Euro 2020 fantasy rules explained

Euro 2016, Euro 2020

Here’s an article where we talk through the Euro 2020 fantasy rules and some tactics related to them

Euro 2020 Fantasy Rules Explained

Introduction

We’ll be doing a load of articles for the Euro 2020 fantasy here. Here’s the link to the site

There’s already a FFGeek league use the league code 49KWOPI907 to copy and paste into the join league section

You can see Kev in Canada’s introduction and initial thoughts on penalty takers for the tournament

The rules

Here I’m going to use the rules as per the site but shortened for ease of reading plus with some additional explanations

I’ve cut out some superfluous bits to make it easier to understand key points so you should read the full rules here though

Matchdays

EURO 2020 Fantasy Football works by matchdays. There are seven matchdays in total, corresponding to the three rounds of games in the group stage, plus the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Matchdays are like FPL gameweeks. They are called matchdays which is a fairly stupid title as a match day can be 3 or 4 days play

Picking your squad

Squad Size

To get started, you’ll need to pick a squad of 15 players:

Two goalkeepers
Five defenders
Five midfielders
Three forwards

Budget

Each player is assigned a price. You’ll get an initial €100 million to spend on your squad, which rises to €105 million from the round of 16 onwards.

Number of players per team

There’s a limit on how many players you can select from one national team. This limit changes as the tournament progresses.

For the group stage, you can pick a maximum of three players from the same team
For the round of 16, you can pick a maximum of four players from the same team
For the quarter-finals, you can pick a maximum of five players from the same team
For the semi-finals, you can pick a maximum of six players from the same team
For the final, you can pick a maximum of eight players from the same team

Picking your starting XI

Before each matchday deadline (the beginning of the kick-off time of the first game) throughout the tournament, you’ll need to select 11 starting players from your 15-player squad.

All your matchday points will be scored by the players in your starting XI. If any of your starting players don’t play that matchday, they’ll be automatically replaced by your substitutes (as long as formation rules aren’t broken).

There’s stuff later on about manual substitutions which is crucial

Formations

You can choose any formation for your team, as long as you’ve picked one goalkeeper, at least three defenders, at least two midfielders and at least one forward in your starting XI.

Selecting a captain

Every time you save your team, you’ll need to pick a captain from your starting XI. That player’s points will be doubled for that matchday

Once all games on the first day of a matchday have finished, and before the other games have kicked off, you can switch the captaincy to another player who hasn’t played yet within the matchday. If your original captain hasn’t scored as many points as you’d like, this gives you the chance to double the score of a different player you think will do better in that matchday.

It seems worth trying to have players as captain options on each day of a match day. Be sure that they will play as an automatic sub doesn’t get double points. Assume you can nominate another captain on a later day in the Matchday

Substitutions

Manual substitutions

Between matchdays, you can make as many subs within your squad as you like.

After all matches on a single day have finished and before the next matches within that matchday kick off, you can:

Sub out a maximum of four players (unless they’ve been sent off), and replace them with any of your substitutes whose teams are yet to play within the matchday. Any players that you sub out will score zero points for that matchday

Automatic substitutions

If you don’t make any substitutions some of your players might be automatically subbed out if they don’t play.

You can order your substitutes by priority in case any of your starting XI doesn’t play that matchday.

I’m assuming you can still make manual substitutions if someone doesn’t play and really you should be reviewing that each day

Making transfers

Transferring players in and out of your squad helps you get more points throughout the tournament.

Throughout the competition, you get free transfers each matchday. The number of free transfers you can make depends on the stage of the tournament.

For every transfer you make beyond your quota of free transfers, you’ll have four points deducted from your points total.

Phase Number of free transfers

Before tournament starts Unlimited
During group stage 2 per matchday
Before round of 16 Unlimited
Before quarter-finals 3
Before semi-finals 5
Before final 5

If you don’t use your free transfers between matchdays, you’ll only be able to carry one forward to the next matchday – meaning you can’t stockpile free transfers over several rounds. And once the knockout stage starts, you can’t carry any free transfers forward between matchdays.

Chips

Chips allow you to make unlimited changes to your squad. You get two chips, which you can play once each throughout the competition.

Wildcard

The Wildcard gives you the chance to change your squad as much as you like. When you play it you can make free unlimited transfers, and any players you transfer in will stay in your squad once that matchday has finished.

Limitless

Limitless gives you the chance to change your squad for one matchday only. When you play it, you get unlimited free transfers for that matchday with no budget restrictions. Once the matchday has finished, your squad will return to how it was before you played Limitless.

Deadlines

Every matchday, teams will lock as soon as the first match within the matchday kicks off.

Gameweek Deadline

Matchday 1 11 June 21:00 CET
Matchday 2 16 June 15:00 CET
Matchday 3 20 June 18:00 CET
Round of 16 26 June 18:00 CET
Quarter-finals 02 July 18:00 CET
Semi-finals 06 July 21:00 CET
Final 11 July 21:00 CET

Scoring points

All players
Appearance 1
60 mins on pitch
Goals from outside the box 1
Assist 3
Winning a penalty 2
Conceding a penalty -1
Missing a penalty -2
Yellow card -1
Red card -3
Own goal -2
Goalkeepers
Scoring a goal 6
Saving a penalty 5
Clean sheet* 4
Every 3 saves 1
Every 2 goals conceded -1
Defenders
Scoring a goal 6
Clean sheet* 4
Every 2 goals conceded -1
Midfielders
Scoring a goal 5
Clean sheet* 1
Forwards
Scoring a goal 4
*Points only awarded when the player plays at least 60 minutes.

Clean sheets

Players get points for a clean sheet when they play at least 60 minutes and their team doesn’t concede a goal while they are on the pitch.

If a player has already been subbed off when their team concedes a goal, that player’s clean sheet bonus won’t be affected.

Red cards

If a player gets a red card, they’ll continue to be penalised for goals conceded by their team after they’ve been sent off.

If a player gets a yellow card and then a red card, they’ll only be penalised for the red card.

If your captain gets a red card, you can transfer the captaincy to one of your other starting XI, as long as your new captain hasn’t already played yet within the matchday.

You can’t sub off players who get a red card.

Assists

A player gets points for an assist whenever he plays the final pass, cross, header or shot which leads to a goal. This also applies to set plays (corners, free-kicks and throw-ins).

Players also get points for an assist if a goal is scored on the rebound when they’ve shot against the post, bar, goalkeeper or defender.

They’ll also get points for an assist when their pass, shot or cross leads to an own goal. Players that win a penalty won’t get points for an assist – instead, they’ll get two points for winning the penalty.

Extra time and penalties

Players will keep scoring points throughout extra time. However, players can’t score points for penalty shoot-outs.

A few tactical thoughts

As a general point it seems worth trying to spread your squad over the days of the Matchday in order to have maximum flexibility for substitutions and for captain changes in case things don’t go right for either.

However to plan that over 3 match days is obviously very difficult. That’s why I’m thinking the best way to maximise this and to use the Chips to maximum efficiency I’m thinking that I set up my squad for Matchday 1 only.

Then use the limitless chip for Matchday 2 and then wildcard for Matchday 3. That means I’m only focusing my squad for each Matchday and maximising my ability to spread my squad out over the various days of a Matchday. As well as set it up to maximise captain opportunities on the various days of a Matchday.

It does mean that when you use unlimited transfers for the round of 16 you have to take a view on who’s going to win matches and plan accordingly so you have a full squad using just free transfers as the competition progresses.

I think that’s a risk I’m willing to take more than having to try and plan the tricky group stages Matchdays and days within them

What’s next?

So at the moment I’m working through the squads looking to put together player suggestions with some stats to back them up. Once I’ve done that I will start drafting a team. Hopefully the FFGeek Contributors will soon come together with some drafts as well.

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