COMPETITIONS

League competition – Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two, Postseason.
BFFA-wide tournaments – Champions League, BFFA Cup, Intramural League, Best-ish.
Showcase tourneys – Belyea Memorial Tournament, The Big One, The One Cup.
Exhibition games – Super Cup, Community Shield.

League Championships

There are four leagues again this year.
Mirroring the English Football League ladder, we have The BFFA Premier League, The BFFA Championship, BFFA League One and BFFA League Two.

THE BFFA Premier League

The Premier League was formed in 2015 with the top ten highest-scoring teams from Season One creating the new top flight competition.

The BFFA came into existence in the form of two ten-team leagues – Div. Left Foot and Div. Right Foot – operating side-by-side. These divisions were played out over 35 gameweeks, followed by a play-off for the top four. The play-off winners were:
DLF: Bigo1
DRF: KH Granitza Sting FC

Since then, the BFFA Premier League has been a pinnacle of greatness in the fantasy football community, increasing in intensity, competitiveness and prestige each and every year. The Champions will forever be remembered for their glory, their managers hailed as experts and heroes. This is the ultimate mark of dominance, the gold certification of excellence, the stamp of supremacy!
Previous Winners:
Season 2: GoFYS FC
Season 3: SB Town UAOB
Season 4: Bigo1
Season 5: Vanishing Spray FC
Season 6 – Abandoned
Season 7: Smash & Grab
Season 8: Route 57 FC
Season 9: Mighty Fine Feeling
Season 10: Housewives Favourite

The Lower Leagues

Previous Winners:

The BFFA Championship	BFFA League One	BFFA League Two
Se.2: Cornballers FC	Se.2: All Star Gunners	Se.2: No tournament
Se.3: Smash & Grab	Se.3: Bigger than Brolin	Se.3: Mighty Fine Feeling
Se.4: AC Reykjavik BayCobblers	Se.4: Webuiltthis City	Se.4: Tralfamadore Zoo FC
Se.5: Boss’ Blues	Se.5: Tralfamadore Zoo	Se.5: Route 57 FC
Se.6 – Abandoned	Se.6 – Abandoned	Se.6 – Abandoned
Se.7: Route 57 FC	Se.7: Webuiltthis City	Se.7: Housewives Favourite
Se.8: Boss	Se.8: Housewives Favourite	Se.8: Atletico Topo Chico
Se.9: Housewives Favourite	Se.9: AFC Chester	Se.9: RB Monty
Se.10: Hung Like a Bony	Se.10: Uncle Monty	Se.10: Goleta Hotspur
Se.11:	Se.11:	Se.11:

Inter-League Competitions

There are also some inter-league competitions during the BFFA season. Here they are…

THE BFFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

The BFFA Champions League features 16 teams in group-style play, followed by quarterfinal and semifinal knockout rounds and finally a championship match. It takes place in the first half of the EPL season, ending before the new year.

The CL features the previous year’s top 3 finishers from each division, plus the returning Champions League holders and the BFFA Cup winners of that year.

PRIZES: Champion: $150 and auto-entry into the following season’s CL Group Stage

Previous Winners:
Season 2: K.H. Granitza Sting FC
Season 3: SB Town Baggers
Season 4: Mighty fine feeling
Season 5: All Star Gunners
Season 6: Tralfamadore Zoo FC
Season 7 – No Champions League competition
Season 8: Mighty fine feeling
Season 9: Gloopy Yarbles
Season 10: Sporting Wicker Park

THE BFFA CUP

All teams in the BFFA compete in this knockout style competition. Teams are drawn at random and the best-scoring teams at the time of the First Round Draw get a bye to the Second Round. This competition traditionally takes place in the second half of the EPL season, in the first or second gameweek of the calendar year. If teams play to a draw they then play a replay match in the following gameweek, similar to the real-life FA Cup.

PRIZES: Champion: $150 and auto-entry into the following season’s CL Group Stage

Previous Winners:
Season 1: SB Town United Athletic Onion Baggers
Season 2: SB Town United Athletic Onion Baggers
Season 3: Bigger Than Brolin
Season 4: Tralfamadore Zoo FC
Season 5: Smash & Grab
Season 6: Abandoned
Season 7 Winter Cup: stilluvQPR
Season 7 Spring Cup: Bigger than Brolin
Season 8: The El Dude Brothers
Season 9: Mighty Fine Feeling
Season 10: StillluvQPR

THE BEST-ISH AWARD

The Best-ish: It’s the award that goes to the highest total matchpoints in BFFA every year. It is an accolade based on the fact that no matter how well you do in BFFA, no matter the amount of points your squad may score, you will never, ever be as cool as George Best.

You can try. But, yeah. Good luck with that.

PRIZE: $150

Previous Winners:
Season 1: Bigo1 – 1,745 points
Season 2: Smash & Grab – 1,722 points
Season 3: Mighty fine feeling – 1,858 points
Season 4: Bigo1 – 2,087 points
Season 5: Mighty fine feeling – 1,891 points
Season 6: Tralfamadore Zoo – 1,152 points*
* Season 6 finished after 29 gameweeks
Season 7: Housewives Favourite – 1,762 points
Season 8: Drafty – 1,959 points
Season 9: Housewives Favourite – 1,930 points
Season 10: Hung Like a Bony – 1,937 points
Season 11: >>> Current Leaderboard >>>

THE BFFA INTRAMURAL LEAGUE

The IML is the BFFA’s answer to the UEFA Europa League. It started in 2018 as a way to give more teams (teams that weren’t quite good enough to qualify for the Champions League) an extra opportunity to compete for mediocre inter-league glory. One team from each league will qualify from the previous season. The winners of the First Round play the four third-placed teams leaving the CL at the Group Stage. Two-legged knockouts all the way to the Final, a single match, played in the week before the Champions League Final.

PRIZE: Champion: $50

Previous Winners:
Season 5: FC Santa Barbara
Season 6: Cornballers FC
Season 7 – No IML tournament
Season 8: Drafty
Season 9: Sporting Wicker Park
Season 10: Route 57 FC

Showcase Tournaments

THE BELYEA MEMORIAL TROPHY

Starting in 2023, we honour the memory of former BFFA stalwart, keen fantasy football manager and Liverpool superfan Bryan Belyea.
The competition involves all forty teams and the goal is to eliminate your team by getting the best score of all the remaining teams each week.

Season 10: Harambe Hotspur were the last team remaining.

THE BFFA BIG ONE

In a new drive to involve the other side of fantasy football, the “classic” budget format, all BFFA managers past and present are invited to enter their standard fantasy team and compete in an old-skool league.

Season 10: Prestige Worldwide – 2,563 points. Ranked 14,437 in the world (10,905,021 players).

THE ONE CUP

As the least-known, least-prestigious tournament in the world, The One Cup went nigh-on unnoticed until the week of the Final. The FPL run a quiet knockout tourney for every mini-league that often goes unreported, unnoticed or forgotten about.
Luckily, someone noticed it before the season finished and there was a winner discovered.

Season 10: Alleviate the Tedium

Exhibition Matches

THE SUPER CUP

UEFA hold an annual match between the Champions League Winners and the Europa League Champions.
We do something similar with The BFFA Super Cup. At the start of the season the winners of the CL and the IML meet for this pre-season warm-up. For Season 8, without either CL or IML, it was contested between the winners of the two BFFA Cups.

Previous Super Cups:
Season 8: Bigger than Brolin 56 – 46 StillluvQPR (played: S7, GW35)
Season 9: Mighty Fine Feeling 44 – 38 We have Kompany (played: S9, GW1)
Season 10: Gloopy Yarbles 42 – 37 Sporting Wicker Park (played: S10, GW1)
Season 11: Sporting Wicker Park 33 – 51 Route 57 FC (played: S11, GW1)

THE COMMUNITY SHIELD

As a curtain-raiser, The Football Association puts the Premier League Champions up against the FA Cup Winners in The Community Shield. We’ve done the same thing. In thanks for the contribution of a retired manager, one of the original members and someone who won both competitions, we named our first Community Shield after the former manager of SB Town United Athletic Onion Baggers – Mr. Dare Holdren.

Previous BFFA Community Shields:
Season 9: The El Dude Bros 46 – 24 Route 57 FC (played: S9, GW1)
Season 10: Mighty fine feeling 43 – 56 Housewives Favourite (played: S10, GW1)
Season 11: Housewives Favourite 46 – 24 StillluvQPR (played: S11, GW1)

Play-offs and the Postseason Format

After Gameweek 36 every team will have played each league opponent four times each. The Regular Season ends there. The top two sides (Ch., L1, L2) will get promoted and the bottom two teams (PL, Ch., L1) will be relegated.

Then, in the Postseason there will be Play-Offs for the 3rd-placed teams trying to earn promotion and the 8th-placed teams fighting to avoid relegation.

Postseason mini-tournaments:

In an effort to keep managers firmly involved right into the final gameweek we have brought back the postseason, and this time there is something for every team to compete for.

Champion of Champions: The four League Champions, the Champions League Champions and the BFFA Cup Champions go into a two-week knockout for extra silverware and a li’l bit of extra dough.
The Runners-Up Trophy: The 2nd- & 3rd-placed teams, the BFFA Cup runners-up & the Champions League runners-up go into this end of season mini tournament. For the final two weeks, the team that amasses the most matchpoints wins a tiny reward.
4th-placed teams: At the end of the regular season there are two Champions League places remaining to be filled. The teams are seeded on total points; 1st plays 4th & 2nd v 3rd across two legs. The two winners qualify for next season’s Champions League.
5th-, 6th-, 7th-, and 8th placed teams: Next season’s Intramural League begins here with qualifying in the postseason. One team from each League will be in the draw next season. To qualify for this Europa League equivalent, the teams finishing in these places will play in a knockout for that place; 5th v 8th, 6th v 7th; then winner v winner.
In the case that any of those four teams are competing for next season’s Champions League, then the highest-placed of the remaining three will get a bye.
9th & 10th: The bottom two in the Premier League, the Championship and League One will be relegated. They, plus the bottom two from League Two, will fight in the postseason to avoid the Wooden Spoon. The worst two scores in GW37 will play each other in the final week and then one team will be officially declared “The Worst”.
Play-Offs: Finally, but perhaps most importantly, there will be three playoff matches as described above. They will be two-legged games between the 8th-placed teams in the higher leagues and the 3rd-placed teams in the lower leagues.

Play-Off Results:

Season 9:
Route 57 FC 102 – 84 Gloopy Yarbles (on aggregate). R57 retained their place in the Premier League.
Atletico Topo Chico 80 – 70 StillluvQPR (on aggregate). ATC were promoted to the Championship.
De Bruyne Trousers 104 – 98 Ole’s at the Wheel (on aggregate). DBT were promoted to League One.

Season 10:
Mighty fine feeling 92 – 87 Cullen the herd (on agg.). MFF retained their place in the Premier League.
Whiskey De Bruyne 116 – 89 Atletico Topo Chico (on agg.). WDB were promoted to the Championship.
Chicken and Bane San 103 – 97 Alleviate the Tedium (on agg.). C&BS retained their place in League One.