Help

Next Goal Wins is a fantasy football competition based on the Premier League 25/26 season.
Those of you who have played fantasy football competitions before will recognise most of the format. You select a squad of players and each week you choose your team of 11 players and 3 substitutes from your squad. Those players score points for your team depending on how they do in their real life premier league matches.

What makes Next Goal Wins different from what you may have played before is that you have to buy all your players via online auctions.

The players in your squad will be unique to you within your league. You will bid for players and the winning bidder from your league will get that player. If you win a player then when they score points it will only be for your team.

The online auctions give you the way to build your squad while fitting in within your life. The auctions run over several days or weeks. Bid when you have spare time. Specify how much you are willing to spend and the site will bid for you up to that amount.
There is no sniping - If you are outbid towards the auction end time, the auction will rollover for another 24 hours giving you plenty of time to consider bidding higher.

Prices and auctions are hidden*. This encourages prices to be driven by real demand.
* Auctions are configurable during league creation. Auctions and prices do not have to be hidden.

First thing to do is register. Click on the 'Register' button on the top menu. That will take you to the registration page. Once you fill in your details and hit the submit button you will hopefully get a success message. You will be sent a confirmation code to the e-mail you entered in the form. Click on the link in the form and your registration will be complete.

If you do not receive the registration e-mail in your inbox within 5-10 minutes then:

• Check your junk mail folder. It may have been filtered out as spam.
• Add a rule to your e-mail client (if you can) to allow e-mails from nextgoalwins.com to be allowed through your spam filter. If you need to be more specific then just allow admin@nextgoalwins.com.
• Try registering again with the same e-mail address. If will not register you twice, but will resend the registration e-mail again.
• If all that fails then e-mail support at support@nextgoalwins.com from the e-mail address you registered with making sure you also state the name you registered with.

The next step is to create a team and join a league.
NB: If you are creating a league for friends and/or colleagues then you should read the Creating A League section.

If you have just registered and confirmed your e-mail address, then the page you show you a link to jump to the 'create team' page. Otherwise, you can get there by opening up the 'Create' menu on the left and selecting the 'Create Team' option.

Select a name for your team and enter it into the form. There are a few rules for your team name:

• It must be between 3 and 50 characters long.
• It cannot be the same as any premier league or English league club.
• It cannot be obscene or offensive.
• It cannot be the same as any other team in the league you are joining.
• It cannot be the same as any other team you have created that season.

Failing to comply will either have the site complain about it instantly or you will later be warned by an admin and asked to change it.

Select the league you want to join from the drop down list and enter the password for that league. You should have been sent the name of the league and the password by whoever created the league.

Then click the 'Create Team' button and hopefully your team will be successfully created.

If you cannot see the name of the league you want to join in the drop down list there could be several reasons for this:

• The league has been closed by the league administrator (the person who created the league) for any reason (e.g. because the season or auctions are well underway and they want no one else joining this late).
• The league has passed its automatic close date.
• The league has reached its maximum number of managers.
• You have been told the incorrect name of the league.

Most of these reasons are legitimately denying you and there is not much you can do (other than creating your own league and inviting anyone else that missed out). All these settings can easily be changed by the league administrator (normally whoever told you the league name and password). If you really want to join that league then ask them if they would mind changing the relevant setting.

The points scored by a player is determined by their performance during the actual premier league matches. Points are scored for various events such as scoring a goal, keeping a clean sheet and receiving a yellow card.

The number of points scored for each of these events was determined by your league admin when the league was created.

You can view how points are scored in your league by clicking on the 'League Rules' button below the league table on your league page.

All the players in your squad have to be bought by auction. You have a set amount of cash at the start of the season on which you can spend on players. You will use this to bid on players.

There will only be one auction for each premier league player. Only one team in your league can own each player. This is one of fundamental rules which makes Next Goal Wins different from other, standard fantasy football competitions.

Bidding on players is quite simple even if it can be a little daunting at first.

Select the player:
You can select a player from a large number of places. Almost everywhere a player is displayed you can click on their name to select them. Just click on their name to bring up their details page. Typical pages to start looking are: any of the pages in the 'Players' menu or any of the pages in the 'Auctions' menu.

Find the bid form:
The bid form is always at the bottom of a player's details page. It is the box marked 'Bid for this player'.

Enter a bid:
The bid is a proxy bid which means the maximum you are willing to pay for them. You will not necessarily pay this much, but if someone bids higher than your initial bid then the site will automatically bid higher for you up until this price you specify.

Click the 'Place Bid' button:
Once you click the 'Place Bid' button the details you entered will be checked and you will be directed to a page telling you the result of your bid. Make sure you read that page as it is possible that your bid was not successful for very good reasons.

There are several reasons you will not be able to bid on a player and several restrictions to the bids you can place. The 'bid form' will tell you if you are not allowed to bid on a player.

The player is already owned by another team
If a player has already been won via auction by another team (or indeed by you) then you will not be allowed to bid on them unless that manager has put them on the 'transfer list' or 'released' them.

Your budget
You have fixed budget for the whole season. This is the maximum you are allowed to spend on players. You cannot overspend. When bidding on players it is your 'proxy bid' which is taken into account in these calculations as this is the maximum you could end up spending on a player. If you try and put in a bid which will put you over-budget then a window will pop up informing you that you are trying to spend too much.

Squad size
There is a maximum number of players you are allowed in your squad. This forces you to pick your players wisely and not just keep bidding on players and hoping some of them turn out to be good. It will normally be high enough to have a good amount of backup though to give you cover for injury, suspension and bad form. You are not allowed to bid on more players than would put you over this limit if you were to win all your auctions. If you have already reached your squad limit, the bid form will state that you have reached this limit and not show you the bid fields and button.

Maximum number of players from a club
You can only own a limited number of players from each premier league club. This restricts you from just bidding on players from the big clubs and forces you to look at players from the smaller clubs as well. This also means you cannot bid on more than this number of players from one club. The calculation is: if the number of players you own from that club + the number of players you are bidding from that club >= the limit on the number of players from any one club then you are not allowed to bid for that player.

Auction cooldown
There is an enforced cooldown period after you bid on a player. You cannot bid again on the same player for 15 minutes. This is prevent 'nudging' of prices up towards the proxy limit. Take this into account when bidding on a player as you cannot immediately go back and change your bid.

There are also a few restrictions on the quantities you are allowed to bid.

Minimum bid increment
You have to place your bid a certain amount higher than the previous bid. Think of the situation in real life where one club put in a offer to Chelsea for Cole Palmer of £30,000,000 and then another club came in to beat that offer with an offer of £30,000,001. They would just get laughed at. The same applies in Next Goal Wins.

Bid precision
The bids you place have to be a multiple of a certain number. For example, if the current bid is £2,000,000 and the minimum bid increment is £500,000 then you are allowed to put in a bid of £2,500,000 but that also means you can put in a bid of £2,500,242 which is a bit of a silly amount. This 'bid precision' restriction prevents you from doing that by making the auction price go up in neat amounts. If you try and break this rule then a pop-up window will appear asking you to change your bid.

Auctions will not end before the 'initial auction deadline' set for your team. This is designed to give all the managers in your league a chance to join, get bidding and start to settle on a squad they are happy with.

If someone is winning an auction and another player comes in and they bid less than the proxy bid the manager who is winning that auction has specified, the current price of the auction will go up to the value of the new bid.

If the bid is higher than the specified proxy bid then the auction price will be set to the minimum bid increment higher than the proxy bid the manager that has been outbid specified. If a manager is outbid on an auction they will have 24 hours to respond. That means the auction end time may be extended. An auction will only get extended if a manager is outbid. If the auction price changes, but it is still below (or equal to) the current managers proxy bid then the auction will not extend.

Soon after the auction end time the auction will end. The player won will be moved into the winning managers squad. A player is only eligible for selection in a team if the auction ends before the selection deadline for a week.

The funds for purchasing the player are deducted at the time of the bid. The full proxy bid amount is removed from available funds. If you are outbid on a player then the funds are returned. If you win the auction for that player then the final price of the player funds are kept, but any difference between the proxy bid and the price paid is returned.

In this example the league will have a minimum bid increment of £500,000, bid precision of £500,000, initial auction deadline of Thursday 12:00, minimum auction duration of 3 days and auction rollover duration of 24 hours.

Creating the auction
Action: Manager A selects a player and places an initial bid of £500,000 and a proxy bid of £4,000,000 on Monday 9:00.
Result: The auction is created with the current price of £500,000. The auction is due to end on Thursday 12:00. Manager A is winning this auction.

Not reaching the proxy bid
Action: Manager B places a bid on the same player with an initial bid of £1,000,000 and a proxy bid of £2,000,000 on Monday 14:00.
Result: As the proxy bid that Manager A placed has not been reached, Manager A continues to win this auction. The current price is £2,000,000. The deadline is unchanged.

Current winner changing hands
Action: Manager C places a bid on the same player with an initial bid of £2,500,000 and a proxy bid of £6,000,000 on Tuesday 11:00.
Result: As the proxy bid is higher than that specified by Manager A, the new price is £4,500,000 and Manager C is currently winning the auction. The deadline is unchanged.

Auction extended
Action: Manager D places a bid on the same player with an initial bid of £5,000,000 and a proxy bid of £8,000,000 on Wednesday 20:00.
Result: As the proxy bid is higher than that specified by Manager C, the new price is £6,500,000 and Manager D is currently winning the auction. As it is within 24 hours of the deadline, the auction is extended to 24 hours after this bid. The new deadline is Thursday 20:00.

Auction not extended
Action: Manager E places a bid on the same player with an initial bid of £7,000,000 and a proxy bid of £7,500,000 on Thursday 17:00.
Result: As the proxy bid is not higher than that specified by Manager D, Manager D continues to be winning the auction. Even though the bid is placed within 24 hours of the deadline, the auction has not changed hands so the auction is not extended.

Auctions can be viewed by selecting the 'Auctions' menu on the left and then selecting 'All' or a position. If you select a position you will also get to see all the current free agents in that position in the page.
That page will show you all the current open auctions (if your league has an auction type of open, see later otherwise) and all those that are currently transfer listed.

If you have hidden auctions turned on in your league, then it will tell you how many auctions are active for that position. It will not show you auctions which are still hidden.

The transfer list contains players currently owned by a manager in your league who wishes to sell them. They will have a minimum price. Players on the transfer list are always available to be bid on. Once any manager bids on them, they are removed from the transfer list and an auction is created for them. They then appear in the main auctions list.

You may delete an auction at any time. If you delete and auction you will lose some of your funds. You will lose the current price of the auction from your funds.

The exception to this is: if a player is removed from the game (because they were transferred out of the premier league or retired) then you can delete an auction for them getting all your money back.
The page and text on the button will say that you will get your money back. Please ensure that it does say that before deleting an auction. There may be some delay between the transfer or retirement announcement and that player being removed from the game.

You may sell players once they are in your squad. You have to place them on the transfer list. They remain on the transfer list until someone bids for them or you remove them from the transfer list. If someone does bid on them, an auction is created and the auction remains for however long auctions normally last in your league. When the auction ends they will be removed from your squad and added to the winner of the auction's squad. You will receive all the funds raised by the auction.

You may also drop a player. This instantly removes that player from your squad. The downside is you get no compensation in funds for dropping them.
If a player retires or moves out of the premier league you can drop that player and receive half the money you paid for them back again.

There is an exception: If a player leaves the premier league before the end of the August premier league transfer window, you are able to drop them for a full refund.

You can buy new players throughout the season. Only players who are not owned by another team or have been put on the transfer list by their team will be available to buy. All transfers throughout the season will still be done via auctions abiding by the same rules as the auctions pre-season.

Each week you can change your team. You may want to do this to optimise the points you hope to get that week. For example, if a player has a home game against one of the bottom teams you will want to play them, but the next week if they are away against one of the top teams, you may want to consider choosing a different player in their place. It is also good to swap out injured, suspended or just plain out of form players. Don't worry though, if you forget to pick your team it will just remain as the team you had selected the week before.

Generally speaking the deadline for submitting your team each week is on Saturday at midday. There are a few exceptions to this, such as a very early game on the Saturday. Some weeks are also missing. This is due to there being no premier league matches that calendar week (sometimes caused by international or cup competition games being scheduled that calendar week instead). As soon as the deadline for a week has passed you can pick your team for the week after (i.e. even before the current weeks matches have been played if you want). You cannot pick your team any further ahead weeks though.

Some 'weeks' will include teams that play twice: A weekend game followed by a mid-week game. In this situation you cannot change your team between these matches. You pick your team for the whole week and therefore both sets of matches. It is well worth considering this when picking your team. You are often better off picking a player who is playing twice ahead of a better player who is only playing once.

There are two ways to pick your team. The 'My Team' page can be reached by opening the 'Team' menu on the left and then selecting the 'My Team' option. Alternatively, if you already have your team page open you can just select the 'My Team' tab.

This page shows a graphical view of the team you have selected. This view shows:

Starting XI:
This shows the players you currently have selected in your team. They are lined up in the formation you have selected. The top row will have your goalkeeper. The second row will have your defenders. The third row will be your midfielders and the bottom row will be your strikers.

For each player it will say their initial and their surname over an image of their club shirt. Below their name will be a list of all the clubs (the short code for them) they are playing in the next week. The letter in the bracket next to the club is A: for they are playing that club away from home or H: for they are playing that club in their home stadium.

Icons will display to the top right of shirt if the player is injured or suspended.

You can hover over a player for more information.

Any empty spots in your team are marked with 'Empty'. This is a very good view for easily spotting if you have empty spots in your team. You should always try and fill all spots in your team if you can as there is often a penalty for leaving empty spots and even if not, it is better to try and get some points than know you are going to score none for that position.

Subs:
How subs work is covered in a later part of the help, but in summary you can pick several players to be on your bench for that week (exact number you can select is dependent on the rules for your league). This section shows the players you have picked. They are displayed in the same format as the players in your starting XI, but note that they can be from any position.

Formation:
The formation (how many players in each position) is shown in the top left of the view (see later in the page for more information on formations).

Available formations:
Formations are covered later on this page, but this is a handy reference for which formations are legitimate.

Squad:
On the right (may be below if on a mobile) is the squad section which shows all the players you currently own and allows you to pick them in your team for that week.

The list of players is then split into sections for each position (e.g. Goalkeepers, defenders, etc).

There are three columns in this list: 'Player', 'XI', 'Sub'. The 'Player' column shows the name of the player. The 'XI' column shows a circle in it by each player. If it is a solid circle then they are currently selecting in your starting 11. The 'Sub' column has another circle which, in the same way, indicates whether that player is on your bench. To change which players you have in your starting 11 and on the bench simply click the circle in the appropriate row to toggle between selected / unselected and then click on the 'Submit Team Changes' button at the bottom of the list.

Please note that the changes will not take effect until you have clicked the 'Submit Team Changes' button. You will see the changes reflected in the 'Starting XI' section and 'Subs' section on this page if those changes have been successfully submitted.

Basic checks will be done on the team before you submit changes. For example if you try and submit a team with more than 11 players ticked as being in your starting 11 it will show an error below the button and the button will be greyed out and not clickable.

The alternative to choosing your team via the 'My Team' page is using the 'Squad Details' page. This can be accessed in the same way you access the 'My Team' page, via opening the 'Team' menu on the left and the selecting the 'Squad Details' option or if you have your team page open clicking on the 'Squad Details' tab.

This page shows more detailed information which you may find helpful when choosing your team for that week. It is a table of all the players you currently own. There are information columns for Name, Position, Club (once again hover the cursor over the icon to see the name of the club if you do not recognise it), SP (Season Points - the total number of points they have scored so far this season), PWS (Points where selected - The total number of points they have scored for you. i.e. Only the points for weeks when they were selected in your team), TWP (This weeks points - All the points they scored in the current week. Normally an indicator of form), Suspended, Injury (both should be self explanatory) and Next Weeks Matches (showing who they are playing, whether it is home or away and the date of the match).

There are two columns that work in the same way as in the 'My Team' page. These are 'XI' and 'Sub'. The 'XI' column shows a circle in it by each player. If it is a solid circle then they are currently selecting in your starting 11. The 'Sub' column has another circle which, in the same way, indicates whether that player is on your bench. To change which players you have in your starting 11 and on the bench simply click the circle in the appropriate row to toggle between selected / unselected and then click on the 'Submit Team Changes' button at the bottom of the list.

The two extra 'action' columns are 'Drop' and 'Sell'. Clicking the 'Drop' button in the row for a player will remove them from your squad immediately. You will not receive any money back for them. Clicking the 'Sell' button in the row for a player will take you to the sell page where you can select a minimum purcahse price and they will then go onto the transfer list. An auction will take place before they are sold. If the player in a row has left the premier league then you may see a 'Refund' button in place of these buttons. Clicking it will remove the player from your squad and give you a full or partial refund. See more in the 'Transfers' section on dropping, selling and refunds.

Basic checks will be done on the team before you submit changes. For example if you try and submit a team with more than 11 players ticked as being in your starting 11 it will show an error below the button and the button will be greyed out and not clickable.

The formation of your team will be picked automatically for you from the selection you made.

The Your team must fit one of the available formations. If it does not you will be automatically warned.

The available formations are:

1-3-4-3

1-3-5-2

1-4-3-3

1-4-4-2

1-4-5-1

1-5-3-2

1-5-4-1

If you fail to allocate a player to a position, you will be deducted points for each position which does not contain a player. That deduction is set dependent on the rules of your league. You will not have points deducted for not selecting substitutes.
Your team must be set by the deadline of each week. The next selection deadline is displayed above the top menu when you are logged in. Changes made after that deadline will not take place until the next week.

Substitutions are designed to aid you if you get unlucky with a late injury or a player unexpectedly left out of that game. But, they are a very tactical part of the game which can make all the difference.

You can pick substitutes who will sit on your bench for that week. (See the 'Picking your team' section for how to select those subs). A player selected as a sub will only come into your 'Final XI' if one of your 'Starting XI' players does not play at all during that week. A player who is selected as a sub but does not get subbed in to your team will not score you any points that week.

The number of substitutes you can pick will depend on the rules in your league.

Substitutions are automatically made to all teams after every game that week has been played. All team points are then recalculated with the points scored by the 'Final XI' in each team.

Substitutes will not necessarily get the full points if they are used. There is an optional rule which your league manager will have chosen about what percentage of a players points you get if they are subbed in. This will round up the points if the percentage calculation leaves a fraction.

There are two types of substitute rules: 'Unordered' and 'Ordered'. The type in your league will depend on the rules selected by your league admin when they created the league.

The automatic process tries to be intelligent about which players to sub into your team. It will try and pick the most eligible player first and if there is a choice it will pick the highest scoring. It will not break the rules for selecting a 'Starting XI' such as picking an invalid formation.

The basic rules it uses are:

• If a player does not play at all during that week they are eligible to be subbed out.
• If a sub is available from the same position they will be subbed in (This takes priority even if a player from a different position scored more points).
• If no sub is available from that position and a sub from a different position is available and subbing them in will still leave a valid formation then they will be used.
• If there is a choice of two or more sub which fit one of the above criteria, then it will select the highest scoring sub.
• It will not sub in more players than the maximum number specified in the rules for your league.

A few things to be careful of are:

• You can lose points through a substitution. If a sub scores negative points, they can still be subbed into your team.
• Trying to leave an empty spot in your team and relying on the highest player from your bench to be subbed in will not work. That falls foul of a rule which is checked first which just means you lose points for leaving an empty spot in your team.

The automatic process for ordered subs is much less helpful. Which sub is used is more your choice than the algorithms.

The basic rules it uses are:

• If a player does not play at all during that week they are eligible to be subbed out.
• A sub will only be used if they did play.
• Each sub in turn is considered. If they can be subbed in for a 'Starting XI' player that did not play, and the formation will be valid when they are subbed in, then they will replace that player.
• It will iterate through each sub following the above rule until it has subbed in the maximum number of subs it is allowed.

In the 'Points Archive' section of your team page, you can see the result of the automatic substitutions for all weeks which have passed. The 'Automatic Substitutions' section will show all the substitutions it made, and the 'Unused Subs' section shows all the players which were selected as subs which were either not needed or not eligible to be subbed in.

The 'Final XI' section shows the players after the substitutions have been run. If you only received a percentage (less than 100%) of the players points when they were subbed in then the points they scored for your team are shown and the actual points they scored are displayed next to it in brackets.

If the automatic substitution process needed to change your formation then the new formation will be shown in the top left of the pitch view, and the original formation will be shown in brackets.

Click the 'Create League' button from the 'Create' menu at the top. Enough help on that page should be provided to get you through the creation process.

Rule breaking is taken seriously on Next Goal Wins. I have spent many, many hours building the site, spend many more answering support questions and put quite a bit of cash into the hosting every year so you everyone can enjoy the site for free. The last thing I need is for a few people to ruin the competition for others and to have to spend more time sorting it out.

Rule breaking can result in one of the following:

• A warning.
• A points deduction.
• A cash deduction.
• Being kicked out of your league.
• Being banned from the site.

Along with all the rules set out in the rest of the help pages, there are others which are carry more of a threat of repercussions:

• Double accounting - Creating a second team in the same league.
• Collaborating with another manager in your league to the transfer players between your teams avoiding letting anyone else bid on them.
• Offending someone with a team name or league name.
• Giving false information to an admin to try and get someone banned or penalised.

Don't hesitate to report rule breaking to support@nextgoalwins.com.

If you find a problem or have a question please contact an admin via e-mail at admin@nextgoalwins.com.