S12: The Long March Starts

 August comes around again with its sunny days and yellow transfer ticker. This season however, is unique. Which I feel I say a lot, and also, I guess, is a tautology by definition, but anyway, it's unique this season for unique reasons. Unique² if you like. 

As you are all aware, this winter sees the not-all-all-corruptly-awarded Summer World Cup being held in Qatar, bastion of Human Rights, and a totally suitable venue which definitely has the requisite infrastructure to support the second largest sporting event on the planet, and definitely isn't sub-contracting their infrastructure needs to *checks notes* Iran. And It's also unique because this will be the first tournament in history where the country, and not just the buildings will be air conditioned. At a time of increased focus on global warming, and data suggesting a 10% increase in energy demands associated purely with air conditioning in urban areas. Yay, can't wait.

(Ed: I will be basically ignoring the World Cup as a personal boycott. However, should Football Come Home, I will not boycott the inevitable Bank Holiday. Call me a hypocrite if you want. 🤷‍♂️)

Anyway, what this means is the the season starts early, goes until the 12th November, when the pre-WC break starts, half the league go off to Qatar, and the other half go off to Dubai on holiday, and then the league resumes with the Boxing Day fixtures. The season will then end a little bit later than usual too, and presumably, there will be a few more midweek fixtures. Which in fairness, we had last season due to the Covid Postponements, but is an absolute pain in the behind for this blog. I'm working on an idea to try and mitigate this without tanking the integrity of the scoring system AND causing major amounts of work for me.

So, welcome back to old friends. New players - check out the "Rules" tab above - but it's a pretty simple concept. Fill in the form, get points for right answers. Free to play, trophy for the winner at the end of the season. Reminder WhatsApp group exists, should you want to join.

So, let's start with some season predictions at large....

Season Predictions

S12M1 Predictions

Good luck everyone! And remember - please share this with anyone who you think might be interested to play this season!