Real-Life Performance Games

Apnaplanet.com

Choose a squad of 16 players in this EPL game with 5 transfers per month. Prizes on offer. Reviewed 13 August 2001.

Blue Square Fantasy League

The interactive betting company, Blue Square, enlisted the help of long-established Fantasy League Limited in 2003 to offer a FREE to play Fantasy Football game based on the English Premiership (EPL) with a £10,000 first prize. BlueSquare Fantasy League 2004/05 game starts Saturday 11 September 2004. Only 1 team per person allowed in this FREE to enter 2004/05 Fantasy
League Premiership game.

Over £18,000 of prizes are on the table including a £10,000 cash 1st prize. To qualify for prizes you need to open a BlueSquare account which is a very simple process - there is no obligation to place any bets although there is a free £10 betting token on offer if you do. The scoring starts on 11th September and you can make unlimited changes up until 12:30 that day.

To join FISO's 2004/05 mini-league please use League PIN: 1249 after going to 'Private League' from your team page.

How To Play:

Picking Your Team
Simply select your 11-man team from the player list. Your team must contain no more than 2 players from any single Premiership team. Your team must conform to either a 4-4-2 formation or 5-3-2 formation. A 4-4-2 formation comprises one goalkeeper, two centrebacks, two fullbacks, four midfielders and two strikers. A
5-3-2 formation comprises one goalkeeper, three centrebacks, two fullbacks, three midfielders and two strikers.

The total cost of your team cannot exceed the £50m budget.

Scoring Points
Points are awarded to players during the Premiership season according to the following set criteria. In addition to goals scored and conceded, we also award points for clean sheets and assists. A clean sheet occurs when a team does not concede a goal during a match. An assist is recorded when a player passes directly to a team
mate who goes on to score a goal.


Event Points Details
Goal 3 pts
Assist 2 pts
Goalkeeper/Defender Appearance 1 pt (must play 45 mins or more)
Goalkeeper/Defender Clean Sheet 3 pts (must play 75 mins, inc. 1 pt
for appearance)
Goalkeeper/Defender Goal Against -1 pt

RULE CHANGE - New for the 2004/05 season!
Goalkeepers and defenders receiving red cards can now lose points after they are sent off. If a player is sent off and his team concedes goals after his dismissal, he continues to lose the points that his teammates do.

If the goalkeeper / defender is sent off and his team keep a clean sheet then, as previously, he keeps the points as at the time he was sent off.

Transfers
If your chosen team isn't performing to your satisfaction it's easy to make changes to your playing squad. You are allocated 20 transfers during the Premiership season that you can use to change your selected players. To ensure that you use your resources wisely, there is a limit of 5 transfers permitted each month. Transfers can be made at any time except within 15 minutes either side of a match. You cannot make transfers less than 15 minutes before the start of a match, as this is when we check who is in your team. If a match is taking place while you make transfers, these simply take effect for the next match.

To make a transfer, simply go to your team screen and click on the Team Changes button. You should the follow the prompts displayed on the screen. You can make unlimited changes to your team before the start of your season.

Each Friday you'll receive an email from Blue Square giving you the availability status of the players in your team. This will help you make those crucial transfers ahead of the weekend's fixtures.

Prizes

Overall Season Championship
The manager who accumulates the most points from Saturday 11th September 2004 to the end of the Premiership season on Saturday 14th May 2005 wins £10,000 cash.

Runner-up prizes are awarded in the form of free bet vouchers as follows; 2nd £2,500, 3rd £500 and £250 for 4th place.

Manager of the Month
The manager who accumulates the most points in a particular calendar month (September to April inclusive) wins £500 (free bet voucher).
The runner-up wins £150 (free bet voucher)

Private Leagues
Chairmen of Private Leagues with 5 or more teams in their league as of 1st October receive a £20 free bet voucher.

Prize Draws
All teams entered by 1st December will be entered into a prize draw to win tickets for Premiership football matches.

Each month, every team will be placed into a prize draw to win one of many spot prizes.

TO CLAIM ANY PRIZES YOU MUST HAVE HELD A BLUE SQUARE ACCOUNT FOR A MINIMUM OF 21 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE THAT YOU WON THE PRIZE

Click here for the FREE BlueSquare Fantasy Football Game.

Can You Kick It?

Can You Kick It (CYKI) is run by ismgames.com and uses a squad based system whichased Sportdreams.  It is a FREE to enter game based around the Champions League with over 25,000 teams entered. The host site is in Dutch, but don't be put off because the actual manager's site is in English. The manager receives a budget with which he must buy and manage a team for the duration of the tournament. Points are awarded based on player performances in the tournament.  A transfer market is in use. A player's value increases if they are playing well, but also decreases if they are not. The manager's budget increases by 50,000 Euros for each point scored by a player, so the better your team is, the more you can spend on transfers.  Transfer values are set by the game's webmasters and are based on the player's current performance. You start scoring points from the moment of entry, but if you enter with a group then everyone has the same "starting point" which is helpful when entering after the season has started. Game ceased after 01/02 when ismgames took charge of the premierleague.com game.

Dreamsquad 

Dreamsquad is a fantasy football game based on the English Premiership with the winner being the manager who scores the most points over any 8 consecutive weeks. You can play in the Dreamsquad League or set up your own division (you still compete in the main game) and then challenge friends, family and colleagues for your own championship. Select up to £100 million worth of players, and from that 18 man squad field a weekly 11 man team valued up to £60 million. No limit to the number of players from each Premiership team. You have up to 10 transfers to use throughout the season, so you can give poor squad performers their marching orders! Select your line up by 10.30 a.m. on match day. Players points are based on appearances, goals, assists, goals conceded, bookings and sendings off. Team entry is via a premium rate telephone number so there is a cost to entry. First prize is a widescreen TV.

FanLeague

Stuart, who runs fanleague, is an old hand at fantasy football leagues and he offers the opportunity for you to compete against friends and colleagues. FanLeague run one competitions for each half of the season - first season finishes 16/12/00. Spend £50m on 11 Premiership players in a 4-4-2 formation. Points are scored for goals (+3), assists (+2), defense appearance (+1), defence clean sheet (+2), defence conceding goals (-1). You have one chance for transfers but can change up to 4 players. Maximum 2 players per Premiership team. Entry cost is £5 per team (with discounts for 5 and 10 entry forms) and 60% of entry fees are to be returned as prizes.

Footballis

Pick a 15 man squad (2 GK, 5 D, 5 M, 3 S) with no more than 2 from any Premiership club from a £75m budget and compete for the overall prize of £1,000 with hospitality packages to top Premiership football games on offer to monthly winners. The 8 transfers a season and unlimited rotation of your squad (which must be set by midnight before a game) all lead to plenty of management of your team. Entry is free until 31 May 2001 when it becomes £5.

fsports

Division 1, 2, 3 and Conference fun competitions with an overall Champions League for the best team across the board. Free entry for an 11 man team with modest prizes. Reviewed 13 August 2001.

Global Fantasy Football (GFF)

Global Fantasy Football is a Real-Life Performance fantasy footy site. Build a world class 15 man squad with £100 million. There are two game options: play for free in the Grand League, or set up your own Private Group League for you and up to 10 Friends for £9.95. Private Group League managers also play in the Grand League. Updated review 20 December 2001.

Ladbrokes League - click on Fantasy on the home page

The Ladbrokes League Premier 2001/02 kicks-off on 1 September 2001 (no games til 8 Sept though due to Internationals). Entry fee is £5 per team with a first prize of £10,000 on offer and prizes are all the way down to 6th. Build your team with £75m to spend. To access their fantasy sports pages simply click on Fantasy on their home page

Ladbrokes League's fantasy football game bets that you can't pick a squad of 15 and show your managerial genius. It is based on the FA Premiership and you pick 2 GK, 5 D, 4 M and 4 S from your £75m (or the equivalent in other currencies) and with no more than 3 players from each club. Points are based on goals scored (GK +20, D +10, M +7 and S +5), clean sheets (+5), goals conceded (-1) and yellow/red cards (-2,-5). No points for assists. You select 11 players for the week's fixtures (in a 4-3-3 formation) There are 20 transfers for the season. Updated review 23 August 2001.

Leaguematters.com Fantasy Football

Left Back In The Changing Room

Left Back In The Changing Room - www.fantasyfootyuk.co.uk - has just entered its third season with major reform on the agenda. The game has opened French, German, Italian, Spanish and a European Breakaway league to add to a 24-team English division. The game is run using MSWL software and is purely play by e-mail. All the results are posted either weekly or fortnightly. The game boasts all the features of your favourite managerial games with a added extras like cheat proof transfer systems, bidding markets, bosman ruling transfers and so on. The game has a price for budding managers, but this price has been lowered dramatically with a special offer of either £5 a season for one team or £8 a season for two teams. The fees are allowed to be paid in installments. Reviewed 1 October 2001.

LycosSoccerFantasy2002

MFFL

Register now for Monty's Fantasy Football League which kicks-off again in July 2002 for the start of the English Premiership. Reviewed 23 April 2002.

myvteam

This is a US based game where you build your team of football players from the best there is to offer from the English, Italian or Spanish leagues. Entry fee is $9.90 per team and first prize is $5,000. Reviewed 13 August 2001.

Pickateam

Scoring starts on 1 September and you pick 15 players from your £70m budget with no more than 2 from every club. Various starting formations available. Top prize is a trip to the World Cup. Transfers limited to one per week but do cost as does team entry. As advertised on Channel 5 apparently. Reviewed 23 August 2001.

Planet Football Team Boss game (Cancelled from 5 December 2001 - see FSN 41)

The Team Boss crowd have built a fantasy football game for Planet Football on which scoring starts on Saturday 13 October 2001.

We spoke to Sarah Goodacre, Fantasy Football Project Manager, for WWWATT Ltd. This is what she had to say about WWWATT Ltd:

'Established in 1998, WWWATT.com was originally set up as an online retailer of music CDs marketing to affinity groups such as professional associations and trades unions. In 1999, work began on an affinity group portal and WWWATT designed, built, hosted and maintained websites for several Police Federations. By the spring of 2001 WWWATT.com was host to 13 police federation websites and 12 member services websites in addition to three corporate portals. These combined offerings give access to more than a million professionally-qualified workers. WWWATT.com is also host to a commercial site designed especially for people with disabilities.

In the summer of 2000, WWWATT.com established a further joint venture, Radio Interactive Limited, with Infinity Consulting. By the spring of 2001, five local radio stations within the Infinity group had live websites, complementing their broadcast offering with online advertising, games, play lists, local directories, community information and much more.

Team Boss was created as a "sticky" to generate traffic on the sites that we host.  News of how good Team Boss is leaked out to the general public boosting numbers from the expected 500 or so to a massive 14,000 - a number which is still steadily rising.

Having seen that planetfootball.com had no fantasy football for the 2001 season, we approached them asking them to sponsor a specially branded site that is only accessible through planet football.  Planet Football looked at all of the competition and chose Team Boss as the fantasy football game to offer on their site - and though they missed the start of the season, we hope that the game will have the success that the original Team Boss game has experienced.

Team Boss has been designed to be great to look at and play.  Stats are provided by OPTA and are updated after each day's matches.  We have many cash prizes with a total prize pool of £25,000.  Unlike many other sites you can join at any time during the season for a chance to win the Manager of the Month Prizes.  Many of our managers have set up mini leagues so that they can challenge their friends or colleagues.'

We hope that the above statement by Sarah helps people understand who is running the game.

Our understanding of the rules of the game are as follows:

Entry cost - £3.99 for 1 team, £10 for 4 teams, £20 for 10 teams and £30 for 20 teams.

Squad system - pick 18 players using £100m and pick 11 to play each day in a 1 GK, 2 FB, 2 CB, 4 M and 2 S formation. Make your selections by noon on the day. No limit on players per club.

Season Prizes - 1st - £10,000, 2nd £4,000, 3rd £2,000, 4th £1,000 and 5th £500

Monthly Prizes - 1st £500, 2nd £250, 3rd £150, 4th £100 and 5th £50

Transfers - 15 for the season

Entry deadline - noon on 13 October 2001 (to score from the start)

Open to non-UK residents (as well as UK residents).

Statistics on goals scored, assists, appearances, goals conceded, bookings, own goals provided by Opta and if the main TeamBoss game is to go by should be updated promptly.

Please see the website for full rules and terms and conditions. Reviewed 8 October 2001.  

PlayerBoss

John Beresford's venture into Fantasy Football approaches the game from a different angle. A large number of professional players will play against the entrants and the prizes on offer are likely to be numerous and be related to the pros. Scoring starts for real in in September and the game is pay to play but with a free trial game for the first month. Select a 16 man squad using £80m with 25 transfers for the season. See FSN 33 for our interview with John Beresford. Reviewed 23 August 2001.

Premiership Sharpshooters

Premiership Sharpshooters has been running for several years and (obviously) is based on the Premier League. The fantasy football website is regularly updated and the webmaster provides a high level of feedback to managers about the progress of their team. FREE entry is available.

PremierWin.Com - 2000/01

See FSN11 for news on the liquidation of the company behind this game.

Need we say more than a first prize of £1 million is on offer from Premier Win? Probably not! Just in case you are interested in this competition, it is a squad based game based on the English Premiership (i.e. a 17 man squad with substitutions allowed each day) with a maximum of 6 teams per person which is sensible given the prize stake on offer. To be competitive you will need access to the internet at weekends to make your team changes - changes can be made 15 minutes before kick-off (so you can make changes between the 3pm and 4pm kick offs on Sunday when there are multiple matches). If the site is busy then you can email team changes instead but this must be received 15 minutes before kick off. You need to set the subject field to "Team selection" and include your password, team name(s) and full player details in the message.

Cost for the first team is £9.95 but there are discounts for further teams entered (works out at just under £4 each if you enter all 6). Only 3 transfers are available season long so there will be luck involved to avoid injuries and drops in form. Premierwin game kick off - 9 September 2000 although due to software failures the game restarted on 30 September 2000. There are some bargains amongst the players but not many and it will not be easy to put 17 great players together. Points are scored as follows: Goals (GK/D +8, M/S +6), Assists (+4), Clean Sheets (GK/D +4), Play full match (GK/D +2), Goal Conceded (GK/D -2), Own Goal (-4), Yellow Card (-3), Red Card (-5). Clean sheet score does not require the D/GK to be on the pitch the full time. A mini league system is available (but it costs £2.95 per team).

With the huge £1 million first prize, premierwin will be a hard fought fantasy football competition. Over 20,000 teams are taking part (which must be very disappointing for Football Manager Limited, the company running the game, who expected 250,000 to sign up) and those off to a good start in September 2000 will be sick as the proverbial parrot with the software failure leading to a restart. 

Rivals.net

Rivals.net run 3 FREE to enter fantasy football games, all based on real-life performances; English Premiership, Scottish Premiership and Champions League. Whichever game you play, you select 11 players in a 4-3-3 formation with a maximum of 2 players from each club but no monetary restrictions. You have plenty of transfer opportunities open to you (50 for the Premiership and 25 for the Champions League). Premiership game points are accumulated for Goals Scored (GK+9, D+7, M+5, S+4), Goals Conceded (GK only), Clean Sheets (GK+3, D+2, M+1), Yellow Cards (-2) and Red Cards (-4). Fantasy Champions League points are similar but there are 2 bonus points for away goals and clean sheets are +5,+3,+1 instead of +3,+2,+1. Teams must be finalised by midnight of the day before the matches (and by midnight Friday for weekend matches). A splendid football holiday is on offer to the winner of each competition.

ScottishFantasyFootball

Scottish Fantasy Football is a free online fantasy soccer game dedicated to the Scottish Premier League and First Division. It is a real life performance league which allows users to select a team from a pool of about 400 Scottish players. Your budget is £12m for your 15 man squad with a maximum of 3 players from any one club. The points scores for First Division players is half that available for Premier League players. You are limited to 6 transfers for the season. Reviewed 26 July 2001.

Sky Sports Super Manager

Sky Sports Super Manager (previously called 'Football Fantasia') is only available to UK residents and can be entered either on the internet or through the red Sky Active channel on your TV. Internet entry charges are £4.99. Entry by the TV is 10p per minute. Further review etc of your team during the season also costs 10p per minute.

There is a maximum spending limit of £60 million per team. To be eligible to win a prize your team must be complete for all matches during the relevant month. Each team must include: 1 goalkeeper, 2 fullbacks, 2 centre backs, 4 midfielders, 2 strikers and 1 manager. Participants must have no more than 2 individuals from any one Premier League club in a team at any one time.

Seasonal and Monthly leagues and prizes for each. 1st prize £10,000 for the season game, with £2,500 second and £1,000 3rd and £100 for next 10. Each month will have a £1k first prize. There are a total of 40 transfers for the season. Updated review 12 August 2002.

Sports.com

Sports.com.'s 'Ultimate Soccer' fantasy football game has a unique appeal to its over 20,000 (1999/00 figure) entrants and is FREE to play. Each weekend you are pitched into battle against another football manager's team and the better your soccer players perform the more points they each score. The total points scored by your team are converted into 'goals'. If your team 'scores' more 'goals' than your opponent's team then you win that fixture and climb up the league. Like the real league it is 3 points for a win and one for a draw and you do have a 20 man squad to choose your team from with only 5 transfers during the season. Team points are not only based on goals scored by your players but on football player performance ratings by sports.com. There is little restriction on which players you can choose for your squad with all the major English and Scottish Leagues represented. Sports.com's Ultimate competition has a great 'match' feeling come the weekend. Updated review 11 November 2001.

Squad Selector 

An entry deadline of midnight Friday 1 March BUT there are 8 separate game periods (and 8 separate prizes) so a late entry is still okay.

The game has been promoted in The Times and is run by DreamLeague. It is based on English nationality Premiership players (so no Henry or Hasselbaink!) with no monetary or club limits. The entry fee is £5 but free gifts worth £32 (free bet and free England baseball cap) are given to every entrant.

There are 20 transfers available (no min/max each week) and the 11 man teams are frozen each Friday at midnight. The top prize (trip to the England v Argentina match in Japan) is kept for the final scoring week (April 27 to Fri May 3rd i.e. Friday before FA Cup Final) so tactics with transfers is a big point here. Premiership and FA Cup games count with points scored for goals, key contributions, appearances, clean sheets and a Times rating mark out of 10. Reviewed 27 Feb 2002.

Strikerama

Strikerama is the new monthly game from Fantasy League. The game is simply about goals. All you have to do is pick five strikers to accumulate points for each Premiership and FA Cup goal they score in February. You must also assign weightings to your strikers - this will decide how much they will collect for every goal, from 5 points down to 1.

The deadline for the first game is 14:45 on Saturday, 1 February. Unlimited changes can be made up to this time. Once the competition is under way, only one transfer is permitted each week. There is no restriction, however, on the number of weight changes.

The entry fee is £5 per team, and there's a prize of £1,000 for the top scoring entrant. The two runners-up collect £200 and £50. For the mini-league for FISO members click here for details. Reviewed January 2003.

TeamBoss

Team Boss is a FREE fantasy football game based on the real life performance of the English Premier League players. They are offering £12,000 of prize money
up for grabs. You must pick a squad using your budget and you can change your team weekly. Updated review 5 August 2002.

The Times Golden Boot

Entry deadline to start scoring straight away is midnight Friday 30 August 2002 for The Times' Golden Boot game run by DreamLeague.com. Choose 10 strikers plus an optional 1 star player each week (note: the star player option costs £5 for the season but you could play the game just with 10 players for free). A list of the 20 optional star players is published in The Times every Monday and this list changes every week i.e. you cannot keep the same star player for more than 1 week. Players available from EPL, SPL, Bundesliga, La Liga & Serie A and you must pick at least one goal scorer from each league. Up to 10 transfers available each week i.e. you can pick a totally different team each week. There is a season prize of £20,000 and plenty of weekly prizes also on offer. Reviewed 29 August 2002.

Zoo Football - 2000/01

Zoo Football's fantasy football game operates a squad system (16 players) with up to 15 transfers available during the year. Substitutions can be made on the day. You can play in the English Premiership, Division One or the Scottish Premiership. Useful non-cash prizes.

Simulated Football Management Games:

2-1 Fantasy Football

2-1 Fantasy Football is a play by mail (PBM) simulated football manager game. 3 divisions of teams are run with each turn every 12-14 days costing £1. Managers are in control of financial and squad issues with prizes (real and virtual) to the most successful managers.

Atomic Soccer

Atomic Soccer's 2000/01 season has a structure of 2 leagues of 4 teams each. The season is 12 weeks long and you play each team 4 times. The 8 teams are taken from the 8 'best' teams in England and Scotland, so Rangers and Celtic will be playing clubs such as Man Utd and Arsenal. The 8 teams enable the cup competition to commence at the quarter finals stage. Instructions are given to the chairman by email and he is available for assistance.

CSFSL Fantasy Soccer League

FREE play-by-email simulated fantasy football league in its first season and currently made up of 2 divisions of 16, with all teams from the English league. Reviewed 8 October 2001. URL out of date.

Dream Team Soccer

Established July 2000, Dream Team Soccer consists of 20 teams in 2 divisions playing league and cup matches. Each manager takes control of all aspects of team management from team sheets to club finances. Player transfers and loan deals are an integral part of managing your team. Updated review 8 August 2001.

ESM

The English Soccer Manager is a free online simulated fantasy football manager game. Managers needed! Reviewed 23 April 2002.

Filipe Soccer League

IFA

IFA (the Internet Football Association) is a free to play football simulation game using the @esms programme. It currently consists of 16 English Clubs divided into 2 Divisions with top clubs playing in Europe the following season and poor performers facing relegation. Updated review 11 August 2001.

IFC

IFC, or the Internet Football Club, is a parallel world of football. It has its own clubs, competitions, leagues, players and rules. There are no teams, managers or players that exist in the real world. As a club manager you have complete control over your virtual club and compete against 19 other teams in your league with one match played per day (Mon to Fri). Game screens include mailbox, match report, squad selection, tactic selections, player data, club information, league table, fixture list, player search, transfer lists, transfer offer and club finances. The future of internet football management?

International MAnagement GAmes (IMAGA)

FISO have an exclusive discount with IMAGA - get the first month FREE in this unique game if you join via the link above!. International MAnagement GAmes, or IMAGA for short, is run from Holland and covers the English, Dutch, Spanish, Belgian and Italian Leagues at a monthly participation cost of 5 Euros per team. The fantasy football management game's season kick off was 21 September 2000 but you can join a competition whenever you want. The fantasy game has been developed from a successful play by mail game which has been running in the Benelux since the early 1990s. The rules are quite involved but really do give you the ability to manage a virtual club, with prize money on offer to the most successful managers. Most of the information you would expect in managing a real-life football club is shown (for example; your real bank balance, transfer listed players, football fixtures, soccer league standings, cup competition results). Football match results, calculated by the IMAGA computer, depend on your players' energy and skill levels as well as your soccer team's moral rating and randomly issued yellow/red cards and injuries. A fascinating feature of this site is the transfer market where managers pay or receive real money (Euros) when buying or selling virtual football players. In traditional Dutch style, and after one year's play, you can set up a satellite football team in another (lower) league. IMAGA also offers a free to play Amateur football league where you can try out their game for two months. Remember FISO's exclusive discount by using the above link!

ISM

ISM (International Soccer Manager) is a PBEM Simulated Fantasy International Soccer league (results are calculated with the @esms software). ISM starts its first season in April 2001, and there are currently over 50 managers with room for many more. ISM gives managers the chance to manage any nation in the World of Soccer, from Brazil to the minnows of San Marino. All the real players are included, and each manger can call up extra players. There is a coaching feature in ISM which allows each nation to hire, fire and transfer coaches. All the real competitions are included from the World Cup and the World Cup Qualifiers to the Copa America and Confederations Cup.

Kick Off

Established in Nov 2001, Kick Off is a Free PBeM Simulation Football Management Game that includes 12 teams from the Premiership and 12 teams from Division 1 as well as the Kick Off Cup competition that is loosely based on the Champions League. All the players are up to date as per start of the 2001/2002 season and mirror players who currently play in real life with stats that reflect their true ability. You have to submit your team each week via email and liaise with other managers to make those all-important transfers whilst not getting into debt. So pit your wits against other real life managers to see who is the best of the best in Kick Off. Reviewed 4 January 2002.

seonline

Top marks to seonline's fantasy football management game who launched their first game (of hopefully many) in November 2000! Their free-to-play management game allows you to take charge of a top football club and play against clubs managed by other fantasy managers. All instructions to the chairman are given by email and seonline provide an easy to understand rules summary for you to download. Complete control over team selection, team tactics, transfers and finances are given but at the end of the day it is still 3 points for a win that matters. We give this one our 'vote of confidence' and hope that seonline is around for years to come!

Sky Sports Football Manager - GAME DISCONTINUED 19 JUNE 2002

Below is a copy of a Press Release on SSFM from October 2001:

'Sky Sports Football Manager is the ultimate realistic, multi-player football management game.

Launching 5^th November 2001, Sky Sports Football Manager brings the biggest brand in football to the most realistic and the first genuinely multi-player football management game ever.

Sky Sports Football Manager is a massive multiplayer football management simulation game that lets thousands of people run their favourite football club from the top five English divisions, while competing against other on-line players for the coveted title of “Sky Sports Football Manager of the Year”. 

With Sky Sports Football Manager you can manage your favourite football team, whether it be Manchester United, Stoke City or Yeovil.  Buy and Sell players, select and train them, and compete in a league against other managers – real people, not just computer artificial intelligences.  Manage a real club, choosing any side from the Premiership, the Nationwide leagues or the Conference.  Play with real-name footballers in proper leagues.

Sky Sports Football Manager comes complete with transfers, suspensions, injuries, promotions and accurate statistics on thousands of worldwide professional footballers.  Training, transfers and tactics are extremely realistic, and the skill, ability and behaviour of your players at the start of each season are fine-tuned to match their real-life counterparts. That’s where you take over…

Sky Sports Football Manager is considerably more satisfying than fantasy football type games, purely because it’s more realistic.  It actually gives you a taste of what it is really like to run a top team.  And in line with the sport, you are joining a broad and passionate community, competing against thousands of fellow managers, experiencing the emotions, banter and glory associated with real football.

When you first play Sky Sports Football Manager you start at the entry level, Bronze 3, which is where all managers start their careers.  Players gain promotion through outstanding performance as a manager, moving up to the higher Bronze and Silver Worlds and even to the elite heights of the Gold World if they are good enough.

The best managers of the season will play in the ‘Gold World’.  The Gold World is the top level of play within Sky Sports Football Manager and is made up of the Premiership, the Nationwide divisions 1-3 and the Vauxhall Conference – in all, 114 teams which play the exact same fixtures, on the same days, as real live matches.  This is where players get to find out who really is the top manager – move over, Sir Alex!

Sky Sports Football Manager will be a subscription-based service.  Versions of the game will be distributed both online and at retail.  The Sky Sports Football Manager programme and the game statistics can be kept current through online updates. The game has also been specifically designed to exploit emerging wireless and digital technologies to expand players’ accessibility and gaming experience.

The service, which combines a standalone program running on a PC with an integrated website for content and community operations, will launch in the UK in November. Sky Sports Football Manager will be available on a monthly subscription of £6.99.< the season end. Cup matches are run and every team plays at least once a week with the matches simulated via World Football Manager. The league webmaster writes up game reports and the hub of the site is the Web-board where the latest match and transfer news is displayed. We also like the easy display of the respective team squads.

See comments on this game on the SSFM topic on our forum.

Simulated Management Role-Play Games:

FreeKick

FreeKick was set up in August 2000 and is looking for Managers who will role play on a weekly basis. The site contains a tremendous amount of information and help. Free Kick (or FK for short) has a two division system with Cup competitions. If you fancy yourself as a manager then here's a place to prove it!

FSL

FSL is a simulated fantasy soccer internet league which is free to play and starts on 30 March 2002. This league is a role-playing game and the matches are simulated every weekend. This game claims to offer everything you need to feel like you are really a manager of a top side.  You will have the chance to play against European clubs or against non-division clubs in the cup.  Managers get to pay wages, loan players, transfer players and submit their tactics for a game at the weekend. Reviewed 18 March 2002.

GI Fantasy Soccer

GI Fantasy Soccer is a roleplay fantasy football management leaguecurrently with a 20-man Premiership and a Division 1 in the making.

It's been going since 2000 and has attracted around 100 members over the years. There are matches every week on Saturdays and International matches on Wednesdays which occur monthly when a team of the best in-form is chosen from all 20 premiership clubs. The site is expanding all the time, looking for new keen members and new staff to join the current team. The GI is worth a try. 

Click here to access the forum thread on GI Fantasy Soccer

Online Football

Online Football is a recently launched Roleplay type Football game - no waiting list at present so you should get a manager's role on application. Reviewed 5 September 2001.

Premiership Manager

Premiership Manager  is a simulated football management game that kicked-off in 2000.  Season 2 should see 2 divisions of 14 teams each and if you want to increase your chance of being selected to manage a team then a good 'role-play' on your managerial capabilities will stand you in good stead. The players' skills are based on how good they in real life and your role-playing also gives your team that extra push in the game.  The players in your maximum 28 man squad are under contracts which must be renewed or they will be eligible to leave on a Bosman.  Players can also become unhappy or even put in transfer requests. Reviewed 6 July 2001.

SAS - Soccer All Stars (game ceased 1 September 2001)

When applying for a managerial position in the UK based fantasy role-play football SAS league, the main requirement to have on your CV is imagination! If you are lucky enough to be accepted as a manager (places are limited), your fictional character plays out the role you have created, competing against other online managers in Soccer All Stars' FREE Fantasy Internet Management Game. By emailing other managers, and the SAS Board, your character interacts with other fictional managers. You can, for example, discuss potential transfers, give post match interviews, submit tactics as well as selecting your team to do battle on Saturday. Immerse yourself in a virtual managerial role and live the fantasy! Note:  Check out their newsletter for a flavour of SAS.

Football Interactive Management - CLOSED

Football Interactive Management is a free to play fantasy football role-play management game where you make the signings, handle the cash, pick the team and negotiate with other managers. Not being based on real life matches it allows you to make your mark in a virtual football world so if you reckon you can be a virtual Wenger or Ferguson then here is your chance. Good tactics and role-playing (i.e. acting out your managerial role) will enhance your scores.

Footiwarp - CLOSED - MAY REOPEN IN THE FUTURE

Footiwarp is a FREE to play Fantasy Role-Playing Football Game based on the English Premiership. There are 20 teams currently playing Footiwarp in two separate virtual Premiership leagues. The hard working, enthusiastic webmaster (from Birmingham, UK) takes immense pride in the site and is intent on expanding the number of leagues offered in due course. To be a success, managers really must make an effort to get actively involved in the game and the role-playing. Footiwarp uses a simulator to calculate results with values entered into the simulator depending on the quality of role-playing by the manager, the manager's match squad and team tactics. The game is fairly complex which, along with the role-playing amongst managers conducted via a role-play noticeboard, almost creates a sense of community at the site. Run by a true lover of football!

Score Prediction Games:

Andy's Prediction League

Andy's Prediction League is free and played just for fun. You have to give the correct score from ten fixtures over a weekend. It will be played in a league format where each league will consist of 16 players who play each other twice giving a total of 30 games. Points are awarded as follows: 3 win, 1 draw, 0 defeat. Reviewed 30 June 2003.

Conference Prediction League (1)

A free to enter fantasy football prediction league based on the Nationwide Conference. Features include, fans forum, "team" leaderboard and fantasy league.

Football-Center

A free online score prediction game for soccer fans. Reviewed 1 October 2001.

Football Knockout - no longer active from 9 April 2001

Football Knockout is run by William Hill bookmakers. The rules are simple: select the outcome (home win, draw, away win) to about 10 selected football matches each weekend. These are listed in order (i.e. from 1 to, say, 10). If you predict the correct outcome to the first match then you stay in the competition and so on until someone is 'the last man standing' i.e. the football knockout. Entry is free and great prizes are on offer (as we write this - £5,000 per week). Only takes a minute or two to play each week.

Kamikaze Football - GAME ENTRIES NO LONGER TAKEN - AWAITING FURTHER NEWS.

Kamikaze Football are now offering £5 million (well actually a £3m lump sum or £5m over 20 years as an annuity - that's their typical sales talk!) for the player who can predict 15 away wins during a three-week period. This is actually very very difficult so suggest you concentrate on the rest of the game which asks you to predict 15 wins during a 3 week premiership period. You score 5 points for an away win and 3 for a home win. The £3m prize is thus if you score 75 points (though there is a £100,000 prize for a 73 points score). You also score 1 point for a draw, but a draw or a loss count as a lost 'life' and you only have 5 of these over the 15 selections. You can only choose each team once - so obviously pick the top teams to win away and the mid  to lower teams to win at home, if you want to survive the 15 predictions. If you lose 6 lives you are eliminated and your score does not count - it's survival of the fittest! You have until 11:00 am on the day of the match to make your selections. If you don't like the first weekend's matches then no problem - leave your predictions for the next 2 weeks. The 3 week prize is a proportion of the pool collected from entrants (less duties). It appears that the winner gets 70%, 2nd gets 20% and 3rd gets 10%. Kamikaze estimate the winner may get £1,000 for game 1. Backed by George Best, Kamikaze is also offering £100,000 to the best score over the season. This is the best total score over 10 games during the season (each game being a 3 week period of predictions). There is a second and third season prize of £10,000 and £5,000 respectively. The first weekend of fixtures started October 28th 2000 and you need to be over 16 to play. Whilst all the above is difficult to ascertain from their site - it is only until you register that it is stated that you need to pay £5 for 3 games in that 3 week period. We spent a lot of time finding all this out so hope it all helps!

North-East Premier Predictions

Premier Predictions is a new fun score prediction game which will test your skill and form judgement on how the 3 North-East Premiership football teams will fare this season.  

• Score 3 points if you get the correct result and score, or
• Score 1 point if you get the correct result, i.e. win, lose or draw.

Reviewed 1 October 2001.  

Payner's Predictions League

Predict the scores of 15 matches each weekend including all premiership matches, Bristol City & Bristol Rovers matches and the rest are made up from the first Division. You get one point for correctly predicting the result (ie:home win, away win or draw) and you get a bonus of two points if the scoreline is correct. There is also a 'Double points joker' where you select just 1 of your 15 predictions each week. A 'Knockout cup' competition is also run. All competitors are divided into groups and, once everyone in each group has played against each other, the top 2 of each group go through into a knockout stage. There is a £10 entry fee to the predictions league which is returned as prize money. Reviewed 3 January 2003.

Punditz

Punditz was trailed for the World Cup with Ray Houghton as guest "expert pundit". Almost a thousand players entered and Punditz is now open for business with Champions' League 2002-3.  The top pundit wins a DVD player and there is a mini-league facility.  Free to play. Also features a humorous sports news section, Punditz is the site that fails to take sport too seriously. Reviewed 3 January 2003.

SCORECAST

SCORECAST is a FREE to play, daily updated, fantasy football score predictions competition. The object of the game is to correctly predict the score of ten matches each weekend from a list of 30.  Points are awarded based on a unique scoring system, devised by the webmaster, and then modified after input from some of those taking part. Those who play are encouraged to email not just the webmaster but the other participants thus generating a spirit of friendship. You can play via the website or by e-mail. The scoring system is fairly complex but fully explained on the website. Points are awarded for predictions and a spreadsheet generates tables, which are sent out to participants. There are in excess of 10 leagues of 16 players in each league, including a Champions League for winners from the previous season. Three cup competitions also take place during a season, which lasts 16 weeks.  August to December is one season, January to May the next, so there are two seasons of SCORECAST in one football season.  This makes the game far more interesting in that a player can be promoted or relegated twice in a season. The webmaster has taken early retirement and is based near Burnley in Lancashire, England and is very pleased with the very low drop-out rate of participants who compete from all over the world. There are contact pages, a who's who of players details and interests within the site to encourage interaction. Updated review 15 August 2001.

Small World

This is an American based fantasy football website which offers a game based on the English Premier League (Premier League Tip-em). This is a simple prediction game based on the English Premier League. Simply select wins or draws from a weekly fixture list and gain points for correct predictions. A tiebreaker is offered each week: ‘How many goals will be scored in this week’s fixtures.’

Sports.com's Premiership Predictor

Predict the outcome to the Premiership fixtures each week and you're in with a chance of winning some weekly and season prizes with weekly and cumulative scores. Selection must be made by 7 a.m. on the Saturday. You can even create your own group to bring some rivalry to the workplace etc. August 2000.

Unpredictaball

The Unpredictaball crowd are inviting people to join their game! Every week try and predict the results of 10 weekend Premiership football matches. Score 2 points for a correctly predicted home win or 3 points for a draw or away win. Get the score right as well then double those points. The gamemasters will be risking £1 per game on your average predictions. Updated review 17 August 2001.

You're The Boss

You're The Boss (YTB) offers a fantasy football game based on selecting one team from each division and points scored are dependent on the ranking of your team's opponent and the score between the two teams. Rankings are based on previous season finishing positions so a low ranking team e.g. Derby thrashing a high ranking team e.g. Man Utd would result in huge points for Derby whilst Man Utd beating Derby 1-0 will only result in a few points for Man Utd.  The game is currently free with no prizes.

what's the score

what's the score went live in November 2002 and is a soccer prediction game with superb prizes on offer weekly and monthly for the top players. Each game consists of 4 sets of 10 top-flight UK matches, points scored at 2pts for a correct result and a bonus 5pts for the correct scoreline. The top scoring player/team each week will win £1,000, 2nd place £500 and 3rd place £250,with scores being accumulated for monthly prizes (again as above for 1st 3 places). Should any paying player predict the correct scoreline of all 10 matches they will win a bonus prize of £250,000. Reviewed 3 January 2003.

Stockmarket / Portfolio Games:

Fantasy Failures

DreamShares has produced a fantasy football game for the BBC in Scotland based on football failures. Sendings-off, bookings, own goals, on and off the pitch fights - that's what you want your players to get involved in! Reviewed 13 August 2001.

Liverpool FC Soccer Exchange & Arsenal Soccer Exchange

The Liverpool and Arsenal FC Soccer Exchanges are free to play stock exchange simulation games based on the teams of the Premiership League. Speculate on which team you think will do best in the Soccer Exchange Market and use your judgement to pick undervalued teams. You can trade as much as you like to increase the value of your portfolio. The market operates in Real Time - so you can see your share prices move with the market. Reviewed 24 October 2001.

SoccerBank

Trading commenced 19 August 2000.

Sportal's Football Fantasy

Sportal's Danish based site is running an online Fantasy Football game where you manage your own team with players from the English Premier League. Site is in English and Danish and offers weekly, monthly and season prizes.

After signing up you will be given the imaginary amount of 50,000,000 Danish Krona (approx. £4.2m). You will then be able to buy 5 strikers, 5 midfielders, 5 defenders, 2 goalkeepers and a coach of your choice.
The value of the players will increase or decrease, according to how well your player and his team performs, in the actual EPL matches, any changes in a players value will affect the value of your team. Any profits will be deposited in to your FantasyFootball team account.

Registration fee is DKK 50,-. The fee covers the administration and customer support costs. If you want to try the game before you pay, you can signup for the trial game which is free. You will not have access to a lot of functions but you have the chance to try out the game. You can only play the trial game for a limited period.

WSX - World Soccer Exchange

WSX is an on-line fantasy football stock market game based in Holland where players can wheel and deal in stocks of footballers, managers and clubs from the biggest leagues in the world. Share prices are influenced by the supply and demand in stocks as well as the performance of players, managers and clubs. Traders are allocated a budget and must manage their personal portfolios for profit. There are no limit to the amount of players, managers and clubs in which the trader can buy, so you do not just create a team of eleven. The game is set in a real time environment, has nearly 30,000 players at present and is FREE to enter. It also allocates prizes for the player with the most profit made in the week, month, or year. The prizes include sports merchandise, tickets, etc.