2023-04-03, 05:44 AM - Word count:
Beginning of S9 It has become customary for me at the start of each season to announce its beginning with some relevant information about the seasonal change, rule changes that have been implemented and a short summary of the BoD's thoughts and plans for the season.
Last season we discussed the size of the draft class and we are now in a position to announce the results of the BoD and Managers' work on this topic. As you have seen in previous announcements we are now officially affiliated with two more leagues, the SBA and the VHL which came as a result of the changes I will announce later on in this post. Another aspect of this discussion has been adding the tools that helps a user navigate the intricacies of creating and updating their player which we launched earlier last month.
As the start of the ninth season of the league is today the following can occur:
- - All players whose contract expired can now sign with any team in accordance with their transfer value.
- - All players on their final season of the contract may now sign an extension.
- - All players may claim the Training Camp
Additional Point Tasks related to the new season will be posted throughout the week.
Rule Changes Once again, the BoD and Managers have proposed, discussed and voted on a couple of changes to the Rulebook during the off-season. Some have already been put into action prior to the start of the season but I will still summarize them here.
Change in Positional XP
In order to reduce the level of difficulty when creating a player while still allowing for some player and team flexibility, we have passed a rule changing how new players allocate the positional XP. This rule will not affect older players (S1-S8) as it currently stands.
Instead of allocating 50 XP freely on all different positions, a new outfield player may choose one primary position and two secondary positions. A primary position corresponds to 20 XP in Football Manager and a secondary position corresponds to 15 XP in Football Manager.
The new Player Builder reflects these changes and we've seen fewer errors made by users prior to approval with this system already.
Additional Changes to Loans
Another rule that was passed changes how loans in the league work. Instead of having a fix number of games that a player must play as a loanee, the teams may now agree on a specific number entirely on their own.
The player must still agree to the loan for it to be valid, but the teams and player may now cancel the loan during the season if all parties agree to do so. If that occurs the player is then returned to the original team, taking with them the cap hit of the wages.
BoD Restructuring
One of the main aspects of league administration that we have experienced in the last couple of seasons is that we are not getting that many applicants for two of the main jobs that keep the league running, BoD members and Managers. As such we have voted to change some of the aspects of the BoD articles in the Rulebook.
Mainly, Team or Assistant managers are now eligible to be a BoD member. In order to remove as much of a risk as possible of the BoD becoming a tool for one team to "control" the league we have also implemented a rule restricting how much of the leadership group can be representing any single SSL team. The rule is specifically written as follows: "The BoD and Commissioner(s) may not consist of more than one third (1/3) of members whose players are owned by one SSL team.". If this was to occur the membership in the BoD or further player movement must occur for the rule to be fulfilled.
Our hope is that this rule change allows users who want to contribute to the success of the league doesn't feel restricted in the ways they may be able to do so. A dedicated manager that also wants to take on further responsibility within the BoD or a BoD member who wants to manage a team can now happen.
We have also added the role of a Co-Commissioner to the Rulebook. This role is intended to be dedicated to sharing the responsibilities and accountabilities of the Commissioner (thereby they are not able to be a manager at the same time). I will post a hiring post for this position in the near future.
Another aspect of this change is a revision of how voting on future proposals will happen. Instead of voting taking place with both the BoD and the managers during the off-season, the inclusion of interested managers within the BoD allows for the change to only BoD and Commissioner(s) voting on changes. Proposals for changes and a discussion will still occur as has been done in the past, by and with the managers but the final voting will now only be done by the max 11 users representing the BoD (9 total) and the Commissioner(s) (2 total).
Now to the main topic of this announcement. The SSL is excited to announce one of the biggest changes to the league since the change to the promotion and relegation structure. Introducing the...
SSL ACADEMY The SSL Academy is where new players are able to start their career, get to see their player on the field, play with and against players of their own caliber and earn both money and TPE before being drafted to the divisional teams of the SSL. Our hope is that we are able to give players the chance to play most if not all of the games in their initial season(s) of their career while getting to know their fellow classmates and the league through both older SSL players acting as coaches and various tasks to complete. At the end of the player's time in the Academy, the gap between them and the rest of the SSL teams will be much smaller than what we have previously seen making it much easier for them to have a direct impact on their SSL team.
This addition to the league touches on many different aspects of the Rulebook, the forum and the Discord but I will try and summarize the changes as well as I can.
First and foremost the Academy League is separate from the SSL Tiered leagues. It will run in a separate FM file from the main leagues and will only consist of league play within the Academy teams. Each team will face each other four times during a season, so there will be many games to see how a player performs.
The Academy League will run throughout the season and any player created and approved will be added to an Academy team shortly thereafter. In these changes the Waiver Wire system has been completely removed resulting in the SSL Prospect Draft eligibility cutoff now acting as the split between draft classes. A player creating after a that eligibility cutoff will be considered part of the next draft class and will be playing in the Academy until the next draft date. The eligibility cutoff is now set at Week 8 of every season, i.e. before the start of the off-season.
After a player has been drafted to an SSL team, the team may choose to send them back to the Academy team for at most another season. The team may call them up to the SSL Divisions at any point during that season to play the remainder of the player's career there. I have illustrated this process in the following flowchart:
Please see the full changes in Section 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the Rulebook including changes to contracts, retirements, draft eligibility and more.
As a direct result of these changes we are now officially starting the S10 draft class! Any player creating or approved at this time will be added to the Academy League that will be up and running alongside the main league next week. We will also announce hiring posts for coaches for these Academy teams to complete the people we already have allocated to these positions.
Conclusion This was a long announcement with a couple of large changes to how the league will continue to operate. Our main objective was and is to provide a place for users to take their love of football or sim-leagues to new heights and one of the most important parts is to feel included somewhere. We hope that these changes are able to bring together and introduce new players to the league better than we have done in the past while at the same time provide a fun environment to learn from each other and springboard their SSL careers.
![[Image: 0HMDG8L.png]](https://i.imgur.com/0HMDG8L.png)
