| Frequently Asked Questions |
| What is Charity Challenge Fantasy Football ? | ||||||||||||||
| The Charity Challenge Fantasy Football (CC-FF) Competition is a Fantasy Football Competition open to any BAE SYSTEMS / SELEX / AIRBUS employees, their friends, relatives or anyone else who finds this website and wishes to enter. 50% of all money raised will go directly to BAE SYSTEMS Charity Challenge either on a pro-rata basis per BAE SYSTEM site, or straight into the main Charity Challenge pot for non-affiliated entrants.
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| What's this FAQ for ? | ||||||||||||||
| This FAQ covers everything that used to be in the rules, plus anything else I've been asked.
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| How much does it cost to enter ? | ||||||||||||||
| It costs £5 to enter a team, which includes three free transfers during the season. Transfers are charged at £1 each thereafter.
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| How and when can I enter ? | ||||||||||||||
| Entries must be made from the published player list. Any real-life transfers made once the list has been released will not be reflected in this list, or your entry. I could ramble on about why this is, but I won't.
Each player has been given a value. For £5 you simply select a 15-man squad (comprising one GK, three FB, three CB, five MID and three STR) from the Player List, ensuring that the value of your squad does not exceed £70M, and that you've got no more than two players from any one club. Entries must be received before the first kick-off of the new Premiership season. Entries should be sent to my home email account as I run the CC-FF from home. If you do not have my home email address, you should send your entry to me at work and I will forward it home. You will receive confirmation of your entry (and therefore receive my home email address), which will also contain details of how to pay. I've included a simplistic spreadsheet to try and make picking your squad a bit easier. On it, player lists are ordered both on teams AND value, which MAY prove useful. It is not essential to use this method of entry, and some will not be able to download it, depending on their IE security settings. Emailed entries using the TXT or HTM lists are just as acceptable. For those that CAN access it, the spreadsheet must be saved locally (right-click -> save file as...), rather than run from within IE, as you can't save your selections before emailing them back to me. Sorry, I don't know how to get round this. I will never make any assumptions about who you wish to be your starting subs. The spreadsheet makes it clear who your subs will be. If you have to send you entry manaully, you should ensure that the third FB, CB and STR and the fifth MID are you designated subs. This is especially important if you put in a last minute entry and don't get an entry confirmation email from me before the deadline for picking your first team. It is not my problem if you get this wrong and miss out on points for the first week. It may seem obvious to you that you didn’t intend to leave out Stephen Gerrard, but I don’t actually get time to check each squad for logical selections. Your squad should be sent to my home email address, which you will have if you requested to receive the introductory email for the start of the new season. Otherwise you will need to send your squad to me via my work email. I will also need from you a team name and a contact point, including a phone number if at all possible, and (if applicable) which site you are based at (or connected to for non-employees). Back to Top |
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| How and when do I pay ? | ||||||||||||||
| When I receive your entry, I will reply with a confirmation email which will also detail methods of payment.
If I don't receive your entry payment, I will send out reminders as it proves impossible to get ALL the money in before the season starts. However, there has to be a cut-off point. If entry money has not been received by the end of August, offending managers will be scratched from the competition, as I need to work out the format for the CC-FF Knockout. Back to Top |
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| Do you have any advice for picking a squad ? | ||||||||||||||
| Not really. I'm rubbish at that kind of thing, which is why I run it :-)
The best advice I can give you is:-
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| I didn't even see this website until it was too late | ||||||||||||||
| Although it's too late to enter once the season has started, you can send me an email and I will ensure you get notified when the next season starts, so you won't miss out again.
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| What if I want to change my squad before the season starts ? | ||||||||||||||
| You can change your squad much as you like for free until the season starts, so if any of your players pick up pre-season injuries you can swap them for someone else, or if there are any late transfers (like one of your players gets sold to Real Madrid), you can swap players in and out accordingly.
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| Why do I have a squad of 15 players ? | ||||||||||||||
| You can only play eleven players, so each week you nominate four players to leave out, which must be one FB, one CB, one MID and one STR. By having a 15-man squad and selecting which players to drop the competition becomes more interactive, managers who pay attention can gain points and, crucuially, also protect themselves against the hit of midweek misfortune.
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| What constitutes a week / month in the CC-FF ? | ||||||||||||||
| Weeks run from Monday to Sunday. Months run from a Monday to usually the last Sunday of each month as described here. The end of the month may be adjusted slightly around Christmas time. |
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| When do I need to name my substitutes ? | ||||||||||||||
The following rules regarding team changes are aimed at preventing any misunderstandings, so the list might seem a bit long :-)
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| What happens if there are midweek matches ? | ||||||||||||||
| As I said, you must inform me of any changes before the first kick-off each weekend. So, if you are paying attention, you can look at what points your players have accrued during any midweek games BEFORE nominating your four substitutes.
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| When does the website get updated ? | ||||||||||||||
| The website gets updated once a week, usually on a Monday (maybe a Tuesday if it's a Bank Holiday and I'm busy). This covers all updates from the weekends fixtures plus any team changes. Changes sent to me are processed and the individual managers notified of their receipt, but they are not reflect on the website until the following Monday (why should other managers - and you cup opponents - know what you are doing?).
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| How does the points system work ? | ||||||||||||||
| All completed Premiership and F.A.Cup games count whilst players are playing for a Premiership club.
Abandoned games do not count. If F.A.Cup matches go to extra time, then points still accumulate, but obviously this makes it harder to get a clean sheet. Goals scored during penalty shoot-outs do not count. Points are accumulated each week for the eleven players you have selected, as follows:-
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| * An appearance is where a player played any part in the game, even if only for one minute.
** A clean sheet is where no goal was conceded by a player who played at least 75 minutes. *** If a player receives a red card this takes precedence over any yellow they may also have received. **** Goals conceded only accumulate whilst the player is part of the team. They do not count if the player is still on the bench, or has been substituted. Back to Top |
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| Hey, I've just had a goal chalked off by the FA. Can I keep it ? | ||||||||||||||
| You certainly can. Once the goals, assists, bookings and so on are processed and verified, I'll be darned if I'm going to keep track of this blinking F.A.Review Panel that meets once in a blue moon to change them. This is a one-man-band, not the Daily Telegraph! The same applies to yellow and red cards getting rescinded.
Sometimes, the Fantasy Football Classic website that I use makes changes to its points a day or so after I've done my Monday morning check and website update. That's just tough. Again, I'm a one-man-band etc etc. The only time I'll ever go back and 'correct' anything is if it was my mistake and even then I don't guarantee it. It depends if I've got the time and what the implications of doing it are. So, check your points, email me if you have any queries, I'm not infallible. Any points errors will be rectified if possible, but I cannot retrospectively change MOM or Cup results (hopefully that will be clear enough if it happens). My decision on any matter is final. Back to Top |
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| What's a transfer window and why can't I make them whenver I want ? | ||||||||||||||
| Each month there is a transfer window. During this window, you can buy and sell as many players as you wish. The first three transfers during the season are free, thereafter they are £1 each. Transfer windows start on the Monday of the transfer week and closes at 5pm on the Thursday.
At all times you must replace (for example) one FB with another FB. The new player automatically replaces the old one in the squad, so if the player you have sold was on the bench, the new one also will be. You may only purchase players who are on the availability list. Available players are eligible to be purchased by all managers during the current transfer window subject to the certain availability limits. This is why transfer windows are at fixed points of the season, to ensure that all managers are playing from a level playing field. The availability of players during a transfer window is dependent on the number of managers in the game and the number of managers owning a player. As a rough guide, players will be on the availability list if they are owned by less than 5% managers. I will never make any assumptions about transfers that managers make and for that reason if there are any errors in your transfers, they will ALL be void. You are advised to use the spreadsheet provided each month under the General Menu tab. I will also never make any assumptions about your substitutions after making transfers. The spreadsheet makes it clear who your subs will be. Any points accumulatedby the new player during that week will count. Any points accumulated by the sold player that week do not count. All transfers are final and cannot later be rescinded, as it is far too fiddly to hack around with the database to reverse transfers made. So, if you change your mind before the transfer window closes, more changes will count as further transfer(s). Back to Top |
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| How do I pay transfer fees ? | ||||||||||||||
If a transfer fee is required, then the transfer WILL be accepted without payment. However, be aware of the following penalties:-
One solution to this that a few managers use is to make block payments for transfer IN ADVANCE. At the end of the season I always ask what managers want to do with any excess they have left over. Some have it returned, some donate it to the Donation Pool. Back to Top |
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| What happens to player when they move teams during the season ? | ||||||||||||||
| Once the season has started, changes will be made only when a player actually plays for a club. What this in effect means is that a player may move from (for example) Liverpool to Chelsea, but he will remain a Liverpool player until he makes his Chelsea debut.
The reassignment of a player's team will ONLY occur when he plays for his new team, and even then it will only take effect at the beginning of the following week when the weekly update takes place. So a player may move from, for example, Man Utd to Spurs on a Tuesday, but in the database he will remain a Man Utd player until the Monday after he plays his first game for Spurs. So there will be times when you can take advantage of this to purchase a third player from one team before he actually gets assigned to his new team. The downside is that you may want to buy a third player from his old team, but will be prevented from doing so because the transferring player will not have been reassigned in time. (Clear as mud?) Players that move out of the Premiership will remain assigned to their Premiership team for the remainder of the season. Players added to the list will be marked as **NEW** until the completion of that months transfer window. Back to Top |
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| How does this two-player-limit work. I can get three ? | ||||||||||||||
| This is true and is know as the Fowler Effect (which shows how long this game has been going as that dates back to his Liverpool-Leeds move).
When you initially pick your squad you use a fixed player list which may change before the season starts. For example: if player-1 leaves Everton for Man City and you have two players from each of Everton and Man City, suddenly you now have three Man City players but only one Everton player. No problem, you can keep them. However, when it comes to making transfers, you'll need to swap out two of your three Man City players to be able to buy another one. But you can swap in an Everton player as you currently only have the one. Back to Top |
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| How does the Cup Competition work ? | ||||||||||||||
| The format of the Cup will depend on the number of entries but will be based around the old UEFA Champions League format, with two group stages followed by a knockout stage. All group draws will be carried out automatically by the FF-software I have written. Your entry assumes acceptance of this.
Teams will be draw into groups of four, five or six and will play fixtures against the other entrants in their group. A fixture takes place over either one or two weeks and is the cumulative score achieved. Three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. During the Cup Group Stages, tables will be sorted on Pts, Diff, For. In the unlikely event that teams finish level, positions will be determined on the result between the affected teams. If teams still finish level then the toss of a coin decides. Back to Top |
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| What happens if a cup tie is drawn during the knockout stage ? | ||||||||||||||
| In the event of a Cup Tie being drawn during the Knockout state, then a tie-break rule will apply.
The points total for that match will be broken down by squad formation and an order of precedence applied. The order of precedence (high to low) will be STR, MID, CB, FB, GK. Thus the team with the highest points achieved by their SELECTED strikers would win the tie break. If these points were equal, then the team with the highest points achieved by their SELECTED midfielders would win, and so on. In the extremely unlikely event of a tie after applying the precedence rule then the toss of a coin decides. Back to Top |
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| How does the money break down into donations and prize money ? | ||||||||||||||
| Money taken for entries is called the Entry Pool. The MOM and MOW prizes are taken out of this.
Money raised in transfers are added to this, which in total is called the Prize and Donation Pool. 50% of this is called the Donation Pool with the remaining 50% called the Prize Pool. 70% of the Prize Pool becomes the League Prize Pool and the remaining 30% the Cup Prize Pool. Currently the League Prize Pool is split as follows (although this may vary from season to season):- 1st place: 40%, 2nd place: 20%, 3rd place: 15%, 4th place: 10%, 5th place: 7%, 6th place: 5%, 7th place: 3% Currently the Cup Prize Pool is split as follows (again this may vary from season to season):- Winner: 50%, Runner-Up: 25%, Semi-Finalsts: 12.5% each. This is not intended to be a Competition where any prize gets embarrassingly high and the limit on an individual prize will be set somewhere between £200-250. If any prize exceeds this, then then I reserve the right to limit individual League and Cup Prizes by adjusting the League or Cup Prize Pool, with any excess being donated to Charity Challenge. In the event of a tie in MOW, MOM or final placing prizes, winnings will be shared. Back to Top |
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| How is the charity donation split between participating sites ? | ||||||||||||||
| The distribution of money to Charity Challenge is on a pro rata basis. However, each site is required to have a minimum share of £25 before they qualify for their share, otherwise due to the cost of individual cheques, bank charges and time it is counter productive to share out the proceeds. I'm not going to bore you with the fine details but, put simply, the least supporting sites will be removed from the equation until all those that are left receive at least £25.
Obviously from that, you can see that the more entries the bigger the prizes. When I come to distribute the Donation Pool money at the end of the season, I will do my best to contact the appropriate site reps to arrange payment. However, if I get no reply from them, their share will go into the main Charity Challenge pot. Back to Top |
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| How much has been raised over the years ? | ||||||||||||||
| Loads, seriously! A lot more than I expected when I started this. I love stats, I love football and this was just an exceuse to combine the two.
Anyway, specifically, the following has been donated each year:-
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| How can you be contacted ? | ||||||||||||||
I can be contacted for transfers and squad changes by any of the following methods:
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| Any catches ? | ||||||||||||||
| If the email system crashes or I've updated the weekly tables before your email is received (even if you sent it before the deadline), then it is unlikely that I'll be able to accommodate the changes/transfers you requested. That is the risk in leaving things until the last minute, unfortunately.
Also, I reserve the right to change any dates (e.g transfer windows) or rules if I need to. Obviously, there will have to be a very good reason for doing so, and I'm not going to do anything stupid like change the points system mid-season :-) Back to Top |
Last modified 27-Aug-09