League Rules

The rules for the 2023/24 season are as follows:

A manager has a budget of £50 million to select eleven players. Players competing in the English Premier League are each given a value and in selecting his or her team the manager cannot go over budget. A maximum of three players can be selected from any one club. If a player transfers between clubs in the league, he immediately becomes associated with his new club. If that results in a team exceeding the permitted number of players from one club the situation must be corrected at the first opportunity or any further points awarded to the player who has just moved clubs will not be counted. If a player transfers out of the Premier League he is considered no longer available for selection.

A team may be built around a standard 4-4-2 formation or other variations such as 4-3-3, 3-5-2 or 3-4-3, i.e. it must consist of a goalkeeper, three or four defenders, three, four or five midfielders and two or three forwards.

Two positions will be designated as 'floaters' allowing a manager to vary his/her formation throughout the season.A maximum of two players may be transferred in and out of the team per week. The transfers do not have to take place at the same time but at no stage must the manager go over budget. If two transfers are made simultaneously it is the value of the team at the end of the transfer transaction that counts. To be effective, a transfer must have been completed by the time of kick off in a match involving a transferred player. The transfer week runs from 0001 hours on a Tuesday to 0000 hours on a Monday.

Points

Players will score points based on how they perform in completed Premier League matches. The scoring system is simple, so you can sit back, relax, and count the points as the goals fly in - unless it's your defence they have been scored against!

Points are scored in the following ways:

All players

Starting XI appearance: 1

Goal: 5

Assist: 3

Red card or 2 yellow cards: -3

Yellow card: -1 point

Missed penalty: -2 points

Own goal: -3 points

Midfielders Only

Tackles: 1 point per 2 tackles (a 'tackle' is defined as where a player connects with the ball in a ground challenge where he successfully takes the ball away from the player in possession. The tackled player must clearly be in possession of the ball before the tackle is made. The final destination of the ball after the tackle is not considered. The tackle will be deemed unsuccessful if the player tackled retains possession of the ball.)

Goalkeepers Only

Penalty save: 5 points (the goalkeeper must have prevented the penalty from being scored with some part of his body.)

Saves: 1 point per two saves (a 'save' is defined as a goalkeeper preventing the ball from entering the goal with any part of his body when facing an intentional attempt from an opposition player.)

Goalkeepers and Defenders Only

Full clean sheet: 5 points (minimum 60 mins played and the team must keep a clean sheet for the entire match including extra time (if applicable) but excluding penalty shoot outs.)

Part clean sheet: 2 points (less than 60 mins played and the team keeps a clean sheet for the whole match)

First goal conceded: 0 points

Additional goals conceded: -1 point

Points are not awarded for penalty shoot outs

Goalkeepers and Defenders are only penalised for goals conceded during the time they are on the pitch. If they are substituted off, they are not be penalised for any further goals conceded by their team. But if they receive a Red Card they will continue to be penalised for all goals conceded by their team after the sending off.

New for 2022/23: In the event of two or more teams finishing the season with the same number of points, the manager that made the fewest number of transfers will be declared the winner.

FA Cup Rules

From the Third Round onwards, the FA Cup will again provide the basis for this year's supplementary competition.

It has become commonplace for Premier League managers to select a different team of players for their cup run and fantasy managers can do the same. The two competitions are quite separate; existing league teams will remain unaffected in the main competition and up to two weekly transfers can continue to be made in the normal way.

The FA Cup team will earn points only from FA Cup matches. The points system will be the same as for the main competition. The budget remains the same at £50 million.

Two transfers can be made between rounds, i.e. not each week. That does mean that a maximum of four transfers could be made in a FA Cup week - two for the league team and another two for the FA Cup team. It is not possible to transfer in to a FA Cup team a player whose club has been knocked out in a previous round. So, the successful manager will be required to make a good initial team selection and have an ability to manage the budget as the pool of available players diminishes. 

Initial team selections for the Third Round need to be made before the first match of that round. A cut-off time for submission will be announced in advance.

Super-Five Tie-Break

Previously called a 'penalty shoot-out', a 'super-five' tie-break will decide the competition winner if points are level at the end of the Cup Final. Before kick-off, the managers concerned will be required to list, in order, five players from either side in addition to their existing team selection (i.e. not players already in their team). The points gained in the Final (including extra time, but not a penalty shoot-out) by the first listed players will decide the outcome. If the points are still level, the points gained by the second listed players will be taken into account and so on until a clear winner is established. If the points are still level at the end of the five players, the trophy will be shared.