Since the 90s onwards scrutiny of football has escalated to the point where every aspect of footballers lives is analysed in detail. Essentially there is 24/7 surveillance of all activity.
Draft Rules
The reasoning behind the dates was trying to get as many of the GOATs together who played in a definable era so easy comparisons could be made.
Following the initial drafting a vote will be taken to determine who wins the Best Drafter Award. Each manager will rank the top three squads that he think were drafted the best (excluding his own). Three points will be assigned to 1st place, two points for 2nd place and one point for 3rd place. These will be sent to a neutral who will then reveal the results.
To spruce up match threads there will be in game injuries which will test a managers tactical response. Here's how they will work:
To make the above work you will always have to name a three man bench (even if you have a huge squad by the final) and can make a maximum of two subs per game. Also, any players injured in game will be injured for the following game too.
Voting will be done on a win/lose basis with the score being kept hidden until you vote but you can change your vote given the fact there will hopefully be some in game changes. In the event of a draw whoever has the best keeper will win. A neutral committee will rank the keepers from 1-16 and reveal who has won.
Tactics for the OP will be limited to 2500 characters to be used how the managers see fit (it may make sense then to link to player profiles in the main draft thread). If it's any longer the match starter should just cut off the OP at 2500 characters.
NB. In the case of having a single manager vs a duo (or anything other than single vs single) they will agree before hand who they're happy to have contribute during the game. Whatever they decide goes.
Reinforcements for the quarters will be the reverse snake and thereafter lamb style. No-one from picks 1 and 2 can ever be used as a reinforcement. Due to potential injuries all reinforcement rounds will be double pick rounds.
Important : successfully drafted players will be announced after each drafting round unlike Sheep Drafting. So the managers going into the second/third attempt will know which players have been picked. Now, A and B have to submit again for the same criteria as their second attempt etc. Shane Warne though will still be eligible for picking in round 2 and 3 of reinforcement drafting; he is only blocked in the round where more than one drafter picks him.
The purpose of this system is to avoid the occasional advantage to the drafter with the first pick for reinforcements, normally where there is one stand out player and whoever goes first picks him. Reinforcement drafting after quarters will be double pick rounds. If you're successful with one but fail with the other, then you just pick a single player in the next drafting reinforcement round.
Finally:
No changing of picks. Be careful that a player didn't player half a season with another player. This happened last time the Billy No Mates rule was in force.
Managers (not drafting order)
1. Tuppet
2. Aldo/prath92
3. Downcast
4. Joga Bonito
5. Physio
6. Gio
7. Mazhar/Enigma
8. OneNil
9. Raees/Invictus
10. P-Nut
11. VivaJanuzaj
12. Skizzo
13. DavidG
14. Pat Mustard
15. Sir Scholes (replace The Stain)
16. Bleezy
Goalkeeping Council: harms, Antohan, Green Smiley, Balu.
Available AM list: Sjor Bepo
Draft Rules
- The draft will be snake for any players born between the 1st January 1967 and 31st December 1987 (inclusive).
- Snake-Style: The teams will be put in a random order then the first on the list gets first pick going down to 16 but then drafter 16 gets two picks then drafter 15 picks working back up the snake until we've finished all the squads.
- Initial squads will be formed of 14 players
- The only limitation is that none of the starting 11 can ever have played with each other at club or international level (the subs however can have played with one of the other starting 11 but can only be used as a sub if he replaces the player he played with, and obviously never played with anyone else).
- In the event of a dispute http://www.footballdatabase.eu/ will be used as the authority.
- You have 8 hours to pick with deadlines beginning 10am 21st November so the drafter with the first pick has until 6pm tomorrow. (All times GMT)
'Played together at club level' will be defined as sharing at least one season with another player at the same club; if they did not move prior to the start of the league season e.g 15/16, they will have shared the season 14/15 as well as 15/16. They do not need to have been on the same pitch at the same time. Basically any time shared at the same club during the league campaign counts as played together; note however, if they were on loan for an entire season the club that they were loaned to will count as their club for that season. The only exception is if they were owned by the same club but one player did not play any senior games during that season (probably due to injury).
'Played together at international level' will be defined as being in the same squad for a major tournament; again they need not have been on the pitch at the same time nor on the pitch at all. If they played together but were not in any of the competitions below they can both be picked and be played together in the same draft side.
Major Tournaments include only the following:
The World Cup (1930-2014)
The Euros (1960-2012)
Copa America (1916-2015)
African Cup of Nations (1957-2015)
The Asian Cup (1956-2015)
The OFC (1973-2012)
'Played together at international level' will be defined as being in the same squad for a major tournament; again they need not have been on the pitch at the same time nor on the pitch at all. If they played together but were not in any of the competitions below they can both be picked and be played together in the same draft side.
Major Tournaments include only the following:
The World Cup (1930-2014)
The Euros (1960-2012)
Copa America (1916-2015)
African Cup of Nations (1957-2015)
The Asian Cup (1956-2015)
The OFC (1973-2012)
The reasoning behind the dates was trying to get as many of the GOATs together who played in a definable era so easy comparisons could be made.
The way I see it there are broadly four eras of football. Pre-war (2-3-5, WM etc), post-war until the mid 70s (424, 3232 relatively tactically naive), mid 70s to early 90s which heralded tight defenses, sweepers etc) then the mid 90s until now (relaxed offside rule, more protection for forwards, more attacking game).
I then looked at diffferent birth dates as it makes it much cleaner to draft rather than saying only performances in the 1950s etc. I started by wanting Di Stefano in with Pele's pool so initially started in '26 but it missed Djalma Santos amongst others. I then looked at say the Brazil 82 side and Platini's France's 84 side amongst others to decide where the age dates should be cut off. I had then a hard look at Laudrup, Romario and Sacchi's Milan plus Baggio and Batigol to determine where the next line fit. I then realised that a standard 21 year gap made sense and was uniform. I don't want to go past '87 as it is relatively difficult to rate players who have not completed most of their bulk career- if we were to do a draft with young players I'd prefer it to be a specific youth players draft. Players who are born in '87 will be at their youngest 29 so they've had a lot their career to fairly rate them (plus Messi had to make the birth date cut). The players born in '57 really belong in the mid 70s to early 90s period.
I then looked at diffferent birth dates as it makes it much cleaner to draft rather than saying only performances in the 1950s etc. I started by wanting Di Stefano in with Pele's pool so initially started in '26 but it missed Djalma Santos amongst others. I then looked at say the Brazil 82 side and Platini's France's 84 side amongst others to decide where the age dates should be cut off. I had then a hard look at Laudrup, Romario and Sacchi's Milan plus Baggio and Batigol to determine where the next line fit. I then realised that a standard 21 year gap made sense and was uniform. I don't want to go past '87 as it is relatively difficult to rate players who have not completed most of their bulk career- if we were to do a draft with young players I'd prefer it to be a specific youth players draft. Players who are born in '87 will be at their youngest 29 so they've had a lot their career to fairly rate them (plus Messi had to make the birth date cut). The players born in '57 really belong in the mid 70s to early 90s period.
Following the initial drafting a vote will be taken to determine who wins the Best Drafter Award. Each manager will rank the top three squads that he think were drafted the best (excluding his own). Three points will be assigned to 1st place, two points for 2nd place and one point for 3rd place. These will be sent to a neutral who will then reveal the results.
To spruce up match threads there will be in game injuries which will test a managers tactical response. Here's how they will work:
Everyone gives each of their players a squad number. Then a random number generator for both teams with the numbers in it 2 to 41 (this provides a 1/4 of a chance for an injury). If the top number corresponds with a player number on the pitch they go off injured (Keepers cannot be injured so ). This is communicated to the managers via PM after kick off with which players are injured or not. They then send tactical tweaks/ subs to update the thread eight hours or so in (so the changes are at 30 mins) - the fun here is working out what your opponent might do so you can change accordingly. After this another random number generator takes place in the same format via PM and the last update at 16 hrs. This should mathematically on average yield one injury per game. What could be fun is if someone cocks up their starting line-up so makes a lot of changes it could happen they end up playing the last 30 mins with 10 men.
To make the above work you will always have to name a three man bench (even if you have a huge squad by the final) and can make a maximum of two subs per game. Also, any players injured in game will be injured for the following game too.
Voting will be done on a win/lose basis with the score being kept hidden until you vote but you can change your vote given the fact there will hopefully be some in game changes. In the event of a draw whoever has the best keeper will win. A neutral committee will rank the keepers from 1-16 and reveal who has won.
Tactics for the OP will be limited to 2500 characters to be used how the managers see fit (it may make sense then to link to player profiles in the main draft thread). If it's any longer the match starter should just cut off the OP at 2500 characters.
NB. In the case of having a single manager vs a duo (or anything other than single vs single) they will agree before hand who they're happy to have contribute during the game. Whatever they decide goes.
Reinforcements for the quarters will be the reverse snake and thereafter lamb style. No-one from picks 1 and 2 can ever be used as a reinforcement. Due to potential injuries all reinforcement rounds will be double pick rounds.
Deadlines-
Pick 1 - 24 hours (after the final game of the round is concluded)
Pick 2 - 12 hours
Pick 3 - 12 hours
No changing of picks once submitted.
Let's say A, B, C, D and E are playing the draft.
All 5 managers PM a neutral with their picks as follows (cricket examples):
Pick 1 :
A : Shane Warne, Steve Waugh
B : Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting
C : Don Bradman, Shane Warne
D : Viv Richards, Gary Sobers
E : Malcolm Marshall, WG Grace
According to the rules, A and B don't get any players and their picks fail. C, D and E successfully sign their players. So, at the end of the deadline someone will post something like this :
Results of Round 1, Pick 1 :
A : Fail, Steve Waugh
B : Fail, Ricky Ponting,
C : Don Bradman, Fail
D : Viv Richards, Gary Sobers
E : Malcolm Marshall, WG Grace
Pick 1 - 24 hours (after the final game of the round is concluded)
Pick 2 - 12 hours
Pick 3 - 12 hours
No changing of picks once submitted.
Let's say A, B, C, D and E are playing the draft.
All 5 managers PM a neutral with their picks as follows (cricket examples):
Pick 1 :
A : Shane Warne, Steve Waugh
B : Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting
C : Don Bradman, Shane Warne
D : Viv Richards, Gary Sobers
E : Malcolm Marshall, WG Grace
According to the rules, A and B don't get any players and their picks fail. C, D and E successfully sign their players. So, at the end of the deadline someone will post something like this :
Results of Round 1, Pick 1 :
A : Fail, Steve Waugh
B : Fail, Ricky Ponting,
C : Don Bradman, Fail
D : Viv Richards, Gary Sobers
E : Malcolm Marshall, WG Grace
Important : successfully drafted players will be announced after each drafting round unlike Sheep Drafting. So the managers going into the second/third attempt will know which players have been picked. Now, A and B have to submit again for the same criteria as their second attempt etc. Shane Warne though will still be eligible for picking in round 2 and 3 of reinforcement drafting; he is only blocked in the round where more than one drafter picks him.
The purpose of this system is to avoid the occasional advantage to the drafter with the first pick for reinforcements, normally where there is one stand out player and whoever goes first picks him. Reinforcement drafting after quarters will be double pick rounds. If you're successful with one but fail with the other, then you just pick a single player in the next drafting reinforcement round.
Finally:
No changing of picks. Be careful that a player didn't player half a season with another player. This happened last time the Billy No Mates rule was in force.
Managers (not drafting order)
1. Tuppet
2. Aldo/prath92
3. Downcast
4. Joga Bonito
5. Physio
6. Gio
7. Mazhar/Enigma
8. OneNil
9. Raees/Invictus
10. P-Nut
11. VivaJanuzaj
12. Skizzo
13. DavidG
14. Pat Mustard
15. Sir Scholes (replace The Stain)
16. Bleezy
Goalkeeping Council: harms, Antohan, Green Smiley, Balu.
Available AM list: Sjor Bepo
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