'I Know The Score' is back!

Everyone loves trying to predict the outcome of a football match, but we know what you're thinking - 'if only I could outscore other decent people like myself who regularly visit Some People Are On The Pitch'? Well now you can with our FA Premier League I Know The Score game for 2009/10!

Many of you will know that last year SPAOTP set up it's own mini-league as part of I Know The Score and this season we're doing the same again. It's very easy to play, so if you haven't taken part before, here's how it all works.

Players score points for their astuteness in guessing the outcomes of each set of games, and the closer they get to the actual results, the more points they score.

But if you're thinking that's a synch, think again. There's a tactical element involved that brings bonus points if you play your chips right. (Don't worry - we're not talking about a new gameshow fronted by Bruce Forsyth…)

Each week you're given two casino-style chips, one called the 'Banker' chip, the other, your 'Insurance' chip. If you feel one of your predictions is a dead cert to come in, you can play your Banker chip against it. If the score matches your prediction, 'happy days' - you'll get double or even triple points.

Conversely, if you think that one of your predictions is looking somewhat shaky, you can play your Insurance chip against it. Why? Because incorrect predictions mean points are deducted from your total and the Insurance chip is a way of making sure that doesn't happen for the match concerned.

Returning to the subject of the Banker chip, you can score even more points by building up your Banker Bonus. If you place the chip correctly, your Banker Bonus will increase to five points. Place it correctly the following week and it'll increase to ten points, then fifteen and so on up to a maximum of twenty which you can maintain week in week out - as long as you correctly place your Banker chip.

So there it is - the SPAOTP I Know The Score mini-league. All you need to do is go along to the FA Premier League's I Know the Score website, register your details and join our Private Mini-League in the Mini-Leagues section. You'll be asked to type in a code number, so enter FC974-QSG to gain you entry to the SPAOTP.com League.

Once that's done, you're ready to take part when the season starts. Last season's winner was Tokyo Toffeeman who racked up 2,485 points, just 15 ahead of another old friend of ours, ChrissMari. Can they be beaten? Will you be our new champion for 2009/10?

There's only one way to find out. We look forward to seeing your name on the list on August 15th 2009...

Prediction Time

Having successfully survived the first round of matches and had a good look at the teams, the time has come for some predictions on the outcome of the group stages. It's the easiest thing in the world to predict the outcome before the tournament starts because, and let's be completely honest with ourselves, hardly anyone has seen enough of the teams to really know what the hell they're talking about. Most normal people have been focusing on their clubs, rightly so.

This means you can make wild or outlandishly bold claims of expertise, safe in the knowledge that no one else would contradict you as they know as little as you do. However, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and now that we have a little knowledge, let us delve into the murky waters of the swamp that is the Prediction League junkie’s world.

Group A

Portugal
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Turkey

Switzerland will rally and beat Turkey who will play well again but still lose. There may be violence and eggs may pelt Sepp Blatter. Portugal meanwhile will polish off the mediocre Czechs and leave the second place down to the third game. Turkey will rouse themselves long enough to manage a draw with the Czechs and Switzerland will battle for a point against Portugal who will already be home and hosed. That puts the Czechs through on the head-to-head and leaves the co-hosts cursing referees.

Group B

Germany
Austria
Poland
Croatia

The Poles will be extremely demoralised after their defeat ay the hated Germans hands and will not recover quickly enough to defend themselves against the spirited but inferior Austrians. Germany will thump Croatia who are not as good as they think they are and have no strikers. Poland will be desperate not to bow out of the championships without sticking it to someone and will do so against the Croats. Austria v Germany will not be another Anschluss game. However, Joachim Low will field a second string side and the Austrians will squeak a draw. Posts may be hit, players will be sent off and there is bound to be some last minute shenanigans in the penalty area but Austria, against all expectations will qualify. No I'm not tripping.

Group C

Netherlands
Italy
France
Romania

France are dreadful. Everyone thinks the Italians have problems but the French have no Plan B. Short of zombifying Zinedine Zidane and sending him out on a brain-eating rampage, it's difficult to see Domenech's men doing anything. Italy on the other hand still have a chance. They will beat Romania because they must and the Dutch will beat the French. This will leave the Italy v France game as a tense, unpleasant and possibly boring draw that will send Italy through.

Group D

Spain
Sweden
Russia
Greece

Like the French, the Greeks have no back up. They will not score a goal in the tournament. Spain have put themselves in a position where they will have to really go for it to get knocked out. They will be too good for the Swedes and will only have to turn up to beat the thoroughly pissed off Greeks. Russia will not be able to beat the champions and the Swedes will get the point they need to finish runners up.

There we have it. Please feel free to pour scorn over these predictions and mock me mercilessly as they turn out to be total bobbins. You may be interested to learn that, were I a betting man, I’d keep my money in my wallet. Maybe I’ll pop back at the end of the group stage to pour over the remains.

Fun and games

In case you were unaware (like us until very recently), there's less than a week to go until the start of the new Premier League season. That also means you've got less than a week to get your team registered for the SPAOTP.com Fantasy League, so if you haven't done it already, you'd better get your skates on!

It's free, comes with a five-year warranty and comes in a choice of 3 eye-catching colours. And now you're through the unnecessary sales pitch, you might want to know how to take part? Well the simplest thing to do is to visit our previous post where you'll also find that crucial piece of information - the entry code number. Without it, you won't be able to join the thirty-five other teams that have already signed up to play with us!

But if you REALLY like your football games, the fun doesn't end there. There's the small matter of predicting what will happen in the season to come because, let's face it, we all want to say "I knew that'd happen" to our friends and colleagues when the time comes. If you can see yourself in that happy disposition nine months hence, here are two ventures you might like to take part in.

SPAOTP's Premier League Table Prediction Bonanza
Like Wayne Rooney, it's simple, but effective. All we ask you to do is predict how you think the Premier League will finish - from top to bottom, champions to those relegated and everything in between.

All you need is a writing implement of your choice, plus a sheet of paper (or office desk). Sit, think, ponder, stare out of the window for inspiration, then jot down the positions where you think the teams will finish in the table from 1 to 20. Once you have done that, email us your version of how you think the Premier League table finish come next May.

At the end of each month we will send you a copy of how you and the other entrants are fairing, and like last year we will also add the predictions of football magazine FourFourTwo to see how you're doing against people who 'should know better'. If you're a bit daunted by the sound of that, you needn't be - some of us faired better than the magazine did last season.

And that's all there is to it. Something simple for a work day lunchtime, sitting in the pub garden and nursing a pint. Or something to do whilst the wife is putting the kids to bed (he says, adopting his best 'male sexist' voice.)

Send your predictions to premierleagueprediction@spaotp.com before 12 p.m. BST on Saturday 11th August 2007 and we'll do the rest...

The Football Prediction League 2007/08
Way back in, oooh, 2006 when this site was just finding it's feet, we spread the word about Some People Are On The Pitch thanks to some cross-promotion with The Football Prediction League. Well, they're back again with a new competition for 2007/08, and once again we're more than happy to usher you in their direction.

It's dead easy to play and best of all its free - all you need to do is visit http://football-prediction-league.co.nr, register your username and password, then after that just predict the results for each match in whichever competition you want to take part in. You get three points for a correct score and one point for a correct result. The winner, unsurprisingly, is the one with the highest total score at the end of the competition, and if it's you, don't be surprised if they immortalise your name for all eternity in their Hall of Fame.

So that's the SPAOTP.com Fantasy League, the SPAOTP Premier League Table Prediction Bonanza and the Football Prediction League. Three great games to take your mind off all those nightmarish new Umbro kits these season.

Don't say we never look after you at Some People Are On The Pitch...

Premiership Predicitons 2006/07 - Result

Way back on August 15th 2006, SPAOTP ran an article where Smart and I attempted to predict the final table for the 2006/07 Premiership season. Our regular contributor, Kedge, joined in the fun by doing the same, and by way of a fourth contributor we used the prediction of FourFourTwo magazine too.

So now the season's over, how well did we all do? Well I think it's fair to say that we proved that making predictions of this sort is a treacherous business, but we were incredibly far-sighted in some ways.

If you look at the graphic below (click for an enlarged version), you'll see that myself, Smart and FourFourTwo all succeeded in correctly guessing three positions in the table while Kedge got one right.



Strangely enough, it was Tottenham that proved to be the easier of the teams to guess the fate of, and only then, presumably, by suggesting they'd finish in fifth place like they'd done the previous season.

As ever, it was a fairly safe bet to pick the weakest of the newly-promoted sides to finish bottom, and this season it was poor old Watford. No surprises there, but one has to note that Kedge picked a fairly adventurous set of predictions which featured Sheffield United at the bottom and Watford directly above them. Not so far from the truth there, then.

The enlightening bit, however, comes when you analyse our comments from that previous post back in August. I, in my wisdom, stated that "Aston Villa will improve on last season under Martin O'Neill but it's going to take some time to achieve" and that "two of the new boys will go straight back down with only Reading capable of really causing any flicker of an upset."

Someone hand me a lottery ticket...

Having seen Smart's predictions, I also commented "Portsmouth in ninth is an interesting choice. Why did you plump for that?" Strange I should single out his Portsmouth prediction specifically when it turned out to be one of the three correct ones he made!

In other ways we weren't so accurate. Smart suggested that "the further the [English UEFA Cup entrants] go, the lower down the league I think they will finish". Given that Tottenham reached the quarter finals and still finished fifth in the league, it's fair to say he was slightly wide of the mark with that... mind you, most of the other English teams didn't go that far in the UEFA Cup to give us an alternative comparison.

I was also guilty of suggesting that "Gareth Southgate will struggle badly in his first season as manager of Middlesbrough" where, in reality, they finished 12th. Who'd be a pundit, eh?

Overall, taking into consideration where we positioned each team in our predictions compared to the eventual table, Martin was the most accurate. On average, each team in his prediction was only 2.5 places away from where they should have been, which was pretty impressive.

Both FourFourTwo and I trailed in next with an average of about three positions difference between my line-up and the final table, and Kedge wasn't far behind with an average of just under 3.5.

All in all then, not a bad effort on all our parts. Congratulations to Smart on winning the contest and let's hope we all manage to do even better next season. (Just thirteen weeks left to get your predictions ready, by the way...)

Lesson #324 in "Time Killing" : Predict the Final Table...

So there I was (am) bored on a Sunday afternoon, when I stroll across the BBC's very own Final Premiership Table Predictor extravaganza roadshow webpage [see link below].

After entering a series of binary scores (1 if i think they will win, 0 if i dont and 0-0 for a draw), I pressed the update button and low and behold... somehow Chelsea win the league.

I dont know if this is a default piece of coding to the webpage or not but it suprised me to be honest. Also other things worthy of note :- Three London clubs for the drop even though Charlton escape the drop on the final day as Fulham couldnt get that much needed away win at the Riverside stadium.

Remember where you read it first ;-)

Here's my Final Table, but please feel free to follow rule #324 at work by following this link [Go on... click me... you know you want too...] and posting your findings back here on SPAOTP. I'm off to the bookies...

1. Chelsea 93
2. Man U 92
3. Liverpool 78
4. Arsenal 77
5. Bolton 62
6. Everton 59
7. Tottenham 59
8. Aston Villa 57
9. Blackburn 54
10. Newcastle 53
11. Reading 52
12. Portsmouth 50
13. Middlesboro 46
14. Wigan 39
15. Sheff Utd 38
16. Man City 35
17. Charlton 35
18. Fulham 34
19. West Ham 24
20. Watford 21

Time to stick your neck on the line...

Just four days to go now until the start of the new Premiership season and it's time to put your money where your mouth is.

How do you think the season will go and what will the Premiership table look like come the end of the 2006/2007 season?

Think you know the answer? Then why not leave us a comment with your prediction. At the end of the season, we'll see whose prediction was best using a simple scoring system: for every place in the table that your teams are incorrectly positioned, you score a point. The more points you accumulate, the worse your prediction was.

Example: Arsenal finish 2nd and you predicted them to finish 5th = you score three points, and so on.

Anyway, let's deal with that in nine months time. For now, here's my prediction for the 2006/2007 FA Premiership table...

1 Chelsea
2 Liverpool
3 Arsenal
4 Man United
5 Tottenham
6 Blackburn
7 Newcastle
8 Bolton
9 West Ham
10 Everton
11 Aston Villa
12 Charlton
13 Wigan
14 Portsmouth
15 Man City
16 Reading
17 Middlesbrough
18 Fulham
19 Sheff Utd
20 Watford

Not much that's controversial in the above, except that I've got Liverpool to finish second which I've no doubt some of you will disagree with. I think Aston Villa will improve on last season under Martin O'Neill but it's going to take some time to achieve and I think he'll have to spend lots of money wisely and fast in order to do it.

Smart and I were caught out last year (along with everyone else) by the surprisingly good performance of newly-promoted Wigan and West Ham, but I'm just as cautious this year as last. I think two of the new boys will go straight back down with only Reading capable of really causing any flicker of an upset.

Speaking of Wigan, I think their bubble will burst after several of their top players parted company with them, but meeting them on the way up should be Charlton and Portsmouth who may be slightly better than before after making some interesting additions to their squad.

I think Gareth Southgate will struggle badly in his first season as manager of Middlesbrough and Chris Coleman, too, could be set for a relegation battle judging by the squad he has. It's any wonder they finished 12th last year, but this time I don't think they'll be so lucky.

As for the top half of the table, I can't see it being much different to 2005/2006. The main difference for me will be the order of the top four as I've gone for Arsenal to take third place and Manchester United to finish fourth.

And Chelsea? Well they might not have things all their own way this season, but if you're looking to pick up at least one point in this prediction game you'd be a fool to put them anywhere other than top spot.

World Cup 2006 Football Prediction League Game

And now for all you competitive types out there, here's something that'll surely tickle your fancy. Our good friends at SpursWeb would like to invite you all to play in their rather spiffing World Cup Prediction Game. Just visit:

http://football-prediction-league.a22.biz/PredictionLeague/index.php

...follow the instructions, and enjoy. It's dead easy - all you need to do is register your username and password, then after that just predict the results for each World Cup match that takes place. You get 3 points for a correct score and 1 point for a correct result. Unsurprisingly, the winner of the competition is the one with the highest total at the end of the tournament.

And that's about it really. So if you fancy bragging to your mates down the pub that you're the sort of psychic phenomenon that makes every high street bookmaker quake in their boots, get yourself along to the Prediction League site and show them what you're made of!