In order to keep it "fun," I think teams should be assigned on a random basis every WC.

Count me in on this idea.

With group and playoffs it would be six weeks to play.
The seasonbreak will be longer and Al will not get the break between seasons.

Maybe the WC could be played along the normal season instead?
That would mean players get injured when playing for the nation and cause more problem for leaguemanagers to consider.

I have not thought that throgh just what I thought when reading

Hi Christer,

I admit one area I didn't consider was time involved to complete. The competiton could certainly be run with mid-week matches (e.g. Tuesday), cutting the time in half. 

An idea/area I forgot to include is cards and injuries would not impact players outside the competiton. That would apply regardless of when the competition would be run. 

Hi Phil,

I agree randomized selection is the probably the best course.

Yes, happy to give it a go. 

I like the idea of this of course. the more MSWL type footy games the better! On a minor frivolous not I would though kicj out one of the other Euro teams and replace with Ukraine as a show of MSWL support for that country! Not sure how many Ukrainian players people have on their rosters though!

Disappointed to see Wales omitted from the country listings - more successful than Scotland or Ireland in recent tournaments.

We can certainly change some nations if that adds to the fun (and it seems it might).

So my 2 cents. I love this and think we should do it. I agree that the two weeks span in between seasons may be a lot and not give our hard working commish a break.  However, I am not a fan of doing this during  a session and have another game that we have to juggle players for during a normal session.  Could the WC take place of a session?

As far as teams go, I would be the first to claim Portugal, however I think Politics come to play (Ukraine vs Russia) and others Middle East countries for example.   So I say we take Fifa's Top 50 ranking and randomize teams with people.   So like Beer gets team number 7 in rankings, Rob gets team 12 in rankings etc, This way no one has a say and there is no politcal issue. 

The one issue I have with using the top 50 teams is having to create another 18 nations worth of names, and that doesn't include other nations that could vault into the top 50. I would really prefer to make 32 lists of first & last names, and keep those countries static. If there was ever a request to add a country, we could always review on a case by case basis.

Brian, is the idea to create 32 equal teams or to have some variation between them?  

If the latter, I think it would make it more interesting to give the best teams to the lowest ranked managers - so no.1 ranked team goes to no.32 ranked manager, no.2 to no.31 and so on till the no.32 ranked team goes to no.1 ranked manager.  

if the former, I seem to recall someone posting a while back that Phil always wins when everything is equal...

Christer makes a really good point about the time involved to run a whole competition - especially when half the managers will be out of the competition after the group stage.  

One option to address this is to change the format to have a second group stage rather than go straight to knockout. Earlier versions of the World Cup used to do this (1982 when England went out without losing a game was the last time, I think).

So, first group stage is as currently proposed (8 of 4 teams).  The second group stage is 4 of 4 teams (each comprising two first stage group winners and two runners up), with only the winners going through.  Then semis and final. If you did midweek as you suggested Brian, that would enable you to complete in a fortnight.

I think the WC would have to be played between seasons. I don't think it would be a problem for Al as such regarding breaks between seasons as he can do this whenever he wants anyway.

The problem I have is FIT. The group games can be played at the same time but the knockouts would be one game per week.

Having two group stages would make managing FIT a real challenge.

Might also be worth throwing in a random host nation that gets HA for each game - but perhaps with only 7 extra points.

Players would come from the current rosters it seems does that mean a manager could pick his own squad to run with his desired tactics ?

Going to answer questions as best as I can:

** I think it is best to run the competition during the off season. Mid week matches would reduce the time required to about two-and-a-half weeks. This is less than the typical off season for the league. Running the competition concurrently with a season could require a bit more work for managers, and that could reduce the overall enjoyment. I don't feel a concurrent Cup is a good idea.

** Cards and injuries would accumulate and apply to the competition only. They would not impact the players when the next season starts, i.e. players would start the league at the same levels they do now.

** Teams would be assigned at random before each Cup. This approach seems best for everyone and allows for more variety each Cup.

** Wales does have the most recent appearance (2022), but that's their only one. Ireland and Scotland both have several appearances, though none after 2002. We can certainly exhange one for Wales- if desired.

** It seems best overall to define the 32 nations and keep them static going forward. This will keep the manual work required to a minimum.

** Teams would consist of the top players for each nation at the time of the competition. As a result, each Cup would see different teams at different strengths (much like real life). 

** We need to determine the minimum and maximum roster sizes. If a squad is short of the minimum number of players, non-league players would be created to fill out the roster for that specific Cup. My suggestion is Age II/SL 9/Fit 1 for each NL player.

** Each manager would run their national team as they decide, just like we run our league teams now. There would be no requirements or limitations.

I don't know the algorithm used for deciding new players' nationalities but I think this might have to be altered.

On a sample of two teams I'd say half the players are English. Taking off Youth players we have about 20 players each for 32 teams. 320 English, 320 not.

For the WC we're going to need 16 each if FIT comes into effect. That's 512 needed.