins over strong opposition. Hung LaB, it should be mentioned, are continuing a winning streak that extends back no less than five games from the end of last season.
The only team to finish with a greater streak was We have Kompany who won six straight to end the season as Premier League Runners-Up, just two points shy of the title. During their 2021/22 campaign, they unsuccessfully attempted the Champions League, but having finished third in their group they were given a spot in the IML Quarter-Finals and went on to win the secondary competition.
And that leads us nicely into the IML set-up. The Intramural League is the BFFA’s equivalent to the UEFA Europa League, and has some similar qualities. Firstly, qualification is given to two teams from each league that finish immediately below the Champions League qualification spots. Last season those teams are: The Money Team, Vanishing Spray, Webuiltthis City, StillluvQPR, Ole’s at the Wheel, Klopps and Robbers, Jaysokker and ROK FC. The top-placed team (TMT) will play the lowest-finishing team (ROK FC) and then the next two in that pattern, then the next and the next. The First Round is played over two legs; the aggregate winners go through to the Quarter-Finals.
In another similarity to the EL, each first round winner will be paired against a team from the Champions League that finish their group in third place. 3rd place in Group A will play the winners of match #1, 3rd Gp B vs. winner #2, etc. The QF’s are two-legged affairs, and so are the Semi-Finals too. The Final will be just a single matchup, winner-takes-all climax in GW15. The Champions League Final will then be played the week afterwards.
I hope that’s enough to get you all going. Two tournaments – 24 competitiors, 82 matches, 12 weeks.
Enjoy!
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