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Rule 1 (Number of Players)

Teams must take a standard 4-4-2 formation and may never¹ have no more than 3 players from any one Premiership club. A team may not have more than 1 defender (this does not include goalkeepers) from any Premiership club.

Rule 2 (Bidding)

All player bids, before or during the season, are 'sealed envelope'. They should be sent to the email address in Rule 10 and not posted on site.

Rule 3 (Scoring)

Players will score the following points...

Rule 4 (Transfers)

After the initial auction, any manager may bid for available players at any time by sending an email naming the requisite player and your bidding price. The League, however, has the right to place a fixed minimum (reserve) price on any player. Once I've received your bid, I'll post the player and the price to the transfer forum on the main page and give the rest of the league a short period (probably until the next round of Premiership matches) to bid. There is no limit on when you can make transfers - our 'transfer window' is something a bit different to the one in real life (see below).

I will no longer be accepting vague enquiries of the 'can I swap player x for player y?' nature. Firm, quantified bids only, please.

You may offer players from any position instead of or in addition to whatever cash you may still hold, but the League will fix the price of any players you offer. For example, there is no use offering Phil Neville in a direct swap for Carlos Tevez, because my spreadsheet will probably only calculate Neville's worth at about £0.5m, and this is way below the minimum I would accept for Tevez. Players' values will fluctuate depending on the price you paid for them and their performance to date.

All the players still eligible are listed on the pages linked below. If you're after a new player not on the list, let me know and I'll add them:

Goalkeepers | Defenders | Midfielders | Strikers

Rule 5 (Missed Matches)

To prevent minus-point-dodging, any defenders or goalkeepers that miss 10 consecutive games for your team will docked points, and you will be asked to buy replacements. Defenders missing matches will be indicated on the homepage, and it will be up to you to monitor your players' participation.

This rule does not apply to forward players who frequently get sent off (Robbie Savage, El-Hadji Diouf etc) and are equally likely to finish in negative points. There is no penalty for midfielders or strikers who miss matches, other than the fact that they won't be earning points for your team.

Rule 6 (Transfer Window)

The Phantasy Phootball transfer window opens on FA Cup weekend (the first in January). At this point, two of your players (randomly selected) will leave the team, and you will receive the market price for them.

Rule 7 (Inter-team transfers)

Players are free to make transfers among themselves at any time, fixing their own prices and terms. Every transfer must be confirmed by an email to the League Chair, otherwise I can't update the league page.

Rule 8 (Transfer 'swoops')

It is possible to directly do a deal behind a manager's back, if you have the skill. All players have their market value assessed on a continuous basis by my spreadsheet. If there is a high-flying player in another team who you wish to bid for, simply send me an email with the name of the player and your bid price, plus an indication that this is a 'swoop' bid (ie. a direct approach for the player's contract behind the manager's back). If you are within 0.2m of the spreadsheet's market value, then the player will automatically sign for your team. You will be entitled to compensation for the player you drop. If your bid is not within the 0.2m margin, then you are not allowed to re-bid. This sort of transfer will be permitted from September 1 onwards, but will necessarily cease during the transfer window.

Rule 9 (Loans)

Managers may loan players among themselves. After the start of the season, you may add players to your squad and send them out on loan to other teams. As a reward, you get a fraction of the points scored by that player:

• If a player scores 2-3 points in a week, then the loaning team receives 1 of those points.
• If a player scores 4-5 points, then the loaning team receives 2 of those points.
• If a player scores 6 or more points, then the loaning team receives 3 of those points.
• If a player scores negative points, then there is no penalty for the loaning team.

A team may not loan, or receive on loan, more than two players at one time. A team cannot receive and loan players simultaneously.

Loaned players must adhere to Rule 1 for the loanee's team, but not for the loaner's.

If you are receiving one or more players on loan, you will receive market-value compensation for the player you drop to make space for the loanee.

If you are sending players on loan, then you are entitled to receive the market value for any players at the end of their loan if you decide to terminate the loan before the season's end.

If a player is returned from loan, for whatever reason, he is immediately sold back to the league for market value. He will not be allowed to continue earning points for any team.

Managers are free to arrange loan fees and terms among themselves: make sure everything is made clear to me, so I can keep the league page up to date.

Rule 10 (email)

My email address is ben dot bateson at gmail dot com. For the sake of simplicity, please put Phantasy Phootball, or something similar, in the subject line.

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