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With match days behind us for this week, I thought I'd use the relative calm of three media days to reflect on something that's been bothering me for a while - the strange world of #FootballIndex cut off times...
Cut off times have changed often during the last few years, most recently in July 2020. The result is that we are now left with a strange combination of deadlines which don't feel well aligned with any kind of overarching strategic objective.
A reminder of the current position
0730 = Market Open
1600 = PB / MB deadline
2300 = Market Close
0000 = IPD Deadline
0730 = Market Open
1600 = PB / MB deadline
2300 = Market Close
0000 = IPD Deadline
The key question is - Do @FootballIndex want dividends to be won based on pure speculation (the Fantasy Football / classic betting approach) or won based on confirmed knowledge (financial market / shareholder approach)
Either model is fine, one isn't more right than the other, but under the current array of deadlines we're currently running a mixed model which doesn't seem to make any kind of logical sense.
The two biggest days of the week (Sat & Sun) have many fixtures which kick off before the PB deadline, some which straddle it and others which take place after. This leads to a confused mixture of the speculation and knowledge approaches.
Further to this, the IPD deadline now sits during the market closure period so the real deadline is now 11pm rather than midnight. Finally, payouts begin to appear during the course of the morning, in a manner unaligned to any of the above.
My proposal to create a unified logic model is as follows. Firstly, it's not for me to say whether the strategic approach should be on speculation or on knowledge, FI will have a preference depending on the market behaviour they want to encourage.
If speculation based then PB, MB and IPD deadlines should be 11.30am, prior to any football being played across Europe. I choose this time because it represents the earliest kick off slot across the 5x PB leagues.
If knowledge based, then PB, MB and IPD deadlines should be 11pm, or the point at which the market closes. I think this would be my personal preference as it mirrors financial markets and keeps in-play trading viable.
Finally, dividends should be paid prior to the market being reopened so that traders have higher cash balances for the first point of the day at which they can execute transactions.
Recognise that this is a bit of a Wishlist thread but just one example of the countless little things that could improve #FootballIndex for all of us and would take relatively little effort to implement.
