The 2026/27 Champs League!

The Teams

*The Phenoms are this season’s defending Champions. They won last season’s Champions League Final 68 – 55½ against De Bruyne Trousers.

Two-time winners Gloopy Yarbles are back thanks to qualification as a Best-ish Reserve – scoring over 2,000 Fantasy Points but unfortunately finishing (just one league point) outside of the top three. The 2023 champions – Sporting Wicker Park – are also back in the mix, with the 2026 BFFA Cup Champions badge sewn onto their imaginary jerseys.

Previous Winners: Season 2: K.H. Granitza Sting FC Season 3: SB Town Baggers Season 4: Mighty fine feeling Season 5: All Star Gunners Season 6: Tralfamadore Zoo FC Season 7 – No Champions League competition

Season 8: Mighty fine feeling Season 9: Gloopy Yarbles Season 10: Sporting Wicker Park Season 11: Gloopy Yarbles Season 12: The Phenoms

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The Format

First Round:
Group Stage – four groups of four teams.
Every team plays each other in their group in a double round-robin.
The top two from each group go through.
(GW4) Match 1: A1 v A2, A3 v A4; B1 v B2, B3 v B4; C1 v C2, C3 v C4; D1 v D2, D3 v D4
(GW5) Match 2: A1 v A3, A2 v A4; B1 v B3, B2 v B4; C1 v C3, C2 v C4; D1 v D3, D2 v D4

[Double International Break]

(GW6) Match 3: A1 v A4, A2 v A3; B1 v B4, B2 v B3; C1 v C4, C2 v C3; D1 v D4, D2 v D3
(GW7) Match 4: A1 v A4, A2 v A3; B1 v B4, B2 v B3; C1 v C4, C2 v C3; D1 v D4, D2 v D3
(GW8) Match 5: A1 v A3, A2 v A4; B1 v B3, B2 v B4; C1 v C3, C2 v C4; D1 v D3, D2 v D4
(GW9) Match 6: A1 v A2, A3 v A4; B1 v B2, B3 v B4; C1 v C2, C3 v C4; D1 v D2, D3 v D4

[GW10: Champions League break]

Second Round:
Quarter-Finals – Two-legged ties. GW’s 11 & 12
QF1: Winners Group A vs. Runners-Up Group B
QF2: Winners Group B vs. Runners-Up Group A
QF3: Winners Group C vs. Runners-Up Group D
QF4: Winners Group D vs. Runners-Up Group C

[Gameweek 13 is a midweek gameweek.]

Third Round:
Semi-Finals – Two-legged ties, GW’s 14 & 15
Winners QF1 vs. Winners QF3
Winners QF2 vs. Winners QF4

The Final:
Gameweek 16
One match – the two Semi-Final winners.

Tiebreakers
Group deciders – The groups are, as always, ordered by League Points, then total matchpoints.
If two teams are tied on both, then they are broken by Goals Scored.
If that’s not enough then Head-to-Head results, then H2H matchpoints.
If that’s still not enough, we will go down to most Assists, Clean Sheets, fewest Red Cards, fewest Yellow Cards, fewest minutes. And if they’re still matched after that, then they’re probably clones and will be investigated by BeeFFA. We will do a “countback” – best score in the latest game, then best in the previous gameweek, then the one before that…

Knockout matches – ties are decided by Goals Scored, then Assists, then Clean Sheets, then fewest Reds, fewest Yellows, fewest minutes, countback, finally (and most undesirably) a replay (bleurgh!)

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The Draw

The EFL League Cup Draw takes place on Wednesday 27th August around 10:15 pm (UK).

The Champions League teams have been ordered by last season’s Bestish ranks (by total Season 12 matchpoints); the lower the number, the better they scored (therefore tougher, right?).
Ignoring the eight UEFA CL & EL teams, the balls numbered 9-24 drawn by the Carabao Cup panel will sort our teams into four groups of four. Unless less there’s a different numbering strategy. We will confirm tomorrow.

The first four teams drawn from those numbers will generate Group A, the next four will fill Group B, the third quartet – Group C and the final four go into Group D. You can decide for yourselves which Group constitutes the “Group of Death“!

The first team drawn will be “A1”. They will play “A2” (the second team out) in Gameweeks 4 & 9. The subsequent drawn numbers will be relisted as “A3”, then “A4”, “B1”, “B2”, etc.

Ball # (TBC Wed)	Team	S.12 Points	EFL Cup Team
9	Beedle’s Boys	2,249½	EFL Cup Team
10	Beyer Neverleusen	2,217½	EFL Cup Team
11	Housewives Favourite	2,216	EFL Cup Team
12	De Bruyne Trousers	2,155	EFL Cup Team
13	Preliminary Version	2,152½	EFL Cup Team
14	Barons FC	2,120½	EFL Cup Team
15	Whiskey De Bruyne	2,058½	EFL Cup Team
16	Gloopy Yarbles	2,054½	EFL Cup Team
17	Hung like a Bony	2,045	EFL Cup Team
18	The Phenoms *	2,040	EFL Cup Team
19	Sporting Wicker Park	2,030	EFL Cup Team
20	Smash & Grab	2,014½	EFL Cup Team
21	Wrockwardine Wood Wolves	2,002½	EFL Cup Team
22	FPL Daddy	1,989	EFL Cup Team
23	GoFysFC	1,983½	EFL Cup Team
24	Bigo1	1,848½	EFL Cup Team

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The Dates