Welcome to the SFTLA Rules & Regulations page for the PC league 2007.

By playing in the S.F.T.L.A. PC Leagues, you adhere to the following rules below. The rules must be followed to the letter, and can't be overlooked in any way.

Rule 1: Team Management
Each member selects a team from FIFA 2007. Once selected you play and manage that team right through the season without fail. For this league to work everyone taking part has to be keen, reliable and in contact at all times for the league to run smoothly. In this season there are 20 teams, 19 league games and one Knock-Out cup competition.

Rule 2: Promotion / Relegation & Cups
Each team in this division plays everyone else once (home team on left-hand side of fixtures), depending on connection.

1. Promotion into League 1 is: Top 10.
2. Relegation into League 2 is: 11th and below positions.
   

League Knock-Out Cup: All 20 teams enter. First round, 12 teams will get a bye (via top 12 highest position in the SFTLA Ladder), the remaining 8 teams will go in a random draw. This will give us the last 16 and random live draws will take place to determine who plays who.

Rule 3: Arranging & Unplayed Fixtures
There are 2 fixtures per week. Players have 1 week (from midnight Monday to midnight Sunday) to complete both fixtures. They should contact their opponent with a copy of the email to the N.F.A. here. If not, the fixture will go down as a void fixture. If for any reason you cannot play your fixture e.g. holidays, work, pc probs, etc, and you notify your opponent and the League Manager, the fixture will be postponed (P-P) and be played at a later date. The team(s) failing to play a fixture will be deducted points, calculated thus:

1. The team who fails to play their fixture gets deducted 3pts, with a 2-0 loss for that game and the following fixture. They also receive 1 strike against them (see Rule 14).
2. The opposing team is given 3pts, with a 2-0 win.
3. If both teams can’t comply to the fixture, both teams get deducted pts .They both receive 1 strike against them (see Rule 14).
4. S.F.T.L.A. will decide which team is at fault, and the verdict is final.

Nb: All players must be on MSN Messenger so they can contact each other to arrange to play their match or email your opponent and arrange a time and date to play. All players’ email addresses will be on the site so there is no excuse not to contact each other. Any changes to your main email address or MSN ID, please notify S.F.T.L.A.
Please note all fixtures have to be played in order. Do not play games ahead, unless your going to miss that week and have holidays, work commitments, etc and you notify the NFA and your opponent before playing the future fixture.

Rule 4: Connection Issues
There will be connections problems no doubt and will have to be as fair as possible. Remove unnecessary programs and processes before playing (see Rule 13).

To help and possibly cut out disconnections it's a must we all do the following:- We all reset squads before we connect to people via direct ip, as everytime you minimise fifa it seems to counteract it. Also its advised not to make any changes formations/subs during the first half period of play. When the half-time whistle goes, also leave your pad buttons alone and let fifa score go through the motions itself.

If during the game it goes out of sync or freezes:

1. During the first 10mins, regardless of the score, you start again at 0-0;
2. Anytime after 10mins, whatever time was left when it went out of sync you replay the game but only the remaining time which was left (for example it froze on 60mins and was 4-3 you reconnect and play only 30mins of the first half at 4-3. Make sure when you reconnect, you both agree on the time to be played and what the current score is.
   
   n.b. You can decide between yourselves if you disconnect in the 2nd half, to keep it fair and play in the same direction and have the right player kicking off. When you reconnect play the first half as you did before (but no goals will count) then play the 2nd half with the remaining time needed to complete the match from before or if your opponent agrees or can host, swap the host and play that half or reamining time left - so your kicking in the right direction. Remember communication is vital and make sure your clear and you both agree.

Rule 5: Hosting
Games will be played through Multiplayer - Direct IP. Managers with routers will need to setup Port Forwarding (see help) to allow the opponent to connect to them. The home team always hosts. If having problems connecting then swap hosts and play it as an away match, but notify S.F.T.L.A. Managers when reporting the result. If connecting is a problem or during the game then the match will be void and replayed on a further date, but both players have to report in.

Rule 6: Patches
Only patches supplied by, or allowed, by the S.F.T.L.A. can be used in the S.F.T.L.A. PC Leagues. Make sure you only get the patches from the links below. If you have alternate copies/versions from other sources (e.g. FileFront), please remove and use the current list of patches below:

1. Official FIFA 07 Patches (get here)
2. S.F.T.L.A. 2007 League Patch (get here)
3. Online Patcher 1.6 (get here, instructions how to use here)

Rule 7: Reporting Match Results
Both Managers of a given fixture must report the game result by signing onto the SFTLA League Rupublic website via the Result Submit page. You must submit the scorers of your match (if any), failing to do so repeatedly will mean 1 strike against you.

Rule 8: Points
Its 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw and 0pts for a loss. Deducted points can only be applied to teams with 1 or more points, and any team will have a minimum of 0 points. On the event of tied points at the end of the season, the team with higher goal difference, then most goals scored, then least conceded will take the top spot.

Rule 9: Match Half-Length
You play 6mins each way. Also all settings must be the same when playing each other, which will be up on the Game Settings page.

Rule 10: Transfers
You must keep players in their current teams that were defaulted in FIFA 2007. No transfers are allowed, e.g. Fernando Morientes stays in the Valencia side, and not placed back into the Liverpool side. With the Player’s Patch (supplied from the S.F.T.L.A.), all players have the same rating, so there will be no advantage in transfers anyway.

Rule 11: Etiquette
Friendly banter is allowed but if it gets out of hand, it’ll be reviewed and the person(s) warned. Any further complaints, the person(s) will be kicked out, banned or suspended.
Basically any one who attacks, bad mouths or goudes another player via the forums, will simply lose pts in the league table. If it continues then you will be yellow carded and if you get 3 - your out. This will be decided by a Forum Moderators, and their decision will stand.

Rule 12: Fair-play Rule & Substitutions
Fair-play: Fair Play - In the SFTLA we require some fair play, here are some requirements needed as follows: -
Backward pass - Everytime you kick off, you must pass the ball backwards.
No pausing in play - At no circumstances can you pause the game in the middle of play. You can only pause in dead ball situations (throw -in, corner kicks, goal kicks, etc).
Game Bugs - We also don't allow gaming bugs that spoil the game or gives some one a distinct advantage.Any bug that is discovered and can not be counteracted, will be banned. At the moment we do not allow (i) Long Shot Bug (50 yards) & Corner Bug, (ii) Long pass from the keeper straight down the middle, over the back four. Obviously this is a very grey area as its hard to prove if players do them deliberately or even know about the bugs, so benifit of the doubt will be given, but you must report it. But do not use this as an excuse all the time for your defeats.
Subs: Substitutions can only be made when in dead-ball situations (e.g. corner, throw-in, free-kicks, half-time, etc) and you have possession. If your player gets injured before 75 mins and cannot continue to play and a request is made for the change, the opponent is obliged to kick the ball out of play. On making the change the team gives the ball back as for the Fair-play rule. After 75 mins, the team with the injured player will have to wait till the ball goes out of the play and in their possession.

Rule 13: Background Programs
Background programs must be closed down whilst playing matches (see help). This includes messengers, downloaders, email clients, etc, so to maximise the gaming speed for both players. This is not optional, and failure to comply will invoke an immediate warning to that person who does not follow this rule.

Rule 14: Warnings & Strikes
Each manager has a total of 3 strikes (warnings) in a season, where getting the 3rd strike means you are replaced in the league. Strikes can be given for the following reasons:

1. Failing to play any fixture without contact or giving a valid excuse.
2. Giving abuse to fellow managers on the SFTLA Forum or Match Reports (see Etiquette - Rule 11).
3. Purposely disconnecting a game for no reason, e.g. getting heavily beaten.
4. General rule-breaking.

Rule 15: Replacing Managers / Teams
When a manager/team leaves the league, they will be replaced by a same standard manager a.s.a.p. The new manager will take over the exisiting team. If the manager leaves and no one takes over, any results will be defaulted to their opponents till the end of the season.

(Last updated: 14th January 2007)