Fantasy Premier League (FPL) is a funny old game and, perhaps fittingly, the FPL community is a veritable circus of a place, populated by every kind of person imaginable.
How it started
I remember back to 2019 when I first spotted people posting screenshots of their Gameweek scores on Instagram, and I thought to myself, “I didn’t know people did this!” Fast forward two years and I have a Twitter account totally dedicated to FPL with 7k followers, and an Amazon best-selling book on the topic. Quite a ride!
I went from being the most FPL obsessed person I knew (hence the username and book title) to a small fish in a huge pond of content creators – many of whom made a full-time living out of FPL – who were so intensely passionate about the game that they made my obsession look like a passing fancy.
I’ll never forget watching in bewildered awe as dedicated FPL accounts from around the world were providing hourly updates as they tracked Raphinha’s plane flight in real time to help people predict whether he was going to make it back from international duty in time for Leeds’ double Gameweek. This was a level of fanatical obsession beyond my wildest dreams. I must confess, I felt instantly at home.
Over time, I found myself in a number of group chats. One of which was a sub-group of wine enthusiasts who also played FPL – The FPL Clicquot as it is still known. Real friendships were forged in this group, and at one point we had monthly Zoom calls where we drank wine and discussed FPL; the group had representation from the UK, France, Sweden, and USA. One of the group members, Dan, I met up with in real life despite us living at different ends of the country. Imagine the difficulty of explaining to your wife that you are taking a train into Liverpool to go drinking with a stranger who you had met via Twitter because you both liked wine and FPL.
KSI with FPL Obsessed
Later on, I was both delighted and surprised to find out that YouTube royalty KSI had a copy of my book (pictured). I would like to tell you that, having heard of my exemplary reputation as a writer and FPL manager, KSI decided it was high time to do some serious research and improve his FPL game. I suspect, however, that he simply received my book as a Secret Santa gift, which would certainly explain the surge in book sales in early December. Speaking of which… *winks suggestively*…
In the name of productivity, I now spend very little time on social media. This comes with many advantages, but I find that I miss the FPL community dearly. It has provided me with a rich history of funny stories, research opportunities, and great friendships. While there are too many tales to tell, I will leave you with one of my earliest FPL anecdotes, which features at the end of my book FPL Obsessed: Tips for Success in Fantasy Premier League
“…but perhaps the most memorable encounter of all was with Emmanuel Adebayor.
One of my first acts upon working for this business was, naturally, to introduce my colleagues to FPL. Our sales director, in particular, really enjoyed it and we spoke at length about the game. Around the same time, Adebayor was in between loan spells with Manchester City and was moving home to London to play for Tottenham Hotspur. After his move, we embarked on a major installation project for him down there and saw a lot of him during the planning and design stage, when he would visit the store to discuss exactly what he wanted from his system.
On one such visit, the conversation turned to football, as it often did. Our sales director pointed over to me and told Adebayor that I had him in my FPL team. I got the impression from the conversation that he didn’t really know what FPL was. He came over to me, smiling.
“Let me see, let me see,“ he said. I looked at him and laughed back nervously, the colour draining from my face. What our sales director didn’t know was that I had transferred Adebayor out of my FPL team the previous week due to a dip in his form.
“Show him, Matt, get it up on the screen,” our sales director shouted to me across the store. There was no getting out of this one. I stammered out my excuses as I typed in my username and password. Adebayor loomed over me, face full of genuine enthusiasm. My squad loaded up. He wasn’t in it. He pointed this out.
I still don’t know to this day whether Adebayor has just got an extremely dry and intense sense of humour, but he gave the distinct impression that he was genuinely annoyed that I had got rid of him. I cobbled together some excuse that I had heard reports he was injured and had transferred him out, just in case. I assured him that I would put him back in the squad at the next possible opportunity and then tried to change the subject, but the damage was done. He left the shop looking disparagingly at me over his shoulder as he went.
It is the first, and, I hope, only time I have ever had to justify a transfer decision to the footballer himself.”
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