How to Save Fantasy Soccer: Why Its NFL Counterpart Does It Right

This is the time of year where millions of American sports fans prepare for the NFL by obsessing over their fantasy leagues.

They’ll rent out restaurants and bars and flood each other’s homes, stockpiling massive amounts of pizza and beer, doing hours upon hours of detailed player research and then participating in one of the year’s most cherished and enjoyable events: the Draft Party.

Although soccer is the world’s most popular sport, its fantasy equivalent can’t compete against the NFL format. This is frustrating for soccer fans, especially because there’s so much potential for fantasy soccer to evolve into what fantasy football has already become.

The solution is simple: Completely overhaul the soccer fantasy format to put more focus on the initial draft.

NFL fantasy football is so successful because the success of an owner’s team depends on the draft. It sounds obvious, but in soccer, the draft isn't as important, because every team can essentially have the exact same roster.

This is extremely irksome, because the entire premise of fantasy sports revolves around the idea of simulating reality, and the reality is that Wayne Rooney doesn't play on ten different clubs at the exact same time.

In fantasy soccer, the predominant format centers around a cash-spending limit and an unrestricted player pool. Therefore, if I decide to draft Robin van Persie, I pay a hefty amount for him, but my opponents can do the same thing.

Thus, a month into the league, most people have the exact same lineups: the league’s top scorers.

Instead of who you draft, winning depends on who you choose as your designated weekly “Captain”—the player whose points automatically double for the week.

I don’t know why fantasy soccer continues to stick with this setup, but until they emulate the NFL style—where every owner has a completely separate roster—it will struggle to attract American fans.

Soccer continues to be the world’s “Beautiful Game”. Now, we’re just waiting for its fantasy counterpart to catch up.