Youth Cup and Shield Format for S22

62 63 teams entered this season. I’ve placed each team in one of four seeded pots for the draw, ranked in order of average team rating submitted by managers:

Pot 1
No.	Team	Rat	Grp
1	Genoa	87
2	Levante	86
3	Juventus	85
4	Barcelona	84
5	Hellas Verona	84
6	Leicester City	84
7	Cologne	83
8	Sporting	83
9	Benfica	83
10	Bayern	83

Pot 2
No.	Team	Rat	Grp
11	Dortmund	82
12	Hertha Berlin	82
13	Inter	82
14	Real Madrid	82
15	Aston Villa	81
16	Espanyol	81
17	Independiente	81
18	Montpellier	81
19	Schalke	81
20	Sampdoria	81

Pot 3
No.	Team	Rat	Grp
21	AC Milan	80
22	Arsenal	80
23	Athletic Club	80
24	Atletico Madrid	80
25	Chelsea	80
26	Club Brugge	80
27	FC TWENTE	80
28	Manchester City Academy	80
29	Olympique MARSEILLE	80
30	River Plate	80
31	Shakhtar Donetsk	80
32	Standard Liege	80
33	CSKA	79
34	Dynamo Moskva	79
35	Manchester United	79
36	PSG	79
37	Santos	79
38	São Paulo	79
39	Torino	79
40	Bordeaux	79

Pot 4
No.	Team	Rat	Grp
41	Atalanta	78
42	Besiktas	78
43	Dynamo Kyiv	78
44	Fc Basel	78
45	Hamburger	78
46	Leverkusen	78
47	Monchengladbach	78
48	Sevilla	78
49	West Bromwich Albion	78
50	Dinamo Zagreb	77
51	Flamengo	77
52	VfL Wolfsburg	77
53	AZ Alkmaar	77
54	Sassuolo	77
55	Augsburg	76
56	Tottenham	76
57	Villarreal	75
58	Celtic	74
59	Chievo Verona	74
60	Anderlecht	73
61	Fenerbache	72
62	LYON	71

EDIT: Last minute entry from Lazio in Pot 3, ave. rating 80. Lazio will be no. 63 in the draw.

The Draw

Each team will be drawn at random to play in one of nine groups in total:

• Eight Nine groups of seven teams
• One group of six teams

In each group there will be:

• no more than two teams from Pot 1 (in a group with two teams from Pot 1, there will be only one team from Pot 2)
• no more than two teams from Pot 2 (in a group with two teams from Pot 2, there will be only one team from Pot 1)
• no more than three teams from Pot 3
• no more than three teams from Pot 4

I hope to do a live draw Friday morning (tomorrow). Eeek!

Group Stage

Each team will play each other team in the group once, every Saturday from 10 February to 30 23 March. (or 23 March for the Group of Six).

Fixture schedule and results for the Group Stage will be posted on Challonge.com as usual (ignore the “Final Stage” on Challonge – I will set up a new tournament for the Knockout Stage).

Knockout Stages

The top three teams in each group will qualify for the knockout stage of the Youth Cup, along with the the five best fourth placed teams.

The remaining four fourth placed teams will drop into the Youth Shield knockout stage, along with all nine fifth placed teams and the three best sixth placed teams. They will be joined by the sixteen losers from the Youth Cup 1st Round.

The Knockout Stage will be every Saturday from 6 April with a one leg 1st Round in the Youth Cup. The 2nd Round to the Final on 25 May and 1 June will all be two legs.

The Youth Shield will be every Saturday from 13 April with one leg 1st and 2nd Rounds. The Quarter Finals to the Final on 25 May and 1 June will all be two legs.

Disputes

In the event of a dispute, my decision will be final, but, if possible, I will favour teams and managers who have not forfeited any games.