Fantasy Football – A Beginners Guide
Posted by Rob Shepherd on Thursday, July 20, 2017
At the time of writing this, there are 22 days, 7 hours, 15 minutes and 5 seconds to go until the Premier League starts, not that I’m counting or anything! So, as the season slowly creeps towards us, it’s time to turn our attention to our fantasy footy teams. Don’t worry if you have never done one before, we will go through the steps together.
This time of year, as a football fan, reminds me of New Year. I start making all types of football resolutions. “I will watch lower league games”, “I will watch more women’s football”, “I must watch the FA Cup qualifying rounds”, the list is endless. One resolution I tend to fail to keep, is setting up a fantasy footy team.
Last year, I plain forgot. I was hanging on for as long as possible in the hope of an amazing transfer last minute that would enhance my team but I waited too long. It wasn’t all bad news though, I took on the office at the BBC Predicator game (you have to predict the scores in every Premier League game throughout the season) and I held my own at least. Although the cleaning lady nearly stole the show in the last round of fixtures.
How Much Does it Cost to Play?
It is totally free, woohoo, so there is no excuse. Signing up is really easy, just go to https://fantasy.premierleague.com and sign up. As with all these types of things, I would recommend you unclick all promotional email boxes unless you want more spam than the infamous Monty Python sketch.
So How Does it Work?
You are given £100,000,000 to spend on players (not real money silly, you think I’d be sat here in the bright sunshine if I had £100 mill?) and you build a team that will score more points than anyone else. Now I know a £100 million doesn’t sound a lot (Pogba £89.3m, Bale £85.3m, Ronaldo £80m) but thankfully the fees quoted are more earthly (Pogba £8m, De Bruyne £10m).
Can I Enter More Than One Team?
No and that’s the beauty of this, it’s easy to pay for more entries but this approach makes this a level playing field. So, Mr Burns, Scrooge McDuck, Ritchie Rich, Donald Trump and all you other lucky, lucky bastards. Your money is no good here! Paupers and Princes play the same, bring it on!
Whilst you cannot have more than one team, your team can however enter multiple leagues. You can have a league for team mates at work, one for family. Many Facebook groups will arrange leagues, all you need to do is enter the league code.
Can I See Last Year’s Form as a Guide?
You sure can, check out this link for a printer friendly list. As with the stock market, remember, previous results are not an indication of future profits. Everyone knows the one season wonder syndrome.
I like a 3-6-1 Formation, Can I Do It?
Knock yourself out, I prefer a 8-1-1 myself but each to their own, you can have any formation your little heart desires as long as it contains 1 goalkeeper, at least 3 defenders and at least 1 forward and they are selected at all times. Don’t be restrained to the 4-3-3!
Was Picasso put off that the only people he had to draw were lots of disfigured people, he forgot his glasses and he only had crayons to draw with? No, he soldiered on with his vision, follow yours!
You don’t actually pick a formation, it is made up of the players you add and will change automatically. For example, I have a 4-4-2 formation but I want to play 5-3-2, just click on the player to remove and select “substitution” and pick a defender instead. The formation will update once done.
You Can Win Great Prizes
Not only is fantasy footy free to play, you can grab some great prizes. For a free competition, the prizes are pretty tasty;
If you scoop the 1st Prize and become Fantasy Premier League 2017/18 Champion, you will receive;
VIP hospitality at two Premier League 2018/19 matches of the winner’s choice, including travel and 2 nights’ accommodation. A week’s worth of experiences in the UK courtesy of Visit Britain, including travel and 7 nights’ accommodation. TAG Heuer connected watch. Copy of FIFA and a games console. Nike manager jacket, FPL goody bag consisting of a rucksack, t-shirt, mug, water bottle, stress ball, pen, pad and key ring. Nice!
If you are the runner-up, the prize is nearly as good, you get; VIP hospitality at one Premier League 2018/19 match of the winner’s choice including travel and 2 nights’ accommodation. Copy of FIFA and a games console. Tablet computer. Bluetooth speaker. Nike manager jacket. FPL goody bag consisting of a rucksack, t-shirt, mug, water bottle, stress ball, pen, pad and key ring.
3rd place is also worth having, you get; Copy of FIFA and a games console. Tablet computer. Bluetooth speaker. Nike manager jacket. FPL goody bag consisting of a rucksack, t-shirt, mug, water bottle, stress ball, pen, pad and key ring.
As well as having prizes for winning the final competition, there is also a cup competition and there are prizes up for grabs in that too, win the cup and you will get; VIP hospitality at one Premier League 2018/19 match of the winner’s choice including travel and 2 nights’ accommodation (B&B basis). Copy of FIFA and games console. Tablet computer. Bluetooth speaker. Nike manager jacket. FPL goody bag (rucksack, t-shirt, mug, water bottle, stress ball, pen/pad, key ring).
How Do Players Earn Points?
Thankfully, all the complicated calculations are done in the background. It is quite incredible the level of detail they go into for the scoring. All the data is taken from OPTA stats. Here are the main ways of scoring;
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| For playing up to 60 minutes | 1 |
| For playing 60 minutes or more (excluding injury time) | 2 |
| For each goal scored by a goalkeeper or defender | 6 |
| For each goal scored by a midfielder | 5 |
| For each goal scored by a forward | 4 |
| For each goal assist | 3 |
| For a clean sheet by a goalkeeper or defender | 4 |
| For a clean sheet by a midfielder | 1 |
| For every 3 shot saves by a goalkeeper | 1 |
| For each penalty save | 5 |
| For each penalty miss | -2 |
| Bonus points for the best players in a match | 1-3 |
| For every 2 goals conceded by a goalkeeper or defender | -1 |
| For each yellow card | -1 |
| For each red card | -3 |
| For each own goal | -2 |
Which Players Should I Pick?
Goalkeepers that save penalties, defenders that keep clean sheets but score goals and a prolific penalty taker for starters! Who you pick is entirely up to you but I will be releasing regular guides to help you decide.
What are Game Chips and When Can I Use Them?
To make things even more interesting, you have a few game chips that you can use during the season, Chips can be used to potentially enhance your team’s performance during the season. You are limited to using one chip per gameweek.
| Chip Name | Action |
|---|---|
| Bench Boost | Normally your players on the bench don’t score points unless they are substituted on. Play this bad boy and your benched players score. |
| Free Hit | Use this chip to make unlimited free transfers for one gameweek. When the deadline is hit, all the changes you made will be reversed and your team will return to how it was. |
| Triple Captain | Triple Captain This is like “Playing the Joker” on “It’s a Knockout”, use this and your captain will receive triple his points for the gameweek. |
| Wildcard | All transfers in the Gameweek are free of charge. |
No Excuses – Get Signed Up
So now you know the basics, get signed up. I’ll be trawling through all the players and will bring you some suggestions as we get closer to the season start. Transfer activity seems to be speeding up so who knows which new Galácticos will be gracing the Premier League this year!