The Auction

1.1 Every manager begins the season and starts the auction with £50 million to spend on a minimum of 11 players and a maximum of 18.

1.2 You can have as many players as you want from any Premier League team.

1.3 There is no maximum for any position, except keepers (2 at the auction, 3 from Snake Draft 2, see rule 2.6).
But your squad must consist of a minimum of the following:
* At least 1 Goalkeeper
* At least 3 Defenders
* At least 3 Midfielders
* At least 1 Forward

1.4 Players names are read out in position order. Beginning with goal keepers, every manager must purchase the minimum for that position before the auction moves onto the next position.

1.5 The entire list will be auctioned off once only. If more than one manager wants a player they will be sold to the highest bidder, otherwise they go for free.

1.6 If anyone over-spends at the auction, they must return the offending player and any subsequent players back to the pool, and cannot fill the space(s) until September.

Formation

1.7 By the end of the Auction, you must have enough players to play one of eight formations: 442, 433, 451, 532, 541, 352, 343 and 361

1.8 Defenders are just that - no full backs or centre backs.

Squad Size

1.9 Once the auction is over, squads size increases from 18 to 20.

1.10 Players can be acquired either by deals done with fellow managers, or by picking two players from Snake Draft One (see rule 2.1).

1.11 Once the Premier League September transfer window closes, our squad size increases to a maximum of 22 for the remainder of the season (see rule 2.6).

Snake Draft One - 20 man squad

2.11 In the week after the auction, and before the first match, squad size increases to a maximum of 20.

2.12 For Snake Draft One managers will be listed in current reverse Hall Of Fame order.

2.13 Managers can trade their list positions, for money or players or both. Other arrangements will need approval of the SFP committee.

2.14 Once the first manager picks the order is set and no more deals, trades or player releases can take place during the snake.

2.15 The first manager can pick any player from the remaining Pool Player list, then the next manager picks and so on until the last manager picks twice and we go back up the list.

Snake Draft Two - 23 man squad

2.16 On the 11th December managers have the opportunity to increase their squad from 20 to 23 via Snake Draft Two.

2.17 The order of the snake will be the reverse order of the previous weekends league table positions, and then back again.

2.18 The list is purely the default order. Managers can trade their positions, for money or players or both. Other arrangements will need approval of the SFP committee.

2.19 Once the first manager picks the order is set and no more deals, trades or player releases can take place during the snake.

2.20 The first manager can pick any player from the remaining Pool Player list, then the next manager picks and so on until the last manager picks twice and we go back up the list.

2.21 With Snake Draft Two, if a manager has more than two slots remaining there will be an opportunity to continue to pick additional players continuing in the same order.

2.22 After the draft, squads are fixed at a maximum of 23 for the remainder of the season.

Snake Draft Three - the final snake

2.30 Once the Premier League transfer window has closed (Thursday, February 1st 2024 at 11:00 pm BST), managers have the opportunity to refresh their squad one final time with snake four.

2.31 Managers will have the opportunity to refresh upto six players.

2.32 The order of the snake will be the standings for the January MOTM (announced TBC), top manager first to last and then back up again.

2.33 The list is purely the default order. Managers can trade their positions, for money or players or both. Other arrangements will need approval of the SFP committee.

2.34 At 2000hrs on the 5th February the first manager makes his pick and the order is set. No more deals, trades or player releases can take place during the snake.

2.35 The first manager can pick any player from the remaining Pool Player list, then the next manager picks and so on until the last manager picks twice and we go back up the list.

2.36 If a manager has more than two slots remaining there will be an opportunity to continue to pick additional players continuing in the same order.

2.37 After the draft, squads will be fixed for the remainder of the season.

If you release a player within 30 days before a snake draft you cannot pick that player in the forth-coming draft. You have to wait until the next Snake window. You can however buy the player from a fellow manager should a trade present itself.

3.1 The scoring weeks will run from a Friday to a Thursday night (inclusive).

3.2 SCORING PLUS POINTS - all players
+2 pts for starting apperance
+1 pt for substitute appearance
+3 pts for a key contribution
+5 pts for scoring a goal

3.3 SCORING PLUS POINTS - defenders/goal keepers only
+5 pts for a 60 mins or more clean sheet
+2 pts for a less than 60 mins clean sheet
+5 pts for a penalty save

3.4 SCORING PLUS POINTS - goal keepers only
+1 pt for every two saves made

3.5 SCORING PLUS POINTS - midfielders only
+1 pt for every two tackles made

3.6 SCORING MINUS POINTS - all players
-2 pts for missing a penalty
-3 pts for an own goal
-1 pts for being booked
-3 pts for being sent off

3.7 SCORING MINUS POINTS - defenders/goal keepers only
0 pt for first goal conceded
-1 pt for each additional goal conceded

To give managers the flexibility across a long Friday - Monday weekend of fixtures, all team selections should be done via the Whatsapp App.

Whatsapp is free and can be accessed from your phone or desktop, via wifi or 3G/4G. If you have no access at all, you can use it to do a screen shot or take a photo of a hand written team selection.

Each manager will have their own Group chat setup with the chairman for team selections, and they will be time stamped and set in a timeline together in the same place. We will both easily be able to see the previous weeks team selection too. This, hopefully, should usher in the new and long-a-waited 'Sunday selections’ rule.

What happens if there is a Friday or early Saturday match?

If there is a premier league game on a Friday night and/or 1245hrs on Saturdays, any players you have in those games need to be selected or dropped BEFORE they kickoff. If not, those players remain in the status they were in the week before.

3pm Saturday

By 3pm Saturday, YOU MUST select a full starting eleven for the scoring week.

If you have players playing at 5pm, or on the Sunday or Monday, you must select them by 3pm on Saturday. You will have the opportunity to change them before they kick off.

5pm Saturday.

If you picked someone to play at 5pm and then you change you mind and want to swap them for somebody else in that match or for a Sunday game you may. But you cannot retrospectively drop anyone. So, if you picked someone for 3pm and they scored low, were injured or failed to come off the bench that’s tough. You picked them, what happened, happened.

What you can do though is make a decision about any other players you have left in this game and the following weekends games.

Sunday and Monday games

If you picked someone for these games and you wish to change them for someone else who is yet to play in your squad, you may. But again, it must be done before the kickoff of their game.

What if someone I picked was left out of the match day squad?

If a player you picked didn't even make an appearance on their teams bench, then you can change this player for any that you may have in subsequent games. But again, you cannot go back and retrospectively change your selection, and they must fit into a legal formation.

What if there were Tuesday and/or Wednesday matches?

If there are mid-week games then depending on the number of fixtures you have two choices:

If there is a full premier league programme, you must pick a complete XI on the Tuesday night which you can tinker with on the Wednesday in the same way you would on a Sunday.

If there are under five fixtures midweek, then these games will be treated as bonus matches to the weekends scoring, and unless a player you picked didn't make the bench at the weekend, you cannot make any changes.

What if I forget to pick a team?

If you do not submit a new team, or if you submit a partial or late team, it will stay as the previous week. However, you can still make amendments to any players who still haven’t played that weekend, if you’ve enough left in your squad to do so.

What if I pick an illegal formation?

If you pick a formation other then those permitted (442, 433, 451, 532, 541, 352, 343 and 361) your team will revert back to the previous weeks formation.

The player/s that do not fit the previous weeks formation will be the one/s to be dropped, and the players that did the previous week will be switched back in. For example, if a defender is selected to replace the previous weeks midfielder meaning the formation changes from 433 to 523, that defender will be the one who is removed and that midfielder reinstated. And as above, you can still make amendments to any players who still haven’t played that weekend, if you’ve enough left in your squad to do so.

Manager to Manager Deals

Manager to manager deals can take place at any time during the season, from the end of the auction until midnight 1st February.

New Premier League signing and new players to the game

All new players that get added to the game after the auction will also be auctioned off.

This includes every new Premier League signings, plus any new squad players the Telegraph adds throughout the season.

All new players to the game will be added via Trello and will be given an automatic start date and time.

That players auction will automatically finish 24 hours after he has started, at which point the auction automitically closes.

Should there be a last minute bid, then the last managers involved can carry on in 15 minute windows to conclude the auction.

Pool Players

The pool player sealed bid window has been reintroduced for this season. However it is a short 3 week window during October and managers are limited to the number of players they can list in each week.

Those dates are:

Pool opens Monday, 9th October. Managers can send bids for;

10 names by 8pm Wednesday 11th
8 names by 8pm Wednesday 18th
6 names by 8pm Wednesday 25th

Results to be confirmed by each following Friday.

There is an email address for sealed bids, which will send itself to a secret folder on Matthew's email that won't be touched until each wednesday at 8pm. It is sealedbids@thesfp.co.uk

You can only take each named player from the pool once during a window. This is to stop manager using the pool as a squad extension. If they are still available in the next window, you can take them in that window, but again only once.

With your bid for that player, you can either just name the player or put in a maximum monetary bid. A bid is a bid and cannot be retracted. You can only bid using money you have at that time. If bidding for more than one player in one week, your money must be divided between all players. So if you have £5m to spend and bid for 3 players, you could put in one bid of £3m, one of £1.5m and one of £0.5m.

If nobody else puts in a bid, you get him for free.
If two or more managers also bid, the highest bidder will be in control at £100,000 above the second highest bid.
The top 3 bidders will then have one more opportunity to put in a NEW MAXIMUM BID. The rest will be eliminated.
The player will again go to the highest bidder, at £100,000 more than the second highest bid.

THE BIDDING MUST ALL BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE FIRST MATCH ON THE FOLLOWING SATURDAY.

So an example might be:

5 managers put in bids for Player X.
Manager 1 puts in a £1.5m bid
Manager 2 puts in a £1.9m bid
Manager 3 puts in a £2.0m bid
Manager 4 puts in a £3.5m bid
Manager 5 puts in a £8.0m bid

Manager 5 will win the first round at £3.6m, but nobody will know how high his maximum bid was. Managers 1 and 2 are out of the bidding. So the remaining managers are informed that the bid stands at £3.6m with manager 5 and are invited to either up their maximum bid, or to drop out of the bidding.

Manager 3 puts in another bid of £5.0m
Manager 4 puts in another bid of £6.5m
Manager 5 puts in another bid of £8.0m

This time, Player X goes to Manager 5 for £6.6m.

Should Manager 5 decide they no longer want that player, even though they won, they lose that money and the player then goes to the 2nd highest bidder at £100,000 above the 3rd highest bidder.

As soon as you sign a player, either from the pool or another manager, you must let the Chairman know who you have sold/released to make way. This must be done before kick off of the next scoring match for the player involved to be included in that week squad. Otherwise the original squad player will be used, or the player who played in that position the previous week.

All available players, released players and new players that didn't sell via auction create our Pool Players list.

Snake Drafts

For the remainder of the season, Sealed Bids have been replaced by Snake Drafts. They will happen at set times of the season:

SNAKE 01 - AUGUST in the week after the auction, to increase squads from 18 to 20

SNAKE 02 - DECEMBER in the second week, to increase squads from 20 to 23

SNAKE 03 - FEBRUARY in the first week to allow managers to refresh their squads, upto 6 changes

If you release a player within 30 days before a snake draft you cannot pick that player in the forth-coming draft. You have to wait until the next Snake window. You can however buy the player from a fellow manager should a trade present itself.

Selling Players

When you sell a player you can do one of the following:
1. Sell him to another manager for whatever fee / fee + player(s).
2. Release him back to the player's pool and get half of what you paid back, rounded up to the nearest 100k

If a player moves out of the premiership in real life, then sfp managers will get what they paid in compensation.

As soon as you sign a player, either from the pool or another manager, you must let the Chairman know who you have sold/released to make way. This must be done before kick off of the next scoring match for the player involved to be included in that week squad. Otherwise the original squad player will be used, or the player who played in that position the previous week.

Loan Players

Loan deals can now be arranged between managers. The two parties must decide for what deal, whether player exchange, for a one-off payment, or performance related monetary value.

The deal must last for a minimum of two scoring weeks.

If a loan deal is left open past 2 weeks without an agreed end date, any changes to the deal must be confirmed before 8pm on a Friday otherwise it rolls over into the next scoring week.

The owner of the player can decide if and when to terminate the deal if no time frame is agreed.

Managers can only sign up to two loanees and have up to two players on loan at any time.

As this is a new rule, the committee reserve the right to adapt and change rules when deemed necessary.

Cup Tied Players

In the main SFP 11-a-side cup, players will be cup-tied during the Group Stage, and then this is wiped clean for the knockout stages, but players are then cup tied again from those rounds. If they have scored a goal for one team (including loan players), they cannot play for any other sfp team. However, if they have played in a cup match but not scored, they can play for another team.

This season there is no bonus money. The auction £50m is to last the season.

When there is a question about a rule, a rule break or a change to a rule, these are run past our three man committee.

The committee consists of League Chairman Matthew, Co-Founder Nick and the boy who instigated it all, Ross.