About the VFL
A short-season football league for people who work in visual effects! Built around the reality of the job, not despite it.
The idea
VFX runs on long hours, moving deadlines and contracts that end when the show does. Most amateur football leagues assume the opposite: a fixed squad, a nine-month season, and a Tuesday that never moves. That combination doesn't survive a client note at 6pm.
The VFX Football League is the version that does survive it. A season is eight to eleven games, roughly one match a week, played on weekday evenings between teams from studios across the industry. Short enough that a freelancer can commit to the whole thing. Long enough that the table actually means something by the end.
Who plays
Anyone working in visual effects, animation or post. Artists and production, but also pipeline, R&D, IT, systems, facilities, recruitment, the front desk. Teams are built around studios, and the standard is deliberately mixed: some sides are genuinely good, some are there for the walk to the pub afterwards, and both get a full season of football.
It's open to everyone in the industry regardless of gender, age or ability. If your studio is short on numbers, say so, most seasons somebody needs a keeper.
How it's run
The league is organised by people who work in the industry, in their own time, and kept as cheap as it can be. Costs cover pitches and referees, split between the teams.
Everything competitive lives on Sofascore: fixtures, results, live standings, form guides and top-scorer charts. That's a deliberate choice. It means no one is maintaining a spreadsheet at midnight, results are verifiable, and players get a proper profile with their goals on it. This site reads that data live rather than duplicating it.
The competitions
The league
The main event. Every studio side in one table, one game a week, roughly nine to eleven rounds.
The second tier
A second tier for newer and second studio sides, so nobody has to wait a year for a game.
The knockout
Straight knockout, sixteen teams, one night in the sun for whoever gets hot at the right time.
The curtain-raiser
League champions against cup winners, played as the curtain-raiser to the new season.
How to get a team in
Find your people
Post in your studio's social channel. You need a core of at least eight who'll turn up most weeks. The rest sorts itself out.
Message us
Send your studio name, a rough headcount and one contact person. We'll tell you when the next season starts and what it costs.
Turn up
You get a fixture list, a spot in the table and a Sofascore page. Everything after that is between you and a 5-a-side pitch.