We still need to sort out rules for the prediction league. Here's my idea, see what you think:
We pick 5 games a week from the following competitions: the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Champions League. I'd say it can be any of the games, except in the FA Cup where there should be at least one Premiership team involved, because how many of us think we can actually predict Barnsley - Scunthorpe? And a week is defined as Saturday - Friday. If there are less than 5 games that week (unlikely), we choose as many as possible. I think that, however many of these competitions are going that week, we should have at least one game from each. Don't have 5 Premiership games if there are CL and FA Cup matches going on too.
I reckon we should just pick someone to choose the games each week, we're pretty democratic here, I can't imagine there'll be any arguments. If you wanna do it, and so long as you haven't done it in, say, the last 3 rounds, then you can. Priority though goes to the person who says they want to do it, and hasn't done it for longest. You can pick unusual games, like Birmingham - Derby, but if there's an obvious game like Man Utd - Chelsea in there, don't delibrately skip it, people will want to be predicting those games the most.
Now I don't think you should have to get all 5 predictions in at once, before a Saturday say. Say there's a CL match between Barcelona and Chelsea on the Wednesday, only on the Saturday Terry, Drogba and Cech are injured. That might well change your thoughts on the game, so I reckon so long as you get your prediction in before kick off, you can even wait until teams are announced but it HAS to be in before the whistle blows to start the game, it's fine.
Now as for what we predict, I think just the scores, nothing like the goalscorers. So for example I'll say Arsenal will beat Chelsea 2-1 (sucking up to the forum)...if I'm right that Arsenal beat Chelsea I get 1 point, if I get the score right (which is obviously harder), I get a further point for a total of 2. So each week, the maximum anyone can get is 10 points, though it's really unlikely anyone will.
When it comes to games played over 2 legs, the prediction isn't who will go through, just the score that night. So let's say it's the second leg of Lyon - Bremen. Lyon have won the first leg 3-1, but Bremen win 1-0 on the night. Now the people who predicted a Bremen win there get a point, it's not about who goes through. Also, if it goes to penalties, I think we should just count the score at the end of extra time.
Obviously we can't force people to keep up with their predictions, but if you don't predict in time, you don't get points. So if you know you're going somewhere without internet access for a week, get the predictions in as soon as we come up with them.
That's another thing, whoever's picking the games that week should get them in by the Wednesday before the Saturday. So if the week runs August 11th - 17th, the games should be in by the 8th.
I think we can change our predictions right up until the game. So if you're not sure if you'll be able to get online just before a game, make a prediction earlier in the week and if you don't make it, that'll count. If you do, and you want to change it based on a team lineup say, you can do.
Finally, I guess I think if there's enough of an outcry at a game being missing (like the Man Utd - Chelsea one I said earlier) that week, I reckon we can put it in to replace another. Not if it's just say the Arsenal fans wanting Arsenal - Man City though and no one else really caring, it has to be clear that people generally want to predict that game in particular.
Thoughts? I'll write it up more coherently if people like it.
Although Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs and Scholes do pretty well .... I wonder which team has the most marketable squad in the world?