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The Guardian
7 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Triumph and disaster for you, soft power for the Premier League: fantasy football is back
Perhaps you're a template kind of guy. Perhaps, by contrast, you're spurning the triple Liverpool consensus and stacking your team with handy differentials like Jarrod Bowen and Donyell Malen. Perhaps even Erling Haaland could be considered a differential given his historically low current ownership stats. Perhaps you're feeling a cheeky BB GW1, followed by a FH GW2. Perhaps, by contrast, you're furiously stabbing at the 'close tab' button on your browser in the hope of purging these words from your eyes as expeditiously as possible. In which case, relax. This is actually a column about sport: what it is, what it isn't, how we watch it, where it's going. Most important, you can rest assured I shall not be relating any details of my Fantasy Premier League exploits, for the same reason I will not be sharing my dreams, my Wordle stats or the contents of my belly button. However fascinating you may find your own, it is genuinely no excuse for wasting anybody else's time. At which point, we may just have lost the other half of the audience. Because there does seem to be a weird cultural divide over this stuff: a kind of snobbery/infantilism binary. So you get the increasingly prevalent view that obsessing over made-up teams in a made-up game is basically trite nonsense, the stuff of civilisational downfall, a parasite on the body of football. Often these accusations will be levelled by the very same people who argue that shouting at horses to run faster somehow constitutes the highest form of sporting endeavour. And then at the other end of the scale you have the argot and arcana of the self-styled 'FPL community': a weird, idiosyncratic and above all deeply obsessive place, a rabbit hole of game theory and sprawling colour-coded spreadsheets, where grown men are brought to the brink of insanity by late fixture rearrangements, where Eddie Howe press conference footage is parsed in microscopic detail. Did he say Anthony Gordon 'is being assessed' or 'has been assessed'? Please. My family is dying. People earn their living from fantasy football these days. People write PhDs on it. There are interminable FPL podcasts, FPL YouTube channels, bespoke analysis tools, live events. Younger fans, who we constantly hear have little appetite for 90-minute games, will spend many multiples of that watching a bloke on a webcam in his mum's kitchen weighing up the merits of Murillo v Ola Aina, or whether Cody Gakpo constitutes a rotation risk. Even traditional media have begun to take the hint. FPL content has infiltrated the Sky Sports News ticker, the BBC Sport website, the Google search algorithm, player interviews, radio commentary. Celebrities play it. Footballers play it. Ange Postecoglou dolefully admitted on arriving at Tottenham that he'd been forced to leave his friends' fantasy league for the first time in 20 years. Gradually, insidiously, fantasy football has seeped into the way we cover and consume football: a shadow game that has become almost inimical to the real thing. In a way this is a development that has taken place in parallel with the Premier League itself. Frank Skinner's and David Baddiel's Fantasy Football League was first broadcast in 1993, the Daily Telegraph introduced its seminal play-by-mail game in 1994, and in hindsight these were the first evolutionary twirls of what we now have to describe as the EPL global cinematic universe. Games, jokes, daydreams and deep dives, idle chatter and hot takes: an empire of content centred on the weekend fixture list but slowly rumbling into every corner of our lives. For the Premier League itself, the game and its 11 million players constitute not so much a revenue stream – the game is free to play and always has been – as a kind of awesome soft power. In an age when viewers are increasingly selective about the football they watch, fantasy football gives every minute of every game a certain relevance. Whether Bournemouth claim a late consolation while losing 3-0 at Manchester City has almost zero relevance in the real world. But if you're counting on a Josko Gvardiol clean sheet, you may just carry on watching to the very end. And so fantasy sport occupies a kind of strange middle status: utterly contingent on the action while somehow entirely detached from it. In this regard it is not a million miles from the fan fiction and user-generated narratives that populate so many youth-oriented subcultures, a way of putting your own stamp on the game, a vehicle for expression and cognition, a way of being an active participant rather than a passive consumer. Naturally the whiff of condescension will always follow fantasy football, in the same way video games have always been regarded as a lower and more banal form of cultural output. But frankly, is it any less valid a way of consuming Premier League football than the other forms of obsession associated with it? Is it any more trivial or frivolous than living vicariously through transfer gossip, or writing long boring threads about football accountancy, or taking an interest in who Morgan Gibbs-White's partner has decided to unfollow on Instagram, or where referees come from? Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Like all forms of mass culture, football generates hinterlands in abundance. Perhaps in a certain light it is possible to see fantasy football as the least toxic of them: not as aggressive as social media discourse, not as socially harmful as gambling, not as demented as conspiracy theory. For its most devoted practitioners it offers a form of community and agency, a weekly microdose of triumph and disaster, an emotional stake in a game that so often regards its fans as raw consumers. At least, for now. As with anything wildly popular, the explosion of FPL has been accompanied by the usual agents of greed and grift, exploitation and opportunism. Money leagues, while theoretically banned, continue to flourish. The market in artificial intelligence tools and insider knowledge, paywalled by premium subscriptions, has gone through the roof. In recent years professional poker players have increasingly begun to migrate to FPL. Meanwhile the passageway from fantasy sport to problem gambling is smoothed by the numerous betting companies targeting FPL content for advertising and partnerships. And perhaps none of this has ever moved you in the slightest, never has, never will. But on some level FPL does articulate what has always been one of the great unexplored tensions in football. To what extent do the ephemera and subcultures of a sport enrich the true essence of the game, and to what extent do they dilute it? What happens when the sideshow dissolves into the main show? Established as a harmless bit of fun, built through community, grown through popular demand, and now under assault by big money and big tech: on reflection, perhaps fantasy football is a pretty good model for the game itself.
The Independent
13-08-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
FPL injury round-up and latest team news for GW1
Fantasy Premier League is back with the big kick-off on Friday as champions Liverpool face Bournemouth at Anfield. With a number of changes to the official fantasy game, users will be checking the latest news before setting their line-ups before the first deadline of the season. Some of the players with the highest potential this term in FPL have doubts heading into GW1, though, adding risk to their selections. The likes of Anthony Gordon, Phil Foden and Morgan Rogers have been coping with niggles throughout pre-season, bringing their involvement this weekend into question. You can check out 30 players to target to begin the season here, and do consider the latest news and updates from some of the most selected players in the game: Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa (£7.0m) Currently dealing with an ankle injury from the friendly against Roma on 6 August, he subsequently missed Villa's next two friendlies. One to monitor ahead of Saturday's opener at home to Newcastle. Caoimhin Kelleher, Brentford (£4.5m) The former Liverpool goalkeeper is a doubt for the first Premier League game of the season against Nottingham Forest on Sunday. A knock forced him out of the friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach on 8 August, but he should make it back in time. Conor Bradley, Liverpool (£5.0m) Missed the end of pre-season and Community Shield with a minor muscle injury, which will lead to Jeremie Frimpong stepping in for the opener against Bournemouth. Arne Slot said it would be 'tight' if he makes the opener, so a cheaper option for a member of the Reds back line will have to wait. Phil Foden, Man City (£8.0m) Absent against Palermo on 9 August with a knock, looking after his problematic ankle, should be involved against Wolves, but might not start. Andre Onana, Man United (£5.0m) A hamstring injury sustained in July has scuppered his pre-season, but he is pushing to make the opener against Arsenal on Sunday. Anthony Gordon, Newcastle (£7.5m) An ankle injury forced him off against Atletico Madrid on 9 August. Eddie Howe was hopeful on Gordon's condition to return against Villa though. Without Alexander Isak, in all likelihood, Gordon could prove a popular pick among FPL players. The left-back suffered a knee injury warming up against Luton in July, and Thomas Frank stated before the Bayern Munich friendly: 'I'm not worried. We'll know more info in a couple of days.'
The Independent
13-08-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Every new FPL rule you need to know about in 2025/26
The new season of the English top flight is rapidly approaching, and with that comes the long-awaited return of Fantasy Premier League. With pre-season giving us a glimpse of potential top performers, many players will have already picked their squads for the opening gameweek of the 2025/26 campaign, though even at this stage, new signings and potential injuries might change things. But as we head into GW1, it won't all be familiar territory for even the most seasoned of FPL players, with the gamemakers throwing in a handful of new rules to wrap our heads around. Pay attention, these changes could prove the decisive in racking up enough points to emerge victorious in your mini-leagues. Here's everything you need to know about the FPL 2025/26 rule changes. Defensive contributions Outfield players will now be able to acquire invaluable Fantasy points through their defensive contributions. This season, any defender who reaches a combined total of 10 clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles (CBIT) in a single match will score two extra FPL points. As for midfielders and forwards, they will also be rewarded for ball recoveries in addition to clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles (CBIRT), all counting towards their total defensive contributions. This means they will have to make 12 defensive contributions to earn their two FPL points, instead of the 10 required for defenders. Changes to assists rules Fantasy assists are often awarded to the player from the scoring team who has the final touch before a goal is converted, awarding said player three points. This season, what counts as an assist has been simplified further. This has been done recognise players for their contributions towards goal as well as to reduce the degree of subjectivity involved in deciphering an assist. One of the key changes here will see intended destination no longer become a factor, providing it meets the two criteria of: the goalscorer receiving the ball inside the penalty box, and there only being one defensive touch before the ball reaches the goalscorer. This means that even if a pass or cross is deflected into the path of a completely different player - reaching an unintended destination - if he scores, the passer will still get rewarded with three big fat points for the assist. However, there are caveats. No assist will be awarded if the defensive touch is a pass - such as a loose backpass - or if the goalscorer loses and then regains possession. Two defensive touches will also mean the assist is not given. And if the goalscorer receives the ball outside the box, intended destination comes back into play, with a judgement being made about whether they were the target of the pass. Elsewhere, an assist will now be given for one particular defensive error: if the defending player is attempting a pass. Again, there can only be a maximum of one defensive touch in the attempted pass for the assist to be given. There is also a change in assist rules surrounding handballs. If a goal is scored from a free-kick or penalty conceded from a handball, an assist will go to the player who made the last attacking action prior to the handball being awarded. Crucially, the handball no longer needs to have been 'forced' for the assist to be awarded. That said, if the handball follows a touch from another defensive player, no assist will be given. Two sets of chips Fantasy managers will be more than aware of the four chips that can bring about a huge points boost if used widely. These are Wildcard, Free Hit, Triple Captain and Bench Boost. Well now, you'll have TWO sets of chips for the season, to be played in each half of the season. The first set of chips must be played before the GW19 deadline passes at 6:30pm GMT on Tuesday 30 December, with it not possible for chips to be carried over into the second half of 2025/26. However, you may notice the absence of a certain chip from last season... Assistant Manager chip removed There will be no Assistant Manager chip in FPL this season. This chip, introduced last season, allowed players to earn points based on the performance of a chosen Premier League manager over a three-Gameweek period. But after just one campaign, it's been scrapped. Extra transfers for AFCON For Premier League managers, the Africa Cup of Nations and subsequent exodus of key players can pose a serious stumbling block in the season. The same goes for Fantasy managers. To aid the struggle, managers will be given extra free transfers in GW16 to help plan around the tournament, which takes place between 21 December 2025 and 18 January 2026. The total number of free transfers available to managers will be topped up to the maximum possible number of five in GW16 to take into account the possibility that some players will leave early for the tournament. Changes to Bonus Points System The following tweaks have been made to the system to hand out extra points from matches to players. The Bonus Points System (BPS) uses a range of statistics supplied by Opta, with a performance score allocated to each player. The players ho rank in the top three BPS for each match will receive bonus points - three points to the highest-scoring player, two to the second best and one to the third. How are bonus point ties resolved? If there is a tie for first place, Players 1 & 2 will receive 3 points each and Player 3 will receive 1 point. If there is a tie for second place, Player 1 will receive 3 points and Players 2 and 3 will receive 2 points each. If there is a tie for third place, Player 1 will receive 3 points, Player 2 will receive 2 points and Players 3 & 4 will receive 1 point each. Goalkeeper saves In previous seasons, goalkeepers would earn two points in the BPS for each save they made. But this season the shot location is an added factor. So a goalkeeper will earn three points in the BPS if the shot is taken from inside the penalty area, or two points if the shot is taken from outside the area. A penalty save is down from nine points in the BPS to eight points this season. If you throw in the three points for a save from a shot inside the box, the total comes to 11 points for this particular action. Goalline clearances Players will now earn nine points in the BPS, up from three points last season. Penalty goals There is a new 'Penalty goals scored' metric to help users differentiate from other goals scored. A player earns 12 points in the BPS for scoring a penalty, no matter what their position is in FPL. Previously, forwards earned 24 points, midfielders earned 18 points and defenders earned 12 points for scoring a penalty. Those same numbers apply to all non-penalty goals scored in 2025/26. Successful tackles The two points awarded for each 'Successful Tackles (net)' - which is a total of "Tackles Won" minus "Tackles Lost" – has changed. Now, each "Tackle Won" in a match is handed two points.
