Times Fantasy Football - How to play

HOW TO PLAY

11 players to pick, £100 million to spend and £100,000 to win – are you ready to prove your football management skills in the 2008/9 season of Times Fantasy Football?

Use skill and judgement to manage your team throughout the season. Players score points according to their on-pitch performances for their real-life clubs. You can make changes to your selected players so that you can maintain your edge by transferring the non-performers and hiring in-form stars.  We’ll even let you make player loans to further strengthen your position.

In addition our Premier Play game gives you the chance to show your prediction prowess in our new, free-to-play game every weekend. It's simple, fun and only open to entrants of our Fantasy Football game. You could win £500 every weekend! 

Playing Times Fantasy Football couldn’t be easier. Just Pick, Pay and Play.  Three simple steps to get you started on the road to Premier League glory and big money prizes.

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1) Pick

Formation

First up you’ll need to decide on a team formation.  What’s your strategy going to be?  A strong attack? Solid defence? Or do you favour midfield presence?  Select from one of four formations (4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1, 3-5-2). There’s no limit to the number of formation changes in the season so long as you have sufficient transfers and loans available. You can also see which are the most popular formations in the game by viewing our formation stats graph on the formation selection page.

4-4-2	4-3-3
4-5-1	3-5-2

Team

Now for the serious matter of making your player selections. We’ve valued all of the top players from the English Premier and Scottish Premier Leagues and have given you £100 million to spend.  You can choose as many players from the same team as you like, just make sure you stay in budget and formation. With a running total of your spending on the selection page, you can easily see whether you’re in budget or not. Nominate one of your players as your Captain - he'll score double points for you.

From our team selection page you can access key individual player stats by simply clicking on the player name. You can also see what everyone else is up to with our player stats that show the percentage of teams in the game that have selected each player.   

2) Pay

Amazingly, it costs only £3 per team to play Times Fantasy Football.  At such incredible value, and with our Premier Play weekend game included free, you may find it difficult to resist buying another. You can enter a maximum of ten teams in the game and you can purchase all your credits in one visit to our payment site.

Your transaction will be handled securely by our payment provider, Worldpay and you can pay by credit or debit card.

To start scoring from the first scheduled fixture of the season, the deadline for team entry is kick-off of the first eligible fixture on 16th August 2008.

3) Play

Scoring Points

Now that you’re in the game, watch your team rack up the points. You'll score points for matches played in the English Premier League, Scottish Premier League, Champions League and UEFA Cup. Click 'Scoring Points' in the left hand navigation for all the details on how your team will score for you throughout the season.

Transfers

Not happy with your player selections? Make up to 20 transfers during the season. We’ll be operating a transfer amnesty up until the first eligible scoring fixture on 16th August 2008 so that you can start the game with an injury-free and in-favour team selection. Remember though, your team must always stay in budget and in formation. 

Captain Changes

You can change your captain 5 times during the season, by giving the captaincy to another player in your team. If you transfer or loan your captain out of your team, the incoming player automatically assumes the captaincy, without the loss of one of your captain changes.

Player Loans

In addition to transfers, you can also make 5 player loans during the season, each lasting 4 games. Take a loan player in place of one in your line up and keep him for a duration of four games for his real-life club. When the loan expires, the player he replaced returns automatically! Again, make sure that you stay within budget and formation.

Mini Leagues

Why not compete against your family, friends and colleagues by inviting them to join your own private Mini League? You’ll still compete within the Main Game but also have the chance to demonstrate your fantasy football management prowess with the people who really need to know about it. And there’s the small matter of a £15,000 prize for the best-performing Mini League and the chance to win an extra £5,000 for you if you set the league up. You will automatically be entered into our Chairmen's League. You’ll need a minimum of 5 people to create a Mini League but there’s no maximum limit. Once you have registered a team in the game, click

Start A Mini League to create yours.

Premier Play

Our, fast, fun and FREE to play weekend game, Premier Play, challenges you to make some key predictions for a selection of the weekend’s fixtures. Get it right and you could win £500. There’s a new Premier Play game most weekends from 16/17 August 2008 and it's only available to players of Times Fantasy Football. When you have registered your team, click Premier Play to make your weekend predictions. You will receive four of the weekend's big fixtures of which you have to predict the result as home win, draw or away win and give a correct score prediction. You will also be given two players who will score for you in each match, nominate a captain and you’re in the game. You can make one entry to Premier Play for every team you have registered in the main game – every weekend. Click

Scoring Points to see how to score in Premier Play.