European Dynasty Super League (EDSL) Bylaws
League Structure:
Divisions
This league is meant to mirror the structure of the top soccer (football) leagues in England. The league will be composed of 92 teams (clubs) divided into 4 divisions. Each team will be from an European football league as chosen by the owner. Teams from England cannot be chosen. International teams cannot be chosen. Teams outside of Europe cannot be chosen. The divisions will be set up as follows:
● Premiership (Level 1) – 20 clubs
● Super League Championship (Level 2) – 24 clubs
● Super League 1 (Level 3) – 24 clubs
● Super League 2 (Level 4) – 24 clubs
Promotion and Relegation
One of the main components of the English football system is the concept of promotion and relegation. Each year the best clubs are promoted to the next highest league, while the worst clubs are relegated. The promotion/relegation structure will be as follows:
● Premiership – Bottom 3 relegated.
● Super League Championship – Top 2 automatically promoted; next 4 compete in a playoff with the winner gaining the third promotion spot. Bottom 3 relegated.
● Super League 1 - Top 2 automatically promoted; next 4 compete in a playoff with the winner gaining the third promotion spot. Bottom 4 relegated.
● Super League 2 - Top 3 automatically promoted; next 4 compete in a playoff with the winner gaining the fourth promotion spot.
Schedule and Standings
After the inaugural league year, clubs will play only those in their respective leagues. The regular season schedules are outlined below.
● Premiership - Each club will play all other clubs once. Single matchups Weeks 1-15, doubleheaders Weeks 16-17.
● Super League Championship - Each club will play all other clubs once. Doubleheaders Weeks 1-10, Single matchups Week 11-13.
● Super League 1 - Each club will play all other clubs once. Doubleheaders Weeks 1-10, Single matchups Week 11-13.
● Super League 2 - Each club will play all other clubs once. Doubleheaders Weeks 1-10, Single matchups Week 11-13.
The standings will be determined using the victory point system. Each club will be awarded 3 points for a win, 1 for a tie (unlikely), and 0 for a loss. Ties in the standings will be broken by total points.
There are no standard playoffs in any of the leagues. The club that finishes at the top of the standings is crowned the champion. There are, however, promotion playoffs in the three lower leagues. The structure of those playoffs is described below.
● Premiership - No playoffs
● Super League Championship - Clubs that finished 3-6 in the standings will compete in the playoffs (3v6, 4v5). Each matchup takes place over 2 weeks (i.e. 1st round in weeks 14-15, championship in weeks 16-17)
● Super League 1 - Clubs that finished 3-6 in the standings will compete in the playoffs (3v6, 4v5). Each matchup take place over 2 weeks (i.e. 1st round in weeks 14-15, championship in weeks 16-17)
● Super League 2 - Clubs that finished 4-7 in the standings will compete in the playoffs (4v7, 5v6). Each matchup take place over 2 weeks (i.e. 1st round in weeks 14-15, championship in weeks 16-17)
Note: Our goal is to have no bye weeks interfere with playoff schedules and may adjust schedules slightly to compensate if necessary.
2021 Schedule Changes
The league schedule for 2021 has been finalized and input to MFL. Due to the NFL bye week structure for this season, several adjustments have been made from previous years. Please note that these are not permanent changes, but adjustments made based on the current season's schedule.
In 2021 the Super League Championship, Super League One, and Super League Two promotion playoff semifinals will consist of 1 leg only. Usually the semifinals run Weeks 14 and 15, however the NFL has scheduled bye weeks during Week 14 this year. As such, the semifinals will be played during Week 15. This means that the bottom 3 leagues will have single matchups Weeks 10-14.
We will continue to attempt to schedule cup matches so that they do not coincide with bye weeks. Further information on cup draws will be with you in a separate email in the near future.
Cup Competitions:
Ideally, all cup competitions will be scheduled around bye weeks to prevent placing any club at a disadvantage during the competition. However, depending on NFL bye weeks and the length of each competition, this may not always be possible.
League Cup
The League Cup is a league-wide tournament that will take place simultaneously to our regular season/promotion playoffs. All 92 clubs will participate and have the opportunity to win. The structure of this tournament is meant to mirror the structure of the actual tournament as much as possible.
The League Cup competition is divided into seven rounds, organized so that 32 clubs remain by the third round. The clubs from the previous year that would qualify for “European Competitions'' receive byes until the third round. This includes 1st through 5th place in the Premiership, the previous League Cup winner, and the previous EFL Trophy winner. The remaining Premiership clubs enter at the second round, and all other clubs enter at the first round. If the number of byes causes an odd number of teams to enter a round, the highest-placed team of those relegated from the Premiership the previous season will be given a bye. Matches in all rounds are played over a single leg (game).
EFL Trophy
The EFL Trophy is a tournament that takes place each season, open to the 48 clubs from Super League 1 and Super League 2. Sixteen clubs, chosen at random, will receive a bye to the second round. All other clubs will enter at round one. The competition is single elimination and matches in all rounds are single leg (game).
FA Community Shield
The FA Community Shield is an annual match contested Week 1 between the champions of the previous Premiership season and the holders of the League Cup. If the Premiership champions also won the League Cup then the Premiership runners-up provide the opposition.
The Euro Cup (EFA/EDSL Tournament)
The Euro Cup will consist of all 184 teams in EFA and EDSL and will span from Week 1 through Week 17. The entirety of the tournament will be hosted on Google Sheets. Lineups used will be lineups submitted to the EFA or EDSL League Page for the appropriate week. The tournament will span three stages: A Weekly Points Knockout Qualification Stage, a group play stage, and a tournament stage. Owners of teams in both EFA and EDSL can have their teams play each other in any stage, ownership will not be taken into consideration during this tournament.
Stage One: Points Knockout Qualification Stage
Weeks: 1 – 5
The Points Knockout Qualification stage begins with all 184 teams in EFA and EDSL. Eliminations each week will be based on team’s scores from that week only unless there is a tie. Any ties over the elimination threshold in Weeks 1-3 will result in extra teams being carried over and the number of eliminations growing the same amount for the following week. If teams tie at the elimination threshold in Week 4, total points scored over the four weeks will be used as the tie breaker.
Week 1: 20 lowest scoring teams over Week 1 will be eliminated. 164 teams remaining.
Week 2: 15 lowest scoring teams over Week 2 will be eliminated. 149 teams remaining.
Week 3: 9 lowest scoring teams over Week 3 will be eliminated. 140 teams remaining.
Week 4: 7 lowest scoring teams over Week 4 will be eliminated. 133 teams remaining.
Week 5: 5 lowest scoring teams over Week 5 will be eliminated. 128 teams remaining.
Stage Two: Group Play Stage
Weeks: 6 – 11
The Group Play Stage will include the 128 teams who survived the first stage. The surviving teams will be separated into 32 groups of 4. The procedure for assigning groups will be as follows:
1. Teams will be split into 4 quadrants by cumulative points scored over the first 4 weeks.
2. Each quadrant will then have their own 100yardrush race or have a live drawing done and placed into appropriate groups by finish or when selected.
3. Each group will have a member of each quadrant by the end of the process.
Each team will play the other three teams in its group twice over the Weeks 6 - 11. Teams will get 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. (NOTE: For the purposes of this stage, games in which teams finish within 5 points of each other will be counted as a draw.) The top two teams in each group (64 teams total) will advance to the next stage of the tournament. Total points scored over the Group Play stage will be the tiebreaker for final standings in this stage.
Stage Three: Tournament Stage
Weeks: 12 – 17
The Tournament Stage will consist of a 64-team single knockout tournament. Brackets will be seeded where 1A plays 2B on one side of the bracket and 2A plays 1B on the other side of the bracket and so on: So C plays D, E plays F, etc. Any ties during this stage will be broken by the team with the most potential points that week advancing. The championship game will fall on Week 17.
The winner of the Euro Cup will be declared after the stat corrections process after week 17 concludes.
Losers Point Tournament
All non-playoff and auto promotion teams from Championship, League One, and League Two are entered into a losers bracket points tournament. The winner shall receive 100 FAAB.
There will be 53 total teams in the Losers Tournament and it will take place between week 14 and week 17 of the season.
Week 14: 23 Eliminations
Week 15: 15 Eliminations
Week 16: 10 Eliminations
Week 17: 4 Eliminations to leave 1 winner.
In Seasons with a 3 week playoff the tournament will take place weeks 15-17.
Week 15: 30 Eliminations
Week 16: 18 Eliminations
Week 17: 4 Eliminations to leave 1 winner.
Dispersal Drafts:
At the conclusion of each season, each league (Premier/Championship/League One/League Two) will hold a dispersal draft. The exact time of the drafts will vary year to year, but will occur BEFORE the winter transfer window opens and AFTER the following requirements have been met:
All replacement owners added after the season has concluded will be automatically entered in the appropriate dispersal draft. Replacement owners who were added during the previous season will have the option to enter, but will not be required to. In addition, any owner may declare for the dispersal draft so long as the following requirements are met:
The deadline to declare for the dispersal draft will be 11:59 pm Eastern on December 31 of each year. If only a single owner has declared for the dispersal and the corresponding league does not have any replacement owners, the dispersal draft for that league will not be held.
Once owners have declared for the dispersal drafts, the Commissioner will send an email to the league announcing the dispersal draft entrants. All assets, both players and draft picks, for participating teams will be entered into the player pool. Each draft will take place via Google Sheets with a 24-hour pick clock. It is the responsibility of each owner to notify the following owner after making his/her pick. If an owner fails to make a pick during the 24-hour period, he/she will be skipped and the owner will make a replacement pick at a later time.
Rosters and Lineups:
Starting lineups will require 18 players, as follows:
OFFENSE (8): QB/RB/WR/WR/TE/Flex/Flex/Flex
DEFENSE (10): DL/DL/LB/LB/LB/DB/DB/Flex/Flex/Flex
Rosters will have a max of 35 players + 5 player Injured Reserve. Only players on NFL IR lists are eligible.
In the offseason clubs may go over the roster limit to account for acquired draft picks, etc. However, owners will not be able to submit a lineup nor acquire additional players through waivers until under the 35-man limit.
Owners are expected to submit a competitive lineup every week. This means no submitting partial/incomplete lineups or starting players who are on a bye week. If you are habitually starting players on byes or have missed as many as two total lineup submissions, the commissioner reserves the right to remove you from the league without refund of your paid dues.
Scoring:
This league will use the “No Position Left Behind” scoring system. Details can be found on our league scoring page.
Trading:
Clubs will only be permitted to trade within their league, with the exception of four “transfer windows.” During the transfer windows, clubs are permitted to trade with any club, provided they do not trade for draft picks outside of their league or players already on their roster.
One transfer window will begin at the conclusion of the yearly dispersal drafts and end four weeks from that date.
The second transfer window will begin immediately following the conclusion of rookie drafts and the promotion/relegation process, and will end two weeks from that date.
A third transfer window will begin coinciding with the start of the first game of the NFL preseason. It will end at the conclusion of the final preseason game.
Trades are processed immediately upon acceptance of the trade by both owners, unless it's in the middle of that week’s games. All trades are final unless there is obvious collusion. If collusion is suspected the commissioners will reverse the trade and levy appropriate penalties. Players traded between two teams may not be traded back to the same team for any reason for a period of 3 weeks to prevent trades used to simply avoid bye weeks.
Fleece Free Trade Week
At the conclusion of Week 6 (when the Monday Night game ends) the league will hold a “fleece free trade week.” This will function as an additional transfer window, but with distinct regulations. The general idea is to give league members a chance to “beat” accepted trades by offering something better.
During this week the trade window will be open and trading will be allowed between leagues. However, the commissioner trade review function will be turned on. If a trade is accepted the commissioner will post a message board post detailing the trade. There will then be a 24-hour review period where teams can offer alternative packages to either team involved in the original trade to see if they can beat the accepted offer. If a new trade is agreed to and accepted, the commissioner will reject the original trade and the new trade will then begin its own 24-hour review period. If a new trade has not been agreed to at the conclusion of the 24 hours, the original trade will be processed. Note copies of the same player traded for each other will not count for this week, also trades can not be backed out of during the 24 hour period.
This transfer window will be open from the conclusion of the Week 6 Monday Night Football game until Friday of the same week at 11:59pm Eastern. At the conclusion of this transfer window, all trades that are currently under review will have their review period extended for an additional 24 hours (until Saturday at 11:59pm Eastern). This will be deemed the “last chance” period. Any counter offers agreed to during the last chance period will be processed immediately and will not be subject to review. At the conclusion of this period, all open trades will be processed and “fleece free trade week” will have officially concluded.
Rookie Draft
Each year (minus year one) a 5-round rookie draft will be held approximately 2 weeks following the NFL Draft. Each league will hold its own rookie draft with a separate rookie pool. Rookie drafts will happen before the promotion/relegation process. Drafts will be slow email-style using an 8-hour timer with no pauses. Pick order will be assigned in the following manner for each league:
● Premiership - Reverse order of potential points for clubs 4-20. Clubs 1-3 will have picks 18-20 in reverse order of finish.
● Super League Championship - Reverse order of potential points for clubs 7-24. Clubs 1-6 will have picks 19-24 in reverse order of finish.
● Super League 1 - Reverse order of potential points for clubs 7-24. Clubs 1-6 will have picks 19-24 in reverse order of finish.
● Super League 2 - Reverse order of potential points for clubs 8-24. Clubs 1-7 will have picks 18-24 in reverse order of finish.
Due to the league organization, rookie picks will not be available for trade until the conclusion of year one and the four leagues have been established. After each year’s rookie draft and promotion/relegation process has been completed, the following year’s picks will become available for trade. Rookie picks can NEVER be traded between leagues during transfer windows and any trade involving rookie picks between leagues will be reversed. Rookie Picks for teams making Premiership year one will be Clubs 1-15 will have picks 20-6. Clubs 16-20 will be Reverse order of potential points. This will only occur after the first year.
NOTE: Only rookies are eligible to be drafted in rookie drafts.
Supplemental Draft Players:
Owners may draft players during the rookie draft that they think may enter that year’s NFL supplemental draft. The process is as follows:
NOTE: Players drafted under these stipulations may not be traded until AFTER the NFL Supplemental Draft takes place. Any undrafted copies of players requested may not be added via waivers until AFTER the NFL Supplemental Draft takes place.
Waivers
Each club will be given a yearly $500 budget to use towards acquiring free agents through the blind bidding process. This budget is a tradable asset.
The first waiver period will begin following the closure of the summer transfer window. Each week, bids will process on Wednesdays at 8:00pm EST. There will be no first come, first served period.
Starting at the conclusion of preseason, blind bidding waiver requests will be accepted from Monday night (8:00pm EST) until Wednesday at 8:00pm EST. At this time, requests will be awarded based on bid amounts. Clubs will then have the opportunity to acquire players through first come, first served waivers until the kickoff of each player’s game that week. This process will repeat each week until the kickoff of Week 16, at which point waivers will close until after the summer transfer window.
NOTE: Players dropped during blind bidding will lock for 24 hours to allow every club a fair shot at acquiring them.
League Dues:
League Dues
League dues are $25 yearly. Due to the structure of the league and in order to maintain league integrity, all teams are required to pay one year in advance. This is to avoid situations in which an owner poorly manages his/her team and then quits the league when relegated. Finding a replacement owner who wants to pay $25 for a bad team in the bottom division could be near impossible to do. This will help prevent that and maintain the longevity of the league. Dues must be paid before kickoff of the Super Bowl each year.
Abandoned Teams
In the event of a team being abandoned midseason, the commissioner will set the abandoned team’s weekly lineup using the highest MFL projected score. Abandoned teams will not make any waiver moves or trades until a replacement owner has been identified. Teams will be considered abandoned if one of the following occurs:
Abandoned teams forfeit their league dues for the following season, which will be used to recruit a replacement owner.
Refunds and Replacement Owners
Owners that decide to leave the league will be entitled to a refund of future league dues IF they find a replacement owner AND that owner pays the league dues by the deadline (kickoff of the Super Bowl). If those requirements are not met, the owner will not receive a refund and those future league dues will be used to recruit/entice a replacement owner to join the league.
Prize Structure:
Payment and prize structure is as follows:
Total Collected: $2300 ($25*92)
MFL League Fee: $70
Total Available for Prizes: $2160
Premier League
Champion: $370
2nd: $275
3rd: $200
League Championship
Champion: $200
2nd: $150
Promotion Playoff Winner: $100
League One
Champion: $100
2nd: $75
Promotion Playoff Winner: $50
League Two
Champion: $50
2nd: $40
3rd: $30
Promotion Playoff Winner: $25
Miscellaneous
League Cup Champion: $150
EFL Trophy Champion: $75
FA Community Shield Winner: $25
Weekly High Scorer: $10 * 17 weeks = $170
Season Point Champion: $25
League 1 & 2 Season Point Champion: $25
Cross-league tournament (The Euro Cup): $50 ($25 from this league + $25 from EDSL)
*Premier League Champ: Custom team jersey
*League Cup Champ: Team scarf
*If the winning team is too obscure to locate a jersey/scarf, an alternative prize (cash or other) may be awarded depending on funds available.
COVID-19
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the following adjustments and contingencies are added to the league effective immediately for this season only:
Gameplay and Conduct:
All owners are expected to be active participants in the league. Owners are expected to strive to create a winner. Owners who ignore their team and the league shall be deemed unfit and removed from the league.
Activity is expected in setting lineups and trades (teams are not required to send trades, however, they are expected to respond to them in a timely manner).
Collusion is highly unacceptable and will result in expulsion from the league.
Please actively use the League Message Board for communicating. This can include general discussions, trash talk, and official league business. If there is enough interest, we will establish a league GroupMe chat.
Mandatory Poll for Returning Owners:
At the conclusion of each season, a poll will be posted on the league page asking each owner whether or not he/she plans on returning for the following season. Responding to this poll will be mandatory. At the end of the voting period, any owner that has stated he/she will not return for the following season will be immediately removed. In addition, the commissioner will assume that any owner who did not answer the poll will not be returning and those owners will be removed as well. This is to expedite the recruiting process and avoid delays in the start of the winter transfer window.
Name changes:
New members will be able to request one name change if desired upon inheriting an abandoned team. This name change must be consistent with the league’s theme, European (non-English) soccer clubs.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL LEAGUE. Because this is a new style of league, we may encounter some unexpected hiccups along the way. If/when these situations arise, the commissioner will determine the best course of action via vote or executive decision. All decisions will be made with the best interest of the league and its members in mind. All unscripted actions taken will be with the purpose of maintaining fair, fun, and honest play. Please bear with me as we make this league unique and fun!