Undercover: Judging Potential

Following on from Rob Cooper's player progression conference the Cloughite have decided to lift the lid on one of the most mis-understood aspects of youth team management -- judging potential!

The core concept in judging potential is a player's Potential Ability (PA). This is a rating between 1 and 200, and represents the absolute maximum ability that a player can reach. Potential can not be exceeded under any circumstances, and whatsmore there are no guarantees that a player will ever reach his potential. For more details on the factors that influence whether a player lives up to his potential take a read through The Cloughite's summary of Rob Cooper's player progression conference.

Alongside PA, every player has a Current Ability (CA). As a player improves his CA increases. When a player's CA equals his PA he has reached the peak of his ability and can improve no further. CA is a complex subject but here are the key facts you should know about how CA is "spent" improving your players:

• Not all attributes are equal: Attributes are weighted based on the importance of that attribute to the position(s) a player can fill. For example Finishing carries a very high weighting a striker, but for a defender the weighting is zero, because the attribute is of no use to that player's position. This means that attributes that are not relavent to the players position do not use up any of their PA, and those are key will use up more PA than those that are only complementary.
  
• Players who can play in more than one position use up PA for being able to do so. They also suffer the highest weighting for each attribute from each position they play -- the more positions on a pitch a player can play the harder it is for them to become world class in any one of those positions.
  
• Two-footed players use up a chunk of their PA simply by being two footed.
  

Please bear in mind that the following is speculation based on what little we do know about the system, in-game experience and my thoughts on how I would have implemented the system.

With all that in mind, we move on to the Judging Potential (JP) skill. To explain this skill I will introduce a term that is probably new to most of you:

Visible Potential Ability (VPA). This is calculated from a players' PA, within a given margin of error dependant on your level of the JP skill. The margin of error is spread equally either side of the true PA, so a 10% margin of error means that the VPA will be a maximum of 5% off the PA. The margin of error for each level of JP is listed below:

Level	Margin of error	PA Range
JP 1	50%	+/-50PA
JP 2	40%	+/-40PA
JP 3	30%	+/-30PA
JP 4	20%	+/-20PA
JP 5	10%	+/-10PA

JP displays the error adjusted VPA (0-200, the same as PA) as a Potential Rating (pot) between 0.5 and 5. The exact boundaries for the ratings are unkown, but I believe the following to be the logical choice:

Pot	JP 1 (+/- 50)	JP 2 (+/- 40)	JP 3 (+/- 30)	JP 4 (+/- 20)	JP 5 (+/- 10)	True PA
0.5	0-70	0-60	0-50	0-40	0-30	0-20
1.0	0-90	0-80	0-70	1-60	11-50	21-40
1.5	0-110	1-100	11-90	21-80	31-70	41-60
2.0	11-130	21-120	31-110	41-100	51-90	61-80
2.5	31-150	41-140	51-130	61-120	71-110	81-100
3.0	51-170	61-160	71-150	81-140	91-130	101-120
3.5	71-190	81-180	91-170	101-160	111-150	121-140
4.0	91-200	101-200	111-190	121-180	131-170	141-160
4.5	111-200	121-200	131-200	141-200	151-190	160-180
5.0	131-200	141-200	151-200	161-200	171-200	181-200

So, if you look at a player with a PA of 170, using JP 4 he would be reported as having a PA of anywhere between 150 and 190 (+/- 20PA of the actual value), so he will show as a 4, 4.5, or 5 star potential for different managers with JP4.

From the table above you can see why JP must be taken with a pinch of salt, even with JP 4 a player that you see as 3.5* potential (101-160PA) may actually be no lesser prospect than a player you see as 5* potential (161-200PA), and could in-fact be a better prospect than a player you see as 4.5* potential (min possible 151-190PA).

Media Deals Agreed

Media deals for the coming season were announced today, with over £725 million on the table in total, a small reduction from last season's media package. Once again, the XEFA negogiated the strongest package for their members, but their position as the top federation was weakened significantly, suffering a £0.03m/club drop. The big gainers this season were the AEFA and CWA, whose media deals increased by £0.03m per member club.

Overall UFFA membership was static, remaining at 709, but the number of inactive clubs in the union rose to 187 (26%) -- an increase of 3% from season 6's figures.

Federation	Members	Media Deal	Per Club
XEFA	76 (-3)	£85.5m	£1.13m (-0.02)
PFA	55 (12)	£60m	£1.09m (-0.02)
NFA	24 (4)	£26.2m	£1.09m (0)
AEFA	80 (3)	£89.6m	£1.12m (0.03)
MLFA	32 (6)	£34.6m	£1.08m (-0.01)
XFA	50 (-17)	£52.5m	£1.05m (-0.01)
CWA	72 (6)	£77.8m	£1.08m (0.03)
SFA	37 (4)	£38.1m	£1.03m (0.01)
SEFA	35 (-8)	£35.4m	£1.01m (0.01)
CIFA	187 (21)	£187m	£1m (0.02)
WCA	39 (4)	£37.8m	£0.97m (-0.01)
TOTAL	709 (0)	£724.5m	£1.02m (-0.03)

Player Progression Conference

UFFA representative Rob Cooper took some time out to discuss youth development with managers yesterday, offering many interesting insights and tips to make the most of your players' potential. The Cloughite has gathered the highlights of that discussion in an article that makes cruicial reading for any manager working with young players.

On the system of youth development/progression:

So, to start, how things work

As you guys all know players progress over time. But there is a little confusion about exactly what impacts their progression so I wanted to post a quick list of the main factors below :

• Player's Age
• Player's Potential
• How much football they are getting
• The standard of football they are playing
• Average Rating
• Manager's skills
• Player's Ambition
• Player's Professionalism
• Player's Work Rate
• Whether the player is injured
• The player's morale

Now, obviously each of those factors are not equal, some have a bigger effect than others, but generally if you have a professional, hard working young player who is playing regularly, is playing well, and is happy at the club, then they should progress pretty much optimally.

It is worth pointing out here that average rating is more important than the standard of football they are playing - so it is better if they are getting a 7.5 average for the youth team than a 6.0 for the senior team, though of course, a 7.5 for the senior team is better than the equivalent for the youth team! Also, the average rating expectations are different according to age, so a 15 year old player with a 7.0 average will progress better than an 18 year old with the same average.

Another important point is that as many have said, if a player lacks the ambition and professionalism to train well consistently they will likely never reach their potential no matter how well taken care of they are by their manager.

- Rob Cooper

On why you shouldn't worry too much about a small downward change in a player's attributes:

One other thing I meant to mention is that even though the attributes are displayed in the 1-20 range on the screen they are actually stored in the 1-10,000 range behind the scenes to give extra accuracy during progression. Because they are rounded down to be displayed a small change behind the scenes can manifest itself as a fairly big change on the screen.

For example a player with 19 for finishing on the screen may have 9,050 behind the scenes. If they then drop to 8,950 during processing this is only a drop of 1 or 2% however on the screen it is the difference between 18 and 19 and so a red arrow is displayed and it looks like a drop of 5%. Rest assured though that for all processing the 'real' figure is used.

- Rob Cooper

On reaching potential early:

Some players simply start out with an ability that is closer to their potential - so players can burst onto the scene as a first-team quality player let's say, but then not take the step to the next level. But ... these will typically be players who have performed very well early in their career and so progressed quickly.

Players who haven't performed as well will progress more slowly but still have a good chance of reaching their potential eventually - it really depends how much more slowly they progress. The older a player gets the less likely he is to reach his potential, so if a player still has a long way to go by the time he is 22/23 let's say, then it is unlikely he will make it!

- Rob Cooper

On coaching reports:

Coaching reports are triggered if the player has progressed well over the last 3 months (game time) in terms of CA [Current Ability] improvements. For a new signing this might be confusing because the arrows you see are based only on while he has been at the club whereas the total improvement takes into account his progression before he joined as well.

- Rob Cooper

On future changes to youth development:

Ok, so finally, I guess since you are all using this system it makes sense for me to outline how I plan to improve it. The disclaimer here is that this is all planned for the time being and so is inherently a little sketchy and of course may or may not turn out to be feasible and so may or may not turn out to be done. It will all be in the patch notes though as and when it is implemented! So, the plan right now is to make the following changes...

• Prevent negative attribute changes for newly generated youngsters until they have been on the free agent list for at last a certain amount of time, perhaps 3 game months i.e. a week real time
• Improve progression arrows to avoid the dreaded red arrows when only minor attribute changes have been experienced - perhaps by having diagonal arrows for minor changes (such as the ones used on the morale and feedback graphics.)
• Somehow tie player average rating into team average rating so that a player who is the best player in a rubbish team still progresses well - they shouldn't progress as well as the best player in a good team of course but it should at least make a difference
• Tie player average for progression into the average rating for their position, rather than just the average rating for all players, this should iron out any potential problems caused by the ME giving lower average ratings for GKs perhaps than other positions which could have a progression knock-on.

What does everyone think? I am hopeful that these changes could make the system a lot better but of course comments and feedback are always welcome as there may well be things I haven't thought about!

- Rob Cooper

WCA News - Edition 9

Welcome to edition 9 of the WCA News.

WCA Premiership
In possibly the most dramatic season yet Band of Brothers came out on top in the race for the Premiership. Going into the final day of the season Crimson Fists sat proudly in 1st position with 57 points from their 30 games. Cheechsters were in 2nd place with 55 points from 29 games and Band of Brothers in 3rd with 54 points from 28 games. 1st to kick off were the BoBs playing against Crystal Palliss, the match ending in a 1-1 draw leaving the BoBs joint 2nd on points but 3rd on goal difference. Next up was Cheechsters versus the already relegated Brayzil. With Cheechsters just needing to win to wrap up the championship the odds were stacked heavily against Brayzil. But the little Brayzilians fought hard and came away with a 1-o win. This left the Crimson Fists still in 1st place but Band of Brothers had 1 game left versus Redhill Travellers a win for the BoBs would clinch the Championship for the 2nd time in their history. A Scott Robinson goal gave them a 1-0 lead and Redhill weren't causing them many problems. However in the 92nd minute Redhill were awarded a corner and from the resulting cross they managed to prod the ball over the line. The BoBs looked devastated - until they noticed the linesman had flagged to disallow the goal, moments later the final whistle went and the BoBs could start celebrating.

WCA Championship

In this very column a week ago I suggested that ABCDE FC could push for promotion if they put a strong run together but never did I expect them to turn out as Champions. Thanks largely to Robin Van Persie and 9 wins from there last 13 games they flew up the table. With Bushby Babes and Highbury stuttering slightly this allowed ABCDE FC to clinch their first league championship and first WCA honour. Grabbing 2nd and 3rd spot were Ann Arbor RecEd and Highbury Utd.

The Cups

WCA Cup Final - Davos United v Euclydian Dynamo
A poor season for Davos United by their standards saw them finish in 8th place in the Premiership. So they went into the cup final knowing that it was the only way they could qualify for a UFFA competition this season. 2 first half goals from Wesley and Ismodes settled the nerves and Dynamo couldn't even muster a shot on target. In the end Davos ran out comfortable winners.

Premiership Cup Final - Band of Brothers v LetsTalkAboutCesc
In an extremely cagey game 1 goal was enough to win the Premiership Cup and luckily for Band of Brothers it was 21 year old striker Scott Robinson who got it. LetsTalkAboutCesc battled hard but could not breakthrough the resolute BoBs defence.

Victory Shield Final - Band of Brothers v Cheechsters
A tight first half saw the sides go in goal-less. Early in the 2nd half a Scott Robinson goal gave the BoBs the lead against the run of play. The 1-0 lead only lasted 15 minutes as Javier Arajo scored to make it 1-1. With 10 minutes to go Montero scored to put Cheechsters ahead and as the BoBs pushed for the equaliser Faiffer scored in injury time to ensure the inaugral Victory Shield went to Cheechsters.

Non Premiership Cup Final - Highbury United v Norfolkenchance FC
A scrappy 90 minutes saw the game finish at one each. Highbury Utd took the lead in the 60th minute with a goal from Jose Cargacha and Norfolkenchance equalised in the 81st minute. Extra time saw no goals and so we went to the lottery of penalty kicks. The first time a final of a WCA competition has been settled this way. Highbury Uniteds Jose Cargacha was the unfortunate player and Norfolkenchance finished up as winners, winning 5-4 on penalties.



The nominations for the Premiership, Championship and Young player of the Year are all in and all WCA managers are reminded to make their vote count.

Premiership Player of the Season - Michah Richards (LTAC), Peter Johnson (Davos), Roger Guererrio (BoB), Kevin Thomson (Crimson) and Pavel Pogrebnyak (Matosinhos)

Championship Player of the Season - Fabien Camus (Evro), Robin Van Persie (ABCDE), Matthew Etherington (Highbury), Jose Largacha (Highbury)

Young Player of the Season - Peter Johnson (Davos), Vladamir Ionov (BoB), Scott Robinson (BoB), Francisco Fuentes (Davos)

Clough: A Brief History (part 1)

Season 1 - November 6th 2008 to December 11th 2008

Gameworld Clough launched on Thursday November 6th at 8pm under the 1.00 ruleset, unlike modern gameworlds there were no provisional squads meaning that opening night was a race to sign the best players with low acquisition fees. As the minutes ticked down towards 8pm the excitement grew, but those looking forward to being first across the line to nab their favoured stars were to be disappointed as the opening night descended into chaos.

The gameworld's doors creaked open at approximately 8:10pm, just 10 minutes late and within minutes over 450 managers piled into the fledgling world. Yet such was the perceived advantage at being first into the world that some managers were already demanding that the world be reset. Within 10 minutes 600 managers had entered and more were still trying to get in. Those that managed to get in and opted to use the team auto-select were faced with yet more problems though, with the process taking upwards of 1 hour due to the unprecedented demand in the gameworld on opening night.

The laws of the time rewarded teams who could keep their wages very low, it was not uncommon for teams to pad their 16 man squad with poor players with a wage demand of £300 to generate a daily profit in excess of £80k/day with the goal of being first to save enough to bid for a star player. This very tactic gave us our first in-game controversy, when Matt 'Moddy' Fletcher's Droitwich FC signed Cristiano Ronaldo for £2.6m on November 20th 2008. All kinds of accusations were thrown around; 'moderators should not use exploits', 'they should be setting an example', but at the end of the day the tactic was within the laws of the game even if some did not approve of it.

Towards the end of November the mid-season update to 1.01 caused widespread protest when it eliminated a number of tactics considered exploitative: Firstly, the trialling of high profile players was banned (acquisition fee of more than £100'000). Many teams had been repeatedly trialling players who they could not afford to sign on a permanent deal to gain an advantage in climbing the world rankings. Prior to 1.01 the only restriction on trial players was that their wage demand was less than £10'000 and success in the world rankings meant increased daily income.

The second change had an even greater impact on the gameworld; daily income was tuned so that teams could no longer gain improportionate benefits from artificially low wage bills. Overnight, teams that were previously "earning" £80'000 per day suddenly saw their profit margins reduced to a level similar to that of teams with much higher wage bills.

Despite the numerous rule changes, season 1 will be remembered by many for one thing alone: POZZI!!!!!!!1111!!!!!1!!!1!!

Argentine manager Taha Berjawi spent a small fortune flooding the market place with adverts for Nicola Pozzi, a young Italian striker, during the opening week of the season trying to build interest in the player's transfer auction.

The advertisements were characterised by outrageous claims regarding the player's ability and a tendency to title the post "POZZI" followed by a string of "!!11!!!!!!!!1!!!1!".

At £5'000 per post, and having sent at least two dozen messages over the course of the auction the cost of advertising the player was over a quarter of the £425'000 transfer fee received when he finally moved to F.C Barrett on November 16th 2009. From that point on "POZZI!!1111!!!!11!!!1" has became a running joke in the gameworld, and the player somewhat of a cult hero in the community.

It is still common to hear his name shouted when someone is over-stating the ability of a player for sale.

The world's first recorded match took place between Sergei Novitski and Lancashire United, and saw English midfielder Isaiah Osbourne score the first ever goal after just 33 minutes. Paralimni United topped the first ever UFFA world rankings.

The star player of the season was undoubtedly Brazilian striker Brandao, whose goals kept Fonejacker atop the UFFA world rankings for most of the season, lethal in the air Brandao scored an incredible 1'192 goals in 1'502 appearances. Season 1 also saw the emergence of Skylar Locke's Katalyst FC as a dominant force in world football, by the close of the season they fielded a team of superstars including Lenny, Sergio Aguero & Silva.

The Major Trophies:

• UFFA Game World Cup: Terror Pigs beat Dueling Dragons FC
• UFFA Game World Youth Cup: Real JUVENILES beat The Birmingham Bearded Women
• AEFA Cup: FC Excelsior beat Auchinairn Athletic
  
• CWA Cup: Motherwell Synthonia beat Swansea Jacks AFC
  
• PFA Cup: Ljiljani FC beat SMEG HEADS
  
• MLFA Cup: BG United beat CF Barcelona
• NFA Cup: All BiDoNs Fc beat Arsenola F.C
• SFA Cup: Tied in Notts beat IMT Fairground
• SEFA Cup: Phantoms beat F.C. Porton Kenshin
  
• WCA Cup: Band of Brothers beat Welwyn Wanderers
  
• XEFA Cup: Whitstable Galaxy beat Myth FC
• XFA Cup: Zigire FC beat AVN United

XFA Showdown in Gold Cup Semis

XFA Premiership rivals Ely Town and Zigire FC will meet in the semi-final of the UFFA Gold Cup after overcoming tough quarter-final opposition. Ely Town defeated fellow XFA representative, Relleu Gooners, 4-3 on aggregate. Zigire completed a memorable comeback, recovering from a 2-0 first leg defecit to claim a 3-2 aggregate victory against CWA side Harlesden Harriers.

The second semi-final will be contested between the AEFA's Ariadni FC, fresh from victory over Chester Rats, and BG United of the MLFA after they edged out AEFA Premiership leaders Athens United FC on the away goals rule after a 4-4 aggregate draw.

Bumper Contract for Carotenuto

Fulvio Carotenuto has signed his first professional contract with Street Sharks, who have offered the 16 year old Italian a bumper contract worth a massive £560'000 per season to fend off competition for his signature, making Carotenuto the 14th highest paid goalkeeper in world football, earning as much as German star Michael Rensing of Legless Ends, all before he's even played a single match at any level of professional football.

Highest paid goalkeepers in world football:

Player	Wage
Maarten Stekelenburg (31)	£1.96m/season
Iker Casillas (32)	£1.95m/season
Gianluigi Buffon (36)	£1.78m/season
Petr Cech (31)	£1.39m/season
Victor Valdes (32)	£980k/season
David De Gea (23)	£701k/season
Julio Cesar (34)	£644k/season
Diego Alves (28)	£622k/season
Gomes (32)	£618k/season
Jose Manuel Reina (31)	£618k/season
Artur Boruc (33)	£616k/season
Ben Foster (30)	£588k/season
Fulvio Carotenuto (16)	£560k/season
Michael Rensing (29)	£560k/season

The deal brings back all too familiar memories of the kind of financial mis-management that preceded the economic collapse of season 3; financial experts are already predicting that although the economy is heading in the right direction again it is only a matter of time until bust inevitably follows boom.

Friendly Focus: FML World Cup

Friendly Focus returns to take a look at another reknowned friendly competition. This time we're taking a look at Bader Algubaisi's FML World Cup, currently preparing for it's 10th season.

Last season saw Mihai Cristian's XEFA Premiership challengers Rapid Pitesti take on Cheechsters of the WCA. Pitesti emerged as victors only after extra time, with the scores 1-1 at the final whistle, when Jo climbed above the Cheesters' defense to head in a from a corner and grab his second of the game. His first goal cancelled out Dame N'Doye's opening goal in the 21st minute for Cheechsters.

Past Winners:

• Rapid Pitesti
  
• ZenEagles
• King Krimson FC
• FC Koselsk
• Real Patagones
• Fonejacker
• All BiDoNs Fc
• Gobias Industries FC
• Brixton Wanderers
  

Records:

• Biggest Win: Futebol Club de Brinkworth 6-0 Spursky Hotspur
• Highest Scoring Match: Olympique Marseille 6-5 Queluz FC
  
• Top Goalscorer: Nikola Zigic (17 in 20 appearances)
• Most Assists: Pierre Giogio Regonesi (17 in 25 appearances)
• Most Appearances: Jose Antonio Castro (41)

SFA Headline GWYC Semi's

The draw for the UFFA Game World Youth Cup Semi-Finals was made today.

Fresh from their narrow 1-0 victory over Wandsworth Rovers the the SFA Youth Cup Relegation Fodder will play last years winners, and the #1 ranked youth team in the world at the moment, London Town in the first semi-final.

The second semi-final is an all-SFA affair that sees Donut Town meet twice beaten finalists 4ytry. Their two previous meetings in the SFA U21 League this season resulted in a 1-1 draw and a 2-0 victory for 4ytry in the away fixture at Donut Bridge, Town manager Joe Strummer will be hoping his team can do better in a one-off cup tie.

Getting 3 teams into the semi-finals of the premier U21 competition in the world is a great achievement for a small federation. The SFA will no doubt be hoping that they can take this success at U21 level into the senior UFFA competitions next season; only one team from the SFA made it to the Game World Cup quarter-final stages, and none of their representatives in the Gold and Silver Cups managed to make it beyond the last 16 stage.

Record Deal for Handanovic

Samir Handanovic has become the most expensive post-crunch goalkeeper in the world following his £2.3 transfer to King Krimson from Grabimbyda Scrufoviznek, and takes manager Rafa Popovic's transfer spending this season beyond the £5m mark. In turn Handanovic becomes the first goalkeeper to demand a fee in excess of £1m since the economic collapse in season 3.

The £2.3m fee is still some way off the pre-crunch record of £11m paid for Mexican 'keeper Francisco Guillermo Ochoa by Shan State Tigers back in season 2 but is further proof of the growing strength of the economy.

The 29 year old stopper has been with Scrufoviznek since season 1, keeping 255 clean sheets in 687 appearances for the club, on the way to becoming widely recognised as one of the top goalkeepers in the world.

Union of Football Academies Season 5 Roundup

Division 1
Faversham Town claimed the UFA title for the 3rd time in their history, beating off the challenge of Relegation Fodder to top the table by 6 points having only lost four games all season. Strawberry Fields pipped Wymondham FC to third place by just a single point, resigning Wymondham to their worst finish in the UFA to date.

At the bottom of the table Queens Park Stone Age, Derry City and FC Dallas were relegated, with Linton Brown finishing 2 points clear of the relegation zone on 29 points.

• UFA Division 1 Player of the Season: Thom Bjork - for the second season running, an average rating of 7.90, including 49 goals and 6 assists from his 33 appearances for title winners Faversham Town.
• UFA Division 1 Golden Boot: Thom Bjork - An amazing 49 goals in 33 appearances for Faversham Town, his UFA second golden boot award.
• UFA Division 1 Golden Gloves: Saul Blanco - 15 clean sheets in 33 appearances for Wymondham FC.

Division 2
4ytry made short work of their first season in the UFA, winning the Division 2 title with a 9 point lead at the top of the table, they will be joined in Division 1 next season by The Mighty Iron and Wilbury Wanderers. Huish FC will be kicking themselves after missing out on promotion by just a single point following a final day showdown with Wilbury to decide 3rd place. A 0-0 draw was enough to see Wilbury retain 3rd spot. This is the second season in a row that Huish have Narrowly missed out on promotion to Division 1, but their young squad has time on their side yet.

• UFA Division 2 Player of the Season: Manuel Cagliano - an average rating of 7.33, including 2 goals and 14 assists from his 30 appearances for The Mighty Iron.
• UFA Division 2 Golden Boot: Rudy Ahamada - 33 goals in 33 appearances for 4ytry.
• UFA Division 2 Golden Gloves: Diego Hernandez - 19 clean sheets in 34 appearances for title winners 4ytry.

UFA Challenge Cup
Relegation Fodder met last seasons beaten finalists Hammers United in a final that got off to a slow start with both teams defenses dominating the opposition forward line. The first goal of the match came from a lightning quick counter attack, with Hammers' players commited up field for a freekick on the edge of the area, Fodder's Enrique Galvan intercepted the cross and hit a 40 yard pass upfield for an unmarked Lima Ferreira to latch onto and dispatch past Alan James in the Hammers' goal.

Relegation Fodder sealed their first Challenge Cup victory in the 82nd minute courtesy of an excellent goal from subsititute Marcelo. Following excellent work from Bernardi down the wing, Marcelo took a first time shot from just outside the penalty area smashing the ball into the far corner of the goal leaving James grasping at thin air.

UFA Super Cup
The UFA Super Cup saw this year's Challenge Cup victors Relegation Fodder attempt to defend the Super Cup they won against Wymondham last season. Meeting them in the final was Cat Vegas' Birmingham Bearded Women.

The capacity crowd only had to wait 10 minutes for a goal; Mariano Gamboa heading in from a corner kick to put the Fodder 1-0 up. Fabio Bernardi made it 2-0 shortly after the hour mark and it looked like BBW were going to be on the end of a heavy defeat at this point. On the 50 minute mark BBW thought they had pulled a goal back when Calle's deflected shot looped over Lynch in goal, but it was ruled out for offside. 10 minutes later, on 64 minutes they finally scored a deserved goal when Andre Teixeira broke the offside trap and slotted past the onrushing 'keeper.

With 15 minutes left to play BBW drew level when Mickael Forest rose above a flat footed defense to head in at the near post from a corner kick. From such a comfortable position Relegation Fodder looked in serious danger of capitulating under the pressure from BBW, however the Fodder's two star players linked up expertly to score the winning goal in the 77th minute, Teixeira's defense splitting pass to Bernardi allowing him to round the keeper and slot home experly from a tight angle for his second of the match.


UFA U19 Division 1
The UFA U19 Division 1 season saw the most amazing title battle this writer has ever seen, with a single point seperating the top five teams. Last years champion's, Relegation Fodder, defended their crown claiming the title by a single point over a chasing pack of 4 teams who all finished on 75 points -- Balls of Steel, Wandsworth Rovers, Strawberry Fields and Ariadni FC could only be seperated by goal difference after a 34 game long season. 2nd and 3rd place was only decided by +2 goal difference.

• UFA U19 Division 1 Player of the Season: Marcelo Souza Campos - an average rating of 7.52, including 33 goals and 7 assists from his 32 appearances for Wandsworth Rovers.
• UFA U19 Division 1 Golden Boot: Marcelo Souza Campos - 33 goals in 32 appearances for Wandsworth Rovers.
• UFA U19 Division 1 Golden Gloves: Davor Krajnc - 19 clean sheets in 32 appearances for Wandsworth Rovers.

What's in a Name?

Managers spent the day talking about the origins of their teams' name today. Here we pick out some of the more interesting stories:

Motherwell Synthonia

My home town and the team I support is Motherwell FC, the 3rd best team in Scotland.

The Synthonia part is a bit more interesting .... I now live in North East England. One of the local football teams is Billingham Synthonia, known for being the only club in England to be named after an agricultural fertiliser, Synthonia being a contraction of "synthetic ammonia". Told you it was interesting ......

So Motherwell Synthonia reflects my home town and where I live now.

- Willoughby Kipling

Queens Park Stone Age

As anyone who has heard of the band can guess, it's mosty because I'm a big Queens of the Stone Age fan. There's not really much more to it than that sadly.

I'm not so fond of QPR, but it kinda worked well with the name!

- David Hand

Waukesha 1834

Waukesha 1834 was a name I came up with by taking the city of my birth, Waukesha (not where I live anymore despite what my profile says) and 1834, the date Waukesha was first inhabited by European settlers - at least according to Wikipedia.

- Marshall "Elvis" Bussen

AFC Owls of Laughter

This name is one my old fantasy football team names. As a Sheffield Wednesday (The Owls) fan I always tried to make a pun on Owls of... (Howls of...). In the Beta I was Owls of Joy but as I did so badly I changed to Laughter as my team causes Howls of Laughter from all who see them...

- Ed Bott

Grabimbyda Scrufoviznek

I wanted a name that sounded like a real club. To me viznek is a real club now and its name is in the realms of spartak and other spikey sounding eastern european/russian sides, but I wasn't christened Scott nor Problems and just as that is wordplay so is my team name. For the non English speakers out there, a common phrase for an aggressive approach to an opponent is to 'grab him by the scruff of his neck'.

Fittingly, the club began as an aggressive side with 3 technically limited but physical and tough tackling centre midfielders and full backs with no attacking ability whatsoever. 9 players grabbing scruffs and Mario Balotelli masking the true horror of it all. Thanking you.

- Scott Problems

Halewood in Brighton.

While at uni our football team purchased some kits off ebay and they arrived with Halewood school of football printed on the front. As a result of this we changed our name to match our kits, Since we left and disbanded a few of us started up new teams in the places we now live and carrying on the spirit if our youth play for Halewood in (enter city name here). So i carried on this tradition now that I live in brighton and created a team on FML.

- Reuben Westwood

Relegation Fodder

When I was at school, the programming section of my Computing A-level required us to write a program in Pascal. At the time I was a huge fan of Championship Manager (now Football Manager) so I wrote a football management game titled "Relegation Manager" .. I spent hours inputting all the players of the time and giving each a rating for GK,DEF,MID,ATT, and a few other things (more like Premier Manager than Championship Manager).

I put together a simple match engine to play around with those stats and to round it off, in true Championship Manager style, I put a few cheat codes into the game -- one let you start off with my world all star team -- the cheat code was triggered by re-naming your starting team to "Relegation Fodder" -- all your club's players were released and instead you got a squad made from my favourite players outside of England.

-Dave Parker

Eintracht Mind

Did a search for some amusing team names along the lines of 'Obi Wan - Kenobi nil' or 'Dyslexia Untied' and came accross Eintracht Mind. I got it straight away (Ein = one, tracht sounds like track, hence I have a One Track Mind, but at the same time Eintracht is a common German team name, which translates roughly to United e.g. Eintracht Frankfurt).

Given that I spent about 5 years living in Germany and have a German wife I thought it was quite appropriate to go with something with a German theme. My team colours also represent this (although that's just what I tell my wife to keep her happy, in reality they are also the colours of my favourite team, Partick Thistle ;)).

- David Johnson

Mongiat Rovers

Mine's based on the team myself and some friends attempted to create in our younger days (we had one training session which ended in fight) which was christined Mongiat Rovers (Hader's Hawk's was another suggestion). So I'm attempting to take my team where we should have gone if our one training session hadn't ending in anarchy and we'd had more than nine players.

- Tim Mongiat

Folkestone Eagles

Quite simple really - I live in a town called Folkestone (anyone been here would know it's kind of rubbish lol). The Eagles bit was quite random to be honest, when I was siging up for FML beta last year I was on my laptop in the living room and watching a TV programe about Eagles, birds of prey, so I thought "wey hey!! lets have Folkestone Eagles".

Since then I have kept the same team name

-James Bambridge

4ytry Unbeaten Run Halted

After 23 games of the season Paul Inniss' 4ytry suffered their first defeat in the Premiership to a battling Relegation Fodder team that have not yet given up hope of snatching the title away from the early season favourites.

The goal that decided the game came in the 53rd minute, a lovely passing move involving Naldo, Banega and Caio created an opening for mis-firing striker Keirrison on the edge of the penalty area and, despite having a poor season so far, the Brazilian striker expertly despatched the opportunity past the helpless De Gea.

It could have been a very different story had Marcel Risse's brilliant lobbed goal not been ruled out for offside shortly before half time, but despite their defeat here 4ytry are still odds on to retain the Premiership for a third successive season. With just 9 games left to play 4ytry would need to drop at least 6 points for Relegation Fodder to catch them -- but they would have to win all their remaining games this season, which is a tall order given their remaining fixtures.

WCA News - Edition 8

Premiership Update

The season 6 Premiership title race is proving to be the most exciting yet. With only 6 points seperating the top 7 sides - it's anybody's guess as to who will come out on top. Currently the predicted winner is Pete Booth's Euclydian Dynamo side. A far cry from last season when LetsTalkAboutCesc ran away with it.

The fight to beat the drop is also causing some drama. Again there are 7 sides involved and only 7 points seperate them. James Bray's Brayzil side did look doomed but a couple of recent wins have dragged them closer to the pack above.

Championship Update

Another competitive Championship season has seen 2 sides going head to head for the title - Bushby Babes and Highbury Utd. Both sides look good for promotion and are likely to be followed by Ian Everington's Evro41. New members ABCDE FC, Real Boogie and FC Bundeslige look likt they'll have to settle for a mid table in there first season. Although if ABCDE FC can put a good run together they could make a late challenge for that last promotion place.

One to Watch

Ian Evrington and his Evro41 side have been around the WCA since season 1. Not a particularly active side over the first 5 seasons this has started to change in season 6. With Evro41 looking to challenge for promotion and having recently spent £850,000 on Paul Caddis as well as £300,000 on Matjaz Rimez there appears to be a decent side forming there. Not content with adding to the playing side - Evro41 have also started a new stadium construction project. Look out for this side - definately one to watch.

WCA News - UFFA Round Up

Gold Cup

LetsTalkAboutCesc - qualified from group D in 2nd place and faced highly regarded side Ariadni FC (AEFA) in the last 16. The first leg has been played and LetsTalkAboutCesc have managed to gain a 2-1 advantage to protect in the 2nd leg.

Matosinhos SC - Unfortunately Tiago's side struggled slightly in the Gold Cup this season finishing 3rd in their group and missed out on the knock out stages.

Silver Cup

Euclydian Dynamo - Finished 2nd in Group A qualifying for the knock out stages where they will face Tupton FC from the XFA.

Crimson Fists - Sadly Crimson Fists finished bottom of group A and did not join Euclydian Dynamo in qualifying from the group.

Davos Utd - Pitched into Group D, without the mercucial talents of Robin Van Persie this season Davos struggled to make an impact in the groups and finished 4th.

Cup Winners Cup

Band of Brothers - Finished top of group B, undefeated the BoBs will face Sloane Square Rangers (PFA) in the knock out stages

Team Extreme - Managed to confound the pundits and qualified in 2nd place from the group stages. They'll face Ehcoelavon of the SFA in the last 16.

Grantchester Utd - Poor season for Grantchester continued as they finished bottom of the qualifying group.

Could this be a season of success for the WCA in the UFFA competitions this season. It's certainly an improvement on previous seasons with 4 sides through to the knock out stages.

Modric and Rakitic Complete Transfers

Ivan Rakitic has become the first £3m transfer since the collapse of the transfer market following the changes to UFFA regulations that forced clubs to invest heavily in stadium construction nearly 3 seasons ago now.

Matosinhos SC have paid in excess of £3.1m to bring the Croatian midfielder, consider by many to be one of the best players in the world, to the Municipal de Matosinhos. Rakitic has spent the past 5 seasons at Matt Ellis' Scunthorpe Seraphim, making 740 appearances for the club in that time.

The news comes on the same day that Rafael Popovic's King Krimson completed a £2.5m deal to bring Luka Modric to Abrada Park from SFA Premiership side Ehcoelavon. These deals may be some way off the inflated transfer fees that were once commonplace, but it is clear that the market is picking up once more.

UFFA Season 7 Allocation

UFFA allocations for season 7 were detailed yesterday, the big news is that lower reputation federations have lost a qualification spot for the Gold Cup for the following season. In an interesting turn of events the New User Football Association has been granted UFFA qualification rights for the coming season, despite requiring all members to leave the federation after their first season in the union, thus forfeiting their UFFA place under existing rules.

Previously UFFA officials have stated that teams changing federation at the end of the season would sacrifice any UFFA qualification they earned at their old federation because allowing any disparity between the number of teams in UFFA competitions could create a further gap between the top federations and the rest. With this being the case it is not good news for the federations that have seen their UFFA allocation reduced this season.

Federation	Gold	Silver	CWC	Youth	Total
XEFA	4	2	3	3	12
PFA	4	2	3	2	11
NFA	3	3	2	2	10
AEFA	3	3	2	3	11
MLFA	3	3	2	3	11
XFA	3	3	2	3	11
SFA	2	3	3	3	11
EEFA	2	2	3	2	9
CWA	2	3	3	3	11
SEFA	2	3	3	3	11
WCA	2	3	3	3	11
NUFA	2	2	3	2	9

UFFA Representative Shaun Meakin explains how this was decided:

In the Gold Cup, the two 4 rep FA's got the most allocations (4 each) with the other strong FA's getting 3 each. Despite not having many people, both the NFA and the MLFA still got 3 allocations as they have a higher rep FA than compared to, say, the SEFA.

In the Silver Cup, only 2 spots were given to the high rep teams as a result of them having 4 Gold Cup spots. The EEFA and the NUFA both got 2 spots as they are the lowest rep (and members) FA's that are residing in the Clough Game World. The rest of the FA's got 3 allocations.

In the Cup Winners Cup, the top Feds got 3 allocations, to make up for not having an extra Silver Cup spot each. The next highest ranked FA's only got 2 allocations as they already had 3 Gold and Silver Cup allocations, and it was felt that it would be unfair on the NUFA and the EEFA if they didn't get 3 allocations in at least one UFFA competition.

Media Deals Agreed

Media deals for the coming season were announced today, with over £730 million on the table in total, over £50m more than last season's media package. This year the XEFA negogiated the strongest package for their members, in a deal worth £1.14m per club. Most federations, however, saw a decrease in the relative value of their media deals per member, with the EEFA coming off the worst -- losing £30k per club compared to last season's deal.

Overall UFFA membership has grown by 60 teams since last season, but the number of inactive clubs in the union rose to 166, or 23% of all union members -- an increase of 4% from season 5's figures.

Federation	Members	Media Deal	Per Club
XEFA	79 (0)	£90.1m	£1.14m (0.03)
PFA	43 (-3)	£47.7m	£1.11m (0)
NFA	20 (-1)	£21.8m	£1.09m (-0.02)
AEFA	77 (-3)	£83.9m	£1.09m (-0.02)
MLFA	26 (-1)	£28.3m	£1.09m (0.01)
XFA	67 (9)	£71m	£1.06m (-0.01)
CWA	66 (9)	£69.3m	£1.05m (0.01)
SFA	33 (-4)	£33.7m	£1.02m (-0.02)
EEFA	19 (-6)	£19.1m	£1.01m (-0.03)
SEFA	43 (4)	£42.8m	£1m (-0.02)
CIFA	166 (41)	£162.7m	£0.98m (0.03)
WCA	35 (1)	£34.3m	£0.98m (0)
NUFA	35 (14)	£32.4m	£0.93m (0.03)
TOTAL	709 (60)	£737.1m	£1.04m (-0.02)

UFFA Season 5 Round Up

Our sister publication, UFFA Legends, have completed their roundup of last season's UFFA cup finals, here we bring together their match reviews for the 7 games.

Grass Roots Cup
Winners: Camembert Harriers, managed by Tony McDermot - NFA
Runners-up: Centresbrough, managed by Adrian Harvey - XEFA

Before either team had time to settle, Djibril Cissé converted some good play between him, Ortiz and Delgado to head in the first goal of the game for the Harriers. And since they seemingly controlled proceedings in the first half, it came as a great surprise when Acuna, unmarked in the box, twisted and turned before firing home the equalizer. Even though many chances were created, few were good ones, so that the game went to Extra Time was no surprise.

At the beginning of the last 15 mins though, Camembert Harriers took advantage of some dreadful set piece defending from Centresbrough's side and Rajkovic could fire home the winner - a goal which gave him the Man of the Match award.

Read the full match report at UFFA Legends.


Cup Winners' Cup
Winners: London Town, managed by Mark Lockie - PFA
Runners-up: Sim City, managed by Craig Sim - PFA

In a tight game, Martínez opened the scoring for London Town when he fired in a long shot in the 1st half. Both teams managed to restrict each other from getting Clear Cut Chances, but London Town still had a hefty 9 shots on goal, with Sim City only having 2. This proved to be the difference, and De Luca fired home the winner after Kuzczak couldn't hold a corner.

Another Kuzczak error could have meant 3-0 after another corner, but Lequi's goal was ruled out for offside.

Read the full match report at UFFA Legends.


Silver Cup
Winners: Tycoons Gunners, managed by "Coach" Tycoon - CWA
Runners-up: Nerve Palace, managed by Sir Evren - XFA

In a tight game with no Clear Cut Chances, Coach's Tycoons Gunners held their cool in a tense Penalty Shootout. After Jacques Faty and the Man of the Match, Tuncay, had both missed their penalties for Nerve Palace, Emiliano Moretti didn't slip up and fired home in the decider - after 4 successive penalty goals, having missed none.

Considering that Tycoons Gunners also had a goal controversially ruled out for offside (by Walter), none can disagree with that the win was well deserved.

Read the full match report at UFFA Legends.


Game World Cup
Winners: Harlesden Harriers, managed by Pedro Quieroz - CWA
Runners-up: Camembert Harriers, managed by Tony McDermot - NFA

In a game totally dominated by Harlesden Harriers, it was by no surprise that they brought the Game World Cup trophy home to Scrubs Lane. Mathias Abel, the german DC, scored the only goal of the game off a corner, only challenge being from his own teammate Kjaer.

All in all, a good overall display from Pedro Quieroz' team that never really looked in trouble.

Read the full match report at UFFA Legends.


Gold Cup
Winners: Old Avenellonians, managed by Daniel Smith - PFA
Runners-up: Shaolin Avengers, managed by Matt Booth - MLFA

In a very tight Gold Cup Final, the defensive and offensive capabilities of Old Avenellonians' Household Name DC Federico Fazio turned out to be decisive. After having a few opportunities in the beginning, Fazio gave Daniel Smith's team the leading after converting an Indirect Freekick from Inan. And in the dying seconds of the match, he headed in a Gardner corner to send the PFA team into celebrations.

All in all it was a fair result, but it could have turned out differently if Diakhaté's strike at the end of the first half had ended up in the back of the net.

Read the full match report at UFFA Legends.


Game World Youth Cup
Winners: London Town, managed by Mark Lockie - PFA
Runners-up: The Birmingham Bearded Women, Cat Vegas - XFA

Having taken the lead after just 5 minutes and having been leading for most of the game, London Town must have been in shock when Birmingham's substitute Blauuw took advantage of some poor defending when equalizing the game to 3-3 at the end of the game. But London Town's Gabriele De Luca showed why he's been playing more and more Senior football lately, by cooly firing home the 4-3 goal to give London Town the win.

And considering that Mark Lockie's men had almost twice as many shots overall and on target, it's hard to say anything else than the better team of the day took home the cup.

London Town vs The Birmingham Bearded Women - Overview

Read the full match report in UFFA Legends.


World Youth Cup
Winners: Nags Head Rovers, managed by Rodney 'Dave' Trotter - XFA
Runners-up: Legless End FC, managed by Richard Millar - SFA

In one of the most exciting Youth games of all time, it looked all over when Legless End FC scored 3-2 after Mala's - apperent - hasty through ball ended up at Diallo's feet. But being only 10 men on the pitch after Leandro Silva had to go off injured 7 minutes after he was subbed in, Nags Head Rover could score an equalizer on stoppage time, after Koch found Aleksic with a superb pass, and he converted the 1-on-1 with the keeper.

He followed this up with missing his first Penalty in the Penalty Shootout, but it didn't matter - Richard Millar's men missed 3, Rodney Trotter's converted 3, and was officially the #1 Youth team in Clough in Season 5

Read the full match report in UFFA Legends.

Babel Joins Dream Diamonds

Dutch superstar Ryan Babel has completed a shock move from Relegation Fodder to XFA Premiership challengers Dream Diamonds in one of the biggest transfers in recent seasons for a fee of £1.8 million.

Babel made 1'605 appearances for the the Fodder since signing for the club as a free agent in season 1, and is the club's all-time record goalscorer with 427 goals from his 5 seasons at the club.

The transfer market has been showing signs of recovery in recent weeks and this is further evidence that clubs are beginning to ramp up investment in their playing staff once more following a period where many club's finances have been allocated to stadium expansion.

The Big Interview - Tiago Nogueira

An Interview with a winner .. Fresh from his sides first ever trophy win following a 2-0 victory in the WCA Cup Final over Band of Brothers, WCA News caught up with Matosinhos SC manager Tiago Nogueira

Garry Pettigrew: How would you describe your FML experience so far?
Tiago Nogueira: Very good. This game is awesome. At beginning I was a little sceptical about spending money on online games (the price of this game for Portugal people is a little expensive), but I wanted to try and I'm really happy with my decision. Playing with real people is more fun!


Garry Pettigrew: As an original WCA member - what do you like about the FA?
Tiago Nogueira: I've added myself to the FA because most of the time I'm working at week and on weekends I can play more. The most I like is the people on it. Always trying to play their games instead of playing against AI and always helping each other. Of course is not always possible to play against all people but we all try to play human vs. human which is very nice


Garry Pettigrew: With the talented Pavel Pogrebnyak and Niko Kranjaer both still only 28 and you first trophy win out the way. Do you envisage more success next season? Can you get closer to Wayne's LetsTalkAboutCesc side?
Tiago Nogueira: Season after season I'm trying to do better. It isn't easy, because we have to win against great teams. At the beginning this FA hasn't a lot of really good players, now all teams have 2/3/4 excellent players that make difference in some games. Niko was my first choice since the beginning and he's my best player, always playing at same level, doing a lot of assists. Pavel I had luck in season 4 when I buy him on a contract auction. It's not only these two players that are important, but this season they helped me a lot. If it wasn't the big number of draws that I have. I could have been more close to Wayne. He has a very strong squad with Matusiak in front making lots of goals. Next season I will try to do better, trying to get 2/3 young players into first eleven. It's not easy but I will try...

Garry Pettigrew: Your Best and Worst moments?
Tiago Nogueira: My best moment was winning the WCA Cup this season. It was an intense and close game against a great team ,but as I said before Niko Kranjcar and Pavel Pogrebnyak have made a difference. Also my goalkeeper saving that penalty at minute 76 made the game safe.

My worst moment was season 4, very poor performance when I have a good team, only winning some games at the end of season, trying to not get relegated.

Garry Pettigrew: And any final messages?
Tiago Nogueira: Hope all continue enjoy this game. Anybody that needs my help could always be talking to me; I'm always available to help u guys. Continue with good performances, trying to go for glory. Cheers and see u next season.