Champions League Fantasy Football: All you need to know and how to play

The group stage draw means another season of UEFA Champions League Fantasy Football, presented by PlayStation, is just around the corner and managers have the opportunity to call on the talents of some of Europe's best footballers to score points, dominate their leagues and win top prizes. There's unlimited transfers ahead of the first deadline of the season on Matchday 1, so get involved early on and select your initial squad today.

Key features

• 15-player squad
• Goalkeepers x 2, Defenders x 5, Midfielders x 5, Forwards x 3
• €100m budget (rising to €105m from round of 16)
• Maximum of 3 players per team in group stage
• 2 free transfers every matchday in group stage
• Substitutions within a matchday
• Change captain to maximise points total

Key deadlines

• Matchday 1: Tuesday 19 September (time TBC)
• Matchday 2: Tuesday 3 October (time TBC)
• Matchday 3: Tuesday 24 October (time TBC)
• Matchday 4: Tuesday 7 November (time TBC)
• Matchday 5: Tuesday 28 November (time TBC)
• Matchday 6: Tuesday 12 December (time TBC)
• Round of 16 1st leg: Tuesday 13 February (time TBC)
• Round of 16 2nd leg: Tuesday 5 March (time TBC)
• Quarter-final 1st leg: Tuesday 9 April (time TBC)
• Quarter-final 2nd leg: Tuesday 16 April (time TBC)
• Semi-final 1st leg: Tuesday 30 April (time TBC)
• Semi-final 2nd leg: Tuesday 7 May (time TBC)
• Final: Saturday 1 June (21:00 CET)

Selected player prices

Ederson (Man City) – €6.0m
André Onana (Man Utd) – €6.0m
Kieran Trippier (Newcastle) – €6.0m
Federico Dimarco (Inter) – €5.5m
Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli) – €5.5m
Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd) – €9.5m
Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) – €9.5m
Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) – €7.5m
Erling Haaland (Man City) – €11.5m
Kylian Mbappé (Paris) – €11.5m
Vinícius Júnior (Real Madrid) – €11.0m
Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) – €10.5m
Harry Kane (Bayern) – €10.0m

Scoring points

There are plenty of ways to score points in Champions League Fantasy, but here's some of the key ones:

• Goals (4 points for forwards, 5 for midfielders, 6 for defenders and goalkeepers)
• Scoring from outside the box (1 point)
• Assists (3 points per player)
• Clean sheets (4 points for goalkeepers and defenders)
• Player of the Match (3 points)

Captain

A key way of maximising your points total in Champions League Fantasy is the ability to change your captain within matchdays. Just as you can make substitutions between Tuesday and Wednesday if your starting players don't score as heavily as you hope, you can switch captains too – and with double points on offer for the player who gets the armband, that's a great opportunity to register big scores.

Leagues

Want to challenge your mates? Why not set up a private league and give them the code to take you on and see who comes out on top over the season?

You'll also be automatically entered into three public leagues – the overall leaderboard, one with other players from your country and one with other players who support the same Champions League team as you.