The 'Real Champions League' Experiment

[joetheref]

I've decided to jump into the world of experiments . I have created a database where the English leagues have been changed into Champions Leagues. I have taken the champions of every playable country in FM09 and put them into the top leagues in England, then the 2nd placed teams and then the 3rd placed teams. The database has bought up some interesting questions: How long will the 3rd placed teams (Arsenal, Barca and Juventus) take to get out of the BSP and into the Premiership? Will the weaker Premiership teams (such as Rubin from Russia) be able to compete with Man U, Inter and Real Madrid? The English teams are now spread out in leagues throughout the world, will this affect European comps? Will champions from the smaller countries benefit from the money the English league comes with? Will the teams placed lower down in the divisions (Chelsea, Roma, Juventus, Barcelona) lose all their players to their respective national champions?

I'm sure there are lots more questions that need answering, feel free to post them and I will do my best to answer them throughout the experiment. Now for the bit you've been waiting for, the screenshots

Premiership
Championship
League 1
League 2
Conference

I will start the game tomorrow, I will try and do a bit every day, I will do a monthly report with screenshots at the end of each season. Feel free to make predictions, and keep posting

[MeLikeFM]

good idea i will try to follow this

[5ergio]

Should be an interesting experiment to follow through. GL mate I'm more inclined to see the possible transfers of lower league clubs.

[blowcrapup]

Looking forward to it

[BenArsenal]

Haha. I see SAFFC in the same league as Chelsea.

They're gonna get whipped.

[Almondo]

Good luck with this. will keep an eye on it

[spartans5]

Did you adjust the reputations of these leagues?

[rancer890]

Houston Dynamo in the EPL.

The only time Houston will be ahead of Inter, Man U, and Real Madrid is at the start.

Nice to see the Asian clubs getting some love as well. Good luck.

[james-99]

good idea, but think u've put to many league into one if you get what i mean, you should of put the best 20 in the premiership all 1sts then all the 2nds in the championship and so on, as most of those leagues are a very poor standard compared to the top 5 leagues in europe.

[AdzH]

Did you adjust the reputations of these leagues?

I Agree with Spartan, I hope reputations of said leagues was adjusted accordingly or it will adversley affect this experiment. I would suggest with this world super league you have created to not have such a huge reputation differential between the 1st and 4th leagues otherwise you will just have all the good players transfering upwards.

Ideally (and in theory) you want the teams to stay pretty stable, althrough flucuation will occur (wage demands/budgets vs money made in respective league).

I'm interested how this will pan out and what dark horses will emerge from the lesser known/renowned leagues.

Looking foward to the first update.

[joetheref]

good idea, but think u've put to many league into one if you get what i mean, you should of put the best 20 in the premiership all 1sts then all the 2nds in the championship and so on, as most of those leagues are a very poor standard compared to the top 5 leagues in europe.

I decided to put all the leagues I did as I wanted to include as many champions as possible. I have left the reputations as they are, which admittedly probably isn't the best idea but I thought it would be interesting to see how the big teams cope in a smaller rep league, I also wanted to see if because of the smaller reps the players like Messi and Fabregas, who are now playing in the conference, decide to jump ship.
First update tonight. I will be doing an update every month in game so there may be 2 or 3 a day depending how much free time I have.

[AdzH]

I decided to put all the leagues I did as I wanted to include as many champions as possible. I have left the reputations as they are, which admittedly probably isn't the best idea but I thought it would be interesting to see how the big teams cope in a smaller rep league, I also wanted to see if because of the smaller reps the players like Messi and Fabregas, who are now playing in the conference, decide to jump ship.
First update tonight. I will be doing an update every month in game so there may be 2 or 3 a day depending how much free time I have.

Fair enough, looking foward to the first season report.

[joetheref]

August 2008:
The season has begun with a few teams getting off to a good start and some pretty interesting transfers.

Transfers:
The biggest transfer of the first window was Jeremy Toulalan leaving Lyon for Real Madrid for a fee of £20.5m. Roma (who are in League 1) sold 6 players: Phillipe Mexes moved to Shakhtar, Matteo Brighi went to Athletico Madrid (who aren't in the League), Alberto Aquilani moved to Bayern, David Pizarro went to Lyon, Marco Casseti transferred to Udinese and Simone Perotta went to Palermo. Other interesting trasnfers include Distin moving from Portsmouth to Celtic for £3.6m and Jon Obi Mikel leaving League 1 Chelsea for Premiership side Shakhtar for £9.6m. However the big surprise in the transfer window was teenage star Bojan leaving Conference side Barcelona for Udinese for just £2.9m!

Europe:
Plenty of former English teams have taken advantage of the best teams from most countries now playing in England. 8 teams that are English in real life are in the Champions League group stage including Southampton :s There are also plenty of teams in the UEFA Cup including (amongst others) QPR and Bristol City. The European Super Cup was won by Manchester United, as a Dimitar Berbatov goal sealed a 1-0 win against Zenit

Community Shield:
The Community Shield was still contested between Man United and Portsmouth despite Portsmouth now being in the S.Korean League. United won 2-0 thanks to a brace from Carlos Tevez

Premiership:
Bayern and Porto lead the way in the Premiership with 7 points from 3 games, however Manchester United have a game in hand and have won their first 2 games. River Plate and CFR Cluj are yet to get off the mark. Basel, Houston and Atlante are also yet to win

Championship:
Partizan Belgrade are top in the Championship with 4 wins from 4, they are closely follwed by Rapid Wien, Defensor Sporting, Universidad San Martin, Dinamo and Pohang all on 9 points. The teams from N.Ireland and the Republic are struggling with Linfield and Bohemians yet to score any points.

League 1:
Dinamo Kiev and Fenerbahce are top here, also with 4 wins from 4. The playoff places are filled by Bordeaux, Chelsea, Villareal and Sporting. Rangers are the surprise underperformers with 0 points, also without a win are South China, Llanelli, Kedah and SAFFC.

League 2:
M.Netanya have a 100% win record and they are closely followed by Legia, Penarol, Slaven Belupo and Red Star who are all unbeaten. Young Boys and St. Pat's Athletic are in the relegation places.

Conference:
Estudiantes and Arsenal lead the way here with 6 wins from 6. Juventus are 2 points behind. Barcelona sit just outside the playoffs. Citizen, N.Sembilan, TNS and Super Reds are in the relegation zone.

League Cup:
A few suprises here with 4 League 2 sides making it through to the 3rd Round: Penarol, Red Star, Kalmar FF and Colo Colo. There were also some Prem teams going out: Houston, Rubin, Celtic, Standard and Basel.

Next update will be tomorrow I will happily answer any questions on the game before the footy starts tonight

[WestHamJosh]

Good update It was funny to see Bojan leaving for such a cheap price, quite shocked about it but then again lower league clubs always sell low on fm. Shakhtar suprisingly spent a bit and the Toulalan deal always happens in my games so not really a suprise there. Rangers no points crazy.

KUTGW Joey. Maybe don't do updates as fast, maybe each window then the gaps in between. Depends on how you feel on it though, will be easier for you.

[joetheref]

Good update It was funny to see Bojan leaving for such a cheap price, quite shocked about it but then again lower league clubs always sell low on fm. Shakhtar suprisingly spent a bit and the Toulalan deal always happens in my games so not really a suprise there. Rangers no points crazy.

KUTGW Joey. Maybe don't do updates as fast, maybe each window then the gaps in between. Depends on how you feel on it though, will be easier for you.

I may well decide to do updates before and after every transfer window with maybe a couple more as it gets nearer the end of the season, what does everyone else think?

[AdzH]

This is but a tease! Won't be interesting until at least mid-season (january).

you certainly know how to keep an audience in suspense!

[joetheref]

I will probably wait until December before another update than do one after the transfer window.

[5ergio]

Better to do an update after each transfer window & at the end of season when all promoted & relegated teams are sealed. Interesting start with the experiment btw Gosh, how I'd like to buy Bojan for £2.9M

[joetheref]

Todays update is going to leave you even more suspense as I'm going to stop just before the transfer window . This is your chance to find out which teams need to bring in players ahead of the window and how the leagues are shaping up as we reach the halfway mark of the season. The teams that have qualified for the knockout stages of the European competitions and the last 4 teams left in the League Cup are decided. Update soon

[Almondo]

Likin this joe. updates are good to be after the transfer windows as you can sumarise everything there and maybe even post screenies of the tables etc.

Oh how i'd love bojan at 2.9 mil

[AdzH]

would be funny if Bojan Flops!

On that note, could you report back on any "big stars" who are having a particularly bad season in the lower eschalons? and prehaps any major injuries?

[joetheref]

December 2008
One big bit of news was that Javier Aguirre was bought in as Juventus manager after Claudio Ranieri was sacked in mid-December.
I've just spent about an hour writing this update but Firefox crashed on me and I don't really have enough time to write it all out again, so I'm just gonna post screenshots of the League tables with news on the European competitions and the League Cup Quarter Finals.

Europe:
Real Madrid were sent crashing out of the Champions League after finishing 3rd in their group behind Benfica and Lazio. There are some interesting ties including Liverpool v Inter and Valencia v Man Utd. In the UEFA Cup, both representatives of the Real Champions League went through, with Lyon facing holders Zenit in the first knockout round and Sao Paulo facing another Russian team, FC Moscow.

Leagues:
Premiership
Championship
League 1
League 2
Conference

League Cup:
The quarter finals of the League Cup produced some interesting ties. Rangers are the only non Premiership side in the semi finals after defeating Roma on penalties. Real Madrid won a hotly contested tie against Inter thanks to a Raul goal in extra time. Miroslav Klose secured a win for Bayern against Chelsea at the Bridge. In the final quarter final a red card for Jon Obi Mikel proved costly for Shakhtar as they were defeated 2-1 by CFR Cluj.

Sorry its not very in depth but I've got exam revision to do and you will have to trust me when I say the original update I was going to do was very long and therefore I don't have time to write it out again. I will be on a bit later so I will answer any questions you have then.

Tomorrow- the January Transfer Window

[BenArsenal]

SAFFC are outside of the relegation zone.

[rancer890]

Houston are in last in Premiership...

[joetheref]

January 2009:
The January transfer window has been completed with a few interesting moves for various clubs.

Transfers:
There was a huge money move for Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry who has been signed by Shakhtar for a huge £17.5m. The Ukrainians were one of the biggest spenders in the window also signing Andrey Arshavin from Arsenal for £14.5m and Nigerian defender Joseph Yobo for £10.25m. Conference side Arsenal have sold Ivorian Emmanuel Eboue for £4.1m to Atletico Madrid, the Gunners also sold Robin van Persie to Premiership side Lyon for £9m. Lyon have also bought 3 other big names: Seydou Keita, Fabricio Coloccini and Gabriel Milito for a combined fee of £36m. The 2 biggest money moves of the window were players leaving Juventus. Amauri moved to Manchester United for £18.75m and Giorgio Chiellini moved to Real Madrid for a whopping £21m. One of the suprise moves of the summer window was Spanish wonderkid Bojan to Udinese, he is now co-owned by AC Milan who paid £7.75m for the privilege. He has got 4 goals in 12 appearances for Udinese and has an average rating of 7.31. Phil Jagielka has left Goodison Park to move to Celtic for £7.75m. The Glaswegian side also bought Benoit Cheyrou from Marseille for £5.75m and Hugo Almeida from Werder Bremen for £3.7m. With a few players moving to Glasgow, there was also one leaving but the player in question, Barry Ferguson, left Ibrox for Argentinian side Boca for £2.9m. And last but not least forme Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre left London side Arsenal for Greek side Olympiakos at just £2.2m

Managers:
A couple of English managerial legends have made their returns to the dugout. Terry Venables joined Conference side Rapid Bucharest an Geordie hero Kevin Keegan joined Club Brugge who sit 10th in the Conference.

League Cup:
The League Cup semi finals were completed during January. The first semi final was between Bayern and Rangers with the first leg at the Allianz-Arena. Bayern took a commanding lead to Ibrox thanks to a goal from Luca Toni and 2 from Miroslav Klose. Italian striker Toni scored in the 35th minute of the 2nd leg leaving Rangers 4-0 down on aggregate. They could only get 1 goal back from Nacho Novo as Bayern went through to Wembley with the aggregate score at 4-1.

The second semi was between Real Madrid and Romanian champions CFR Cluj. Real took advantage of a first leg at the Bernabeu thanks to a goaleach from Gonzalo Higuain and Wesley Sneijder. Cluj went into the 2nd leg 2-0 down and they looked like coming back as Yssouf Kone scored in the 1st minute but Emmanuel Culio was sent off just 16 minutes later to leave the Spaniards in a comfortable position. A Sneijder penalty and a late goal from Gabriel Heinze gave Real a 4-1 victory.

Both semi finals finished 4-1 on aggregate and it's Bayern and Real Madrid who will battle it out at Wembley.

Other Cups:
The Johnstone's Paint Trophy is reaching its final stages. The North Final is between Bordeaux and Werder Bremen with the first leg finishing 1-1. The South Final is between Boca and Villareal, this match is also intriguingly poised with the score at 2-2 after the first leg.

The Conference League Cup has reached the semi final stage. Juventus, AEK, Club Brugge and Zurich made it through, with the latter sending Arsenal crashing out after extra time.

There are no major changes in the League so I will do an update on those tomorrow as the end of the season draws closer. I will give you 1 snippet of information just for BenArsenal, SAFFC have fallen into the relegation zone.

[BenArsenal]

Bummer.

[brambleten]

nice update. Arsenal must have a bit of money now, selling all those players. wonder how much goes to cover wages and how much goes into other players

[joetheref]

March 2009:
Another couple of months have passed in the world of FM09 and the leagues are starting to come to a fascinating climax. The final stages of the cup competitions are also coming to an end, with the League Cup already completed, see below for a report on the final.

Managers:
Manager Louis van Gaal wasn't getting much love from the PSV board after some poor performances and he was sacked on Valentines Day. He was replaced by Villareal manager Manuel Pellegrini. The Spainards then appointed Pelegrini's predecessor at PSV, van Gaal, as their new manager. Former England international David Platt took charge at Shanghai Shenhua while Bryan Robson became manager at Seongnam. Finally Marseille sacked their manager Eric Gerets and replaced him with Roland Nilsson from Sweden.

Europe:
A big shock in the Champions League knockout round as Manchester United were defeated by Valencia on away goals. Another representative of the Premiership, Inter Milan, were knocked out by Liverpool. The quarter final ties are set with the remaining Premiership team Porto facing Lazio. In the UEFA Cup there are 3 teams from the RCL in the last 8 as Lyon defeated FC Twente, Sao Paulo knocked out Feyenoord and Real Madrid thrashed Dinamo Bucharest 7-0 on aggregate. Real Madrid face a tough quarter final against PSG while Lyon and Sao Paulo face each other to ensure at least 1 RCL team will make it through to the semi finals.

Premiership:
There are 9 games left in the Prmiership season with Real Madrid and Bayern level on 69 points at the top with Manchester United in 3rd on 61 points. Inter may still have a chance on 56 points but they have to beware of Sao Paulo stealing their top 4 place with the Brazilian side in 5th on 50 points. The battle for survival could go down to the wire. American side Houston look likely to be relegated as they sit bottom with 16 points. Slavia Prague face an uphill struggle, they're 19th on 20 points. Basel fill the remaining relegation spot on 25 points, just 1 point behind CFR Cluj who are on 26 points. Also in with a chance of going down are River on 27 points, Atlante on 28 points and PSV on 31 points.

Championship:
Dinamo Zagreb are 14 points clear at the top of the Championship with 7 games to go. The Croatians have already sealed a playoff spot but they look more than likely to grab the title. B.Jerusalem are the team in 2nd, and they're closely followed by Pohang who are 4 points behind on 73. Wisla lie in 4th place on 72 points and Aab in 5th with 68 points. There promises to be an interesting fight for the remaining playoff spot with Rapid Wien, Partizan and BATE on 65 points with Stabaek 1 point behind. At the bottom of the table, Linfield are already relegated with just 9 points. Valur and Bohemians also look like going down on 28 and 29 points respectively. Everton from Chile are just above the bottom 3 on 35 points with Central Coast Mariners on 39.

League 1:
With 7 games to go for the majority of teams in League 1 the fight for promotion is far from settled. Villareal, now under the management of Louis van Gaal, are top with 88, they're followed by Roma on 82 with Chelsea just outside the promotion places on 79 points but the Blues have a game in hand. Bordeaux (on 76 points), Roma (on 75) and Ajax (on 74) fill up the rest of the playoff places. CSKA Moscow, Werder Bremen and Panathinaikos all have a realistic chance of taking a playoff spot. It looks like 4 from 5 teams that are going to be relegated. Welsh side Llanelli have been out of their depth this season and are bottom with 8 points and have only scored 10 goals this season. Kedah and South China also look likely to go down, they're on 11 and 12 points. There will be a good fight for the last survival spot however, Dempo are currently 21st but they are 1 point behind SAFFC with a game in hand.

League 2:
Sparta Prague are top of League 2, they're 3 points ahead of 2nd place M.Netanya who are 3 points ahead of 3rd place Salzburg. The playoff places are filled by Colo Colo, Fredrikstad, Red Star and Penarol. Levski are 1 point behind Red Star and Penarol with Kalmar FF 2 points behind the Bulgarians. St. Pat's Athletic are all but down and they have to win each of their last 7 games and they need Newcastle Jets to lose their last 6 games to stay up. Koper are 11 points from survival with the Jets the only team that can ,realistically, be dragged down into a relegation dogfight.

Conference:
Arsenal have reached triple figures at the top of the table, they;re 12 points ahead of Juventus who are on 88 points. Barcelona are on 83 but with 2 games in hand on Juve. Schalke, Marseille, AEK and Flamengo are in the fight for the last 2 playoff spots and Estudiantes have an outside chance of making the top 5. TNS, Citizen, Super Reds and N.Sembilan are in the relegation zone. Churchill Bros look safe but complacency could see them drop into the bottom 4.

FA Cup:
The FA Cup has reached the semi final stage and there were some interesting quarter finals. Inter faced a tough trip to Belgium to play Anderlecht. The Italians went in front after just 8 minutes thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic but Maxwell was sent off just a minute later giving Anderlecht a way back into the game. However they failed to take advantage and the home team themselves had a player sent off as Nicolas Frutos was shown the red card after 55 minutes. Goals from Dimitar Berbatov and Park Ji-Sung saw Manchester United through with a 2-0 win against Stabaek. A London derby between Chelsea and Arsenal was a hotly contested affair. The tie was settled by a solitary Saloman Kalou goal as Chelsea went through 1-0. Real Madrid cruised through the final quarter final thanks to a 4-0 win over Sao Paulo. Real looked to be at a disadvantage as Fernando Gago was sent off early on. However Klass-Jan Huntelaar gave the Spaniards the lead. Sao Paulo's man advantage was wiped out in the 36th minute as Andre Dias received his marching orders. 2 goals from Gonzalo Higuain and 1 from Gabriel Heinze sealed the win in the 2nd half.

League Cup:
The League Cup came to a climax in front of 90,000 people at Wembley as Real Madrid and Bayern battled it out for the trophy. The game itself was a bit of an anti-climax with neither team showing the attacking prowess they are well known for. The game finished 1-0 to Real Madrid with Wesley Sneijder scoring in the 59th minute.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy:
The 2nd leg of the area finals were settled in February. In the North Final, Bordeaux were facing Werder Bremen with the score at 1-1 after the first leg in France. The German side were favourites as they had home advantage in the 2nd leg but they failed to take advantage as a goal from Marouane Chamakh gave Bordeaux a 2-1 aggregate win. The South Final was between Villareal and Boca with the score at 2-2. The 2nd leg was in Argentina but it was the Spaniards who took the lead early on thanks to a 2nd minute goal from Marcos Senna. Giuseppe Rossi doubled Villareal's advantage in the 11th minute. Boca waited until the 2nd half to get on the scoresheet. Luciano Figueroa scored for the home team but Villareal's 2 goal cushion was restored 4 minutes later as Marcos Senna scored his 2nd goal. A minute later Boca scored another goal thanks to Rodrigo Palacio's cool finish but there were no more goals and Villareal went through 5-4 on aggregate.

Conference League Cup:
The Conference League Cup final was between Club Brugge and Juventus. Juventus were the clear favourites and they lived up to expectations as Ciro Immobile scored in the 9th minute. The Belgians had Jonathan Blondel sent off 18 minutes from time to destroy any chance of a comeback.

FA Trophy:
The FA Trophy final will be contested between 2 giants of European football. Juventus have a chance of winning a 2nd trophy after they knocked Flamengo out 3-2 on aggregate in the semi final. Barcelona are their opponents, they beat FC Kobenhavn 5-2 on aggregate.

So, not long left this season as teams battle it out for promotion, the playoffs, relegation and of course various trophies. I will be completing the season over the weekend so look out for it.

[brambleten]

nice update, KUTGW

[the--dud]

I'm honestly dead surprised by Sao Paolo doing so well... Interesting...
Keep up the good work by the way

[BenArsenal]

SAFFC out of the relegation zone again.

Squeaky bum time...

[~Ian~]

A little bit surprising to see Bayern still going so strongly at the top. Obviously they're a huge side, but nine times out of ten you wouldn't expect them to be leading the way ahead of the English, Spanish or Italian sides. I wouldn't have expected to see River Plate struggling near the bottom either, below Swiss and Belgian sides.

With south-east Asian football not being the most renowned in the world, must be considered a bit of a shock for Ponang to be going so well in the Championship.

No surprises for which teams are at the top of League 1 and the Conference.

Looking forward to the conclusion of the season, KUTGW

Though I can't say that the European competitions interest me, with the big teams now playing each other in league encounters and next season being full of exiled English sides.

[BenArsenal]

Pohang is from the K-League, which is actually of some standard.

[rafney87]

can i see a screenshot of n. sembilan? thanks

[joetheref]

Do you mean the squad or where they are in the league

[joetheref]

May 2009:
The end of the season has come and all the promotion and relegation battles have been decided. Here are the important finishing positions and the cup finals

Europe:
The Champions League Final didn't have any representatives of the RCL as Lazio and Liverpool battled it out in Rome. Lazio cruised to a 3-0 win thanks to Mauro Zarate, Goran Pandev and Christian Brocchi who all scored in the first 25 minutes and Liverpool failed to make an Istanbul-esque comeback. In the UEFA Cup it was an all RCL final as Real Madrid faced Sao Paulo. 2 goals from Klass-Jan Huntelaar in the 67th and 88th minutes gave Madrid a 2-0 win.

Premiership:
There wasn't a league title going to the Bernabeu however. A 2-2 draw against Celtic for Real Madrid on the penultimate day of the season handed the title to Bayern Munich, a suprise winner when you consider Manchester United and Inter were also in the hunt. Bayern, Real, Man United and Inter all qualified for the Champions League as the top 4. Lyon managed to beat Sao Paulo to 5th with the Brazilians coming in 6th to guarantee their UEFA Cup places. Galatasary also qualified for the UEFA Cup because the winners of both domestic cups had already qualified for Europe

Championship:
Dinamo Zagreb won the Championship with 102 points, 15 clear of 2nd placed Wisla who also secure promotion. Aab won the playoffs despite finishing 6th, they beat B.Jerusalem 3-1 in the final. Korean side Pohang finished 3rd but they failed to perform in the playoffs, Rapid Wien also going out in the semi finals. Linfield, Bohemians and Valur are the 3 teams who go down to League 1.

League 1:
The League 1 title race went right down to the wire with Roma and Villareal on 100 points and Chelsea on 97 points going into the last game of the season. All 3 teams won with Roma taking the title on goal difference ahead of Villareal who came 2nd. Chelsea weren't disappointed however as they won the playoffs thanks to a 3-1 victory over CSKA Moscow after extra time. Poor performances from Dempo saw them join South China, Kedah and Llanelli in League 2 next season with SAFFC lucky to survive.

League 2:
Sparta Prague secured the title with a couple of games to go but the remaining promotion spots weren't sealed until the end of the last day of the season. 2nd placed M.Netanya played 3rd place Salzburg with Colo Colo lurking in 4th with a much easier match. Slazburg secured promotion with a win over M.Netanya, and despite losing Netanya had a 4 point cushion over Colo Colo who had to settle for the playoffs. Colo Colo easily won the playoffs though with a 2-0 win over Penarol in the final in a match they dominated.

Conference:
Arsenal cruised to the Conference title with 119 points ahead of Barcelona, Juventus, Flamengo and Schalke who qualified for the playoffs. No suprises in the playoffs as Barcelona faced Juventus in the final and it was Juventus who won promotion with a 1-0 win thanks to a goal from Mauro Camoranesi

FA Cup:
Manchester United were up against Real Madrid in the final with Real Madrid looking to add to their UEFA Cup and League Cup trophies. Real Madrid totally dominated the match and goals from Arjen Robben and Raul helped them to victory with the final score 2-0.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy:
The Johnstone's Paint Trophy final between Bordeaux and Villareal was played out in front of a nearly full Wembley (just 10 empty seats) and it proved to be a tense affair. Yoann Gouffrann gave Bordeaux the lead on the stroke of half time and Villarreal didn't equalise until the stroke of full time thanks to Giuseppe Rossi. The Italian's equaliser took the game to extra time but the extra 30 minutes failed to produce any goals so the match went to penalties. The Villarreal players crumbled under the pressure with Fernandez, Pires and Llorente all missing. Chamakh,Wendel and Charme scored for Bordeaux to win it 3-0 after 3 kicks each.

FA Trophy:
The FA Trophy final was between Barcelona and Juventus and this match proved to be an almost perfect dress rehearsal for the Conference playoff final. Juventus again won 1-0 but this time the goal came late on and the scorer was David Trezeguet. Barcelona also had two players sent off in this game: Yaya Toure and Eric Abidal.

Awards:
Footballer of the Year: Luca Toni (Bayern)
Player's Player of the Year: Maxwell (Inter)
Player's Young Player of the Year: Karim Benzema (Lyon)
World Footballer of the Year: Carlos Tevez (Manchester United)
World Player of the Year: Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan)
European Footballer of the Year: Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan)
European Goalkeeper of the Year: Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United)
European Defender of the Year: Maxwell (Inter)
European Midfielder of the Year: Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan)
European Striker of the Year: Carlos Tevez (Manchester United)

Screenshots:
Premiership
Championship
League 1
League 2
Conference

[AB-forever]

Yay AaB in the Premiership

[brambleten]

which English clubs have found their way into the conference?

[brambleten]

which English clubs have found their way into the conference?

[BenArsenal]

SAFFC survived League One.

[joetheref]

I haven't holidayed far enough to see which teams have been promoted and I have an exam tomorrow so I won't be doing any tonight but tomorrow night there should be an update

[joetheref]

I haven't got much time to do a big update as I am going to be busy for most of tonight so I'm going to make it quick and all you're going to get to know is which teams have made it into the Conference for the next season. Have same obscure English teams made it up despite having to face the likes of FC Kobenhavn. FC Kobenhavn are 1 of the teams promoted, they join Austria Wien, Vojvodina and Lokomotiv Sofia in the Conference. Sorry for the short update but there will be a longer one tomorrow

[joetheref]

August 2009:
The 2nd season of the experiment is underway. Here is an update on all the transfer dealings plus the result of the Community Shield.

Transfers:
Portsmouth's Peter Crouch has moved to Rubin for £4.4m for his first foray into the RCL. This was definitely not the biggest transfer of the window though. That accolade went to Vagner Love who left CSKA Moscow for Real Madrid for £25.5m. Real Madrid splashed a lot more cash in the window. They also signed Ibrahim Afellay (£17.25m), Juan Manuel Mata (£14.5m) and Carlos Cuellar (£14.25m). Luka Modric returned to Eastern Europe, leaving Tottenham for Shakhtar who paid £19.5m. Despite promotion to League 2 Arsenal let go of some players. Bakary Sagna was the biggest move, he went to Sao Paulo for £18.75m. Gael Clichy went to Lyon for £9.25m, AC Milan signed Phillipe Senderos on a permanent deal for £6m, Nicklas Bendtner was able to secure (unlike his trousers ) a move to Celtic for £6.75m and finally Johan Djourou went to Galatasary for £4m. Lyon signed Mohammed Sissoko from Juventus for £13.75m, Didier Drogba and Deco have left Chelsea for Sao Paulo at a cost of £18m. The Brazilian side also signed Fernandinho from Shakhtar. Manchester United signed Aliaksander Hleb and Nihat while Adriano left Inter for Valencia. Inter used the money to sign Maxi Rodriguez for £16m. Gokhan Inler moved to Inter from Udinese, Giovanni dos Santos joined Drogba and Deco at Sao Paulo and finally Joey Barton has proved too much for Roma and hes been sold to PSV, who have also signed Thierry Henry for just £1.9m, after just 1 season in Italy.

Community Shield:
Real Madrid romped to a 3-0 victory over Premiership champions Bayern. New signing Vagner Love was joined on the scoresheet by Raul and Wesley Sneijder.

[the--dud]

How much money does Sao Paulo actually have? Looks like they've signed half the world and his brother! Amazing signings as well, I'll tip them to win next season...

[joetheref]

Due to my exams starting there will probably be very few updates over the next few weeks, I will try and get going again after my exams but at the moment I just don't have the time

[rafney87]

Do you mean the squad or where they are in the league

can i see both?