How Fantasy Soccer Works

Real clubs — entire teams like Arsenal, Real Madrid or Napoli. You don't draft strikers and goalkeepers; you own the whole club, and it earns fantasy points from how the real team actually performs on the pitch.

No. If you can read a league table, you can play. Points come from things anyone can follow — a club won, scored, kept a clean sheet — and the app does all the tracking and math for you. Newcomers and die-hards end up on a level field faster than you'd think.

By default, Europe's "Big Five": the Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany) and Ligue 1 (France). Your commissioner can widen the pool to other leagues if your group wants more clubs to choose from.

A live snake draft: everyone picks in turn, and the order reverses each round so it stays fair (last pick in round one gets first pick in round two). You've got about 90 seconds per pick, and you draft one club each round until every roster is full.

Balance beats hype. A roster of six title-chasers who all play each other cancels itself out on the weeks they clash — someone has to lose. Mix proven point-scorers with clubs that have kind early fixtures, and don't forget only 5 of your clubs start each week, so depth matters as much as star power.

Line up a few backup targets before your pick comes around — the club you wanted often goes a spot or two early.

Queue up the clubs you want in advance. If your timer expires, the app auto-picks the top club from your queue — or, if your queue's empty, the best club still available. You'll never miss a pick.

8 by default — but your commissioner can set the roster anywhere from 4 to 12 clubs.

The default is 8 clubs: 5 starters and 3 on the bench. Every matchweek you choose which 5 clubs start. Only your starters score — bench clubs sit that week.

Each club locks at its own kickoff. So you can keep tweaking your lineup right up until a club's real match starts — clubs that have already kicked off are locked in, the rest are still free to move.

When your clubs play across different days, you can watch the early games and still swap a starter whose match hasn't begun. Kickoff-by-kickoff locking is a real edge if you pay attention.

It scores 0 for the week — think of it as a bye. When you're picking your 5 starters, check that they actually have a fixture, so you're not starting an idle club and leaving points on your bench.

Distance and difficulty. A tap-in from inside the box counts; a strike from outside counts more; a screamer from your own half is worth the most. It rewards the clubs that actually create big moments — not just the ones that get lucky from the spot.

They add up. Saves, shots on target and accurate passes are tiny on their own, but across a full 90 minutes a busy goalkeeper or a possession-heavy side quietly banks a real cushion — sometimes enough to swing a close round even without a goal.

If your commissioner turns on waivers, yes — you drop a club and claim an available one. There are two common styles: FAB (a blind-bid budget, where the highest bid wins a club) or a traditional priority order. Heads-up: claims are processed in a nightly run, not the instant you submit them.

Yes — propose a club-for-club (or multi-club) swap to another manager. By default trades need commissioner approval before they go through.

The season runs in weekly matchweeks. Two matchweeks make one head-to-head round against another manager — whoever's starters score more wins the round. Win rounds to climb the standings.

You're ranked by your record, with tiebreakers — total points scored, head-to-head results, and more — in an order your commissioner sets. Same idea as any league table.

The top teams make a bracket at the end of the season (6 teams by default). Some leagues run an "extended" final that stretches over an extra matchweek for a bigger finish.