Fantasy Premier League (FPL) confirmed on Sunday that Antoine Semenyo (£8.0m) would not get an assist for Bournemouth’s first goal in Gameweek 8.
We’ve seen a few people confused about the reasoning for this, so we thought we’d clarify – to the best we can! – in this article.
FPL’S REASONING
After the initial ‘TBC’ on Eli Junior Kroupi‘s (£4.5m) first goal, FPL came to a final decision some 24 hours later.
Their message was as follows:
WHAT IS AN ‘INADVERTENT TOUCH’?
In Opta-speak (for it is the data collectors who make the calls on each match event), an inadvertent touch is when the ball bounces off a player and there is no intentional pass or shot.
‘INADVERTENT TOUCH’ – THE CONFUSION
But, you may be thinking, don’t the FPL rules say that an ‘inadvertent touch’ can still lead to an assist?
They sure do:
However, further down the same page, there’s this message:
By ‘directly’, it means not touching an opponent en route to the goalscorer.
APPLYING THE RULE IN SEMENYO’S CASE
In this case, Justin Kluivert‘s (£7.0m) corner is whipped in, comes off Semenyo’s back, hits a Palace defender, and loops up to Kroupi to nod in on the goalline:
To sum it all up, Opta were not counting Semenyo’s touch as a shot or attempted pass. Therefore, it goes down as an inadvertent touch.
And because it hits a Palace defender before reaching Kroupi, the rules say no assist.
FPL’s relaxation of the assist rules before the start of 2025/26 means we’ve had far fewer contentious calls this season – but Saturday’s example just goes to show that where there’s any subjectivity left in a decision (the subjectivity here being Opta deeming Semenyo not shooting/passing), there’ll always be room for dispute.
