COMMENT / THE RULES
Five lines of league rules that prevent nearly every argument
You do not need ten pages. You need five decisions taken in advance, because taken afterwards they are not decisions but grievances.
1. Two people say the same number at once
It will happen at least once in every auction. The two answers that work: whoever the auctioneer heard first, no appeal; or the lot reopens at that amount and anyone may raise.
What does not work is deciding case by case, because the first decision becomes a precedent someone will quote the second time.
2. Someone runs out of credits before filling the squad
The clean answer is to make it impossible: no bid may leave a team unable to cover its remaining slots at one credit each.
If there is no such check, write down what happens: incomplete squad, gifted credits, or cancelling the last purchase. All three are ugly, but an ugly rule written in advance beats an argument at midnight.
3. The bye, with an odd number of teams
With an odd number, one team rests each round and scores nothing, which distorts total-points standings.
The three sensible answers: play on average points, assign a conventional result, or find one more team. Choose before matchday one.
4. What happens if a team quits
It happens nearly every year. Either remove the team and void the matches already played against it, or leave it in the table with a conventional result.
The first is fairer and forces a recalculation; the second is simpler and hands points to whoever had yet to face them.
5. Date and format of the repair auction
How many players can be released, how many bought, and with which credits. Three or four out of twenty-five corrects without rebuilding.
On credits, the usual middle path is an equal top-up of twenty or thirty added to whatever remains.
Where to write them
Anywhere everyone can read again: a pinned message, a shared document, a pdf. What matters is that nobody can say they did not know, and that the text has a date.
Rules are not for the person who writes them. They are for the person who, in February, is certain they are right.
What to read next
League rules
League rules already written and editable: squad, auction, scoring, repair auction and the disputes worth settling early.
GuideThe mistakes that ruin a live auction
These are not strategy mistakes: they are things that happen at the table and, if you have not planned for them, cost an hour.
GuideThe winter repair auction
January's auction is a different animal from August's: shorter, more decisive and easier to get wrong.