Champions League Final Predictor Contest

By: Ian Rose | May 18th, 2008

It’s been a while since we at The Offside (and specifically, The Offside Podcast) had a giveaway. I don’t want to ruin any upcoming surprises, but let’s just say we’ve been saving prizes up for a certain large event that happens in June. Before that, though, there is a certain other game on Wednesday. The UEFA Champions League final deserves a prize giveaway if anything ever did, so here goes. Thanks to our prize sponsors over at SoccerPro.com, we have an official Champions League final match ball to give away. This time, though, instead of just asking for the match result, we’re going to make things just a little more complicated.

In the beginning, when we started giving away jerseys and team backpacks and other such swag, it was easy. Only a few people entered, and so a simple score predictor was the best way to do things. But since more of you have started participating in the giveaways, and since (let’s face it) we don’t exactly cover a sport like basketball with a huge diversity of scorelines, there was almost always more than one entry with the correct score. That leads to random draws, and we would prefer to give away prizes based on prediction rather than luck of the draw. So, for the Champions League final, there will be a different format. To be eligible to win the Adidas Moscow Finale match ball, email us at podcast @ theoffside.com anytime before kickoff on Wednesday with the following predictions:

1. Scoreline (Manchester United X-X Chelsea)
2. First tiebreaker – Halftime scoreline
3. Second tiebreaker – Name of the first scorer, and minute the first goal will be scored

This ought to separate out the pack a bit. The correct (or closest) final scoreline will be the first criteria, then halftime, then the scorer – that way, we’ll have a definite winner, and that winner will be announced on the May 28th episode of the podcast. Remember, it’s not just a football – it’s a trophy and a collectible. But it’s also a really good football. Good luck, and we’ll have an announcement soon about those other prizes for that other tournament … Euro … something.