72 teams. Three divisions. One official Fantasy game for the English Football League (EFL). 

The oldest association football league in the world has a new game: Fantasy EFL!

This is a new format, with seven-a-side teams, points for things like clearances, blocks and tackles, and the ability to switch captains.

It’s like a ‘Free Hit’ every week, too, with no player prices.

In this article, we guide you through the basics of how to play the game.

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Team creation

To play Fantasy EFL, you need to do two things every gameweek:

1. Select a team of seven players
2. Select two clubs that you think will win

You can choose from any of the 72 EFL clubs, providing they are in action in that gameweek.

Team selection + formation

Your seven players must be chosen from the following positions:

• Goalkeeper: 1
• Defenders: 2-3
• Midfielders: 2-3
• Forwards: 1-2

Your team must then adopt one of the following formations:

• 1-2-2-2
• 1-2-3-1
• 1-3-2-1

Restrictions

Over the course of the season, you can select the same player as many times as you like.

However, you can only select a maximum of two players from any one club each gameweek.

You can only select an individual club a maximum of five times over the course of
the season.

Captains

Each gameweek, you must select a captain who will score double points for your
team.

You can change your captain as often as you want, up until your current
captain becomes locked (see the Lockout section). 

You cannot change your captain to a player who has already played in the gameweek.

Along with your captain, you must also select a vice-captain each week. Your
vice-captain will score double points for your team in the event that your chosen
captain does not play in the current gameweek.

The same rules above apply to vice-captains.

Team roll-over

If you don’t make any changes your team will automatically roll over to the next gameweek – and continue to score so long as the players are selected by their clubs.

If your team rolls over, and one or both of your clubs exceed(s) the cap of five selections in a season, then the club will randomly be auto-replaced with another.

Max Captain chip

The Max Captain chip automatically makes the highest-scoring player in your team captain for that gameweek, once all players in your team have played.

The Max Captain chip can only be activated before the start of the first fixture of the gameweek.

You can play your Max Captain chip twice over the course of the season. 

The first chip can be played up until 31 January 2025, the second from 1 February 2025 onwards.

Select the lightning bolt icon on the ‘My team’ tab, as seen in the image above, to activate it.

Updating your team

You can make as many changes to your team as you like throughout the gameweek, but only involving players who are yet to play.

Lockout

Players and selected clubs become ‘locked’ as soon as their EFL game kicks off in the gameweek.

That means you can no longer add or remove selections from that team.

Once your captain/vice-captain becomes locked then you can no longer change your captain/vice-captain.

Lockout is automatically lifted once all fixtures in the gameweek have concluded.

Scoring System

Players and clubs are awarded points based on their performances during the season with players scoring according to their position. 

The scoring works as follows: 

All Players

Action	Points
Appearance (up to 59 minutes played)	+1
Appearance (60+ minutes played)	+2
Assist	+3
Hat-Trick (3 or more goals scored)	+5
Missed Penalty	-3
Red Card	-3
Yellow Card	-1

Goalkeepers

Action	Points
Every 3 Saves	+2
Penalty Save	+3

Goalkeepers and defenders

Action	Points
Clean Sheet (must have played 60+ minutes)	+5
Goal Scored (excl. own goals)	+7
Every 2 Goals Conceded	-1

Defenders

Action	Points
Every 3 Clearances	+1
Every 2 Blocks	+1
Every 2 Successful Tackles	+1

Midfielders

Action	Points
Every Interception	+2
Goal Scored (excl. own goals)	+6

Midfielders & forwards

Action	Points
Every 2 Key Passes	+1
Every 2 Shots on Target	+1

Forwards

Action	Points
Goal Scored (excl. own goals)	+5

Clubs

Action	Points
Win	+5
Draw	+3
Away Win	+2
Clean Sheet	+2
Goals Scored	+2

Gameweeks

Fantasy EFL gameweeks will run from Thursday until Wednesday each week during the regular season. 

Any players/clubs playing twice within that window will have a ‘double gameweek’. They’ll get points from both fixtures as a result. 

By the same token, any players/clubs without a fixture in that seven-day period will have a ‘blank gameweek’ and score zero points.

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