apterous.org

Notes from the organizer: It’s the summer soon, which means we inevitably have more international football tournaments.

This year it’s the Women’s Euros and COPA America, which as per the men’s last year, will be a combined Apterous tournament.

16 people will be assigned a nation to represent in the Euros, another 10 will get a nation in the COPA (you won’t compete in both). The winner of each will then play-off in the Finalissima to decide our inter-continental champion.

Only 26 spots are available so we will have qualifying if we get more than 26 sign-ups.

If needed, qualifying will take place through May, so you have until then to sign up. The main tournament will then take place through June / July.

For anyone new, I’ve been running these for most major tournaments since Qatar 2022.

Past winners are:
World Cup 2022 (Men) - Croatia (Ronan M Higginson)
World Cup 2023 (Women) - Germany (Matthew Brockwell)
Euros 2024 (Men) - England (Adam Latchford)
COPA America 2024 (Men) - Mexico (Tom Cappleman)
Finalissima 2024 (Men) - Mexico (Tom Cappleman)

There are also FIFA World Rankings, which Tom C currently leads: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_TZGbGJ8ZP0qijvOZ4gaC1omxm6tHVQelyfa9bSy75E/edit?gid=159659610#gid=159659610&range=A1:J1

Further info on this tournament can be found on the other tabs on the spreadsheet link above.

We’ll use the same scoring method as previously. For those unaware it is the one Andy is currently using in his Champions League / Europa League tournament and that was established by Bradley for the Premier League tournament (and is also being used in right now in the EFL Championship), so hopefully most are aware of this (you score a goal if you win a round with a max).

The one change this time is that group matches will be played out across one 9-Rounder (as opposed to Champions League format which we’ve previously used and is used by all of the examples above).

A) It replicates no home advantage, which is the case in major international football tournaments (host aside, obviously).
B) It will lower scores, which I think will reflect real football scores more accurately.
C) It should level the playing field a little more and produce more shocks, which should make the tournament more fun for everyone.

Knockout stages are TBC on format, but we’ll obviously have a solution to settle extra time and penalties in the knockouts if needed.

Full details will follow post-sign-up once we know numbers.

Runs from: 15 April – 5 May 2025. Format: 9 Rounder. Matches: One-off. Approved.

Fixtures: 0. Completed: 0.