New to ShePlays WSL Fantasy? Our complete how to play guide page has you covered!

Whether you’re a beginner who needs to know the absolute basics, or an experienced ShePlays player who wants a refresher on the rules, this is the guide for you.

What is ShePlays and is it free to play?

ShePlays is a women’s fantasy football game played all over the world.

Originating in Australia from a group of friends wanting Fantasy W-League (now A League Women) the platform has grown to provide fantasy competitions for the Women’s Super League (WSL), National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL), FIFA Women’s World Cup, and UEFA Women’s Euros.

Since inception, ShePlays is proud to have been an entirely volunteer run organisation and has since gained registered not-for-profit incorporation status.

ShePlays WSL Fantasy is based on the Women’s Super League, the highest footballing division in England.

For the first time this season the WSL will be contested entirely by teams with Premier League counterparts.

In ShePlays WSL Fantasy, also known as ShePlaysWSL, you pick a total of 15 WSL players.

Each player has a price and each squad of 15 cannot exceed the maximum budget of £6 million.

All ShePlays Fantasy Leagues are free to play and there is no entry fee.

How to pick a ShePlaysWSL team

Once you’ve signed up or logged into the ShePlays website and navigated to the WSL My Team page you’ll be prompted to pick your ShePlaysWSL team.

Using the ‘Choose Players’ tab, you can build your squad and you can search for players to add to your team. You can filter and sort by name, position, club, and price.

Choose Players Tab

You’ll be given a budget of £6m and, with that, you’ll need to buy 15 players. Player prices this season range from £150K to £900K.

Each player is assigned a price based on their perceived ability to score points.

There isn’t an exact formula used to determine a player’s price, but a player’s history, their likelihood of starting matches and the strength of their club are all factored in. Unlike Fantasy Premier League, ShePlaysWSL prices are static and do not change throughout the season.

In the ‘Choose Players’ tab you can select more than 15 players for both your Squad and Wishlist.

How is your budget allocated in ShePlaysWSL?

Player pricing is designed to prevent managers from choosing the 15 best players, which means we have to be resourceful with how we allocate our funds.

This is where your expert football knowledge and research comes in. You’ll need to find some affordable players that you believe will score you points.

Once you have selected all the players for your squad and wishlist you can rearrange your team using the ‘drag and drop’ or ☰ for each player.

You’ll pick 11 starting players and four bench players. Your team will consist of:

Two goalkeepers
Four defenders
Four midfielders
Three forwards
Two free choice players (any position)

ShePlaysWSL only allows you to pick a maximum of four players from each WSL team, meaning you can’t build a squad solely of Chelsea players, for example.

Your bench is only used if one of your starting players does not play. You order your bench from top to bottom using the ☰ next to each player, so put your best player with the best fixture as highest on the team list so they are subbed in first. They player subbed in must create a valid formation, for example if you have 3 defenders in your starting 11 and one doesn’t play, no matter the order the highest defender will be subbed in.

How do I change formation in ShePlaysWSL?

There are a variety of different formations you can use in ShePlays and they are influenced by your team selection.

Your team can be arranged in any formation providing that one goalkeeper, at least three defenders and midfielders, and at least two forward are selected at all times.

The eligible formations are as follows:

3-4-3
3-5-2
4-4-2
4-3-3
5-3-2
5-2-3

The best formation can change each season, depending on player prices and their perceived value. However, 4-3-3 has tended to be the most successful formation for the historical team of the rounds.

How to change formation in ShePlays?

You are able to change your formation by making substitutions in your ShePlaysWSL team, using the ‘drag and drop’ sliders you can reorder players from your bench into your starting 11.

Team Selection Example

In the example above, the team is set up in a formation of 4-4-3.

It could be changed to a 3-4-3 by clicking on ☰ Dagný Brynjarsdóttir and dragging her into the starting 11 above Anna Patten to move Patten onto the bench.

Remember to click ‘save your team’ to finalise any changes you have made.

You can change your formation round to round.

How do substitutions work in ShePlaysWSL?

In ShePlaysWSL, fantasy managers pick a squad of 15 players.

But in any given round, only 11 of those players are eligible to start.

This means four players will start on the bench. They will not be eligible to score points unless one of the starting 11 do not play any part in the round.

How do you make substitutions in ShePlaysWSL?

In this example, we are selecting our side, so we have navigated to the ‘Manage Team’ tab.

This enables us to make alterations to our side.

We want to switch players to and from the bench. To do so we need to click the ☰ next to the player you want to switch and drag them into position.

You can check your formation visually by selecting the ‘View Formation’ tab.

Substitutions example

In this example, we are selecting our side, so we have navigated to the ‘Manage Team’ tab.

This enables us to make alterations to our side.

We want to switch players to and from the bench. To do so we need to click the ☰ next to the player you want to switch and drag them into position.

You can check your formation visually by selecting the ‘View Formation’ tab.

Alternative view of squad

In order to finalise the change, we must click ‘Save Team’ button above our ShePlaysWSL squad. Otherwise, any changes will be lost.

Scoring points in ShePlaysWSL

There are a number of ways players score points in ShePlayWSL based on their performance in a range of areas.

Like other fantasy competitions, players will earn points by scoring goals, assists and clean sheets, and will lose points if they receive a yellow or red card.

In ShePlaysWSL all players will also earn bonus points, based on various attacking, defending, and goalkeepeing statistics, such as shots, tackles, intercepts, and saves. The more positive contributions a player makes to a game, the more points they are likely to score.

All players earn bonus points, regardless of their position.

Here’s a breakdown of how players score basic points in ShePlaysWSL.

Scoring breakdown

Important points to note about basic scoring points in ShePlaysWSL

The full clean sheet 5 points are only awarded to defenders and goalkeepers if a player plays 60 minutes or more (not including stoppage time). If a player plays less than 60 minutes then only 2 clean sheet points are awarded.

For the goal difference points all player from the same team will get the bonus or minus regardless of if the goals were scored with them on the bench or starting.

If a player receives a red card, then they will continue to be penalised or rewarded for goals conceded or scored by their team via the goal difference points.

An assist is awarded for the player who makes the final pass before the goal is scored as recorded by the ShePlays stats provider. Earning a penalty is not counted as an assist.

There are no point deductions for missing a penalty.

ShePlays Bonus Points

A big difference in ShePlaysWSL and Fantasy Premier League is how bonus points are scored and who gets them.

In ShePlaysWSL all players receive bonus points for attack and defence and goalkeepers also can earn goalkeeper bonus points.

Attack bonus points include passing completion, cross completion, shots, shots on target, and chances created.

Defence bonus points include tackles won, intercepts won, clearances, and aerial challenges won.

Goalkeeper bonus points include saves, smothers, claims, and penalty saves.

How does captaincy work in ShePlaysWSL?

Your ShePlays WSL Fantasy captain is one of the most important decisions you have to make each round.

If you get the captaincy right more times than not, you are likely to have a good season.

Your captain gets their points doubled. That means you should always pick the player on your team who you think will score the highest number of points.

If your captain fails to start the game but gets substituted at any point, the points they score during their time on the pitch will be doubled.

Selecting Your Captain and Vice-Captain

Using the ‘drag and drop’ ☰ drag your captain to the top of the team sheet below the ‘Captain’ header. You can then select your vice-captain by dragging them to the second position on the team sheet below the ‘Vice Captain’ header.

What if none of my captains play?

If neither your captain nor your vice-captain play, the next player on your team sheet will receive double points.

It is good practice to order your team from most to least point potential in case of your players miss a game.

Alessia Russo. Picture by Sophie Scriven via Flickr

How do you make transfers in ShePlaysWSL?

When ShePlaysWSL starts, we are given unlimited transfers right up until the Round 1 deadline.

From then on, we are given one free transfer each round. If you do not use the transfer it is not saved or carried over to the following round.

Any transfers made after your free transfer will incur a five-point hit per transfer.

Making multiple transfers in ShePlaysWSL

You can make multiple transfers in any given round but each additional transfer will incur a five-point penalty.

For example, let’s imagine you want to make two transfers before the next round. The first transfer will be free transfer, which means the next transfer will cost you five points.

If you then decide to make a third, a total of ten points will be deducted.

Can I change my mind on transfers?

In ShePlaysWSL you can make as many changes and saves as you like until the round deadline without incurring point deductions. Only the final saved team will be compared to the previous round with the net transfers deducted.

This means you can tinker and save your team throughout the week and make a final decision right on the deadline.

What if I can’t remember who I transferred?

Your transfers will always be highlighted in yellow. So there is no need to remember who your new players are for the round.

How to change your ShePlaysWSL team name?

Above your team list you can edit and change your team name. You can change your team name as much as you’d like throughout the season so if you think of something super witty midway though, excellent!

ShePlays will however remove any offensive team names.

Team Name Entry Screen

How does ShePlaysWSL manage postponements?

If a game is postponed, you will receive fantasy points for the match when it is played at the later date. Points will be added to your initial round score, based on your initial team for that round.

This means there are no double rounds or blank rounds in ShePlaysWSL and each team will have one game per round.

You will want to pay close attention to postponed matches towards the end of the season as the FA Cup, Continental League Cup and UEFA Women’s Champions League can cause games to be rescheduled.

Mini-leagues in ShePlaysWSL

Whether it’s between mates, work colleagues or even family, mini-leagues are integral to what makes this game so fun and keeps us coming back season after season.

Mini-Leagues allow you to see your fellow league mates’ teams which is not possible on the Global Leaderboard.

Mini-leagues

To see your mini-leagues navigate to ‘My WSL Leagues’ by clicking your name in the top left corner.

You can enter as many mini-leagues as you’d like, both public and private.

Joining a public league will place you with players from across the globe. A private league however can only be accessed via a unique code that is given to the admin (the person who creates the league).

There is no limit on the number of participants in any league.

Joining a Public League

Public Leagues are leagues which anyone can join with the custom code displayed on the My Leagues page.

You can join the Fantasy Football Hub mini-league with the code FFH.

Creating a Private Mini-League

To create a private league just enter a name and description, and your league and a random 6 letter code will be created.

Just share the code with your friends and play against each other.

If you would like a custom code for your league please email marran@sheplays.com.au before creating the league.

What happens if you win ShePlaysWSL?

Apart from the glory of beating thousands of fantasy managers across the globe, ShePlays and Fantasy Football Hub have partner again this season to provide prizes for the winner of the Global Leaderboard, the Global Top 10, and the winners of each round.

First

Ultra Fantasy Football Hub membership

Runner-up to Tenth

Pro Fantasy Football Hub membership

Round Winners

Starter Fantasy Football Hub membership

Sam Kerr. Picture by Sophie Scriven

What are the key differences between ShePlaysWSL and FPL?

ShePlaysWSL and FPL both allow us to play fantasy football for the highest tier of English Football.

However, there are some differences between the two platforms.

Key points:

ShePlays points scoring will be higher than FPL, as more points are awarded for game involvements.
ShePlays has no price changes, with prices ranging from £150,000 to £800,000.
FPL rules not featured in ShePlays include chips, double gameweeks, and saving transfers.

Full breakdown of differences between ShePlaysWSL and FPL:

Player Selection and Pricing

For both FPL and ShePlaysWSL you select 15 players for your squad.

In ShePlaysWSL you can pick 2 free choice players providing some greater bench flexibility. With the smaller 12 team competition, ShePlaysWSL also allows 4 players per team to be selected.

The substitution policy for both ShePlaysWSL and FPL are the same.

You get 1 free transfer per round with each additional transfer costing 5 points. Transfers do not save or stack if unused.

ShePlaysWSL has static pricing which will not change throughout the season, ranging from £150,000 to £900,000 with price increases varying from £50,000 at the lower end to £100,000 at the high end. Overall, the total budget for all players is £6 million.

Chips and Double Gameweeks

There are no chips or double gameweeks in ShePlaysWSL .

Scoring

Scoring for FPL and ShePlays are similar but also different.

The “base” points are largely the same but with some minor tweaks to who gets them and how much they are. For example, ShePlaysWSL does not deduct points for a missed penalty or own goal. However, the deduction for a yellow or red card is greater.

The major difference in the two competitions is bonus points. In ShePlaysWSL all players earn bonus attack and defence points. These reward performances of players who impact a match regardless of if they end up on the score sheet or get a clean sheet.

Attack points are awarded based on passes, crosses, shots, chances created, and shots on target.
Defence points are awarded based on tackles, intercepts, clearances, and aerial challenges.

What does this mean in terms of overall points?

An example of the difference in points scoring is round 13 last season where Lauren Hemp (FW, Manchester City) scored 17 points but did not record a goal or assist.

She earned 13 attack points due to her shots and chances created throughout the match.

This means you are not reliant on players with clean sheets or goal involvements to get you points and players who consistently put in a shift week in week out are always rewarded.

Overall, the average ShePlaysWSL player will earn more points per match and therefore the scores per round will be greater.

For comparison last season the highest scoring ShePlays player was Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw (FW, Manchester City) who earned 281 points in 18 matches, whereas Erling Haaland earned 272 points in 35 matches.

If the FPL scoring system were applied to her that match she would have received 2 points for minutes only and maybe would have got a bonus point or two.

Join Fantasy Football Hub today!

Some of our content is free to view, however the best stuff is reserved for paying subscribers only.

The Hub offers three levels of paid membership, with the highest tier (Ultra) giving you access to a team review service from some of the best FPL brains in the business.

Premium members gain access to our exclusive WhatsApp groups, connecting you with other members and experts chatting fantasy football every day.

Follow the Hub

Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | Tiktok
And view all our latest fantasy football tips on our Homepage

How to play ShePlays WSL Fantasy: The complete guide

Win at FPL

Community & tools