The Competitions
There are many competitions within a KICKABOUT season besides the League Championship itself, and it is often these competitions that keep a season alive for a team struggling to maintain the league form needed to win Division Championships.
With the knock-out competitions, such as the Cup [and the Bowl for those are KO’d at the 1st round of the Cup], the games works as a straight one-leg competition, with a replay being played if the first match ends in a draw after ninety minutes. This replay will be on the opponent’s turf, and will go to extra time, and a penalty shoot-out if necessary.
The third knockout competition played within a league is the Trophy, which runs in the second half of the season and encompasses all the Third and Fourth Division clubs and the bottom eight in Division Two. The Trophy is different in that there are no replays. The games, if drawn, go into extra time and, if required, a penalty shootout.
The longest running knockout competition inside every League is the League Cup. The first round consists of the 32 lowest-placed teams in the league from last season, who will play each other on a two-leg basis, the winners going through to meet the remaining 16 teams for round two [ the12 sides from Division 1 and the top 4 in Division 2 ] . These will be played as two-legs also, as will round three and the Quarter-Finals. Both the Semi-finals and Final are straight one-leg games and will be played on Neutral grounds with the games going to a replay and extra time if drawn, again held on neutral grounds. Note that Email and premier leagues might well have differing League Cup set-ups.
You must check your Pre-Season Info booklet for the session times of all these competitions, and your league schedule. If you have more than two scheduled matches on any one session, you will be unable to arrange any friendly games (see later) for that same session, and you do not want to miss putting a team out for a vital cup game.
During the season there will also be REPRESENTATIVE games between sides chosen from the best players in each Kickabout League. Players chosen for the Representative Squad will earn their clubs a £50,000 (50K) bonus, each and every time they are chosen for the squad. The Representative squad manager will usually be the Manager voted Manager of the Year from the previous season for each league. The League that wins the ‘REP’ competition gives all its players a higher chance of turning STAR the following season, and existing STARS may even start the new season still a STAR, so winning the REP competition is a big, big bonus to have.
See also…