Hello and welcome to the Grand MB National...
You might be joining us late but all the main action is still to come.
It's neck and neck as we come to three fences out.
Aubameyang (180pts) and Bale (180) seemingly cannot be separated.
Kane (120) is holding onto 3rd, just ahead of the old timer of the race, Messi (120) and Willian (120).
Kepa (110), Santi (100), Sane (100) and Werner (80) all in the chasing pack and it's still just about anyone's.

Here's the 3rd last fence now, how will they all manage it?
Aubameyang stumbled at that one, drops back a little (140) leaving Bale (180) clear out in front.
Messi (120), Kane (120), Kepa (110), Santi (100) and Sane (100) are all over safely but Willian (80) almost unseated his rider there and now seems to be out of contention.
Can Pogba (90) make a late run? The temperamental filly has moved ahead of Werner (80) and Meunier (80) but still has it all to do to grab a top 3 finish.

Join us after these ads for the conclusion of this year's debacle spectacle

Last week I was looking at which teams are going to be playing numerous Bronze Match Days (BMDs) in the next 30 days.
With the CL knockout stages starting tomorrow there will be a few so I thought I'd try and take advantage of the situation.
Here are all the Bronze fixtures currently scheduled:

I'll briefly explain the colours, italics, etc...
Where possible, I colour coordinated all the teams with 2+ BMD in accordance with their kit colours just so I could see clearly how many games these teams were playing. But with a number of kits of similar colour: blues, reds, etc. this wasn't always possible. The main thing was to make it easier to spot.
Any team playing just the one BMD e.g. Frankfurt, Marseille, etc. were left blank.

Man C v West Ham and BMG v Koln fixtures are in italics as they are standard league games and unlikely to prove to be worth picking when up against the 1.25x multiplier for the CL/Europa matches that same day.

So what did I do with this info?
As you can see, there are quite a few teams playing 2 BMDs.
Chelsea (already played tonight), Spuds, Leipzig and Wet Spam all have 3 BMDs but not in the same 30 day window. So, effectively that's 2 also if you are geared more towards IPD.
Man City have 3 BMDs but the first one is just an EPL fixture and, as mentioned earlier, not likely to appeal when up against the two CL matches.

This just leaves us with Juventus who play 3 BMDs and Liverpool who have a rather juicy 4.
edit: I failed to spot Valencia also have three but that's now been fixed in the image above.
So these were the two teams I decided to delve deeper into.

Liverpool, starting tomorrow, play 6 games in the next 30 days and 4 of them are BMDs (18/2, 24/2, 11/3 & 16/3).

The FA Cup tie at Chelsea doesn't count but that's a decent set of fixtures, especially with 4 BMDs.
Looking at how their players have been doing this season...

I limited this to only players who regularly feature and then sorted it via PB Yield as I wanted to know what kind of percentage return I might get on my investment.
I already hold Henderson and was looking to pick up two other players but the issue with Liverpool is trying to find value; an almost impossible task with how well they have been doing.
Wijnaldum's better PB scores were with Holland, his Liverpool record is nowhere near as good, and at £1.37 I just think there's better value elsewhere.
Trent is obviously topping the PB wins plus the IPDs for all his assists but I'm not buying into him at £7+
I used to hold the Ox but sold him on a spike a while back and he's less likely to feature now that Mane's seemingly fit again.
Mane was actually the one I went into this thinking I'd end up buying but he's yet to win PB this season and, with a slight doubt about his fitness, I decided against paying £3+ a share. If this was a long term thing, I may well have plumped for him but my plan is only to take advantage of the BMDs; I can assess the situation afterwards.

In the end, I went for VVD. Sure, he's not cheap (£3.10) but he has the best Dividend Yield and that's a good starting point.
Looking at his numbers, he plays every game, has more minutes than any other player and he's 4th highest scorer behind the front three.

Speaking of the front 3, I just think Salah's a bit expensive at £4+ and Firmino (£2+) hasn't quite hit the heights of previous seasons. Mane I've already covered. Besides, Virgil has better PB scores than all of them this season plus both PB and MB wins this past month. As I'm mainly concentrating on PB/MB for these BMDs, I like my choice.

A bit disappointed I only ended up with Virgil, I also picked up Alisson (91p). With 9 clean sheets in his last 10 games, there's some IPD value there plus the chance of some MB if he performs heroics to win a game.

I then moved onto Juventus as they have 7 games in a 30 day window (22/2-21/3), one more than Liverpool, and do have 3 BMDs to try and take advantage of (26/2, 13/3 & 17/3).
I think there's much more value than you can find at Liverpool, or at most EPL sides really. And that's understandable due to how our current MB system works. But with the big CL nights coming up, there'll still be plenty of interest and reporting for the big teams like Juve too. Juve's fixtures:

As with Liverpool, their cup game doesn't count but a number of relatively easy opponents there.
Lyon, after a good run not so long ago are back in a bit of a slump and I expect Juve to see them off comfortably enough.
I then looked at how Juve's players have been performing this season...

Higuain is top of the PB Yield but his recent performances have been poor and he rarely plays a full game. I decided against it.
Dybala's price shot up ~50p on the back of his 340 score the other day. He's settled back down a bit but is still 34p higher than before the weekend and, with Ronaldo coming back in, Dybala will go back to playing second fiddle so he's not for me.
I can't ignore Ronaldo though. I don't really care how old he is, the guy is a beast.

PB, MB and IPD possibilities galore there. I've grabbed myself some.
I looked at Pjanic but, apart form an excellent couple of months before Christmas, his stats are pretty average. Apparently, he's fit despite coming off injured at the weekend only 8min after entering the field as a sub but I'm not interested in him, too risky. De Ligt was too expensive, while Ramsey, Rabiot and Matuidi don't play enough.

To supplement Ronaldo, I went for Cuadrado (58p) and Alex Sandro (87p). Both regularly play the full 90min and have good PB scores this season, both winning PB Divs on a Gold Day on Sunday. After their performances at the weekend (243 and 215pb respectively) both have also risen in price but only a little so there's potentially more there to come, hopefully.
But my main investment, in terms of shares bought at least, has gone into a 32yo CB.
Step forward Leonardo Bonucci. 57p for a guy with decent PB scores isn't bad. Like VVD, he's played more minutes than any of his teammates and, just like Big Virg, only the front three have scored more than him this season.

Am I expecting him to be a PB beast? No, of course not. But he tends to deliver on the big occasion and with a potential 7 opportunities (6 for me as I bought today before the 22/2-21/3 seven-game window) and 3 BMDs he has a decent chance of some Divs and maybe even IPDs. If he does well, I might hold through the Euros too.
My BMD players...

Well, there we have it. I'm sure you will all have different opinions on which teams to target and what players to go for.
Chances are that most of you will have bought the players you want already. Feel free to share your opinions.
This isn't a pump. As you can see, I don't hold many of each. It's more of a little experiment to see how I do.
But I thought I'd share the BMD fixtures I posted right at the top as I'm sure it will be useful to some.

@dean73 Looking at the past month (and you have to do this manually for each day unfortunately but only took 5min or so):
31 days
1st 7 times
2nd 3 times
3rd 4 times
4th 3 times
5th 1 time

So that's 14 times in 31 days in the top 3 and another 4 times he finished 4th or 5th.
You'll be hard pressed to find anyone else who has even come close to that.

https://trade.footballindex.co.uk/march-market-update-2020/

Just been posted about COVID-19 (coronavirus).
One of the main aspects...
"...in the event that the Euros don’t go ahead Media Dividends will be paid out with a 'Bonus Dividend Chart’ to cover the affected period. This contingency plan will be published on Tuesday 11th March."

edit: new link above and full article is below

COVID-19, Football & Football Index with Dividend Contingency Chart

The situation with respect to COVID-19 and the government’s response is evolving daily and we don’t pretend to have any more knowledge than anyone else, however it might be worth highlighting the following for those that aren’t up to speed.

There will be a new law focused on protecting as many people as possible whilst at the same time causing as little disruption to ‘business as usual’. Closing all schools for instance would result in at least one parent having to stay home causing enormous disruption to the NHS and emergency services at a time it can ill afford it.

Referring to the government’s 28 page dossier this is a quote from London Evening Standard on Tuesday 3rd March, “decisions would be taken whether to cancel major sporting gatherings and festivals. However officials said that the benefits of such drastic action is probably outweighed by the costs of the disruption involved, because coronavirus sufferers would infect just as many people watching a football game in a pub as watching from a stadium.”

The full government document is published here for those wishing to read the full text: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan/coronavirus-action-plan-a-guide-to-what-you-can-expect-across-the-uk

It seems at this point that matches will go ahead as normal, however it is possible that other leagues may follow the example of Italian Serie A, with matches played behind closed doors up until 3rd April. Stopping matches entirely would have significant consequences and would not be undertaken lightly.

At this point it seems the Euros are planned to go ahead according to the latest news: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/03/football/coronavirus-euro-2020-uefa-aleksander-ceferin-spt-intl/index.html

What we can say is that we have taken our stewardship of Football Index very seriously over the last four-and-a-half years. Just as the central banks are working to minimise the impact of corona on economies, likewise we are looking to minimise its impact on the Index.

Thankfully Football Index is largely uncorrelated to financial markets such as the FTSE 100 as can be seen from this Tale of Two Indexes’, highlighting how the FTSE 100 responded to COVID-19 with the biggest correction since the financial crisis in 2008. Trillions were wiped off the value of global markets.*

Football Index has, to date, remained largely unaffected and we’re committed to maintaining the health of our market and safeguarding your money.

Consequently in the event that the Euros don’t go ahead Media Dividends will be paid out with a Bonus Dividend Chart’ to cover the affected period. This contingency plan will be published on Tuesday 11th March.

Other measures will be taken as necessary, and we will keep communicating. To quote the government report “The majority of people with COVID-19 have recovered without the need for any specific treatment, as is the case for the common cold or seasonal flu. We expect that the vast majority of cases will best be managed at home, again as with seasonal colds and flu.”

Our thoughts are with anyone impacted by COVID-19. At a time like this, fear mongering can have an incredibly negative impact. Instead, we need to be responsive and stay strong as a community. The staff at Football Index plan to exemplify this, no matter what happens in the coming months.

*Notes on the above chart: This chart tracks Year to date of the daily rebalanced top 100 players on Football Index which we’ve called the FOOTIE 100. It relates to the downturn in the FTSE 100 as a reaction to COVID-19. Once the selling took effect, the divergence of price action becomes clear: during the trading period from Mon 24th to Fri 28th Feb the FTSE 100 saw more than an 11% decline in price, whereas the FOOTIE 100 saw a modest rise of 1.6% in the same trading week.

Kind Regards,

Adam Cole

Messi, Zlatan and Candreva giving me one of my best days ever I think (only started 8wks ago but still).

@Rolo said in Well done FI, you just destroyed a good product:

@NewUser218220 Amazing bargains, but FI literally just pulled the rug from under everyone's eyes

And also pulled the wool over everyone's feet 😉

@Ringers 4th yesterday with 400pts, 4th again today with 400.
If you look at the buzz website, it'll give you the placings for the last 5 days of anyone you choose.
e.g. Bruno http://www.footballbuzz.guru/football/profile/bruno-fernandes/news/
FIVE DAY HISTORY:
01/04: #4, 400
31/03: #28, 40
30/03: #9, 200
29/03: #6, 220
28/03: #5, 200

Add in tonight's 4th place and that's 3 times in 6 days he would have returned something with 5 places as opposed to zero returns for top 3.

@janner73
Eric is just like The Daily Express.
Spouts the same shit over and over again, spunks his load over Man U multiple times a day, is despised by most yet can't be completely ignored or removed from the game, unfortunately.

What a joke of a 'newspaper' the Daily Express is.
They have printed no fewer than 11 articles about him today, the last 4 in the space of 2.5hrs this afternoon, suspiciously all by the same 'reporter'.

I suspect Jack Otway has thousands of Bruno shares, nicely hitting 100+ points in almost every article.
There were even more from him yesterday.

As FI keeps expanding, this could become even more of a serious issue.
FI need to do something about it. Whether that's changing their point scoring system for media articles or removing publications for abusing/spamming, I'm not sure. It needs looking into though.

I think I suffered from the 'Pringle effect' there.
Once I started with one lineup, I just couldn't stop 😏

@howsthebacon part of my trip was through the couchsurfing website and one of the houses that said they could put me up for a few nights was in Antwerp. They were lovely and the city itself was OK I guess but I hadn't researched it before I went. I was out sightseeing in town, visited the MAS museum amongst other things and then, on my way back, turned the corner of one street nearby and ended up in some dodgy red light district. Now I know that must sound like one of those "I just stumbled across the prozzies, had no idea they were there, honest" but it's actually true.
They were minging though tbh, otherwise might have been tempted 😏

@Baydog nice. I was in Belgium/Holland for the 2014 WC, mainly stayed in hostels.
Watched the Germany v Brazil semi final in Gent with a bunch of Canadians I'd made friends with, saw Holland lose to Argentina when I'd moved on to Rotterdam in the other SF, Delft for the 3rd place playoff and then was in Ajax for the final.
Such a shame that the Dutch didn't make the final, would have been spectacular.
Holland was great though but loved Gent (not so much Antwerp).

@Baydog it was a very good finish too, rocketing it into the roof of the net.
He's not a player I rate though. Perhaps it's the stupid moustache in his profile pic

@Lillychar1216 said in September TOTM:

Are FI not keeping us updated with the runnings for this month? Come on guy's!! Something else they need to sort out!!

You can always find it here:
https://trade.footballindex.co.uk/totm/

@Baydog if only I'd listened to my own advice 😟😁

@Baydog re: Guirassy...
I missed his debut and therefore possibly missed the boat.
But, in my eyes at least, it's just one good game. He's done nothing yet in any of his previous seasons to suggest he can do it consistently and his PB scores are pretty average.
Not knocking the guy but I'm not going to invest in him now when I can spend around the same, or a little more, for proven scorers who might also pick up MB e.g. Lacazette 🤷‍♂️

@Baydog I said Rennes would do well last season and my mates thought I was mad. But they finished 3rd so I had the last laugh.
They relied a bit too much on their defence last year so will be interesting to see how well they go now they have goals in them too

@Shippers aren't you just hoping Arsenal don't win so your lot might have a chance in the race for 4th? 😉