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**New – Grid Soccer “Retro” version now available

Following the success of the original Grid Soccer, and after some requests I have received, there is now a “Retro” version of Grid Soccer available on eBay.

This version is modelled on the English League setup from the 1980s and earlier, i.e. a 92-team league with 2 divisions of 22 teams (1st & 2nd Divisions) and 2 divisions of 24 teams (3rd & 4th Divisions). It also models the old-style, knockout European club competitions, i.e. the European Cup, European Cup-winners’ Cup and the UEFA/Fairs Cup. The international competitions are a 16-team World Cup using the format used up to an including 1970, and a Euro Championship with 8 teams in 2 groups of 4, as used in the 1980s.

Everything else is the same as the “modern” version, i.e. you can print off grids or use the screen, or a combination of both. There is a dice roller if you want to auto-generate results and a slightly modified dice selector allowing for use with 2 or 3 points for a win systems. The spreadsheet is also configurable to use different points per win options.

It’s available on eBay as “Grid Soccer – Excel Soccer Game – RETRO version (4 divisions)”, item number 154296204322.

New Chart Soccer Coming Soon

A new version of Chart Soccer is coming soon. The new version will be called “Grid Soccer”, and it will be a more comprehensive version than the current version. The main features of the new version will be:

  • Use of “grids” to work out fixtures and enter results, rather than a list of fixtures. This will make it easier as it will be possible to print out a grid on one sheet of paper and use it to record results, but there will also be the ability to enter them on screen as well, so that accurate league tables are calculated;
  • Grids for a 20-team Premier League and three 24-team divisions, to reflect the modern setup in England;
  • A Challenge Cup and a League Cup, both starting at the “Round of 64” stage;
  • Champions League (starting at the group stage) and Europa League (starting at the “Round of 32” stage);
  • World Cup comprising 32 teams;
  • Euro Championship comprising 24 teams;
  • All tournaments can be played on screen or using the printouts or both in conjunction.

The game is still in production but I hope to have it complete very soon. I will post here when it is available.

All the best.

Issues in Chart Soccer v2.3

If you have v2.3 of the Chart Soccer spreadsheet bought from eBay, there were some issues with that version. The main issue was that the file size was around 17MB, which caused the file to take a long time to load and save and it would sometimes freeze as well. These issues have now been resolved in v2.4.

I have also created a new version of the League Position Chart, which covers two sides of an A4 sheet instead of one. This allows for larger boxes to fit the teams in than before, and is available with the new version.

If anyone would like a copy of this new version, please let me know via messaging on eBay, and I will send you the new download link. If that doesn’t work, leave me a message here and I will try and sort something out.

Alex (Midlife Geek)

E.F.U. Nations’ Cup Season 188

The E.F.U.Nations’ Cup for Season 188 has begun with the qualification rounds. These comprised ten groups of five teams, after the bottom ten countries (nos. 46-55 in the rankings) played off for a place in the competition.

The tables in the qualification rounds finished as follows, the teams in bold qualifying in 1st or 2nd place (points shown in brackets):

Group A: England (15), Denmark (15), Albania (12), Hungary (6), Cyprus (5)
Group B: Croatia (13), Scotland (13), Ukraine (13), Latvia (12), Bulgaria (7)
Group C: Finland (19), Spain (15), Northern Ireland (12), Armenia (9), Serbia (4)
Group D: France (22), Slovakia (14), Russia (12), North Macedonia (8), Faroe Islands (1)
Group E: Portugal (14), Slovenia (14), Sweden (12), Norway (9), Lithuania (5)
Group F: Netherlands (20), Kazakhstan (9), Romania (8), Luxembourg (8), Republic of Ireland (7)
Group G: Germany (16), Belarus (13), Azerbaijan (11), Austria (9), Bosnia & Herzegovina (7)
Group H: Belgium (17), Georgia (16), Turkey (12), Czechia (11), Andorra (1)
Group I: Switzerland (18), Iceland (15), Wales (14), Montenegro (7), Kosovo (4)
Group J: Italy (22), Poland (13), Greece (13), Israel (7), Estonia (3)

The eight third-placed teams with the best records played-off against each other to find the four remaining finalists:

Ukraine 1:0 – 0:2 Greece (1-2)
Turkey 1:2 – 1:4 Russia (3-5)
Albania 1:1 – 1:4 Wales (2-5)
N. Ireland 3:0 – 2:2 Sweden (3-4)

The finals will be hosted by England and the draw for the finals threw up some interesting ties, in particular England v. Scotland in the tournament opener in Group A:

Group A: England, Scotland, Germany, Belarus
Group B: Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Slovakia
Group C: Iceland, Sweden, Slovenia, France
Group D: Georgia, Russia, Italy, Spain
Group E: Croatia, Switzerland, Finland, Wales
Group F: Poland, Belgium, Denmark, Kazakhstan

The finals will be played during the coming week, so check back here for the results.

Retro League Season 07

A new season has begun for the Retro League. This time we are covering the 1961-62 season, which was notable because newly promoted Ipswich Town, a small town club managed by the later England World Cup winning manager, Sir Alf Ramsay, won the First Division title. Can they win in the Retro League also, or will Spurs retain their title from last season?

Keep tabs on this new season here.

Update for Chart Soccer Spreadsheet

Hi all

A small bug has been identified in the Chart Soccer spreadsheet relating to penalties, specifically in the Challenge Cup First Round. This is causing the wrong team to be advanced to the next round if the original away team (i.e. the home team in the replay) wins on penalties.

I have resolved the bug and there is a new version (v2.2) available. If you want to download the new version please contact me via eBay message and I will send you the link to the new version.

Alex