We are pleased to share that we are teaming up with Women’s Football Chat for a free to play FA Women’s National League Fantasy football competition 2023/24.
The set up is the same as you will be familiar with, you are allocated a budget and have to select a team within budget. Those players will score or lose points based on their personal and team performances.
This project has been set up by Women’s Football Chat founder, Chris Gadsby. He has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to prepare the database. With the lack of information available, this is no task easy task, and of course, the squads are ever-changing and will do so throughout the season.
If you like this idea, you’d like to know more about how to enter then please visit womensfootballchat.wordpress.com.
Of course, the National League is made up of different leagues so the competition is split into six different competitions. This time round you cannot mix your team up with players across divisions. For example, you would not be able to select a player from T3 Nottingham Forest and T4 SW Moneyfields.
Chris explained to me that there were a couple of reasons behind setting this up, “I know how popular Fantasy Premier League is and thought this would be a great way for people to get more involved with the league and perhaps take a bit more of an interest outside of their team. If you’re a supporter of a team towards the top of the table you might not be interested in a relegation battle, but if you’ve got a striker from those sides in your fantasy team you’ll hopefully take much more of an interest.
“Secondly, and selfishly, I’ve done 96 episodes of the Women’s Football Chat now and on the whole its the same 20 or 30 people a week who watch or listen, so I thought Fantasy League and the Predictor Leagues I’ve set up would help raise the profile of the show a bit and thirdly, I thought it would be great fun for everyone!”
I personally love this idea because while my interest in women’s football has increased, my interest in Premier League Fantasy Football has decreased. So we are partnering up to promote the competition with monthly updates here on the website, along with a few special features. Also, we’ll be throwing in a special prize at the end of the season but more will be shared about that in the near future.
Get involved! Enter here.
Rules
Players must choose a squad of 15 players from your chosen division. The make-up of your team must be two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards. The budget for your team must not exceed £110million (I have added an automatic calculator to the Google sheet to help you) and you may have a maximum of three players from any one squad in your 15.
From your 15 player squad, select 11 players by the Gameweek deadline to form your team. All your points for the Gameweek will be scored by these 11 players, however, if one or more doesn’t play they will be substituted for the player in their position on your bench. Playing in a Gameweek means playing at least 1 minute or receiving a yellow/red card. The Gameweek deadline is midday each Sunday, at which point the teams are locked, either until midnight on Sunday or until midnight the following Thursday if midweek games are occurring.
After selecting your squad you can buy and sell players in the transfer market. Unlimited transfers can be made at no cost until the end of the first transfer deadline (September 31st). After this date you will receive 1 free transfer each Gameweek. Each additional transfer you make in the same Gameweek will deduct 4 points from your total score. A transfer window will also open in January where you will be able to make unlimited transfers again.
Player prices can change during the season depending on the popularity of the player in the transfer market or if they have a sharp rise in form. Player prices do not change until the season starts. Initial player prices have been based on the 22/23 FAWNL season statistics and have not been determined by Chris’ opinion – the boss’ decision is final and remember, this is a bit of fun. Any players who did not play five games in the FAWNL last season have been given a base value of £4m initially.
POINTS
During the season, your fantasy football players will be allocated points based on their performance in the FAWNL. Note only league games count and Fantasy Tier 3 and 4 will not run on cup weeks. There are not as many ways of scoring points as there are in Fantasy Premier League for example, but I am limited with the information that Full Time provides! Clean sheet points will only be awarded to the Starting XI as again, on many occasions I have no way of knowing from Full Time when players were substituted.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| For starting a game | 2 |
| For being subbed on | 1 |
| For each goal scored by a goalkeeper or defender | 6 |
| For each goal scored by a midfielder | 5 |
| For each goal scored by a forward | 4 |
| For a clean sheet by a goalkeeper or defender | 4 |
| For a clean sheet by a midfielder | 1 |
| For each yellow card | -1 |
| For each red card | -3 |
| For each player of the match award | 5 |
