Rules

League Types

• The leagues fall under two categories Private and Public:
  • Private – The league is controlled by the Chairman who creates the league. The administrator controls which teams are entered into to the league by invite and will define the gameplay settings for the league
  • Public - A user can select to join a public league, teams are randomly assigned to a vacant league. The gameplay settings are set to the default settings and there will be no league administrator. In the case of disputes, user should contact the RFF team who will have final say in all matters

Squad Selection

• Your team will be picked during a draft selection process
• Each league will have a time and date when the draft will take place
  • Chairmen in Private leagues will be able to select the time and date
  • Chairmen in Private leagues may also wish to select ‘Offline Draft’ whereby they can organise a manual draft to take place and upload the results to the system
  • Public leagues will have an assigned time and date when the draft will take place
• Prior to the draft the draft order will be revealed
  • The Chairman in Private leagues will have the option to be able to manually select the draft order
  • Public leagues will have a randomly assigned order
• Picks alternate between ascending and descending order (1,2,3,4,4,3,2,1,1,2 etc.)
• If you are logged in during the draft you have 90 seconds to make your selection otherwise the console will auto-pick from your pre-draft rankings
• You must select 15 players in the draft in the following positions:
  • 2 Goalkeepers
  • 5 Defenders
  • 5 Midfielders
  • 3 Forwards
• You may never have more than the above in your squad
• Player positions are decided by OPTA and are final
• Each player can only be selected by one team in the league at any time
• You may pick as many players from any Premier League team as you like

The Season

• The season is split into 38 Gameweeks
• Each week you will play a fixture against another player in your league
• Fixtures are determined prior to the start of your season
• In order to ensure that each player has a fixture every week, where there is an odd number of teams a league a ‘Bot’ team will be added
• The ‘Bot’ will draft last and will select users based on the RFF pre-draft rankings
• A ‘Bot’ will not make any transfers or trades during the season
• The player who accumulates the most points wins the head to head fixture
  • Win = 3 Points
  • Draw = 1 Point
  • Lose = 0 Points

• Where teams have a blank gameweek (due to postponements, cup matches or general fixture congestion), players from these teams will score 0 for that gameweek. On occassions, teams may play twice in one gameweek (particularly nearer the end of the season). In these instances, players from these teams will score points for each of their games which will be added together to give their final gameweek score. 
• At the end of Gameweek 36 the top 4 teams in the league qualify for the play-offs unless the league chairman has disabled this feature, in which case a straight league will continue until the end of the season.
• In the semi-finals the fixtures are
  •  1st vs 4th 
  • 2nd vs 3rd 
• The two winners in the semi-finals will then play against each other for the title of League Champion
• The two losers will face off in the third place decider
• Any teams outside of the top four will continue to play each other
• For the playoffs, all trades will be disabled to prevent collusion between teams.
• For the playoffs, only the top 4 will be able to make transfers. Again, this is to stop collusion (by preventing other teams making transfers to release players).
• In the event of a draw in the playoffs the manager of the team that accumulated the most h2h points over the course of the season will be deemed the winner of the matchup. In the event that teams are still tied, total individual points over the course of the season will be the determining factor.

Your Team

• Each Gameweek has a deadline of Saturday 11:00 unless otherwise stated, by which time you will need to have selected your line-up for those fixtures
• Each week you must select your starting line-up which must consist of 11 players including
  • 1 Goalkeeper
  • A minimum of 3 Defenders
  • A minimum of 3 Midfielders
  • A minimum of 1 Forward
• You must select a captain from your starting 11 each Gameweek who will score double points.
• You must also select a vice captain from your starting 11 each Gameweek who will score double if your captain doesn't play.
• In the event that a player in your starting XI do not play in the gameweek, they will be automatically substituted for a player on your bench who has played
• Substitutions will take place in the order you place them on the bench and will only be made if the resulting team complies with the formation rules

Points

• All statistics are provided by OPTA and are final
• Players earn points for the following activities:

• Gamepoints are lost for goals conceded only whist the player is on the pitch with the exception of players who are sent off who will continue to lose gamepoints.

• In the event a player leaves the pitch through injury when the team has already made all their substitutions, that player is still considered to be playing.

Transfer Window

• The transfer window runs from the Gameweek deadline until 24 hours after the conclusion of the Gameweek 
• During the transfer window you can transfer in one additional player
• The transfers are executed at the conclusion of the transfer window
• These transfers occur in favour of the player lower down the league. The user bottom of the league will get their first choice player; Second bottom will then get their preferred player if available and second choice if not etc.
• This is to promote season long competition, where teams at the bottom end of the table have a chance to turn around their fortunes

Free Transfers

• Once the transfer window has closed then any remaining players (including those who have been dropped) are the available for immediate transfer into your team up until the next Gameweek deadline

Trades

• At any time, one user may propose a trade to another for one of their players
• Uneven trades e.g. 2 for 1 are allowed
• Trades may not be countered, only accepted or declined

• All player transactions must conform to the squad regulations as stated above. Therefore selecting a player will most likely require you to drop a player in the same position to accommodate.