The first official season of MAN v FAT Football XI’s came to a close on an amazing day at the Bet 365 stadium at the end of May. The culmination of the season saw Preston MAN v FAT face-off against West Brom MAN v FAT to decide who would come away with the trophy and more importantly, the title of National Champions 2022/23. Glorious weather welcomed both teams to Stoke along with the hundreds of friends and family members who had come along to cheer them on. Preston managed to see the game out and took the spoils with a 4-3 win. The trophy being presented to their captain by Ipswich Town legend Jim Magilton. It truly was a fantastic game and an amazing advertisement for what can be achieved by MAN v FAT members around the country.

During the 2022/23 season we managed to reach the following milestones:

• 42 teams completed the season
• 175 games played
• 346,500 minutes of extra football provided to our members

KEY CHANGES TO 23/24 SEASON
We can’t wait to bring you the 2023/24 MAN v FAT Football XI’s season! With the opportunity for more teams and nations to join, we aim to go bigger and better again! To support us in continuing to develop the competition while protecting the integrity of MAN v FAT Football and MAN v FAT Football XI’s, this season will see some slight changes to the rules. These include;

Players must attend the weekly club nights for the XI’s team they are representing
Player registrations available throughout the season
Attendance criteria now 1 club night in 3
First knock-out game will be decided geographically (where possible)

Eligibility
The competition remains exclusive to MAN v FAT Footballers. This should enable us to support a safe, competitive and fun competition. Systems developed by the FA along with a clear set of competition rules will enable us to achieve exclusivity for eligible MAN v FAT Football members who are attending club sessions. Players will now need to attend 1 in 3 club nights to be eligible for XI’s games.

COSTS FOR 23/24 SEASON
MAN v FAT have strived to keep player fees to a minimum for the upcoming season and income generated go towards staff time, resources and facilities for finals day. Teams will need to pay their County FA for affiliation and insurance as many were previously. For those teams returning to the competition from last season, they should find this process a lot easier. Support on how to register a new team with your County FA can be found HERE.  MAN v FAT Football XI’s players will be charged an annual registration fee of just £11.50 per player for the 2023/24 season.

COMPETITION SETUP FOR THE 23/24 SEASON
The 2023/24 season will commence in August 2023 with group stages running from August through until January. The intention, pending uptake, is to place teams into groups with a maximum of six regional Teams. Teams will be expected to play each team in the group at least twice, once at home and once away, meaning that they would play ten fixtures in total, in a group of six. At the end of the group stages the teams that have won each group will progress to a knock-out stage of the competition, along with some tams that have the best losing record across the competition based on points per game (PPG).  Teams will face off against an opponent in a two-legged tie to determine who goes through to the next round.  This will continue until we are left with two teams who will play in the final at the end of May 2024, at a venue to be confirmed

Teams will be expected to complete two games each month and will be given a fixture window (two weeks) to complete each round of fixtures.

POTENTIAL INTER NATIONS ASPECTS
We will endeavour to keep MAN v FAT Football XI’s as inclusive and accessible to all as possible. All clubs in England, Scotland and Wales will be able to enter the competition this season. If there is enough uptake, each of these areas will be given their own group to compete for places in the knock-out stages.  There will be a requirement at some stage of the competition for teams outside of England to cross the border and play fixtures against teams covered by the FA and vice versa as teams will be playing home and away legs in the knock-out stages of the competition.

We understand that change will bring questions and as a team we will do our best to answer them as quickly as possible. To help with this you will find a current copy of our MAN v FAT Football XI’s FAQ’s below along with the rules for this season’s competition.

Preston MAN v FAT lift the trophy after their 4-3 victory against West Brom MAN v FAT in the final for season 2022/23.  For more pictures from the finals day please go to the following link

https://bit.ly/2023_MvFNationalXIs