Fantasy football (soccer)

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For the British television show, see Fantasy Football League

Fantasy football is a game in which the participants each assemble a team of real life players and then score points based on those players' statistical performance on the field.

Usually players are selected from one specific division in a particular country, although there are many variations.

The original game came to the UK in 1991 - created by Fantasy League Ltd, but came to national prominence during the 1993/94 Premiership season when it was licensed as the UK's first-ever national fantasy football game in The Daily Telegraph.

Fantasy football has evolved in recent years from a simple recreational activity into a big business industry due to the internet and the inventors of the games have since added several other fantasy games, including Formula One, Golf, Cricket and Rugby.

[edit] Typical rules

(Note that different fantasy football sites have different scoring rules, however, the rules below are taken from the original game - which is seen as the purest form of Fantasy Football by game players.)

The participant chooses 15 players typically containing:- 1 Goalkeeper, 4 Defenders, 4 Midfielders and 2 Strikers, along with 4 Substitutes in any position desired. There are limits on selection criteria, such as no more than two players from any one Premier League squad and the 15 players must come within a set budget. Most leagues have an auction at the start of the season, where the players are bought for no set amount of money - but decided by bidding between the rival managers.

One of the biggest draws of playing the game in this way (as opposed to playing in a National Newspaper) is that you play in a league against your friends and that, within your league, you would be the only person with a certain player (e.g. Thierry Henry) meaning that when he scores, he only puts points on your team's total - not any of your rivals (as would be the case in The Sun, The Telegraph etc).

Points are then gained or deducted depending on players' performances.

All players

  • +3 points for a goal
  • +2 points for an assist (the pass or touch leading to the goal)

Defenders only

  • +1 point for playing at least 45 minutes of the match
  • +2 points (in addition to the +1 above) for keeping a clean sheet. If a player leaves the field before 75 minutes, he does not get the +2 points, however, if after 75 minutes he does.
  • -1 point for each goal conceded. If a player is sent off, then he continues to lose points for each goal his team concede.

Other Fantasy Football games, usually newspaper run competitions, feature a whole raft of extra points available for such things as being man of the match, scoring more than 7 points out of 10 in the newspaper ratings and scoring a Hat-trick. There are also negative points for missing penalties, scoring an own-goal, being booked or being sent-off. Fantasy League purists, who have stayed with the original game, see these points as excessive and not necessary to the game.

There are hundreds of fantasy football websites, free and pay to play.

Fantasy football leagues have also been run for American football.

[edit] See also

Fantasy sports

[edit] External links

Major UK Fantasy Football game sites (all with either at least £50,000 prizes or over 50,000 entries):

Yahoo! Fantasy Football is one of the most popular fantasy soccer games. It provides games for several different leagues, including English Premiership, Italy Serie A, Spanish Superliga, France Ligue 1, Copa Libertadores and Superliga Mexicana. Their Premiership Fantasy Football is the most popular one. It shares the same scoring scheme as Italian Serie A and Spanish Superliga; while the France Ligue has its own scheme.

Yahoo! Premiership Fantasy Football website
Enlarge
Yahoo! Premiership Fantasy Football website

Other UK Fantasy Football Sites - League and conference only!:

Fantasy Football games where all proceeds go to charity:

Other UK Fantasy Football Sites - hundreds listed within these two webpages:

English Premiership Injury Tables - to help Fantasy Football players

Blogs on Fantasy Football

UK Fantasy football information sites:

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