02 January, 2000 - (SEASON ONE/S1)

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
After taking a huge amount of feeback in the past couple of weeks, we have finally filtered out the FAQ page into sections to make it easier to find the answer's you're looking for. If you can't find a question that needs answering then please feel free to email us by clicking here! Simply click on one of the headings below to take you to the desired section. Please ensure you've read this section thoroughly before emailing us.

Questions concerning non-members wanting to join
Questions concerning current members
Questions concerning the website
Questions concerning competitions within the game
Questions concerning the running of the game
Questions that didn't fit into any of the above categories

Questions concerning non-members wanting to join

Question: Why is there no form in the Application Form page?

Answer: If there is no application form in the Application Form page then it's because we are currently full up with managers and no longer taking any applications. When a position is made available, the form is then put up for users to apply.

Question: I saw a few clubs become available, however the application form did not appear and those clubs then had new managers installed. How comes?

Answer: There is a waiting list here at Soccer All Stars. Applications that were good enough to get a team in at the time, but we were full, get offered a team first. If they accept they become a manager of one of the vacant teams, if they refuse it's passed on to the next person on the waiting list and so on. Once that has been exhausted then the application form on the page will appear for new managers to apply.

Question: Why is my application form always rejected when you still have managerial vacancies for several teams?

Answer: This is because we feel your application was not good enough. Therefore we felt that none of the teams currently available at that time wanted your services. We thrive on quality for the league, not just a full managerial roster.

Question: Why don't you use a roleplay board like most other fantasy football sites? If you have one then we can see the quality within the league and make our applications better.

Answer: We use emailing as our source of roleplaying because we feel this is a better way of doing things. Not only do we get better, longer and more well written RPs, we also don't have the worry of having to passlock a roleplay board in fear of spamming from non members. We do provide some sample roleplays for you to view.

Question: After looking at your league I noticed that many of the results are so unrealistic as well as the transfers. Why is this?

Answer: The whole point of this site is fantasy and to have fun. We're not trying to duplicate the real world. If you want that then watch the television and read the newspapers. We're more interested in having fun and providing a quality service that's different for the managers.

Question: I've noticed that teams seem to have huge amounts of money. This is surely unrealistic even for a fantasy football league?

Answer: We agree that most teams have a lot of money, due to winning competitions an such. However, through experience we've realized that managers don't want to let their players go easily. Therefore more cash is made available so managers can splash out on players. If they end up never spending a penny then who knows, the dreaded Random Sector Day may intervene!

Question: I still don't really understand how the league works... How does the results work?

Answer: Previously the members of the board would decide the results and scorers, based upon the quality of RPing and Tactics submitted by users. However, we now use a simulator to simulate results based upon a number of values entered. We get a full result, the scorers and the minute they scored in along with other such additions such as injuries and bookings.

Question: I really want to work on the Executive Board!!! What do I need to join?

Answer: You should check to see the Jobs link on the site. That has details of all the positions currently available. However we're always interested in bettering the league. We thrive on people with a high passion, high knowledge of football, computing talents and of course a professional attitude and love for helping others. If you can say you have all of those skills then you may stand a chance of working at SAS.

Question: I can't find the Roleplay Board? What's going on?

Answer: Soccer All Stars don't use a RP board. We RP by email. So if you want to see what's going on you'll have to join! However you can check out the Sample Roleplays provided within the site.

Question: I want to send an email to the site but I can't find the contact address!

Answer: If you would like to contact us, you can use the feedback form provided on the site in the right hand menu, or by clickig on the Executive Board link and emailing a specific member of the team from there.

Question: Why are there no contact addresses or ICQ numbers of managers within the game?

Answer: We do our very best to protect our managers and their privacy must be respected. Their contact address are not displayed as a mark of respect and security. We only give out contacts to other members within the site and feel that it's the best way of doing things.

Questions concerning current members

Question: What type of values are entered into the simulator?

Answer: We can't actually reveal that at this current time. However the obvious ones for RPing and Tactics are there with several others too.

Question: When bidding for players on the Transfer Market, why does my bid have to be submitted to the entire RP List? Isn't that unrealistic to let other clubs see what I've bidded?

Answer: The whole point of the Transfer Market is like an auction. The clubs you are purchasing the players from are out to make as much money for themselves as possible. Therefore, they make all bids incoming for their players public. This is in hope they can get as much money as possible in the process.

Question: What is Random Sector/Random Sector Day?

Answer: If your asking this question then you obviously have not read the Terms and Conditions. You can read up on the Random Sector by clicking HERE

Question: Why don't you include player wages and player contracts into your game? Wouldn't this make the game much more realistic?

Answer: Obviously having those elements would make the game more realistic and more fun too. We are currently looking into the situation. However bear in mind the time it would take to install these features and then continue to maintain them. The SAS site takes up huge chunks of our time as it is. Until we are sure we can cope with the work load will we then look into these features.

Question: Why can't we manage the English national side?

Answer: The answer to this is quite complex. For starters there aren't many international games. Therefore it would be little interest for the manager and secondly there are several rules for internationals. Some of these include; a) only players from the SAS Leagues can play for England. b) You have to have an idea of who's playing well, not just who you like or who is popular in the real world. c) the board know what is going on at all times. The international games/selection is there to try and help you buy English players more, knowing that you'll pick up a £250,000 cash bonus for every player you've got that plays for England.

Question: I really don't understand the Hall of Fame section... It has managers included in their yet SAS has just started hasn't it? All the players and information is as accurate as it can be up until October 19th

Answer: The SAS season started around December/January 98/99. However after only a handful of league and cup games the site closed for renovation. Due to the delay in getting the site back we had to 'scrap' all of the old data and start fresh again. Those managers in the Hall of Fame are judged on that 'scrapped' season.

Question: What is mIRC?

Answer: mIRC which is also known as IRC is a chatting program which is widely used throughout the world on the internet. It's a terrific chatting program that needs to be downloaded in order to use it.

Question: I'm having problems setting up mIRC. It's really frustrating as I want to chat online with other managers and SAS Executive Board managers

Answer: We have an mIRC tutorial available on the site with screenshots. If you want to view it click HERE!!!

Question: I've noticed that on the top of a lot of pages the date is always incorrect. Why is this?

Answer: The date is not incorrect, it's just the last day that, that particular page was updated. So if you see 'Monday October 18th, 1999' and that is not the current date, it simply means that the page you are viewing was last updated on that day.

Questions concerning the website

Question: What programs do you use to make the site and it's graphical images?

Answer: Most of the members of SAS can code in HTML. However, to save time we often use Frontpage 2000. For graphical images we use Adobe Photoshop 5.0, Corel Draw 8.0 and Macromedia Flash 4.0

Question: Do you make money of this website?

Answer: No, the Executive Board all do this as a hobby. It's completely voluntary work! We are football fans through and through and love the game. We're not interested in money or other things.

Question: Why don't you get your OWN domain?

Answer: They're are a number of reasons why we don't have our own domain. Some of these reasons are because a) it's too expensive, b) it's not a main priority and c) we feel we aren't good enough to have our own domain yet.

Question: But there are services available so you can get your own domain for FREE

Answer: We are well aware of these free services. However they do NOT offer other services with it such as CGI, PERL and ASP hosting. If they had these then we would definitely be interested. The services that you talk about offer just a domain name and nothing else.

Question: Who came up with the idea of SAS and why?

Answer: It was ScreamKing's (the Executive Producer and Founder of SAS) original idea. However it would take too long for him or us to explain why and how he made SAS. We'll be looking into why he made this site sometime in the future.

Question: I have read the original FAQ section on the site and would really love to know why ScreamKing made SAS. I know it says that a history page or something was in the making by ScreamKing himself, but it's been ages...

Answer: Right, here goes, ScreamKing first came onto the internet way back in March of 1998. He came online to find a site exactly like SAS is today in order to compete amongst real life managers online. Why did he want to do this you may ask?

The reasons are quite simple. As a youngster ScreamKing was like every other normal kid who loved playing, watching and reading about football. His early part of his life was dedicated to playing soccer in the park or soccer games on computers and management simulation ones were and still remain his favourite.

ScreamKing used to play his own games by kicking a sponge ball into a small made goal in his bedroom. During this time he used to collect hundreds and hundreds of football cards and stickers. Instead of sticking them in books or putting them away for safe keeping he built up a huge collection of players and a database of information. Expanding his knowledge with them he used to make up his own dream teams, formations and teams and pretend to be the manager of that particular side.

He made transfers for new players (cards or stickers) and used to use a dice to play matches. He'd roll a dice for everything to keep the fairness in the game. The dice would indicate how many shots he was allowed on his pre-made goal and each side would have a set number from the dice. Shooting into the goal until all the amount of chances were finished decided the results of the games.

The dice was also used for transfer bidding and sales. He'd use a set of numbers for an answer of yes and no which also maintained fairness. Eventually as he tired of managing the one side he decided to try his luck at managing them all!

He installed himself as manager of all the English Premiership sides and he did what he felt was best for each and every team. Making signings, sales, match tactics and formations... Along the way he'd make his own newspaper reports to go with the league as well as full league fixtures, cup competitions and various other things within the league.

This was all built up on paper and after several seasons of the league going he built up quite a fortress in his fantasy league which could have easily exceeded 2,000 pages of information. Around the time of 1996-7 ScreamKing got himself an old laptop. It was fairly basic and in black and white with only a floppy disk drive.

He converted everything onto the laptop and found it much easier to maintain his league using it. He could also print pages and make his league far more efficient. With his leagues fast improving and always growing at an alarming rate he got himself a PC during February/March of 1998.

It was here he decided that he'd look online to see if anyone he knew played the same sort of game but with real managers in control. After a few weeks of desperate searching he didn't find one single site that matched what he was looking for.

All he could find were play by mail sites or sites that cost money or you had to subscribe to... worst more they were all "crap" in his opinion using horrid pointing systems or ratings from real life to judge the outcome of the winners.

So ScreamKing decided to embark on a mission to make what he was looking for in hope to inspire someone to make a league so he could play in. At the time he didn't expect to take the league as far as SAS has come. However as months passed the leagues he made became more and more popular and he found himself enjoying running the sites more than wanting to be a manager. He found that he enjoyed being in control, which basically is how his leagues were run on paper, with him in control.

The only difference for him now is he has real life managers making real decisions for their teams and all the transfers and so fourth are done by you, the managers. From what has been a little over imaginative game played in the privacy of his own home has now turned into something that he has shared with hundreds of people from around the world and even inspiring some to make their own leagues. Leagues that have evolved because of SAS are the following: Dream Teams, Euro League, Football Mania, Top Flight Manager, FootiWarp, European Dream League, CUFFL, FAQPFF, Ultimate Football League, Interactive Soccer Manager, Three Lions, Pride-Net Sports and more than likely a few more. Despite some of the sites mentioned not being directly influenced by SAS, it was because of SAS that they are here. For example, a time-line of sites produced UFL... E.g. SAS --> Football Mania --> FootiWarp --> Ultimate Football League. Who knows how many other sites will inspire other managers and people, but at this rate, the scene continues to grow all thanks to the evolution of SAS.

Now SAS are back and bigger than ever and are out to inspire more people and give more fun to the managers than previously experienced before...

Question: How comes the SAS Internet Management Team didn't make the revamp they promised and SK came back?

Answer: That's classified information at this moment of time. The reasons for the new SAS Internet Management team not returning are unknown at this present time. However we do know that lack of time and interest played a major role.

Question: Which of the board members is the most important? Who should we contact first if we have a problem?

Answer: Everybody on the SAS Executive Board is vitally important. There is no one member that is at a higher level of status than the next. Each member has his/her roles and the teamwork provided is what is most important. Questions should always be directed to the site's official email address which is sas_board@hotmail.com. 

Questions concerning competitions within the game

Question: Why is the league broken into four divisions of 6 teams? Wouldn't it be more fun to have 1 division of 20 teams?

ANSWER: There are many reasons why the league is broken down into 4 divisions of 6 teams. The main reasons are quite simple and are easily justifiable. Firstly, it's easier to maintain smaller divisions. This means the fixtures, league tables and results are easier to update. Secondly and most importantly, the relegation and promotion adds excitement to a season. Thirdly, if we had one large division, the season would take far to long to finish, and therefore too many managers will become bored of the league and leave. Also with more divisions there are more winners. E.g. Champions of every division, and runners up are promoted which gives a higher level of satisfaction to more managers. For example, a large league would have only 1 champion and 2 cup winners. That's a total of just 3 competitions split over 20 teams. With 24 teams, we can have 6 champions plus another 3 managers satisfied with second place in the league and promotion.

Question: The SAS Cup is a little too similar to the league don't you think? The Group Stages have almost an identical league format. Isn't that too repetitive?

Answer: We agree that it's slightly too similar but we are positive the the SAS Cup still provides huge entertainment and fun throughout. Season One/S1's SAS Cup looks to be a thrilling competition and has some beautiful ties lined up. I'm sure the majority of managers like the Cup structure and it's sure to pull out surprises all the time.

Question: Are players that play in cup matches then cup tied if the move on/are loaned out to another side?

Answer: There are no cup tied rules in SAS. This means that players are free to play within all competitions and at any time! Players do not get cup-tied when playing for another team or moving to a new team. All players are elligible for every competition.

Questions concerning the running of the game

QUESTION: Is it possible to sell our players to clubs outside the SAS? ( i.e. Is there anyway of selling players that are not wanted by other SAS clubs ) As a way of generating more cash for the club.

ANSWER: It is currently possible and it's only possible when the Executive Board will make bids for some of your clubs players. This unfortunately has not happened as yet due to the fact that we've run out of time due to several members departing from the board. To make up for this, the Board will announce a couple of transfer window days where teams from outside of SAS will make bids for your players. It's important to remember that these are 'luxury' bids and therefore you cannot negotiate the price. It's a take it or leave it offer.

Question: Is age a factor for the players in SAS ( i.e. Can players like Ian Wright and Dean Saunders improve the same way young players like Giggs and Redknapp do ) and do they age and suffer a rapid drop of form over the course of a season. ( i.e. Would it be worth me buying a 34 year old for next season or would he age as in real life or do you keep them at the same age to keep them in the game )

Answer: Age does play a factor in the game. However ages reflect real life and although there is no age box on the site, the players can always improve and have good seasons to a certain extent. For example, if you were to sign Ian Wright and your RPing was superb as were your tactics there is no reason he can't do well. If however your not doing too well then the signs of old age will start to show. There's also no age box because ages don't increase as seasons pass. We can fit roughly two or three SAS season's within a whole year. That's three seasons and one year which will also mean that Ian Wright is likely to remain his current age (in real life) during that period of time.

Question: Have you any plans to introduce a match rating for players, I think this would be a good idea as it is quite difficult to judge how well players are playing at the moment unless they are mentioned in the match report.

Answer: Yes we've definitely got plans for match ratings per player. Again we've been a little over worked and have not had the time to squeeze them in. We apologise about this but are looking to certainly include them next season, or as early as this season if we can.

Question: You're web site is very good at the moment but I think it could be improved by more updates, I know this is all done in your spare time and for free and I know it must be difficult to keep updating but if it was possible I think it would be a good idea to have more Newspaper updates, As well as a News/rumours page maybe you could have a gossip page which could tell of transfer rumours, player unrest etc, weather it be true or just a rumour. 

Answer: If you were a manager in the early part of the season you will have noticed the newspaper was updated at least two or three times per week. This has slightly decreased again because of the fact that some board members left the site. We really would like to have at least one new article per week but sometimes it's slightly difficult. However we're working on new aspects of the site all the time and are hopefully going to once again have more regular newspaper updates. The gossip pages is another item we are taking into consideration and this could also be implemented in the future.

Question: In Division 4 when the team who finishes last, what happens to that team? are they removed from SAS along with the manager and another team is brought is to be managed by someone else?

Answer: The team that finishes bottom of the SAS Premier Division 4 is relegated to a non-league status with a new team being promoted. The manager of that club will no longer be within the league but MAY be offered the chance to manage the new side that's promoted. It's likely he/she who is relegated will have first option on the new club coming up over any new applicants.

Questions that didn't fit into any of the above categories

Question: Can you help/make our page/graphics?

Answer: We're afraid to inform you that we can't help you with your site at this current time. Purely because we are incredibly busy with this site. We may decide to offer our services in the future, but that is likely to be only of benefit to us. (Meaning you'd have to pay a small fee of some sort).

Question: What programs do you use to make the site and it's graphical images?

Answer: Most of the members of SAS can code in HTML. However, to save time we often use Frontpage 2000. For graphical images we use Adobe Photoshop 5.0, Corel Draw 8.0 and Macromedia Flash 4.0

Question: Can you send me any of these programs or put them up in the downloads section?

Answer: Unfortunately we can't send you any of those programs as it's highly illegal and would result in punishment for ourselves and you. They are also expensive pieces of software. We're not sure of the accurate prices of these programs, but it would cost hundreds of pounds to purchase them.

Question: I can't afford to splash out on an expensive program. Could you at least give an approx value to how much it would cost to make an image?

Answer: It all depends on what type of image you require. I would approximate a value of £5 per image. However, bear in mind that size, animations and criteria could all change that value. It's more likely that we will make images ranging from £5 to £15. At the moment though we are not offering these services, when we do we'll let you know immediately.

Question: We've heard that you made Footiwarp's main banner along with Euro League's entire site and images. How comes they got your services for free?

Answer: They got them free due to the following reasons, a) A favour was owed, b) we were not charging for our services at the time and c) to help keep the fantasy leagues running at that time.

Question: After playing/visiting your game/site. I have been inspired to start my own. Can you give me any advice?

Answer: First of all you should read up on the links, What is Fantasy Football and Create A League. Our best advice is to make sure your dedicated. Never open a half made site as it will soon close down and if you make a site, go all the way! Don't open a site for one month and then close it when things become tough. That's not fair on the managers. Also don't be afraid to use all the free services around. We use free services and have managed to make a great site and you can do the same too! Having YourOwnName.com does not prove you are a good league!

Question: I don't understand something, Euro League which is run by David 'Keeper' Cornell has exactly the same site layout and design that SAS used to have? I thought that SAS had changed it's name to Euro League?

Answer: That's completely inaccurate. ScreamKing agreed to pass on the old SAS site's design and images to Euro League. This led to the site becoming official affiliates of Soccer All Stars. Euro League are very much the European version of the old SAS site. If anyone is interested in looking at the old design or would like to try their luck in Euro League, check out their website at http://welcome.to/euroleague Credit must go to Mr Cornell for all his fantastic and hard work for Fantasy Internet Management. His website, although designed by ScreamKing is a credit to him and his dedication to the cause. It was true that ScreamKing worked for a short period on the Euro League Board before SAS's return as 'Acting Vice Chairman'. The deal was always a temporary move and ScreamKing soon departed after doing everything he personally promised Euro League and then started work on the rebirth of SAS.

Question: I'm still quite confused. I thought SAS was a professional site? Is it not?

Answer: Soccer All Stars is far from professional. We are a free based site and we thrive on making the most of every opportunity. We try to be professional at all times and conduct ourselves in a professional manner. If you've been given the impression that we are a professional site then we're doing a good job and every member of the Board can be extremely proud of their achievements.

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