The 2022 World Cup is fast approaching which will excite all football fans around the world.
Unlike previous World Cups though, the 2022 competition will take place during the winter.
Because of this, there will be a 6 week break from all other football, including the Premier League.
This means fantasy football fans will be looking for a new fix and luckily there will almost certainly be one.
Will There Be a 2022 World Cup Fantasy Football Game?
Yes, the 2022 World Cup Fantasy game is live now.
You can select a team on the official FIFA website.
Once you have made a team, you’ll want to check out our Top 10 World Cup Fantasy Football Tips. Knowing these will immediately put you ahead of the opposition.
When Are the World Cup Squad Announcements?
Each country must submit its squad on Monday, November 14 with FIFA confirming them all a day after on Tuesday, November 15.
At this point, we can all re-tinker our Would Cup fantasy teams accordingly.
Given the game is already live, FIFA has given us more time to select our teams – more time than in previous international competitions.
The 2018 World Cup fantasy game opened on June 7, 2018. This was exactly 7 days before the tournament started.
This didn’t leave managers too long to pick their teams.
The EURO 2020 fantasy game was far more considerate, however.
That opened 31 days before the tournament started, on May 10, 2021. This was before even the squads were announced!
When Does The 2022 World Cup Start?
The 2022 World Cup starts on November 20, 2022.
The first fixture of the tournament is hosts Qatar vs Ecuador which kicks off at 16:00 GMT.
Consequently, as discussed above, the World Cup fantasy game should open around November 6, 2022.
World Cup Fantasy Format
The 2022 World Cup fantasy game will work very differently from Fantasy Premier League.
It will actually work similarly to Champions League fantasy football whereby each round will work as its own matchday.
Schedule
So, we can expect each matchday, or gameweek as it would be referred to in FPL, to work as follows:
- Matchday 1: First round of group stage games – November 20 to November 24
- Matchday 2: Second round of group stage games – November 25 to November 28
- Matchday 3: Final round of group stage games – November 29 to December 2
- Matchday 4: Round of 16 knockout games – December 3 to December 6
- Matchday 5: Quarter-final knockout games – December 9 to December 10
- Matchday 6: Semi-final knockout games – December 13 to December 14
- Matchday 7: Third place play-off and final – December 17 to December 18
Chips
There are three chips (boosters) to use in World Cup fantasy football:
- Wildcard – Unlimited transfers between a specific matchday (not ahead of MD1 or MD4)
- 12th Man – Select an additional player to score points in a particular matchday (a player not already in your squad)
- Power Captain – Get double points from the player that scores the most points from your squad in a particular matchday
We’ll be discussing the optimum time to use each of these in articles coming soon.
Captain
Captains will play a massively important role in the World Cup fantasy game.
Another difference between FPL and World Cup fantasy will be that you can have multiple captains across each day, let alone matchday.
This is because you can switch your captain between fixtures, as opposed to once per matchday.
We discuss in detail how the 2022 World Cup fantasy captaincy works and the best captain strategy.
Scoring Points
The scoring in World Cup fantasy differs from FPL as follows:
- Winning a penalty: +2 points
- Conceding a penalty: -1 point
- Every goal conceded beyond the first goal: -1 point
- Goal scored:
- Goalkeeper: +9 points
- Defender: +7 points
- Forward: +5 points
- Every 3 tackles (midfielder only): +1 point
- Every 2 key passes (midfielder only) +1 point
- Every 2 shots on target (forward only) +1 point
For a full list of point-scoring actions, check out the FIFA guidelines page.
Fantasy Football Pundit will, of course, have detailed tips and guides to help steer you through the 2022 World Cup fantasy game.