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The Associated Football Union (AFU) is the governing body of association football in Escadia. It currently consists of 114 senior club teams and 80 junior (amateur) club teams spanning 6 levels. The Associated Football Union was founded in 1925 after the merger of the Escadian Football Union and Football Association of Escadia.

The AFU league system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the hypothetical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system. At the top is the single division of the Premiership (which is often referred to as the "top flight"), containing 18 clubs. Below the Premiership are four divisions of 16 clubs each: The Championship (Level 2), League 1 (Level 3), Eastern League and Western League (Level 4) and the Caledonian League and South of Escadia Football League (Level 5).

The sixth level is known as Escadian Junior Football and is split into four leagues of 20 clubs, North League A, 'North League B, South League A and South League B (Level 6).

The Associated Football Union sits on the International Football Association Board which is responsible for the laws of the game. The AFU is also a member of FIFA and founder member of UEFA. It is based at Sportplex in New London. In addition, the Escadian Football Museum is located there.


League System[]

Domestic Cup Competitions[]

UEFA Club Competition Qualifications[]

UEFA Champions League[]

  • Premiership 1st place qualifies for the Champions League Second Qualifying Phase

2016-17 Champions League

UEFA Europa League[]

  • Escadian Cup 1st place qualifies for the Europa League Second Qualifying Round
  • Premiership 2nd and 3rd place qualify for Europa League First Qualifying Round

2016-17 Europa League

Escadian National Teams[]

The Escadian national football team represents Escadia at football and is controlled by Associated Football Union, the governing body for football in Escadia. They contest the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship, which alternate biennially. The teams official home ground is the New London Sportplex in New London.

The team has been managed by Gordon Strickland since January 2013.

The U-19 Nation Team has been managed by Richard Brits since Jul;y 2016.

Competitions[]

U19 National Team[]

Media & Broadcasting Rights[]

The AFU sells its television rights on a collective basis. For the 2016-17 Premiership season, 100% of the domestic and international TV money was split evenly between the 18 clubs. This was due to the re-structuring of the league. In the years following, 75% of the total domestic TV money is allocated to the Premiership, 20% to the Championship and 5% to League 1. Of the monies allocated to the Premiership, 50% is divided equally between all the clubs, 25% is Merit Pay distributed according to the final league position and 25% is a Facility Fee given out to clubs for live televised matches. The international TV money is evenly split between all 18 Premiership clubs.

AFU Domestic Television Contacts
Network Per Year Total (through 2019)
ESPORTS $416M $1.211B
ESN $155M $466M
EBC $62M $186M

The latest TV rights agreement between the AFU and Escadian broadcasters was signed on June 5th 2016. The terms of the deal cover 3-years (through the 2018-19 season) and totaled a record setting $1.9B. ESPORTS paid $1.2B for most of the Premiership game packages that include two Saturday games, one of the Sunday games and some midweek games. They also purchased the full Championship and League 1 packages.

ESN payed $466M to secure two Premiership packages that include one Sunday game and some midweek matches. ESN also purchased the primary rights to the Escadian Cup.

EBC purchased the secondary package for the Escadian Cup and the exclusive Premiership Highlight Packages at just over $186M.

CABLE+ purchased Highlight Packages for the Championship and League 1. CABLE+ also has an existing deal with the AFU in place since 2015 that cover the Escadian men's national team 2018 World Cup Qualifying and International Friendly matches.

Television[]

Each weekend as many as four Premiership matches will be moved to be shown on ESPORTS1 or ESN. The main kick-off times for TV matches are 3:00pm and 6:00pm on Saturdays, 1:00pm and 4:00pm on Sundays.

ESPORTS will almost always show the Saturday double-bill 3:00pm and 6:00pm games as well as a Sunday 4:00pm game live. The live Championship league games is broadcast on ESPORTS2 at 4:00pm Saturdays and the day starts with the 1:00pm live broadcast of the League 1 game.

ESN typically broadcast live Premiership games at 1:00pm on Sundays.

AFU Domestic Television Broadcast Schedule
Day Time (ET) League Network
Saturday 1:00pm League 1 ESPORTS2
Saturday 3:00pm Premiership ESPORTS1
Saturday 5:00pm Championship ESPORTS2
Saturday 6:00pm Premiership ESPORTS1
Sunday 1:00pm Premiership ESN (or ESPORTS1)
Sunday 4:00pm Premiership ESPORTS1 (or ESN)


Major international competitions such as the World Cup and European Championships are broadcast live on the EBC and CABLE+. All the Escadian men's National Team qualifiers and friendlies are live on CABLE+ until 2018.

The Escadian Cup is broadcast live on the EBC and ESN and the Amstel League Cup is live on ESPORTS until 2019.

The UEFA Champions and Europa League broadcast rights are held by ESN until 2019

Broadcasting Contracts for Football (Television)
Event Broadcaster Broadcast Details
FIFA World Cup Finals EBC and CABLE+ All 2018 and 2022 matches live on EBC and CABLE+
FIFA Confederations Cup CABLE+ Live in 2017
European Championship Finals EBC Sports and CABLE+ All Euro 2016 matches live on EBC Sports and CABLE+
UEFA European Qualifiers TBD Euro 2020 live qualifying matches TBD.
UEFA Nations League CABLE+ and ESN Matches live on CABLE+ and ESN until 2020
Escadian National Team CABLE+ All International friendlies live on CABLE+ until 2019
Premier League ESPORTS, ESN and EBC Sports (highlights) until 2019 ESPORTS - 90 live games (packages A, C, D, E and G)
  • Saturdays @ 15:00 & 18:00 (28 x2 - 20 first rights)
  • Sundays @ 15:00 or 16:00 (28 - 20 first rights)
  • Midweek @ 19:30 (6)

ESN - 42 live games (packages B and F)

  • Sundays @ 15:00 or 16:00 (28 - 8 first rights)
  • Saturdays @ 15:00 or 18:00 (8)
  • Midweek @ 19:30 (6) - 5 first rights

EBC Sports (highlights)

New London Cup ESN and EBC Sports Live on ESN until 2018, highlights on EBC Sports
Escadian Cup EBC Sports and ESN EBC Sports (16 live matches including one semi-final and shared final per season) and ESN (25 live matches including one semi-final and shared final per season) until 2019
The Championship & League 1 ESPORTS and CABLE+ (highlights) ESPORTS 60 live matches per-season, plus live play-off matches and final (30 Championship, 30 shared between League 1 until 2019; highlights on CABLE+ until 2019
Amstel Cup ESPORTS and CABLE+ (highlights) ESPORTS, 15 live matches per-season, including semi-finals and final until 2019; highlights on CABLE+ until 2019
UEFA Champions League ESN and CABLE+ (highlights) Live on ESN until 2019 with 12 live matches including final available free-to-air on ESN; highlights on CABLE+
UEFA Europa League ESN and CABLE+ (highlights) Live on ESN until 2019 with 14 live matches including final available free-to-air on ESN; highlights on CABLE+

International[]

The AFU has matches seen in over 20 countries worldwide. In 2016, the union sold their international broadcast rights collectively for $375M over 3 years ($125M/year). Most of the agreements are with European networks however there are also deals with United States. Brazilian and South Koreans broadcasters.

Country Network Details
Netherlands Sport1 Two matches per week
Azerbaijan CBC Sport Live Escadian Premiership matches
Belgium Play Sports Two matches per week, since 2015
India NEO Sports Two-Three match per week (New Alexandria, Los Benza and New London matches only)
Albania SuperSport Albania One match per week and highlights
Italy Sky Sport (Italy) Two matches per week, and highlights
Turkey Tivibu Sports Live matches every week, two or three times
Russia Telekanal Futbol Live matches every week, two or three times
Croatia Slovenia,Serbia Sport Klub Live matches every week, two or three times
Spain Movistar Fútbol (Movistar+) Three matches every week, and highlights
Portugal Sport TV Two or three live matches every week
Slovakia Arena Sport Two or three live matches every week
Germany Sportdigital.tv Up to three matches per week, and highlights (Mostly New Alexandria, Los Benza and at times New London matches)
South Korea tvN Live New Alexandria matches
United Kingdom Sky Sports Football Live Premiership matches
United States BeIN Sport Live Premiership matches
Brazil ESPN Brazil, Sport TV Up to two matches per week
Norway Viasat Fotball One match live on Sunday 18.00 CET
Lithuania Sport1 Up to two matches per week and highlights

Board of Directors[]

The Executive Committee consists of four positions, the Chairman, Chief Executive, General Security and Executive Director. There are no term limits for executive committee members. The entire board (both executive and non-executive members) vote to fill a vacant executive member position. Chairman of the AFU has the overall responsibility for policy. Traditionally this person rose through the ranks of the AFU's committee structure (e.g. by holding posts such the chairmanship of a state football association). Each state's FA head is part of non-executive committee.

Besides overseeing the operations of the various leagues, the executive committee also has ownership responsibilities for the Escadian national team.

Associated Football Union Executive Board[]

  • Chairman: Cameron Ferguson
  • Chief Executive: Patrick Goddard
  • General Secretary: Jack Donnelly
  • Executive Director: Charlie Rees

State FA Members (Non-Executive)[]

Philip Day (Royal Centre FA)
Kai Bennett (Castelo FA)
Bradley Allen (Easton FA)
Arnaud Cailot (Terrabonne FA)
Gregg Carson (Westminster FA)
Aidan Newman (Masset FA)
Samuel Stevenson (Ashton FA)
Callum Connor (Estcourt FA)
Patrick Rowley (Yarmouth FA)


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