Rule 2A - A Sim Football League consists of 10 clubs. Each club competes in an 18 round home-and-away series, playing each other club twice, once at home and once away. The top 5 sides play a 4-week finals series under the old "final five" system. The winner is awarded the Sim Cup. The bottom 5 sides also play a finals series, with the winner receiving the Sim Shield. The total of 22 weeks of Sim Football competition corresponds with the 22 rounds of the AFL home-and-away season.

Is a premiership the ultimate prize in Sim Football? Modern football is big business and financial management can make or break a club. You seek success on the field, but if you don't look after the dollars a club can quickly experience problems.

Rule 2B - At the end of each Sim round, including drafts, a club's bank balance is calculated by adding receipts and deducting costs to/from the previous balance. If a club registers a negative bank balance (less than $0) it is immediately declared to be "In The Red" (ITR). A club is only declared "Out Of The Red" when it has a bank balance of $0 or greater following a Sim round.

Simple accounting. Take your previous bank balance, add deposits, deduct withdrawals, and you have a final balance. If that final balance is less than zero, you are ITR and suffer the consequences. It should be pointed out that only the regular weekly deductions of wages, loan and contracts can send a club ITR. You cannot spend money you do not have in the bank as at the completion of the previous round. So if you had a balance of $10,000 and made a BuyFA order - which costs $50,000 - the order would be ignored because the available funds don't exist, and you would not be forced ITR. However, if your balance was $10,000 and your deductions were $30,000, your balance would be -$20,000 and you would be declared ITR.

Rule 2C - A club ITR cannot make orders that involve spending money.

This means that you can't spend what you don't have. If you run out of money you can't bid on or buy players, nor can you pay other clubs as part of a deal. And you still have the usual costs to pay. The payments for wages, contracts and loan are deducted weekly and a club ITR continues to incur these costs, meaning you can keep going backwards financially.

Rule 2D - A club ITR has its Coaching Licence immediately suspended. If the club is ITR for 3 consecutive weeks its Coaching Licence is revoked.

The Sim Administration is a hard task-master and does not look kindly on clubs that threaten the stability of the league by going broke and possibly disbanding, so there is a severe deterrent. When a club is declared ITR, its Coaching Licence is suspended, meaning the Coach is banned from the arena and therefore can't score for the team. If the club is ITR for 3 consecutive weeks, it loses its Coaching Licence altogether, and the Coach, with no means of employment, walks away with the money you paid to secure him and becomes a free agent, available to other clubs.

Sim Football can be won on the field and off it. Sim success can be measured by trophies, star players, records, financial strength ... or mere survival.