Squad selection:
A manager may enter one squad for Guardian Fantasy Football 2008/09. Multiple squads will be deleted. Squads must consist of 15 players comprising:
2 Goalkeepers
5 Defenders
2 Defensive Midfielders
3 Midfielders
3 Forwards
You can select a maximum of 3 players from any one Premier League club for your squad.
All players will remain at the club they are listed with when the game launches (July 21st 2008) even if they are transferred to another Premier League club in real life after this date.
We have updated the playerlist to reflect players' current clubs / availability.
a) Players with one asterisk* next to their name have left the Premier League. It is a good idea to transfer these players out of your squads.
b) Players with two asterisks** next to their name have moved to another Premier League club. They will continue to score points as normal for their new club depending on how they perform. You will gain any points scored by these players.
The reason for not moving players to their new clubs is because of the 3-player-per-club ruling. If we moved players now, many teams would become invalid through no fault of their own.
All players will therefore remain with their original clubs for the duration of the season.
Each player has been given a value. The total value of your initial squad must not exceed £100 million.
On 11th September 2008, players' values will begin to fluctuate depending on their popularity. These fluctuations will also influence your available budget to spend on new players.
For example, if you select Steven Gerrard for £9m, and he goes on to be valued at £9.5m, your budget will increase by £0.5m. You can use this to spend on new players. Similarly, you can also lose budget if your players decrease in value.
Formations:
From your 15 player-squad you select 11 players to form your starting team. Only starting players will earn points for your team.
There are 10 different team formations to select from. Your team can play in any team formation which includes at least one goalkeeper, three defenders, one defensive midfielder, two midfielders and one forward.
So a 3-1-3-3 formation would consist of three defenders, one defensive midfielder, three midfielders and three strikers. The available formations are:
| 3-1-3-3 |
4-1-2-3 |
5-1-2-2 |
| 3-2-2-3 |
4-1-3-2 |
5-1-3-1 |
| 3-2-3-2 |
4-2-2-2 |
5-2-2-1 |
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4-2-3-1 |
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Players can only play in their designated position. For example, you can't play a defender as a striker.
Any changes you make to your team will become active at the next game week deadline selected, provided you go through the Save Team process. If you don't save any changes to your team the current team will continue to score points for you.
Substitutions and Transfers:
After selecting your squad you can make unlimited substitutions within the squad and up to 5 transfers per calendar month in and out of the squad over the course of the season. Your transfer allowance (5 per month) will be replenished at 00.01 on the first day of every calendar month.
Dropping 1 player from your squad and signing a replacement is considered to be 1 transfer.
There is a transfer amnesty prior to the start of the season to allow you to make transfers without it impacting on your monthly allowance of 5 transfers. The amnesty will expire at midday on August 16th 2008 which is the first day of the new Premier League season.
Any transfers you make will become active at the next game week deadline provided you go through the Save Team process.
During the amnesty, you will only be able to save teams for the first day of the season. When the amnesty ends, you'll be able to save teams for up to two game week deadlines in advance.
Game Week Deadlines:
Game weeks run from Saturday through Friday and your team selection will be fixed for the full week of Premier League matches ahead.
There is one deadline every week there is a Premier League match. This deadline is always midday on the Saturday at the start of a game week.
Any changes to your team (substitutions, transfers, formations) will come into effect for the game week deadline specified, provided you go through the Save Team process.
See Advance Team Set-Up below or 'FAQs' for further details on deadlines and setting your team up.
Advance Team Set-Up:
It is possible to set up different teams for up to 2 game weeks in advance. For example, on a Wednesday afternoon you could set one team for games played between the coming Saturday through Friday, and a different team for games played between Saturday and Friday the following week.
This can be done via the Save Team button on the Pitch View page.
Once you've set your teams in advance you'll only be able to alter the latest team. If you change your mind, you can select the 'Undo Last Saved Team' option from the Saved Teams pop-up and edit teams saved previously to this.
For instance, if on the Wednesday you saved different line-ups for the first game week and the second game week, but then wanted to edit the first week's team, you would have to undo the teams for the second week, edit the first week's line-up, and then re-save teams for the second week. Only players selected in your starting eleven will score points for your squad.
During the transfer amnesty, you can only save a team for the first day of the season. When this finishes, you will have the option to set your team up to two weeks in advance.
Player values:
Player values will fluctuate during the season dependent on the popularity of the player in the transfer market. Player values will not change until 11th September 2008.
Any player value gain or loss will impact on your team budget of £100m.
Value fluctuations are dependent on how many times an individual player has been transferred in and out of total teams in the competition on a weekly basis.
Basic example: If a player is transferred in many times during one week, he is likely to increase in value the following week.
Once they start (on 11th September), player fluctuations will take place every Thursday.
League Tables:
The Guardian Fantasy Football incorporates weekly, monthly and season long competitions allowing managers to aim for a manager of the week or month title even when winning the overall league has slipped out of reach.
Your team doesn't play matches against other teams. Instead, each team scores points based on the performance of players in Premier League matches and competes against other teams in several different leagues:
The overall league involving all registered teams
A league for supporters of your region (optional)
A league for supporters of your favourite club team (optional)
Private leagues with your friends and colleagues (optional)
Need more help? Check out the FAQs section which is updated on a regular basis.
We take your privacy seriously. To read our full Privacy Policy click here.
For full details of the competition rules including prizes please see Terms and Conditions.
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