Update: FPL Towers have released an official statement on what’s going to happen with Fantasy Premier League in gamweek 7. You can check it out in full here.
To summarise:
- Everyone’s getting 0 points
- Any hits you’ve taken still count
- Triple Captains and Bench Boosts can be cancelled
- Free Hits can’t be cancelled, but will be reinstated after the GW7 deadline
- Wildcards will roll over into the next gameweek
- We still don’t know whether gameweek 8 is going ahead or not.
I still stand by most of my advice from earlier. Especially not wildcarding right now, because everything is too uncertain.
Quick tip: If you’ve taken a hit, and don’t want it any more, play your Free Hit now. Your Free Hit will be cancelled after this gameweek and returned to you anyway, and your team will revert back to its original state.
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Fantasy Premier League is not the most important thing in the world, but whatever your views on the postponements this weekend it will affect your FPL team. So, I’m writing this piece.
I don’t want this to be seen as a mark of disrespect, and I’m not going to get into the merits of postponing versus playing, but I am going to talk about what it means for our FPL teams. If you think that’s crass then please don’t read any further.
Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, Unknown Unkowns
At a briefing for the Defense Department in February 2002, Donald Rumsfeld, the country’s then-secretary of state for defence, said:
‘There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.’
Despite being lambasted in the press for saying something that sounds stupid, this is a very helpful maxim in life and FPL.
What are the Known Knowns? – Things That We Know We Know
Gameweek 7 fixtures are postponed.
We also know that when COVID hit and fixtures were postponed, FPL deadlines did not change – i.e. you still got one free transfer per gameweek.
What are the Known Unkowns? – Things That We Know We Don’t Know
We don’t know how FPL Towers (the Official FPL) will deal with the postponements. They could reverse everything, like our teams or our chips or player prices, back to the way it was at the end of gameweek 6, but I suspect they don’t have the technical capability or capacity to do so.
They could grant us a free wildcard or more free transfers. We know this sort of thing is technically possible, as last year during COVID they granted us an extra free hit chip to deal with postponements.
We don’t know whether gameweek 8 games are going ahead. There is much speculation on Twitter, and the consensus seems to be that they probably won’t be going ahead but we don’t know.
We don’t know where the new gameweeks will fit in. But we know that double gameweeks are a thing and the European schedules are not changing, so extending the English domestic season past the end of European competitions doesn’t seem likely.
What are the Unkown Unknowns? – Things That We Do Not Know We Do Not Know
We don’t know. But there might be some. So, this could all be moot. But it is done on a best estimate of what I expect.
What Do I Think Will Happen?
I think that FPL Towers will leave the deadlines in place like they did during COVID. So, you will have one free transfer per week.
And I think the Premier League will return in gameweek 8.
And there will be double gameweeks later down the line, but the season probably won’t be extended.
What Does That Mean for Your FPL Team?
If you have two free transfers – you should probably use one before the deadline tomorrow morning at 11.00. Otherwise you might not get it back. Remember that the Brighton vs Palace game in gameweek 8 is definitely postponed anyway, so you could deal with this problem. It’s also possible that all the other gameweek 8 games are cancelled, so look for good fixtures in gameweek 9.
If you have one free transfer – you should probably hold it and wait for more information. Teams won’t stop training, so its always possible that someone gets injured over the next few weeks and you might need this transfer.
If you are on wildcard – sadly, I don’t think you are getting this wildcard back. If I was on wildcard I would set myself up for gameweek 9 and beyond. Make sure you do this before the deadline on Saturday at 11.00 UK time.
If you are thinking of wildcarding – don’t. You would only have a day to decide on a team and you don’t know who is playing. Wait for more information.
If you are on free hit or triple captain or bench boost – I don’t think you can get this back either. I don’t even know if you can turn them off. Sorry to say this might screw you, but these chips are only really worth about 20 points so don’t be disheartened – you can make this back.
Everyone – look at your points totals tomorrow. This is probably the only time you will ever score the highest gameweek total possible. I don’t expect you will win a prize for it, though.