Football TalksFootball Talks, Question And Answers

The NFL season would seem incomplete nowadays without the presence of Fantasy Football. When you play fantasy football, you have become the owner and coach of a football team. It is hard to remember what a NFL game was like without every play having fantasy football implications.

As the owner, you can assemble a team of stars and role players, attempting to find the right balance of players to accumulate stats to score well in your league. As the team’s coach, you attempt to pick the right starting lineup for that week’s games, making sure that your best players aren’t sitting on the bench and you are not starting any player that is Out due to an injury or Bye week.

For anyone interested in starting a league, all you need are a few basic guidelines to get started. The beauty of fantasy football is that there really isn’t any set set up that you are required follow. It’s your fantasy league, so design it any way you want. Of course, you are limited to the creativity of the website that you have chosen.

Your league may prefer to play in a free, generic league. You will have many websites to choose from for that. On the other hand, you may want to full-service website with many flexible configuration options and dedicated customer service personnel. If that describes your league, you will want to look at Maximum Fantasy Sports. Ultimately, to enhance your NFL viewing experience, participating in a fantasy football league at MFS, or elsewhere, will allow you to do that. Okay, now let’s take it step by step and get you started. Bear in mind, this article would look like War and Peace if we covered every single nuance of fantasy football, so we are going to focus on the highlights.

Gather Friends to Fill out a League

Assemble a league of football owners who are willing to participate through the end of your fantasy season. It makes it more enjoyable if they are willing to wheel and deal, wager a little money and talk a bit of smack. There is no set number of teams per league, but 12 teams seem to be the standard. You can certainly form leagues that are bigger and smaller than that, but make sure that you have an even-number of teams if you are playing in a head-to-head league as no one wants to take a week off. If you are playing in a Total Points league with no direct matchups, an odd number of teams is acceptable.

Decide who’s Running the Show

Elect a commissioner. The commissioner should be somebody who every team owner respects, or at least trusts. The commissioner, who most likely also owns a team in the league, is responsible for the league constitution, bylaws, configuration and all final decisions. The commissioner also collects and distributes the league contributions and maintains the peace. A good website will grant the commissioner a set of tools that allow him/her with the power to control what functions the owners are allowed to perform (managing their roster, posting messages), to manage another owner’s roster, rerun stats and many other controlling functions.

Configuring the League

Setting the scoring system and rules for your league are very important. There are many variations to the game and scoring systems for fantasy football are as different as the NFL and Arena Football Leagues. Make sure all rules and settings are set in stone before the draft is held. This article could go one for many, many pages just discussing the variety of different scoring configuration options available in fantasy football. Let’s take a peek at the most basic settings.

Ultimately, it all comes down to how scoring is set up. Though many early leagues focused simply on touchdowns, most leagues nowadays award points for touchdowns and yardag. Four points are commonly awarded to any player who throws a touchdown pass and six points for rushing or receiving touchdowns. One point is commonly awarded for every 25 passing yards and every 10 rushing or receiving yards. It is tempting to go with the feast-or-famine approach and draft a QB and his main WR. Often, this is a bad idea, unless, of course, you have Tom Brady and Randy Moss on your fantasy team. Some leagues also give bonus points for longer TDs, such as, two points for TDs between 50 and 81 yards and three points for TDs over 81 yards.

The size of rosters also varies from league to league. Most leagues have a fixed number of starting positions and a fixed number of bench players, usually adding up to 15-17 players. The starting positions (slots) usually feature one QB, two RBs, three WRs, one TE, one K and one D. Variations include using Special Teams or individual defensive players instead of a single defense. Also, “swing” positions are becoming more prevalent. These are also known as “flex” positions. This slot allows for more than one position. The swing positions often used are a combination of WR/TE or RB/WR, though there are a handful of others. In the end, the accumulated points of one team’s starters are matched up against the points of another team’s starters and the end result is either a victory or a loss.

Occasionally, a tie will sneak its way into the picture. A good website will give you the option of breaking ties during the regular season. Tie-breakers are mandatory should they occur during the playoffs.

Set the Schedule

The website should generate the league schedule after the draft is complete using the divisional structure the commissioner has established. League schedules are generally set up so teams in the same division play each other more often than other divisions. Ultimately, it is ideal to have a balanced schedule.Before the draft, the playoff schedule needs to be determined. This will vary depending on how many teams are in your league and how many teams the commissioner chooses to make the playoffs. The championship game needs to be scheduled between two teams no later than week 17 of the NFL season. One common choice is to finish the fantasy football regular season in week 13 or 14 and allow 6 teams to make the playoffs. This will grant the top 2 teams a playoff Bye, thus awarding them for their performance in the regular season. No one likes to dominate the regular season and then lose out in the first week of the playoffs.

Drafting your Players

Rosters are filled out by running a player draft. The draft order is randomized by the commissioner or the website. Unlike the NFL draft, fantasy football drafts are normally run serpentine style. For instance, in a 12-team league, the draft order would be 1 through 12, with the 12th team having the first pick of the second round and going back up in reverse order. In that scenario, the first team to pick wouldn’t select again until the 24th pick, but would then start the third round with the 25th selection, should they not fall asleep during the lull. Should this happen, the draft control will make the selection for the snoozing owner.

Drafts can be held online or offline. If held online, drafts are normally held real-time so each owner can make their choices based on how the draft is evolving. This can be a bit time-consuming, so another option is to run an automated draft. An increasingly popular draft method is having a fixed budget and bidding on players to fill out a roster. 

Maintaining your Roster

Throughout the season, you will need to change players out in an effort to manage injuries, Bye weeks or address weak areas by trading from areas of strength. Teams can trade and pick up free agents until the end of the season, unless there are deadlines established for these actions. Trades tend to have some sort of approval process in place to assure the league that trades are considered fair. The approval process generally falls on the shoulders of the commissioner to make a decision or upon the owners in the league to submit a vote (majority rules).

When it comes to free agents, it is common for leagues to apply a waiver system. True free agents can be acquired without application of any rules. Players attempted to be acquired that are in waiver status have to flow through waiver processing to determine which team will be awarded the player. There are a number of waiver processing rules.

The most common is a rolling priority list. This is initially established in the reverse order of the draft order and then gets adjusted as teams acquire players in waiver status. The team with the lowest waiver priority number is awarded the player desired when waiver processing occurs. When that processing happens, the team’s waiver priority is then set to the highest number and all teams between have their number adjusted down by one. Other waiver processing options allow teams to bid on free agents, award a player on waivers to the team with the worst record among acquiring teams or have made the least numbers of transactions.

Making your Push to the Championship


It is very difficult to make the playoffs, let alone the Championship game, in a fantasy football league without devoting a lot of time to the game, making wise draft and transaction choices and having your players stay healthy. You have no control over the latter, so your team must be equipped to handle devastating injuries, should they occur.

- The common draft rule is to back up your studs. If you have LaDainian Tomlinson, grab his backup in the draft as well. If you have Peyton Manning, grab his backup in the draft. It is a tough choice as Peyton does not get hurt, but, should it happen, would you feel more comfortable with his backup in your lineup, an untested rookie or the Jets QB?

- Another common sense rule is to not draft injury-prone players or running backs over 30 too early. It is hard to justify the reward over the risk. Drafting Deuce McAlister in the 4th round last year in many leagues was a season killer when Adrian Peterson was still available. Out of all the positions, rookies make the biggest impact in the running back category.

- The most important rule is to know your league settings. Be aware of the scoring system, waiver processing rules and all deadlines. You cannot build a balanced team unless you know how to balance the scoring across the starting positions on your team.

Once you have that accomplished, you want to review your team at the midpoint of your season and evaluate what it will look like in the playoff weeks. If you have some players that you feel may be looking at getting some rest, it is best to trade them before the trade deadline to ensure that your roster is as strong as possible during the playoffs. It is difficult to gauge how much a player will play in weeks 13-17 far in advance, but it is a big risk to go into the playoff battle with players who may sit after one half.

One alternative to that is to utilize a fantasy football feature offered by one site; Maximum Fantasy Sports. This feature is In-Game player changes. This feature can be used all season or have it turned on at a certain point in the season, such as, the first week of playoffs. Configuration of this feature allows an owner to swap in different, unplayed players at their respective positions. So, if Joseph Addai is scheduled to play the first half of Indy’s week 15 game and you have Kenton Keith on your bench, you could swap out Addai for the second half and swap in Keith to maximize performance at your running back slot.

End of the Season Reflection

I hope you spend your off-season gloating about your team’s dominance. No matter how your season ends, you want to review what went wrong and what went right during your season so you can improve the following year. Also, take notes on little used players that showed a lot of promise as the season went on. In the off-season, pay attention to free agency and the NFL draft. Note which teams improved in skill areas that may result in new starters that you can draft in later rounds in your upcoming fantasy football draft. Though the NFL season ends in February, fantasy football is a year-round fixation.

 

The NFL season would seem incomplete nowadays without the presence of Fantasy Football. When you play fantasy football, you have become the owner and coach of a football team. It is hard to remember what a NFL game was like without every play having fantasy football implications.

As the owner, you can assemble a team of stars and role players, attempting to find the right balance of players to accumulate stats to score well in your league. As the team’s coach, you attempt to pick the right starting lineup for that week’s games, making sure that your best players aren’t sitting on the bench and you are not starting any player that is Out due to an injury or Bye week.

For anyone interested in starting a league, all you need are a few basic guidelines to get started. The beauty of fantasy football is that there really isn’t any set set up that you are required follow. It’s your fantasy league, so design it any way you want. Of course, you are limited to the creativity of the website that you have chosen.

Your league may prefer to play in a free, generic league. You will have many websites to choose from for that. On the other hand, you may want to full-service website with many flexible configuration options and dedicated customer service personnel. If that describes your league, you will want to look at Maximum Fantasy Sports. Ultimately, to enhance your NFL viewing experience, participating in a fantasy football league at MFS, or elsewhere, will allow you to do that. Okay, now let’s take it step by step and get you started. Bear in mind, this article would look like War and Peace if we covered every single nuance of fantasy football, so we are going to focus on the highlights.

Gather Friends to Fill out a League

Assemble a league of football owners who are willing to participate through the end of your fantasy season. It makes it more enjoyable if they are willing to wheel and deal, wager a little money and talk a bit of smack. There is no set number of teams per league, but 12 teams seem to be the standard. You can certainly form leagues that are bigger and smaller than that, but make sure that you have an even-number of teams if you are playing in a head-to-head league as no one wants to take a week off. If you are playing in a Total Points league with no direct matchups, an odd number of teams is acceptable.

Decide who’s Running the Show

Elect a commissioner. The commissioner should be somebody who every team owner respects, or at least trusts. The commissioner, who most likely also owns a team in the league, is responsible for the league constitution, bylaws, configuration and all final decisions. The commissioner also collects and distributes the league contributions and maintains the peace. A good website will grant the commissioner a set of tools that allow him/her with the power to control what functions the owners are allowed to perform (managing their roster, posting messages), to manage another owner’s roster, rerun stats and many other controlling functions.

Configuring the League

Setting the scoring system and rules for your league are very important. There are many variations to the game and scoring systems for fantasy football are as different as the NFL and Arena Football Leagues. Make sure all rules and settings are set in stone before the draft is held. This article could go one for many, many pages just discussing the variety of different scoring configuration options available in fantasy football. Let’s take a peek at the most basic settings.

Ultimately, it all comes down to how scoring is set up. Though many early leagues focused simply on touchdowns, most leagues nowadays award points for touchdowns and yardag. Four points are commonly awarded to any player who throws a touchdown pass and six points for rushing or receiving touchdowns. One point is commonly awarded for every 25 passing yards and every 10 rushing or receiving yards. It is tempting to go with the feast-or-famine approach and draft a QB and his main WR. Often, this is a bad idea, unless, of course, you have Tom Brady and Randy Moss on your fantasy team. Some leagues also give bonus points for longer TDs, such as, two points for TDs between 50 and 81 yards and three points for TDs over 81 yards.

The size of rosters also varies from league to league. Most leagues have a fixed number of starting positions and a fixed number of bench players, usually adding up to 15-17 players. The starting positions (slots) usually feature one QB, two RBs, three WRs, one TE, one K and one D. Variations include using Special Teams or individual defensive players instead of a single defense. Also, “swing” positions are becoming more prevalent. These are also known as “flex” positions. This slot allows for more than one position. The swing positions often used are a combination of WR/TE or RB/WR, though there are a handful of others. In the end, the accumulated points of one team’s starters are matched up against the points of another team’s starters and the end result is either a victory or a loss.

Occasionally, a tie will sneak its way into the picture. A good website will give you the option of breaking ties during the regular season. Tie-breakers are mandatory should they occur during the playoffs.

Set the Schedule

The website should generate the league schedule after the draft is complete using the divisional structure the commissioner has established. League schedules are generally set up so teams in the same division play each other more often than other divisions. Ultimately, it is ideal to have a balanced schedule.Before the draft, the playoff schedule needs to be determined. This will vary depending on how many teams are in your league and how many teams the commissioner chooses to make the playoffs. The championship game needs to be scheduled between two teams no later than week 17 of the NFL season. One common choice is to finish the fantasy football regular season in week 13 or 14 and allow 6 teams to make the playoffs. This will grant the top 2 teams a playoff Bye, thus awarding them for their performance in the regular season. No one likes to dominate the regular season and then lose out in the first week of the playoffs.

Drafting your Players

Rosters are filled out by running a player draft. The draft order is randomized by the commissioner or the website. Unlike the NFL draft, fantasy football drafts are normally run serpentine style. For instance, in a 12-team league, the draft order would be 1 through 12, with the 12th team having the first pick of the second round and going back up in reverse order. In that scenario, the first team to pick wouldn’t select again until the 24th pick, but would then start the third round with the 25th selection, should they not fall asleep during the lull. Should this happen, the draft control will make the selection for the snoozing owner.

Drafts can be held online or offline. If held online, drafts are normally held real-time so each owner can make their choices based on how the draft is evolving. This can be a bit time-consuming, so another option is to run an automated draft. An increasingly popular draft method is having a fixed budget and bidding on players to fill out a roster. 

Maintaining your Roster

Throughout the season, you will need to change players out in an effort to manage injuries, Bye weeks or address weak areas by trading from areas of strength. Teams can trade and pick up free agents until the end of the season, unless there are deadlines established for these actions. Trades tend to have some sort of approval process in place to assure the league that trades are considered fair. The approval process generally falls on the shoulders of the commissioner to make a decision or upon the owners in the league to submit a vote (majority rules).

When it comes to free agents, it is common for leagues to apply a waiver system. True free agents can be acquired without application of any rules. Players attempted to be acquired that are in waiver status have to flow through waiver processing to determine which team will be awarded the player. There are a number of waiver processing rules.

The most common is a rolling priority list. This is initially established in the reverse order of the draft order and then gets adjusted as teams acquire players in waiver status. The team with the lowest waiver priority number is awarded the player desired when waiver processing occurs. When that processing happens, the team’s waiver priority is then set to the highest number and all teams between have their number adjusted down by one. Other waiver processing options allow teams to bid on free agents, award a player on waivers to the team with the worst record among acquiring teams or have made the least numbers of transactions.

Making your Push to the Championship


It is very difficult to make the playoffs, let alone the Championship game, in a fantasy football league without devoting a lot of time to the game, making wise draft and transaction choices and having your players stay healthy. You have no control over the latter, so your team must be equipped to handle devastating injuries, should they occur.

- The common draft rule is to back up your studs. If you have LaDainian Tomlinson, grab his backup in the draft as well. If you have Peyton Manning, grab his backup in the draft. It is a tough choice as Peyton does not get hurt, but, should it happen, would you feel more comfortable with his backup in your lineup, an untested rookie or the Jets QB?

- Another common sense rule is to not draft injury-prone players or running backs over 30 too early. It is hard to justify the reward over the risk. Drafting Deuce McAlister in the 4th round last year in many leagues was a season killer when Adrian Peterson was still available. Out of all the positions, rookies make the biggest impact in the running back category.

- The most important rule is to know your league settings. Be aware of the scoring system, waiver processing rules and all deadlines. You cannot build a balanced team unless you know how to balance the scoring across the starting positions on your team.

Once you have that accomplished, you want to review your team at the midpoint of your season and evaluate what it will look like in the playoff weeks. If you have some players that you feel may be looking at getting some rest, it is best to trade them before the trade deadline to ensure that your roster is as strong as possible during the playoffs. It is difficult to gauge how much a player will play in weeks 13-17 far in advance, but it is a big risk to go into the playoff battle with players who may sit after one half.

One alternative to that is to utilize a fantasy football feature offered by one site; Maximum Fantasy Sports. This feature is In-Game player changes. This feature can be used all season or have it turned on at a certain point in the season, such as, the first week of playoffs. Configuration of this feature allows an owner to swap in different, unplayed players at their respective positions. So, if Joseph Addai is scheduled to play the first half of Indy’s week 15 game and you have Kenton Keith on your bench, you could swap out Addai for the second half and swap in Keith to maximize performance at your running back slot.

End of the Season Reflection

I hope you spend your off-season gloating about your team’s dominance. No matter how your season ends, you want to review what went wrong and what went right during your season so you can improve the following year. Also, take notes on little used players that showed a lot of promise as the season went on. In the off-season, pay attention to free agency and the NFL draft. Note which teams improved in skill areas that may result in new starters that you can draft in later rounds in your upcoming fantasy football draft. Though the NFL season ends in February, fantasy football is a year-round fixation.

 

Intrigued by the idea of fantasy football, it’s not too late to
get involved. A lot of people have heard of the term fantasy
football, but aren’t sure what it is. A search on fantasy
football brings back thousands of sites such as footballpdq.com
http://footballpdq.com/,
most of which are offering to allow you to become a commissioner
or sign up to create a team, all at low cost or no cost.

So… what is fantasy football?

Here’s the lowdown. First, there’s a fantasy football
commissioner, who’s in charge of the league, much the same as in
real-life. The commissioner puts in the most amount of money to
be the biggest cheese. This person is the final arbiter of
disputes, makes decisions and, in general, gets to have the most
leeway – and the most headaches – in the league.

Then there are the team owners. These individuals pay a lesser
fee than the fantasy football commissioner, and manage their own
teams. The owners choose who will be on the teams, what players
will start, and so on.

So, the owners need teams. The next step is to pool all the
real-world pro football players, rank them and then have a
draft. Each team owner takes turns picking players for his or
her team – hence the name fantasy football. Depending on how the
draft goes, your team could be a true fantasy. Of course, some
leagues have salary caps just as in real life, which prohibits
one team from having all the best players. Trades are usually
allowed, though depending on the league, they may be limited.

So once the fantasy football commissioner has a full roster of
teams and the teams have a full roster of players… what
happens? This is where things get interesting.

Team owner Alpha has players X, Y and Z on the team. In real
life, player X is on one team, player Y on another and player Z
on yet another. Before the game, Alpha has to decide who is
starting, who isn’t, and what’s going on. Alpha then gives this
information (by whatever means the fantasy football league has)
to the commissioner. This information must be set in stone prior
to the actual Sunday and Monday football games that NFL teams
such as the Patriots and the Raiders play.

The real AFC & NFC teams play. Let’s say player X is on the
Eagles in real life and is a quarterback. This Sunday, he throws
three touchdown passes and the Eagles win. Fantasy football team
owner Alpha has X on the team and, very smartly, started X for
the football fantasy league games.

How this translates in fantasy football depends on the league.

The usual standard is that for every possible situation, a team
can earn points. For example, the real life touchdowns of player
X may earn fantasy football owner Alpha four hundred points
each. Alpha may come out of the weekend as the biggest point
earner, thanks to player X, which then sets Alpha up for
contention as the fantasy football league winner.

Of course, this assumes that player X wasn’t benched at the last
minute, depriving Alpha of earning any points and ending last in
the fantasy football league.

The ultimate prize at the season’s end may be a statue or
possibly money, depending on which fantasy football league you
join. Or it may just be the prestige of knowing that you
outwitted all the other team owners and came out as top dog.

While this fantasy may come with a price tag for participation,
if you enjoy the game and avidly watch the players anyway,
fantasy football can be a harmless way to spend some time.

NEW REPORT REVEALS WHICH FOOTBALL FANS LIVE IN A FANTASY WORLD

Proving that love is blind, Manchester City fans are officially the Premier League’s top dreamers and optimists, according to a national football report launched today.

The ‘Football Fan-tasy’ report, an in-depth study by Littlewoods Football Pools, measures fans’ dreams and expectations against the reality of their clubs’ recent performances on the pitch, to finally uncover which fans live in a world of fantasy.

Almost 6,000 fans representing all 92 league clubs were studied in the report – produced in conjunction with the Football Fans Census – with each club ranked by comparing fans’ predictions over the next five years with their team’s record over the past five years.

Factors such as league performances, trophies won, the number of changes in manager and financial stability were used to benchmark each club, and with a new season upon us, fans will be hoping that the old saying ‘anything can happen in football’ rings true.

Manchester City fans were ranked highest in the Premiership “Dreamers Index” – ahead of fans of Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth, who finished second and third respectively. After a great start to the season, including a derby win against Manchester United, it seems that new City coach Sven Goran Eriksson shares the fans’ faith and optimism. Despite not winning a trophy in over 30 years and never finishing higher than eighth in the Premiership, City fans expect to win the FA Cup and Carling Cup by the time of the London Olympics.

Fulham and Wigan supporters were the biggest doom merchants in the Premiership; mirroring their clubs’ recent battles with relegation and managerial changes, whilst fans of Everton, Birmingham City and Aston Villa harboured the most realistic expectations after modest achievements on the pitch.

Hull City supporters entertain the most unrealistic hopes and ambitions in the Championship, with many dreaming of a place in the Premiership by 2012. Followers of Hartlepool, who have never been higher than the third tier of English football, can see their side progressing from League One, whilst League Two side Morecambe– newly promoted to the Football League, have set their team an optimistic target – League One football with 5 years.

The report also reveals that supporters of northern clubs out-do their southern counterparts when it comes to football fantasies, with northern teams topping each division of the “Dreamers Index”, and southern clubs such as Fulham, Southampton and Bournemouth having a more pessimistic view of their teams’ future.

Jon Sheehy, director of marketing for Sportech plc, owners of football fantasies, said: “Pressures within the modern game and the recent influx of major foreign investment has meant that fans’ hopes, dreams and expectations of their club have never been higher – or more unrealistic.

“To finally establish which supporters live in a dream world and which ones have the closest grip on reality, we have produced this in-depth report. By separating fact from fiction, we’ve hopefully given fans of all clubs the chance to see whether their dreams for the future are likely to come true, or simply cause more misery and heartache.”

Download your copy of the ‘Football Fan-tasy Report’ for free at Littlewoods Football Pools.

- ends -

Media enquiries: Contact Chris Hughes (c.hughes@brahm.com) at Brahm PR on 0113 220 0626 or Tim Downs (t.downs@brahm.com) on 0113 220 0590.

Note to editors:

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There’s a saying: ‘Money can’t buy you happiness’. If you’re a football club owner with the biggest budget on the market you can buy best players, that can make you happy. Now, if those players do not make you good profit, would that not make you happy? Not if you are a billionaire, what are millions in compare to billions.

With a net worth of $10, $20, $30 billion, are you to invest money and much of your time in something that may bring you profit over the years of no more than several hundreds of millions or losses in the same value? How could you spend a billion anyway?

You buy the most expensive cars, houses, yachts, airplanes, all that luxury still may not top $1 billion. Pleasure among machines, butlers, personnel, can make you feel like a saddened King from fairy-tales. There must be a more humanly joy.

You buy a media exposure, be in the spotlight where everybody are watching, you move masses of tens of thousands of people in the stadium as if they are marionettes and you are a wire-puller, you build your own fantasy world.

You make news headlines by being a super spender in the most watched sporting league in the world. Yes, you buy yourself a top football club and it wouldn’t cost you more than a billion or so! You become a real-time Fantasy Football Manager.

Fantasy Football Manager is a football management simulation computer game first released in 1980s where you are the General Manager of your very own fantasy football team. Nowadays, most popular sports web-sites offer a chance for visitors to play the Fantasy Football League Management game.

In the real-time world, Chelsea FC was purchased by a billionaire in June 2003. Since then, the club is witnessing record losses, the billionaire’s involvement with Chelsea is described by Wikipedia as ‘to have distorted the football transfer market throughout Europe, as his wealth often allows the club to purchase players virtually at will (frequently at inflated prices), without regard for the effects on the club’s financial outturn’.

How does this effect the reality of football? Football becomes a sub-real simulation of its own reality. With one club owner having limitless budget, his/her football knowledge, work and skills of managing a club do not effect his/her success in the business, billionaire can continue to bring in the expensive players, sack head-coaches upon his/her desire.

Even if the club suffers the biggest financial losses in football world, the club will not go to bankruptcy as the billionaire will add additional hundreds of millions since the football club’s budget does not depend on its football performance.

How does this effect the game of football? There doesn’t seem to be much sportsmanship for one club to buy world top players (so many that a half of them will be reserves) while many other clubs can’t afford to pay one or two such players for their first team.

The beauty of the game suffers as well. In two and a half years with Portugal’s FC Porto coach Jose Mourinho won 2 domestic titles, including the European Champions League title in May 2004 by eliminating clubs with far greater budgets. Several months later Mourinho, named the world’s best coach in 2004, was brought to Chelsea.

In just 3 years he managed to win 2 league titles, including club’s first championship in 50 years, 1 FA cup, 2 Carling Cups, along setting several Premier League records. Mourinho at Chelsea did more than simple buying world football super-stars like Real Madrid C.F. did at that time, he offered contracts to players who were to develop to some of the world’s best team-players playing for Chelsea.

Chelsea as a sovereign ruler of England’s football fields and a perfect football team was as if not offering enough excitement for the club’s billionaire owner. After winning consecutive titles, Chelsea signed two major football super-stars, Shevchenko (for a British record transfer fee) and Ballack, both of which did not match Mourinho’s concept of team play.

It was the beginning of one great football mind’s end with Chelsea, Mourinho was fired as the most successful head-coach in club’s history in the years of his success. Welcome to the real-time Fantasy Football Manager as a spectator, player or head-coach!

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