Football Fantasy Leagues

The beautiful game is loved by 100's of millions of people around the world and I bet more than half of them have thought that they could be better than Ferguson or more tactical than Trappatoni. Well now they can.

Football fantasy leagues are all over the place, especially at the start of the season and even more so this summer due to the upcoming European Championships. They can be entered in daily newspapers or on the internet. The main aim is to pick a team out of all the players that are available to you and staying within a specified budget. Each player will have a certain value and you must pick a formation such as 4-4-2 whilst keeping within the budget. Occasional some fantasy leagues will allow you to have different formations of players such as 4-3-3 but usually you will have to pick 1 goalkeeper, 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 strikers.

There are also many other rules that are usually enforced. I have entered fantasy leagues which don’t allow you to pick more than two players from each club or country and sometimes you may have to pick a manager as well which will take up more or your valuable cash. Once your team is picked you may make unlimited changes to it until the competition starts. Once it has started you will have a set amount of transfers you will be able to make and you must also take into consideration that you still will have to stay within the budget and stick to the rules.

Scoring systems will vary depending on who is running the fantasy league. An example of a scoring system is as follows:

Goalkeeper/Defender scores: 7 points
Midfielder scores: 5 points
Striker scores: 3 points
Assists: 2 points
Appearance bonus (75 mins or more): 1 point
Goalkeeper/Defender Clean sheet: 3 points
Booking: -1 point
Sending off: -3 points

You will compete against all others that have entered the competition for whatever prize is specified by the people who are running the game. Prizes vary from things like £50000 in cash to holidays abroad so it is well worth a go even if you know nothing about football.

These competitions are not always free though. You will find that you will be able to find quite a few free ones that can be entered online and this is what I usually do. Competitions that are entered in the newspaper usually have spectacular prizes but often charge you around a bout £5 for entering. I enter as many free ones as I can and it is time consuming but I find it fun to do. Prizes are usually allocated for 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed teams while occasionally there will also be prizes for things such as manager of the month.

Euro 2004 is just around the corner and to get you started sportinglife.com are running a free one on the net now so if you fancy a go then get on down to it. A small tip from me as well: pick more midfield and strikers than defenders if it is possible in the rules to do so. It is a lot easier for strikers and midfielders to gain points and harder for them to lose you points.