Play By eMail Fantasy Football (Season 21)

Rules

League Structure

The league consists of four divisions of ten teams, the Premiership, division 1, division 2,
and division 3.

Each team plays each other twice, home and away, gaining 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. If teams are level on points the league positions will be decided on goal difference, and then number of goals scored.

At the end of the season the top two teams in divs 1,2 and 3 will be promoted, with the bottom two teams in the Prem, div 1 and div 2 relegated.

From season 19 their will be a one game play off between the teams finishing 8th in
the Premiership, div one, div two and the teams finishing third in Divs one, two and three.
The winners of these one off games will either remain or be promoted to the higher division.

Prize Money

At the end of the season each team will be awarded £100,000 for every league point they gain.

There will also be prize money, which will be determined by each teams final league position.

Champions - £7,000,000

2nd place - £6,500,000

3rd place - £6,000,000

4th place - £5,500,000

5th place - £5,000,000

6th place - £4,500,000

7th place - £4,000,000

8th place - £3,500,000

9th place - £3,000,000

10th place - £2,500,000

During the season there will be two separate cup competitions, the FA Cup and an Inter Wing competition also involving PBEMFF Euro Wing & ROTW teams.

The first round of the Inter Wing Cup will consist of 16 groups of 5 teams, each team will play every other team in it's group once, at a neutral venue.
The top two of each group will then progress into a straight knockout competition. Their will
be no replays in this competition so if the scores are level after 90 minutes, then extra time and
penalties (if needed) will take place.

The prize money for the Inter Wing Cup will be as follows :-

Winners - £10,000,000

Runners Up - £7,000,000

Losing Semi Finalists - £4,000,000

Losing Quarter Finalists - £3,000,000

Teams losing in the last 16 - £2,000,000

Teams losing in the last 32 - £1,000,000

Group stages £300,000 per point

The FA Cup will be a straight knockout competition, with matches on a one off basis played at a neutral venue, so neither team has an advantage of a home bonus. If the games are level at 90 minutes extra time will be played followed by a penalty shootout if necessary.

The prize money for the FA Cup will be as follows: -

Winners - £6,000,000

Runners Up - £4,000,000

Losing Semi Finalists - £3,000,000

Losing Quarter Finalists - £2,000,000

Teams losing in the last 16 - £1,000,000

Teams losing in the last 32 - £500,000

Transfers

Once during the season their will be a players auction, the players will be displayed on the website for everyone to bid on. They will remain for sale for seven days, and then sold to the highest bidder. I won’t be sending out updates whilst the players are for sale regarding the leading bids, so it is up to you to bid what you think will purchase the player that you want.

WHAT YOU BID YOU PAY
If you have 50 mill and bid 40 for the player and the next highest bid is £26 million
you pay £40 million not £26.1

No team allowed to go into debt .
Any manager bidding on a player in the auction who fails to have the money
and wins the bid receives a £5 million fine and the player is sold to the next highest bidder.
If this takes you into debt your BEST player in the Commish's opinion will be auctioned off
to raise the cash to get you in the black.

No team may purchase more than 1 player.Although you can make a maximum of two bids,
so if you bid on two players and would have been successful in buying both, you would only get the firstlisted.

Therefore when emailing your bids make sure you put the players in the order of preference.

At any point in the season in the run up to an auction the commish may decide to take a player from ANY club within his wing to rerate and put on the auction. This player will be over 25 years old and have a main stat rating of 18 or less, you will receive a player in his place of the exact same stats but of a different name. This is so any "well known"players currently in the game suffering from poor stats may re-enter the game with more deserving stats.
***no teams will lose any stat points or be worse off in any way.
You will be contacted closer to the time if one of your players is chosen.

---

In the case of private transfers between teams the transfer won’t be processed until I receive confirmation from both managers (by email) that the deal is to go through. Be aware though that once you have confirmed a deal to me the transfer will be put through, so make sure you are certain before emailing me.

Once a player is traded for either cash or another player or a combination deal he MUST stay at the club that has purchased him for a minimum of 2 weeks any assets gained from the transfer must also remain at the club for this period.
If within this two week period any manger from any team involved in the transaction leaves PBEMFF then the commish "may" deem the transfer void and return all players and monies back to their initial clubs.

Also there are restrictions in place for players being transfered more than once per season.
when a player is initially transfered he gets 1 disciplinary point (this is purely so we can identify him and that he has already moved)
If he moves clubs again in a season he gets 10 disciplinary points and any ban that this incurs thus leaving him suspended at his new club.
Then if he moves on again he gets another 10 points and so on and so on.

If I receive details of a transfer between clubs that I consider to be unfair,
I reserve the right to block it.

1. Transfer window opens IN FULL to ALL wings one week before the first games of the season

2. It stays open to ALL wings ALL season until the advertised transfer deadline day.

3. The 2 week rule will STILL be in place. Therefore you can't buy a player and loan him straight out the 2 week rule MUST be observed. (this is in place due to window being open to all at all times the loan out was basically a loop hole some used to move players on before the IW window closed.)

4. NO DEALS will be allowed involving 3rd parties. Players must move from one club to another for a fee/ player from that club. Basically deals only allowed through 2 clubs.

5. No deals AT all will be done on a buy now pay later scheme. If you purchase a player and the player you are selling is in his two week rule period the WHOLE deal will have to wait till the player is eligible to move. If cash is involved you must have the cash and transfer it at the time of the transfer not on future promised earnings.

6. The only exception to the above rule is when dealing with YOUTH Numbered players. You may get players/cash immediately with the undertaking that the youth player will be played for you then transfered end of season. However these transfers will still be policed purely by the parties involved.

7. Still max of 3 loans in and 3 loans out.

8. The disciplinary point system involving transfers remains as is.

9 AND VERY VERY IMPORTANT

Transfer deadline /movement day
There will be one set time per week that ALL transfers MUST be complete by and at this time ALL moves will be done
(this is 9 pm on a Thursday Evening UK time).
This will be across ALL wings. NO other transfers will be done until the folowing weeks deadline passes.
This will mean if there are mid week games you will have to make do with the first team squad you have selected to get you through that week. Any suspensions or injuries from Sundays games will not be able to have players come in to take their place for the mid week game. If you have less than 16 available players in your first team your bench will be made up of 1 (one) rated players.

For the purpose of removing doubt. All transfers will be dated as the Thursday of the week they were done. Even if both managers involved confirm on a Sunday for instance the ACTUAL date of the deal will be listed as a Thursday meaning that player may not officially move until the Thursday 2 weeks from this date

Loans

 Any number of players may be loaned during the season, although you may only loan in or out a maximum of 3 at a time.

All loans will last for a periods of 1 month, 2 months or 3 months, nothing in between.
Players may not be returned before the end of the agreed loan period.

Loans now no longer need to be for a full season if dealing with a team from another wing. All loans can now be monthly or in periods of full (calendar) months

Loan Deadline Day

There will be a Loan deadline day. This will be the Thursday after league games 13.
Loans already active may stay for the rest of the season or till whichever pre-specified date but no new loans will be allowed. This is to stop "mates" loaning players in a last gasp effort to secure
promotion/titles for other managers.

Player Retirements

During the end of season break, players reaching a certain age automatically retire. The retirement ages for the different positions are: -

Goalkeepers – 39

Defenders – 37

Midfielder's– 35

Strikers – 35

E.g. Once S_Supersub 34 bra 1 4 5 14 turns 35 at the end of a season he will automatically be retired.

At the end of each season once all players have aged any players due to retire have a "slim" chance to stay on for an extra season. To be eligible the player MUST feature in your default
starting line up of 16.
Managers will be able to nominate one player only from their squad and a draw will be made at random to determine which player stays on.
Obviously this privilege has an extra cost. If successful a fee for fitness training of the player must be paid to the sum of £500k. The player may continue into next years draw but as a matter of course
he will automatically retire at 40 years old.

At any point during the season you may retire any players aged 33 or under. You will receive payment for the retiring player dependant on his age and stats. The amount you receive is worked out as follows,

£10,000 per year they are under 35 plus £10,000 per stat point (Goalkeepers receive £20,000 per stat point)

E.g. T_Tosspot 24 eng 1 8 4 4 = £280,000

K_Keeper 21 eng 9 1 1 1 = £380,000

Reserve (Youth) League

Each team has a reserve team that plays in the corresponding league as the first team, the reserve fixtures will be the first team fixtures reversed. The reserve league tables will be visible from the corresponding leagues page on the website.

Each reserve team is made up of 22 unnamed players and they will be numbered from x01 to x22. These players will usually have lower ratings than your first team, and exist only so each club can have a reserve team that any number of your named players can actually play in.

At the start of the season you may place any number of named players into your reserve team to enable them to gain experience, and improve their playing abilities, and with luck they will eventually become first team players.

Once the season has started though you may only make two reserve changes a week, that is promote two players and relegate two players.

No "OUTFIELD" player 23 rated or above may feature in your reserves as this would be highly unlikely. Keepers may feature up to 27 rated.
This means as soon as an outfield player reaches 23 or a keeper reaches 27 they will
be returned to your first team roster.

For the reserve matches teamsheet's don’t need to be submitted as each team will play using the 442N tactic, this is worth remembering when you relegate players to the reserves as the team sheet creator automatically picks the best players for the 11 positions, so if one of your numbered players is better than one of your named players the TSC will pick the unnamed player. Another thing to remember is that it is also probably worthless having too many players in each position in your reserve squad, if you had 4 strikers only 2 of them will actually play, so it is worth keeping an eye on your reserve players and rotating them to ensure the playing time is spread out as evenly as possible giving all your fringe players the chance to improve.

You can if you so wish submit a teamsheet for your reserve team, you can play any
legal formation you wish, but your tactic must be N.

Injuries or suspensions picked up playing for the reserves will mean the players will be ineligible for the first team, and players injured or suspended whilst playing for the first team will be ineligible to play for the reserves.

Youth Players

At the end of the season all players aged 21 or under automatically receive 300 points
on all their abilities.

Potential Star Youth Players And Scouting

At the start of the season you will be asked to select up to three of the numbered players from your reserve team that you wish to promote to your senior squad, you will be asked to give a name and nationality to the player, as well as a number between 1 and 22, if you wish to change the number. Please do your best to ensure that your name is not already being used in the game as a name clash will force you to re-name your player.

Once a player has been promoted to your senior squad, as in real life it is always a gamble as to how he is going to progress. You might uncover a potential superstar such as Owen or Rooney, on the other hand you could end up with a Carlton Palmer or Phil Neville.

Each season I will randomly draw lots on the reserve players, before you send me your selections. Out of the 22 players 7 will be classified as normal (2 star), 7 as good (3 star), 7 as star players (4 star) and only 1 will be a superstar (5 star).

At the end of the promoted players first season every minute they play in the first team will be converted into ability points, across ANY outfield stats however you wish to spread them.
Keepers must have 100% on the shot stop ability.

2 star players receive 2 points per minute played, 3 star 3 points per minute, up to 5 star players who obviously receive 5 points per minute played.

Although this is basically the luck of the draw it could be in each managers interest to give these players some playing time.

To assist in keeping a check on these players, the promoted players may not be relegated to the reserve team for the duration of his first season.

There are strict rules in the trading of these youth players, firstly they may not be loaned or sold under any circumstances within their first season.

Scouting.

If you wish to sacrifice any number of youth players as the risk is too high you may now chose to scout for a player at any point in the season. (maximum of 3 one for each youth you give up)

Basically for a fee of £1.5 million you mail your scouting details to the commish and where you want him to scout and what position you want either GK. DF. DM. MF. AM or FW.
You also specify an age band Under 17. 17-20. 21-25. 26-30 or 31+ (up to one season before retirement).
The scouting programme randomly seeks a player within those parameters and generates his stats and his value in the world.

Now obviously these are capped according to age and there are no players better than the top tier in the game to be had.

Once we mail you back the scouts findings (within 7 days)
you will be able to firstly see if you rate the player then you may purchase him.

The purpose of scouts is to find a player not known to all in the world and snap him up at less than market value.
Therefore any price shown will automatically have 50% wapped off it and this is the price you pay for him. You have 1 week to raise the cash.
Now all this is behind closed doors so if you need to sell players to raise cash then nobody will rob you blind as they know you would be desperate.
If you don't wish to purchase him his stats are made public and an auction will take place with the price you were offered him at being the minimum price.
If you fail to get the cash the same applies however you may bid on him if you manage to raise enough cash.
Bidding will be on the forum only and the winner of the player will be the highest clear bid for 24 hours.
E-mail notification of such auctions will be sent before the player hits the forum.

Now at the start of the season it is up to you to chose what you want to do.

Either 1 youth and 2 scouts, 2 youths and 1 scout, 3 scouts no youths or 3 youths no scouts

When you want to scout a player just mail your commish to use one of your available scouting missions.

Manager of the month awards

At the end of each month each manager will be required to vote for a manager of the month.

For the manager of the month you need to select a manager from each division that you believe has performed best during the month. Whether you decide purely on results is up to you, you could also consider the improvement over the month or the quality of opposition the teams faced. The current form guide and how often a teamsheet is submitted will be displayed on the website to assist you in your choice.

The manager of the month in each division will receive 500 ability points to distribute amongst his team, however there are certain rules regarding the points distribution.

No more than 100 ability points may go on any players’ main stat (200 points for keepers)

No more than 200 points on any players’ secondary stat.

The points must be used on more than one player.

The points must be allocated in blocks of 100.

You are expected to vote for these awards, and if I don’t receive your vote a fine of £500,000 will be made against your team, also if you did happen to win the award and didn't actually vote the award would then go to the manager with the next highestnumber of votes.

Teamsheets

Teamsheet's must be sent in by the deadline, you will be given plenty of notice of the deadline. If I don’t receive your teamsheet by the deadline, your team will play using the default 442T tactic, which means you will be playing at 80% strength and therefore very liable to lose.

There are various tools on the downloads page of the website to enable you to complete your teamsheet's correctly. I advise you to use either the teamsheet maker or teamsheet creator for making your teamsheet's, this will ensure there are no mistakes in them when you submit them to me. It is also worthwhile downloading the checker in order to check they are correct.

For any of the above I will attempt to change the teamsheet manually and I will advise you as to what your mistakes have been. Any more than 3 mistakes and your team will play using the 442N tactic.

The main mistakes being;

Spelling players names incorrectly – a sure sign that you have attempted to make the teamsheet manually, the game won’t run if the names in your teamsheet don’t correspond with the names in your squad list.

Attempting to play players that are suspended or injured – again if you used the teamsheet maker, you would be unable to do this as it disables the players that are not available, therefore preventing you from picking them.

I have even had managers attempt to pick players that they have sold or loaned out weeks previously.

Also the abbreviations of players must be correct,

GK = Goalkeeper

DF = Defender

DM = Defensive Midfielder

MF = Midfielder (not MD)

AM = Attacking Midfielder

FW = Forward

There are also minimum and maximum numbers you can play in each position;

Min_DF = 3

Max_DF = 5

Max_DM = 5

Min_MF = 0

Max_MF = 7

Max_AM = 5

Min_FW = 0

Max_FW = 4

Teams not having 16 eligible players in their first team will be fined £500,000 and a reserve player promoted to fill the vacancies.
If no reserve player is available, then a made up player with the rating of 1 1 1 1 will fill the vacancy.

Finances

At no time are clubs allowed to go overdrawn, any deal agreed which will take the club overdrawn will be cancelled.

Press Releases

Managers are encouraged to submit articles for the leagues own newspaper, for every article published your club will receive £250,000, up to a maximum of two press releases a week

Manager Input

Managers not submitting team sheets consistently will be sacked.
As a commish I put in a hell of a lot of my spare time into running this game.
I expect managers to put in the effort to make it worthwhile for me to do so.
The rule regarding teamsheet submissions is now that any manager missing any
two teamsheet's out of five without a decent excuse will be sacked. If you know
you are not going to get a teamsheet into me, let me know in advance, or even
contact another manager and get them to do one for you.

New for season 20

Senior squads to have minimum of 18 players or face a fine of one million per week.