The Football Blog Fantasy Football League

The eagle-eyed fantasy football enthusiasts amongst you will have noticed that the Fantasy Premier League has now opened for business ahead of the 2011/2012 season. With thousands of player prices and statistics to pore over, there is undoubtedly plenty of tinkering to be done ahead of the new Premier League season which is now just three weeks away.

Regular players of the game will have noticed a redesign of the site, with the old format being replaced with something altogether more sleek, although the jury seems to be out on the functionality. More importantly, there are some rule changes to consider as well which may affect your strategy over the course of the season. These are as follows:

Vice Captain Introduction: Managers will now be able to choose a Captain and a Vice Captain each week, as opposed to choosing an automatic back-up captain based on value or form to score double points. If your Captain plays 0 minutes that gameweek, then your Vice Captain will come into play and his score will be doubled instead. If both captain and vice-captain play 0 minutes in a Gameweek, then no player’s score will be doubled.

Assists: In the event of a penalty or free-kick, the player earning the penalty or free-kick gets an assist if a goal is directly scored, but not if he takes it himself, in which case no assist is given.

Bonus Points: Bonus points have been a hot topic of discussion in previous seasons for their sometimes contentious allocation, but that may change this year as bonus points will be handed out the morning after matches have been completed and will be based on the Player Performance Index sponsored by EA Sports.

If Bonus Points are tied: Examples of how bonus point ties will be resolved are as follows:
- If there is a tie for first place, Players 1 & 2 will receive 3 points each and Player 3 will receive 1 point.
- If there is a tie for second place, Player 1 will receive 3 points and Players 2 and 3 will receive 2 points each.
- If there is a tie for third place, Player 1 will receive 3 points, Player 2 will receive 2 points and Players 3 & 4 will receive 1 point each.

The Football Blog is once again running its own mini-league this season. David Wombwell is the reigning champion, with his Womchester United side having amassed an impressive 2195 points last season to top the league and finish a very credible 950th overall. Do you think you can beat him this time around? If so, the pin to enter our league is 12913-5678.

Let us know what you think about the new game, the rules changes, and which players you are looking to recruit for your side this season. Good luck!