Fantasy Teams

How To Manage Your Own Sports Team


Prediction: This season—if it’s anything like any previous seasons—the majority of habitual sports viewers will become frustrated with decisions made by the managers of their favorite teams. There are some ways to deal with the frustration of a management team that allow viewers to be in control. Every large sports organization now offers the option of creating a fantasy team to get its viewers more involved with the sport and to increase viewership.
The fantasy team allows its manager to control every aspect of the team he/she chooses to create. The managers pick players for their team in hopes that their team selection will outperform their competitors. Each player on the fantasy team receives points depending on their performances for their actual teams with the goal of the manager being to for the team which receives the most points. The rules for the fantasy teams are set up by the sports organization that they represent.
An example of this is the Premier League, which is the soccer league of England. For the Premier League there are 1,652,634 fantasy teams competing against each other for the number one position at the end of the season. The winner of the competition wins an all-expenses-paid trip for two to London for the Football Association final in May. Each team must have two goalies, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards from which 11 are selected to represent the team every week.
Creating and maintaining a fantasy team for the Premier League is a simple process involving four simple steps. The first is to log onto their web page at premierleague.com/fantasy and input your personal information. Once this is done the Premier League web site will verify all of your personal information via e-mail. Along with your personal information, there are questions about your favorite team and viewing habits. The second step is to create your team name and log in password. Each manager can only create one team. Along with creating the team name, managers pick out their team colors.
The third step is where the knowledge of the game and its players come in. It is now time to put together the team that the manager feels will compete against all others. New managers are given a total of 100 points and they must purchase 15 players to complete their squad. The players range in value for 4.5 points on up to 14.5 points based on their previous performances. This can become tricky because the 100 points can disappear fast if the manager attempts to fill their roster with super stars. This is the final step in the creation of a fantasy team, now it’s time to test the manager’s knowledge of his/her team.
The final step of the fantasy team is the process of maintaining it. Managers are free to transfer players in and out depending on their performances and injuries. Although help managers learn the game quickly they do come with a small price. Once the team is created managers must watch the real-life games to check on the form and status of their players to decide if they will be kept or traded out.