Fantasy Premier League 2005/06 > Reviews (5)

What a great game. You sit down to watch a match between two teams to whom you have no connection other than them being on your fantasy team and suddenly you are involved in the match because your striker just won’t score or your midfielder just got booked. More on exactly what the means coming up soon. Fantasy league brings football alive for the fan. Not every match, at least in my opinion, is necessarily worth watching but fantasy league connects you just about every premier league match being played. It will have you shouting at the telly and ruing that stupid penalty miss or worst of all that unnecessary red card which has just seen your uncle and friend both overtake you on two different fantasy team leagues.

I have been playing premierleague fantasy football now for about four seasons and at until this season it was very addictive. I think the catalyst for my apathy towards my team has been moving to university but because the game is so good I will no doubt get back into it next season.

How does it work and what are the rules?

First you must sign up which is a very simple and quick process. Better to do this before the season starts and then you can join the other two million users to try and become the fantasy football champion. Once you have signed up at the start of the season then you move onto the highly important kit selection and team name which are entered before you then move onto the part you have been thinking about all summer. Analysis of the promoted teams and transfers is already done. The time has come to pick your team. You have a budget of one hindered million (so not the man City squad), in fact only three players from the same team allowed. The one hundred million budget must be divided between two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three strikers. There is no going over this budget, no deficits allowed here. You are right, that is fifteen players, and you always have four substitutes.

There are unlimited transfers until the deadline which marks the start of the new season.

From now until the end of the season it is all about your strategy and forward thinking which trust me does play an important role as the same people always win and undoubtedly you do need a slice of luck as well.

Each week you are allowed one free transfer unless you do not transfer one week in which case in the following week you have two free transfers. This is not accumulative, the maximum free transfers allowed is two in any given week. That is unless you use the one-a-season wildcard which allows you to have one chance to change everything you want about your team. Be wise as to when you use this treasure. The transfer process is very simple just click on transfers in the left hand column click someone out and then click someone in. This will be something you will get in no time.

Also you must choose a captain. The captain earns double points so make sure he firstly plays consistently, that much is obvious but more importantly that he is in good form.

Of perhaps less importance but still worth noting is who his next opposition are. If for some reason your captain does not play then an emergency captain can be selected either on form or price. You choose which selection method is used.

The Competitive parts that make it so exciting

Fantasy Leagues – Get some mates together and form a league. This would be a private league with an administrator who can allow only people he/she knows to join. The administrator also has the power to exclude participants. There are also public leagues that can be joined by anyone. Private leagues also have forums which can be a fun feature to add spice to the competition, although if you have regular contact with the people in the league there is little use for it really.

Fantasy Cup – This starts in Gameweek 19 and is a knockout competition. I got knocked out in the first round this year rather embarrassingly. It was made all the worse by the fact that the guy who knocked me out had done only two transfers all season. I guess I will live though and actually my team is in the top tenth of the world on cumulative/overall score.

The Scoring System

You get points for:
Keeper keeping a clean sheet
Defender keeping a clean sheet
Midfielder/Clean sheet
Assist (all positions) – defenders get more
Goal (all positions) – defenders get more
Playing more than 60 minutes
Bonus points – never really understood how this works. Just have to play well I guess. Can get 1,2 or 3 bonus points.

Lose points for:
Penalty miss
Yellow/red card

For more on the scoring system and on the rules in general look on the fantasy premierleague site.

Thanks for reading. Andy.