You're listening to the Footglitch Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
What is the Fantasy Premier League?
How do you play it?
How can you join the Footglitch Podcast Mini League?
And what are some different ways we can use the modal verb did?
Hello listeners and welcome back to the Footglitch Podcast.
My name is Zdenek Lukas and the Footglitch Podcast is your solution to learning English in a fun way through football, which I assume is your passion just like mine.
And we are 11 days away from the start of the Premier League season.
It's literally just around the corner.
And in this episode of the Footglitch Podcast, I'm going to explain to you how to play the Fantasy Premier League.
I'm talking about the Fantasy Premier League from fantasy.premierleague.com because there are different kinds of Fantasy Premier League.
So I'm talking about this one, the most popular one.
And today I'm talking to my friend, a Charles University student, a future doctor and an Arsenal fan, Nrup.
Hi Nrub, welcome back.
Well, actually, it's not welcome back.
Welcome to the Footglitch Podcast.
Oh my God, it's my first time, is it?
Wow. Yes. Thank you so much.
Well, those were lots of titles.
I'm sure my university won't be able to provide me those many, but I'm more than happy to receive those many titles.
Yeah, great.
Good to be back, man. Footglitch and Footglitch.
No more Zep.
Zep is my other podcast, the next English podcast.
And you have been on that podcast.
That's why I was confused and I said welcome back.
Speaking of the titles, you know, it's still more titles than how many a certain club from North London has.
Yeah, this expression of mine is what I call sadness.
I guess that's how adults feel, you know, when they feel sad, they just laugh it off.
Yeah, it's just crazy.
All right. Well, you're talking to us from India, right?
At the moment you're in Mumbai.
Mumbai, yeah.
Okay, then. Well, let's talk about the FPL.
So first of all, what is it?
What is FPL?
How would you describe it if you were to use just one sentence?
Well, I would call it a stock market.
A stock market?
A stock market of English Premier League.
That's how I see it in one sentence.
Okay, I think you're joking. It's a game, right?
It's a game. We should say it's a game that anyone can play from the comfort of their own home.
It's not an actual stock market. It's probably what it makes you feel like, I guess.
But it's a game you can play.
You just need an internet connection, really, and access to, I suppose, at least an app which tells you the results of the Premier League.
That's all you need, essentially, right?
Yeah.
So the way the game works is that it follows the real Premier League, right?
The real one where obviously teams in England compete against each other.
The first league in England, the one that we all love so much, the best league in the world.
Teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Crystal Palace and so on.
So these teams play against each other.
And as these games happen, you also have a team in this fantasy Premier League which you create by yourself.
Is it that you pick one team or how does it work?
I think what you do is you create your own team using the players that play in that league.
So it's a combination of players.
But here's the thing, you can only choose a maximum of three players for one club.
So you have to create a starting eleven plus five substitutions.
Four. I think it's four substitutions.
So are you telling me that if I want to have, let's say, five players from Ipswich Town, a newly promoted team, I'm not allowed to do that in this game?
No, not really. Unless one of those players move to another team and you can choose an ex-Ipswich Town team.
So maybe you can create that.
OK, so that's what the game is essentially about. And then you collect points based on the real life games and how these real life players, players that we all know like Mohamed Salah, Erring Haaland, Bukai Osaka,
based on how they are performing in their real life games, you collect points for your fantasy team.
And then at the end of each game week, you total up your points and then you compare it against everyone else in the game.
It's actually played by around 10 million people each year. It's getting more and more popularity.
So it's a really popular game all around the world. And that's what I want to do today on the Footgeesh Podcast.
I want to encourage our listeners to play with us because it's a lot of fun and I think it's going to make it more fun for you to watch the Premier League.
And you're going to actually learn more about the players as well. It's really fun to watch.
And often what happens is that you have your favourite team, like you support Arsenal, right?
And then you end up watching only your team or watch the highlights or check the results of your team, but you don't care about anything else.
With FPL, you will actually end up being interested in other teams' results as well, which is kind of cool.
I think it makes a person a more neutral football fan rather than just supporting one club and staying in that small bubble.
I mean, I personally encourage everyone to watch all the leagues, but we are humans. We live in a different modern lifestyle.
We don't have so many things to do. I think FPL increases your vision for how football is played.
That's true. That's true.
Isn't the game like 20, 21 years old?
I think it's really, really old. How long have you been playing it then?
Well, barely a year, I would say. Barely a year.
I thought you joined two years ago. I thought you played two seasons in a row.
I did, but I quit the last season. I quit in the middle and then I missed lots of weeks. So, yeah. But I did play.
This happens because sometimes when people don't start well, they fall behind with their points. They kind of give up.
So it's quite common in this league. But the thing is the season is long. You have 38 game weeks.
And it happens that you sometimes flop. You get not so many points, but you can always make up for it in the following week.
You just make a few changes. You can actually make changes to your team as well, right?
Yeah, you can.
So I think it's a lot of time, fun. And how do you start playing this game then, Rup? How do you start? What do you have to do first?
I think first you need to have at least an iOS or an Android phone that can download the app that is called Premier League and not FPL.
So you need to search the app that is called Premier League. And in that you need to register.
And there's a small option which is called Fantasy Premier League. And that's where you start.
And you don't need to use an app. For example, I usually pick my team from the browser. I use a laptop.
You can do that as well.
There are two ways. And as you said, you register first and then you click that Fantasy Premier League.
Because this website, this whole website is about Premier League in general, I think.
Exactly.
It's premierleague.com, right? And so the way it works is that you are assigned, just like everyone else who starts the new season,
you are assigned £100 million or something like that. You're not actually given the money, right?
They don't give you this much money in real life, unfortunately. It's all fake money, basically.
But you have a budget, £100 million. And what do you do with this budget then?
You buy a property.
You buy a property in Mumbai.
Yeah. You solve the world hunger.
I wish. But the only thing you can do is buy players in different positions. You start with a goalkeeper.
I think you can buy only two goalkeepers.
But you can buy, I think, six defenders or five defenders. Five defenders, five midfielders and three, if I'm not wrong.
Three strikers.
Three attackers, yeah. That's what you do with those £100 million.
Yeah. And should you spend it all or what's the best strategy? And how do you even, like, how does it work?
So the players have different price. Each player has a different price, right? And which players are the most expensive players then?
How does it work?
So I think it depends on their performance in the previous season and, I don't know, let's say the last five seasons.
And based on that, they decide which players are the most expensive. Or I believe they come under a certain category of amount.
So I think if it's more than £8 million, I think you have those elite top players that play for the league.
And then you have, I don't know, as you go to different clubs, let's say, if you go to clubs which are not part of the top six players, you get for a much more cheaper, reasonable price.
But again, they are, they come at a price and that is, they are more inconsistent.
So you cannot, sorry to interrupt you. So the point is you cannot make a team, you cannot make a team full of superstars. It doesn't work in this game.
No, I don't think you can afford that. That's the first thing. It's against the FFP rules.
You mean FPL rules as well.
FPL. But yeah, well, unfortunately, there's no Arab backup.
OK. Yeah. So basically, it would be, it would be for the best if you had a chance.
A lot of, a lot of cars are honking in the street in Mumbai today.
That's every day, actually. Every day is like that. I think that's cool. That's cool.
So what I wanted to say is that, of course, it would be amazing if you could play with a team full of Haaland's and Salaks and Sakas, but it's not possible.
This game does not allow you to do that. So while you can buy a Haaland for your team,
this also means that you are limited in what you can do with the rest of your budget, because Haaland, how much does Haaland cost?
He's the best player of the, he's the most expensive player of the game. Right.
Do you know how much he costs this season?
15, is it?
15 million pounds, which is the record. I think nobody has ever cost so much.
It's 15 percent of your budget, basically.
It's crazy.
So if you buy Haaland, you can definitely do it, but then your other players can't be that expensive.
And you have to make sure that all of your slots are full. Am I right?
Like you need to have 13 players, no matter what, with those 100 million budget.
That's right. You need to have 15 players. Is it 15, I think? You need to have 15. I think it's 15 or 16. Doesn't matter.
But if you don't fill up that spot, the game won't let you play it.
So what happens is that once you select your team, you kind of accept it.
And basically you can still make as many transfers as you want before the start of the season, because you are only making a draft, the FPL draft.
But once the season gets underway, that's when you can no longer make an unlimited number of transfers.
So basically for each game week, and as I said, there will be 38 in total, you will choose your team.
You pick your starting 11, which could be... it's always one goalkeeper, but it could be three, four or five defenders, depending on your formation that you play.
Then you could have the same number of midfielders and either one, two or three strikers.
That's correct. And so you want to choose the players that you think will get the most points in each game week.
So you have to look at the teams that those players that you have in your team, they are playing against.
I said it in a complicated way, but basically... It sounds quite complicated, yeah.
Basically, if you have Martin Odegaard from Arsenal, you absolutely want to start this player if it's a home game, if it's an Arsenal home game against a weak opponent.
I don't know. I don't want to mention anyone.
Ipswich.
Ipswich, yeah. Okay. That would be a great move. But then maybe it wouldn't be such a great move if you played this player against Manchester City, because the chances that he will score points, the chances are much lower.
Right. So you have to think about all that. And then each week you also choose a captain, right?
And a vice captain.
So what's the captain about then? Why do you need a captain?
So I think the captain's role is to enhance the points that the captain contributes.
So I think the points are chosen by the amount of minutes, availability, selection, goal score, assisted, and so on.
Many ways you can get points, but basically your captain will double his points.
Double it, yeah. It's basically an enhancer.
So every week you pick a captain. And this is an important aspect of the game, because you always want to choose someone who you think will get a lot of points.
So if there is a chance a player will score two goals or a hat-trick, or Haaland, for example, is the most popular captain all the time, because he is also on penalties, right?
So if you want to have players in your team that take penalties, because a penalty is a good chance for a goal, of course.
So the game is very tactical, right? And what if your team is not doing well then? What can you do? What if you pick the wrong players? How can you fix it?
Well, what you do is you just have your bench. So if the players are selected, then the bench, the player that is on the bench, the first player that is on the bench is automatically replaced by the one who is not selected.
Or else you just say good luck.
What if your bench players suck as well? Can you change your team in any way?
Well, once the game has started, I don't think so.
Don't you have transfers or something?
You do, but it happens after the game week.
Yeah, that's what I mean. I'm kind of playing dumb here. I know the answer. I just want you to say it.
I know. So the thing is once the match week ends, and it doesn't have to end on a Sunday, it ends when the last game, which can happen in the middle of the week.
So you must follow the calendars. You must follow how the match week happens. Once that match week ends, you have a certain time period. It can be as less as 24 hours to days to month.
And during that period, you can make...
It's never a month really.
Unless there's a World Cup or something like that.
Yeah, well, it's usually...
Usually it's one week, but you are right that sometimes it's short. Sometimes it could be like four days, and sometimes it could be a little bit longer if there is a...
External factor, basically.
Yeah, like the international break, for example. Yeah, you're right. But it's never like one month, unless it's the World Cup, I suppose.
We don't have a World Cup this season though.
Not yet, yeah. So yeah, once the match day ends, you have that period, and in that period, you are able to make all your changes.
Either you sub in one of the players who you think can perform for the next game, or you make a transfer.
You have one free transfer each week.
Each week, yeah.
If you don't use up your transfer, it adds up, and they have changed the rule now, because it used to be you could only add up two transfers.
Two, yeah.
But now they have changed the rules. I don't know if you are aware, but you can roll up up to five now.
So they have made a massive change to the game.
I don't know how this will affect, but it sounds interesting, really. Yeah, five, okay, nice.
That's a lot. So if you don't, for example, if you don't touch your team...
Yeah, you can just hold up your stuff.
For a month, you can change half of your team, which is a big thing in this game.
So as we said, you get points for goals. So for example, if a defender scores a goal, that's a lot of points.
That's more points than if a striker scores a goal.
You get points for assists. You get points for... you get minus points for scoring an own goal.
You get minus points for receiving a yellow card or even a red card.
That's minus three points, I think.
Your defenders get points if they keep a clean sheet, just like your goalkeeper.
Also, if they play a whole 90-minute game, they get a point for that.
Actually, it's different. If you play at least one minute, you get one point.
And if you play at least 60 minutes, you get two points. Just for playing, yeah.
So yeah, that's that.
Basically, there are different ways to get points. There are also some bonus points where we don't want to go into that today.
And you have to be really strategic.
And is this game... it sounds maybe too complicated, too complex, but can you play it in a casual way, Nrub?
You can, yeah. I mean, for me, like for those people who prefer to play it on the phone,
I think they can play it much more casual because you can carry it everywhere.
And if you want, you can show it to your friends.
And if you just want to have a small talk regarding the game and you don't want to be much more involved,
I don't know, following some FPL experts like you.
No, you are joking.
But there are a lot of YouTube channels, people who only talk about the Fantasy Premier League.
But you know what? I just wanted to include this game as part of this podcast, because to be honest,
I know this game is fun and it's a nice opportunity to interact with the listeners, you know, because we can compete against each other.
That's why I'm inviting the listeners of this podcast to join our mini league as well.
So mini league, what's a mini league? Basically, there is a big league of 10 million people who play against each other.
That's obvious. So you will always see your standing after each week.
But then you can also create a mini league, which is like a private league of only the people you want to play against.
For example, I could have a mini league with Nrub only if I wanted to.
But instead we will create or I have already created the Foodglitch Podcast mini league.
And there is a link in the description of this podcast, which you can join and you will be part of that league.
Basically, or you can enter a code R7YPW0.
That's also a way you can join. But I think following the link works well.
Yeah, so basically a mini league and a league is pretty much the same.
It's just that mini league is basically a smaller version of the league.
So you still have the same competition. You don't have teammates.
You just have the same competition and it's a much smaller bubble where you feel like you are much more connected to your teammates.
And you don't feel the external pressure or you don't feel hopeless or intimidated.
And then you have the general league. You also have club leagues, I think.
Every club has its own league.
Yeah, like if you are an Arsenal fan. Basically, we are complicating it.
But the points you get each week are always the same.
Yeah, it's always the same. It's always the same.
But because you have rankings. So it depends who is in your league.
If it's like, imagine I have a league with all you guys, all my listeners, I don't know, 10 listeners.
I hope it's more than 10 listeners.
But let's imagine that there are 10 listeners that join the league.
Well, it will be just the 10 of us. And there's a higher chance we win, right?
If it's just the 10 of us.
Like you could be, I don't know, second in Zdeněk's league, but you could be number one in your country's league, hypothetically speaking.
Yeah, but that's...
Hypothetically, it's possible.
No, not for me, because even the Czech league, there are so many people playing.
I'm not talking about Czech, I'm talking about any country. I don't know. You could be from San Marino.
That's a better chance to win.
The smaller the country, the better.
I think I should probably say that I'm from San Marino and then I might have a chance to win something.
Yeah, you can do that. It's a hack.
But how is that? You could be leader in some other league, but you could not be at the top in your own league.
And it can happen the other way as well.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
It's basically a bubble under the bubble.
What I would like to remind people is not to miss the deadlines, because each week there is a deadline.
And the deadline is 90 minutes before the first game of each game week.
So, usually the first game is either on Friday or Saturday.
So, you want to select your team, pick your captain, save it.
Because, like I said, you could make some changes, you could make transfers, you can pick the players from the bench, choose a different captain.
So, you always want to make some adjustments to give yourself a better chance of scoring a lot of points.
And then there's also one thing we should mention quickly, and that's the chips.
You also have several chips available to you.
I don't want to go into it too much, but those are basically like things you can activate and you have a limited number of them.
So, for example, you have two wild cards per season.
What does wild card allow you to do, Anrup?
So, wild card is basically where you change your team for as much as you can.
You basically create a whole team fresh.
Yeah. And it costs you nothing. It's free.
Because normally if you make more than one transfer, you lose some money.
Right. No, money, not money, points.
And these points can be taken as penalty. I don't know, some people gamble that, but it's preferably people don't use it.
They don't use this tactic. So, wild card is basically for this. We just want a fresh start.
And you have two wild cards per season. You should be wise in how you use them.
And there are some other chips, so you can learn about it once you start playing.
We don't need to tell you every single detail about the game, but it's fun and it's free.
You never lose any money, even though Anrup said that you lose money. You don't lose any money in this game.
It's a game you can only win, basically, because there are some prizes, actually, for finishing high up in the league.
Because this game is so popular. It's so hard. If 10 million people play the league, it's almost impossible to get near the top.
You have to be really good at the game. And it's a 20 year old game. It's a classic game.
We would like to invite you to join the Footgris podcast, Mini League, of course.
Like I said, follow the link in the description, make your team. And then occasionally I will talk about Fantasy Premier League on this podcast,
just to give you your update of my team. Maybe if I have a guest like Anrup, because I know Anrup will come on to talk about Arsenal,
because we will definitely talk about Arsenal, then we can also ask him about how he's doing in his Fantasy League.
Looking forward to that.
Yeah, me too. Is there anything else to add?
About the FPL?
Yeah, about the FPL, Fantasy Premier League.
I would say it's going to be a tough start, but stay there, because it's basically a journey.
So you just have to not somehow survive through it, but learn through it.
If you like board games or if you like football or if you like something that involves, I don't know, something that involves betting,
something that involves betting, because you gamble, but not with the money, but with your points.
So it's basically, you only earn experience and friendship.
Exactly. No, it's fun because it's interactive. You're playing against your mates.
We always see you see the standings after each round, and if you did well, there is a chance that you have, you know,
And you can even see each other's teams and you can learn from that or you can, I don't know, do whatever with it.
But basically, yeah, you can observe, you can notice.
But the great feeling is if you jump up several spots right above your teammates,
and then sometimes you have a bad day and you drop down in the table as well, you know.
Yeah, you can. It's part of the fun, part of the fun experience playing this game.
So thank you very much, Nrub, for talking to me about the Fantasy Premier League.
We don't work for them. We just love the game.
So I just wanted you guys to be included and I hope you join.
Yeah, looking forward to see you in the league, everyone as well. So see you there, guys.
See you guys. Bye, Nrub. Thanks for doing the podcast with me. Bye bye. Take care.
Your pleasure. Bye.
Welcome back in this part of the show called the Language Corner.
I'm going to be the English teacher that I am. Yes, that's right.
I'm going to do my job. And this time, let's take a look at some grammar.
I asked Nrub how long he has been playing the FPL game.
And he answered, I've been playing FPL for barely a year.
So he was trying to play it down and it surprised me.
My reaction to that was, I thought you joined two years ago.
And to that, he said, I did, but I quit last season.
I quit in the middle and I missed a lot of weeks, but yeah, I did play.
So this is an interesting context for what I would like to explain to you.
And that is the modal verb did.
The truth is this verb can also be a lexical verb, which is a verb which has a meaning.
You do something, you do homework, you do what else can you do?
You do housework, you do a good job.
We all know these expressions and these sentences.
So that's when the verb to do has its own lexical meaning.
And then the past tense from that has to be did.
So I did my homework, I did a lot of housework this week, or what else was there?
I did a good job. So that's not what we are talking about here.
Because we can use did as a modal verb as well.
So what is a modal verb? Well, it's hard to explain, but generally speaking,
it's not a verb that has its own lexical meaning.
It's usually a verb that is used as kind of a tool in grammar, right?
It's kind of a helping structure in grammar.
For example, we use did to ask a question in past tense.
What did you do yesterday? Yeah. Did you play football last weekend?
Did you watch the Manchester United-Chelsea game?
Yeah, we used did at the beginning of the question to ask about the past.
But here, Nrub used did in two different ways.
I asked Nrub, I said to Nrub, I thought you joined two years ago.
And to that Nrub answers, I did.
So here, instead of saying, yes, I joined two years ago,
Nrub used what's called a short answer. And he said, I did.
Yeah, basically, I did replace I joined two years ago.
It's much easier to say it in this way.
For example, if you ask me, Zdenek, did you enjoy recording the previous episode
of the Footgrish podcast? And I can say, yes, I did.
I could also say, yes, I no, I didn't.
But I can say, yes, I did, rather than saying, yes, I enjoyed recording this episode,
which is also possible. But to make it simple, to make it shorter, I just say, yes, I did.
So basically, this modal verb did has the function of replacing the main verb,
which is in past tense. OK.
And then Nrub said, I quit in the middle, in the middle, and I missed a lot of weeks.
But yeah, I did play.
So the neutral or the classic past tense would be I played, right?
I played. There's no did if it's an affirmative positive sentence.
We don't use did before the verb unless you want to use it for special emphasis.
Nrub said, I did play. Often this is stressed as well.
So you say, I did play. And this is used in order to emphasize it,
to stress the fact that you actually played.
Often it's some kind of contrast to what is widely believed.
In this case, he just wanted to make sure that he is making it clear that he played,
because he started by saying, I barely played, playing it down.
And then I said, no, I thought you played for two years.
And then he's saying, yes, I did play. Right?
In order to make it very clear that he played the FPL.
So we can use did with an infinitive of another verb to basically emphasize that structure,
that past tense structure. OK?
For example, Zenec, I thought you didn't like that ice cream I bought for you.
I thought you didn't like it. I saw your facial expression.
You were not looking very happy.
And I can say, no, I did like it. I did like it. Right?
So I just want to I just want to make it clear that I actually really liked it.
And you are wrong in assuming that I didn't like it.
OK, guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Footgrish podcast.
Don't forget to join the Fantasy Premier League Mini League.
The link is in the description.
I will definitely be talking about this game on this podcast.
And I will even be mentioning the people that are playing in the league. Right?
We are competing against each other.
It's very competitive and I want to beat you all.
So you should try to do the same to me, of course.
And if you do, I will definitely, definitely talk about you a lot.
And you can even become a guest on the Footgrish podcast when the season is over.
Why not? All right, everyone, thanks for listening.
And I will speak to you soon. Take care. Bye bye.