How scoring works
Retro Fantasy Football uses fantasy scoring in the style of the real game: your eleven earn points for what they do on the pitch, every gameweek, across the whole season you drafted. Here's exactly how the points are awarded.
Points table
| For | GK | DEF | MID | FWD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Playing in a match | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Scoring a goal | 10 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Assisting a goal | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| A clean sheet | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Every 2 goals conceded | −1 | −1 | 0 | 0 |
| Every 3 saves | +1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A yellow card | 0 | −1 | −1 | −1 |
| A red card | 0 | −3 | −3 | −3 |
Goalkeepers don't pick up cards in this game. Before 2016/17 a red card also carries a two-match ban; from 2016/17 the real suspension applies, because those seasons replay what happened.
Real seasons
From 2016/17 onwards, every player's points come from their real matches, scored with the table above: their real minutes, goals, assists, clean sheets, goals conceded, saves, cards and bonus. Every gameweek is a full round of ten matches: a postponed match counts in the gameweek it was originally due, so there are no blank or double gameweeks. Players signed mid-season join the transfer market once they arrived in real life.
Seasons before 2016/17
Every fixture and final score is real, so clean sheets and goals conceded are exactly what happened. Every gameweek is a full round of ten matches, with postponed matches put back in the round they were missed from. Who played, scored and assisted in each match is drawn from that player's real season: a 30-goal striker scores around 30. From 2000/01, keepers' saves follow the real shots on target (pinned to the modern game's three or so saves a match, since older shot counts ran high) and each team's real bookings are handed out among the players who played.
Every season counts the same
Some seasons had more goals than others, and real seasons from 2016/17 run hotter still, so each season's points are scaled slightly to keep the leaderboard fair: an average squad scores the same in any of them. That's why a player who just turns up occasionally earns 2 points rather than 3.
Bonus points
The three best performers in every match take 3, 2 and 1 bonus points, rated the way FPL's bonus system does it: goals and assists count most, then clean sheets and saves, with a little credit for the unseen work of defenders and midfielders. In real seasons, players get the bonus they were actually awarded.
Only your eleven score
Points come from the eleven you pick, not the full fifteen. Your four substitutes are ranked in order, and if a starter is injured, suspended or left out, the first eligible sub comes on automatically and their points count instead. A sub can only come on if the formation still works.
Formations
You need one goalkeeper, 3–5 defenders, 2–5 midfielders and 1–3 forwards. Anything in those bounds is legal, so 3-5-2, 4-4-2 and 5-3-2 are all yours to use.
Squad and transfers
Fifteen players (2 GK, 5 DEF, 5 MID, 3 FWD) for £100m, with a maximum of three from any one club. After every gameweek you earn one free transfer. Unused transfers bank up, to a maximum of five, so you can save them for a bigger reshuffle. There are no paid transfers beyond that. Players sell at what you paid for them and buys are priced on form, so a squad can be rebuilt gradually across the season.
The January wildcard
Once the season reaches January you can play your wildcard: unlimited transfers in a single gameweek, without touching your banked free transfers. It can only be played once, and only in a January gameweek, so time it well.
Injuries and suspensions
Players pick up knocks and bans as the season runs. Before 2016/17, longer-term injuries bite hardest from February, when a thin squad starts to hurt. In real seasons, a player who misses two straight matches for any reason is flagged as not playing, just as you'd have spotted at the time.
Draft a squad