Youth Cup Rules

New Free Agent Prizes from S17

Winners of the Youth Cup, and Youth Shield, will each win exclusive rights to one new player added to the database as a free agent (new free agent) in the calendar month following the end of the season. Prizes for winners ended this season as some managers were bending the rules to gain an unfair advantage.

All non-final winning managers who made it through all the group stage and knockout games without forfeiting any matches (for fielding overage players or failing to organise a fixture) are entered into a draw to select one three manager “lucky bastards” as the winner of a ‘wild card’ prize to choose a new free agent player during the calendar month following the end of the season following season (see rules blow).

The new free agent prize winners, will take responsibility for monitoring bids and messaging managers to withdraw, as much as possible, and anyone who signs a player despite being notified to withdraw abide by this will incur a transfer ban.

Claimed players must be announced by the prize winners on the newsfeed by 10 am as early as possible on the day that the player is added. This is to avoid lots of other managers bidding and then having to login again to see messages that they must withdraw their bid – it avoids a lot of extra work.

Claimed players must be bid on the same day they are added. It is your responsibility to make sure you have room in your squad to sign the player.

In the event that the prize winners claim the same player, the Youth Cup winner will get priority followed by Youth Shield winner.

Any dispute will be settled by the Top 100 FA.

Eligibility of Players

Cut off date for eligibility of players will be posted on the newsfeed, FB, WhatsApp, and hopefully updated somewhere here.

The general idea is that as it’s a youth competition, players will be eligible to play if they are 21 years old or under at the start of the season. or thereabouts.

We usually choose the 1st of the nearest month to season start to make it easier to remember. So players who turn 22 on or after that date can still play.

S26 2 September 2025

S25 – 8 April 2025

S24 – 12 November 2024

S23 – 18 June 2024

(S22 – 23 January 2024)

(S21 – 29 August 2023)

(S20 – 4 April 2023)

(S19 – 8 November 2022)

(S18 – 18th June 2022)

(S17 – 18th January 2021)

[S16 – 1 September 2021]

[S15 – 1 April 2021]

[S14 – 1 November 2020]

[S13 – 1 June 2020]

[S11]All players must be 21 or under on 31st August 2019.

Any player who turns 22 on 1 September 2019 or after, therefore, is eligible to play.

Loans

No loans allowed at all.

You can loan players to or from other clubs as normal, either for the season, or just to play in Youth Cup/Shield/Spoon Group and Knockout stages.

Once the Group Stage is complete, no new loans are allowed.

Penalties for playing overage players

Managers are responsible for checking and reporting opponent’s teams for ineligible players. Any ineligible players must be reported to David Marsden by Private Message as soon as possible, and no later than 10 pm the following Monday.

If you play an overage player or players, you will automatically forfeit the game and a loss of 0-3 will be recorded against your team and a 3-0 win in favour of your opponent.

If both teams play ineligible players, the result will be recorded as a 0-0 draw, and no points for either team.

If you have Gold Membership, you can save your Youth Team and First Team, which makes team selection less of a headache.

Reminders to set teams may be posted on the in game newsfeed, and in the WhatsApp group, but at the end of the day it is down to individual managers to select their teams appropriately.

Penalties for failing to arrange fixtures

It is the responsibility of both home and away teams to arrange their fixtures.

Obviously, the home team has to send out a friendly request to the away team.

But the away team is expected to contact the home team to remind them or ask them to resend the invite if necessary, and to do so at least 24 hours before kick-off, so there is time to see the message and act on it.

Similarly, the home team should contact the away team to remind them to accept the invite, if necessary.

Group Admins will also endeavour to remind managers to send out or respond to invites, but ultimately, it is down to individual managers.

It is all part of managing a team in this Game World.

If you forget or otherwise fail to arrange your fixtures, you will automatically forfeit the game and a loss of 0-3 will be recorded against your team.

If your opponent also forgets or otherwise fails to contact you to remind you or ask you to resend or accept the invite at least 24 hours before kick-off, the result will be recorded as a 0-0 draw, with no points for either team.

If they can show that contacted you to remind you, etc., they will be awarded a 3-0 win.

Fictional Extra Time

In the knockout stage, if the scores are level at full-time (and over two legs, if the scores are level taking into account away goals advantage), Fictional Extra Time comes into play:

• One goal scored for the team with most possession.
• One goal scored for the team with the most shots on target.
• One goal scored for the team who scored first in normal time.

If scores are still level, team with most possession + shots on target gets one extra goal (see original FET rule: https://smtop100.blog/youth-cup-format-rules/youth-cup-knock-out/)