With the Champions League group stages kicking off next week, we belatedly check in with the official Fantasy Football game.
Here’s the basics on the UEFA offering ahead of the Matchday 1 action next Tuesday evening.
Squad Selection
Seasoned Fantasy Premier League managers will be more than familiar with the machinations of building a UEFA Champions League squad.
Handed a budget of £100m, you must select a squad of 15 players comprising of two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards.
In the group stages, only three players from any given team are allowed. As the tournament progresses, though, this quota increases to four players per team for the round of 16, five for the Quarter Finals, six in the Semis and eight in the Final.
The UEFA game offers the same eight formations as FPL, allowing managers to set their teams up in 3-4-3, 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 5-2-3, 5-3-2 or 5-4-1 set-ups.
According to the UEFA site, original player price are frozen until the completion of Matchday 3 – after that, they will “change depending on performance”.
Substitutions
While UEFA offers the chance to set up your bench to utilise the autosubs option, the more hands-on Fantasy managers can manually alter their line-ups between Gamedays in any Matchday.
So if one of your starters performs poorly or isn’t selected, you can swap them out and bring in a replacement off the bench later in the Matchday.
And depending on the time of the first kick-off, we get a heads-up on the early line-ups ahead for each deadline, affording us the chance to hold fire until the teams are announced before cementing their plans.
When selecting captains, you have the option to “stick or twist” on each Gameday – but by removing the armband from any player, you will lose their double points. This only applies if your captain is not sent off, however; indeed, anyone who is dismissed cannot be subbed out of your starting XI.
Considering that we are able to switch armbands in the matchday, you want to make sure that you have a strong captain choice for each evening in the event that your initial armband pick lets you down.
Scoring Points
Again, the rules are very similar to FPL.
For example, you should be more than familiar with the concept that keepers and defenders who play at least 60 minutes and don’t concede will earn six points for a clean sheet. Further up the field, midfielders garner five points for a goal but forwards pick up only four points for scoring.
You can get more on the rules here, though there are a couple of differences that are worth illuminating for now.
A player is awarded two points for earning his side a penalty, regardless of whether they subsequently convert it. And conceding a penalty means the culpable player loses one point for doing so.
Also, according to UEFA, “No assist is given to a player who creates his own goal scoring opportunity (e.g. solo run/dribble)”.
Transfers
Fantasy managers are granted one transfer at the end of each Matchday to freshen up their squads – make any more changes and (just like FPL) it’ll cost you four points per alteration.
Only one transfer can be carried forward to the next Matchday during the group stages.
After the group stages pass, Fantasy managers can then make an unlimited number of changes prior to the Round of 16 kicking off.
Once the knockout stage gets underway, though, the number of free transfers per Matchday is as follows:
Two free transfers before Round of 16 second legs
Five free transfers before quarter-final first legs
Two free transfers before quarter-final second legs
Five free transfers before semi-final first legs
Two free transfers before semi-final second legs
Five free transfers before final.
Please be aware, though, that no transfers can be carried forward once the knockout phase begins.
You also have a Wildcard in hand, which can be utilised at any point in the tournament.
Fantasy Football Scout League
We’ve set up a league for those looking to get involved – the name is FFScout and the code is 69225FB3
