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The Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football (TFF) transfer password is posted on the forum every week. Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football (TFF) The Telegraph's Fantasy Football competition (TFF), is extremely popular (with approx. 265,000 teams entered in 2005/06, 220,000 teams entered in 2004/05 and 250,000+ in 2001/02). For 2006/07, there are 30 transfers allowed (up from 24 for 04/05) with transfers effective from the first Premiership kick-off of each day. If you want to do these transfers online then you need a password which is published each Wednesday in the Telegraph (the password will change each week) - the Daily Telegraph fantasy football (TFF) transfer password is updated each week on our TFF forum. Scoring is based on goals scored, assists, Man of the Matches, appearances and goals against. Premiership club appearances in the FA Cup also count towards scoring. The total prize money on offer is generous (£50,000 for the winner) and weekly and monthly prizes keep the interest alive for all participants. The Super League feature is great for friends, family and workmates grouping together with fortnightly updates automatically produced for you. For all the latest Fantasy Football news and views, check out FISO's fantasy football discussion forum where there is a specialist Telegraph Fantasy Football Forum. You do NOT need to register to view the archived posts. Quote from one of the Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football forum users (Zeus): 'I have just logged on to the Telegraph Fantasy Football site to find that I have won our Super League! I can only attribute this stellar rise in my performance down to the FISO forum. I have gained invaluable insights into tactics, had up to the minute injury information, and varied, but generally accurate views on players worth. I have enjoyed myself immensely, some posts have made me gasp with astonishment, some have nearly made me cry with laughter'. Sign up to our FREE fantasy sports email newsletter and keep yourself informed on the latest UK fantasy sports news. Hear about the latest developments and new games from fantasy sports game webmasters. Below is a copy of our interview in FSN 19 with Jed Pitman of The Telegraph's Fantasy Sports games: FSN 19 8.00am 6 June 2001 Today's newsletter should be of particular interest to Telegraph fans for we caught up with Jed Pitman last week who looks after The Telegraph's Fantasy Sports games and does the 'write up' on Wednesdays (Football) and Fridays (Cricket). Jed was kind enough to spend time with us answering our numerous questions. Jed answered questions A) Generally about The Telegraph's Fantasy Sports, B) Telegraph Fantasy Football, C) Telegraph Fantasy Cricket and D) about himself. Questions on the Telegraph's Fantasy Sports programme, answered by Games Consultant, Jed Pitman: A) GENERAL QUESTIONS: 1. What different fantasy sports games do the Telegraph run and which are your most popular in terms of entry numbers? Telegraph Fantasy Football (restarts August 2001), Telegraph Fantasy Cricket. On occasions there are smaller fantasy based games for specific competitions such as World Cups, Ryder Cup etc. We have just finished a game called Zurich Rugby Challenge. 2. When were the respective games introduced? 3. Have you seen an increasing number of people playing them over the years? The best year was 1995 when 360,00 individual managers entered the footy and 170,000 played the cricket game. The numbers diminished slightly but have increased again over the last couple of years to around 275,000 and 90,000. 4. What do you think The Telegraph has to offer over other newspapers that run fantasy sports games? The best games offer managers more value for money; such as free magazines, confirmation of teams and transfers and now the ability to make transfers on the internet. The weekly page also offers more information than other papers. 5. Can you give us any figures in general on the ages/sex of people playing? Not exactly, although the large majority are between 25-45 and male. 6. Why do you think people like to play The Telegraph's fantasy sports games? They are great fun, reflect the real games well and truly offer managers a real test of their knowledge of the sports, particularly when making transfers which, to do well, is the crucial part of the game. 7. Are you looking at introducing any new competitions over the next couple of years? There will, as ever, be games for particular competitions but football and cricket remain the main ones. 8. How do you think the recent internet transfer ability has gone down with players? Very well. Transfers increased enormously to well over a million due the ease of making them. 9. Are there any areas in general that you are addressing to add to the interactive nature of the games? Not really. These are newspaper games and promotions too. We cannot put the scores online as this negates the need for people to purchase the paper, which remains the main reason for running these games. It is not to make money. B) QUESTIONS ON TPL - reviewed by FISO here: 10. Which year was TPL first launched and what do you think your game offers over other fantasy football competitions? 1994. More info, more value for money. 11. How many teams take part and how many do you hope to sign up next year? Do you know how many individuals take part? 280,000. We are always after more but the most important statistic is the impact on circulation on Wednesdays. Around 200,000 individuals take part. 12. What do you think of the fantasy football games run by the other newspapers? The Sun's game doesn't offer the manager enough except for the huge prize. The Times' is now run by Fantasy League and is therefore similar to the game in the Telegraph originally. I'm not aware of what the Times offers their managers in terms of confirmation of teams etc, a vital component of the Telegraph game. Personally, I think the copy in the Times is dull and concentrates too heavily on the performances of individual teams, ignoring the thousands of others involved in the game. All other papers have tended to drop their games over the years because they didn't do enough to support their players. 13. Can you give our readers some detail on the number of people and companies in the team that look after and run the game and the roles they have? The game is run by the promotions/marketing department at the Telegraph, headed by Steve Stiles. I'm involved as a games consultant and prior to the launch of each game we discuss changes to the game and how the managers can benefit more. Two or three members of the handling house, GFM, based in Colchester are also involved. The game is scored by GFM who also supply the statistics for the weekly page, which is written and edited by me. 14. We see in the TPL guide to the 2000/01 football season the following people/companies are mentioned in the TPL First XI. What role do they each play in the TPL team? First XI: Simon Clays, Simon Wallis, Mark Pettit, you, Action Images, Cormac Bourne, Joi Chuku, Mike Skyte, Julia Bell, Robert Bright, Allsport Images and Steve Stiles. The mag was put together in conjunction with FourFourTwo magazine and the majority of the names work for them. Allsport are picture providers, Mark Pettit works for GFM and is the main scorer. Steve Stiles works in the sports marketing dept at the Telegraph and has overall responsibility for the game. 15. Who decided that Lauren was the player to watch from Arsenal? Ditto re Zuniga from Coventry and Paul Thirlwell from Sunderland. FourFourTwo had total editorial control of the magazine with the exception of the ad and stats pages. 16. What made you choose 24 transfers for the season? Too many put people off, too few means the game is all over all too quickly for many. This was seen as a happy medium with the introduction of internet transfers. 17. Who decides on the player valuations? Me, Mark and Steve. 18. Many competitions restrict the number of players from each club. TPL does not do that. Why not? It was decided two years ago that people were not entering teams because it was taking too long to select a team due to the restrictions of formation, price and players from each club. They wanted to play but it was just too much hassle. I believed that one had to go and this was the most obvious choice. I never worked out the need for it in the first place. You have to be aware of accusations of dumbing down, though. I don't think we did and the numbers of teams has risen since the rule was changed. 19. The Super League facility seems a useful facility and helpful particularly as not everyone wants to keep a note of his or her score. Whose idea was it to introduce it? Mine, Fantasy League and a company called CBH, an advertising agency which handled the game in its early years (I used to work for them, which is where my involvement came in). 20. Do you ever have any difficulty in determining assists or do you use an outside source for the data? They are based on TV coverage and newspaper reports. They are almost always correct. Key contributions replaced assists to make it slightly more arbitrary. 21. Have you considered setting up a 'Champions League' system whereby, say, the top 10 managers from each season are allowed to compete in a separate mini-league each following season, with the winner receiving a prize for being the Champion of the Champions? No, but it's a nice idea. 22. Are there any introductions you plan to make which tie the fantasy game further in with the real-life EPL? No, in fact the Telegraph's sponsorship of the Premiership has now ended. 23. Do you have any future developments or advances for TPL that you are working on or intend to introduce next year? Wait and see. 24. Who were the big winners in TPL for 2000/01? And do you know how they coped in the run up to the season finale? Steve Austin won the game with a team co-managed by his colleague. They won the game by concentrating on fixtures, thus ensuring they got the maximum opportunity to score points each week. I think they had a lot of sleepless nights. 25. Do you think the FA should ban from the EPL Swedish players whose names end in ....SSON! No, it lead to a running gag throughout the season with ssonssonsson being used. We even made Private Eye who thought it was a spelling error. 26. Is there any advice you can give our readers who want to do well in TPL next year? Concentrate on the fixtures and make your transfers accordingly. C) QUESTIONS ON TFC - reviewed by FISO here: 27. When was Telegraph Fantasy Cricket first run? 1995 28. How many teams and individuals have entered the 2001 competition? 90,000 29. How many Super League teams have entered? Just over 800 30. Who decided on the player ratings? Me and Mark Pettit. 31. What was the idea behind double points for tests and the latter stages of certain competitions? Test cricket and later one-day games are the ones which create interest for more than just the cricket aficionado. 32. Whose idea was introducing a nominated captain who scores double? Mine. 33. Why was 12 transfers decided upon? See football answer. The season is half as long. 34. We thought the individual player write up in the Telegraph Fantasy Cricket's guide to the season was spot on. Who wrote it? Me. 35. You got to meet David Graveney when putting that guide together to see how the England team was selected. What were your impressions of him? I've known David for several years and have to say that he was of the best at dealing with the media. 36. Has David Graveney entered a fantasy cricket team? No. I think he feels that it would compromise his position. 37. Have you met other famous sportsmen during your job? Lots, too many to mention. But my favourite would be Alan Hansen, I used to write as Alan Handsome in the TPL game and he was a quite a fan. Geoff Boycott also contacted me over my Geoffrey Trueman character. 38. Who do you think will be the top scoring player in each position at the end of the season? Batsman: Thorpe Keeper: Stewart: All rounder: Irani Bowler: Caddick. But what do I know? 39. The holiday prize sounds pretty special. Are The Telegraph paying for that or did they find a sponsor? We are paying for it. It was viewed as better than £10,000 cash which can be spent easily. 40. Who do you think will win the Ashes and what will the Test score be? Australia 3-1 with one draw but God, I hope I'm wrong. D) QUESTIONS ABOUT JED: 41. Tell us about yourself. I'm 35, married, 3 kids, live in Sherston in Wiltshire. Born in Nottingham, support Notts County and Notts CCC. 42. What job title do you have and are you employed directly by The Telegraph? I am a games consultant and am officially an outside supplier for the Telegraph. I am also Head of Sport at HTV in Bristol and commentate on cricket on Cricinfo.com. 43. How long have you been working on The Telegraph's fantasy sports games? Six years. I am the longest serving person. 44. Do you play any fantasy sports games yourself and, if so, which ones? All of them, although I can't win any prizes. 45. What are you typical duties in an average week? I write the page each week and decide what stats/ charts should be in. I gather the info from GFM and then write and rewrite many of the bad gags. 46. Do you have many emails to deal with each day from people with questions or problems with the game and what was the strangest email? Yes, although I pass most game queries on to our reader relations dept. I get too many weird ones for any to stand out. 47. Have you ever missed an editorial for the fantasy sports page? Not one in 6 years. I even write the stuff on holiday or when I'm working elsewhere. 48. How did you first get involved in Fantasy Football? I was employed by CBH, an advertising agency who employed me as a copywriter. The Telegraph was one of their clients. I was employed for one day and am still doing it now. 49. Who do you think the best real-life football manager is? Ferguson (no boos please). 50. What is your opinion on the England manager situation? They seem to have it right now. 51. Do you think Beckham's haircut should have a bearing on his position as England captain? Not at all. 52. Who do you think should be England captain (regardless of haircuts)? Does it really matter? I'm never sure what a football captain does. 53. Can anyone stop Manchester United next year? Notts County. In my dreams. 54. If you could only pick one goalkeeper, one defender, one midfielder and one striker for a Premiership fantasy team (with no restrictions) who would they be? Barthez, Harte, Beckham and Owen. 55. Where were you when England trounced Holland in Euro 1996 and when England lost to Argentina on penalties in the World Cup 1998? In the Sports Cafe in the Haymarket and in a bar in Bow. 56. Which football player do you think will be the top scorer in TPL next year? Owen. 57. What do you do in your spare time to relax? I don't have any spare time but anything to do with cricket which is my favourite game. 58. If there was one rule in football that you could change what would it be? Anything which would lead to more goals, there are too many dull games. Many thanks again to Jed for taking the time to answer our questions!
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