Can clubs stop team news leaking out through FPL picks? — SkimNews
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- Joao Pedro was moved out or benched in accounts trackers believed belonged to Chelsea staff, a player or a player's relative before the Tottenham match, but his absence was confirmed only after the FPL deadline; 1.7 million managers had already selected him captain for double points, and Xabi Alonso said he had not known of the leak.
- FPL Karim traced the suspected absence by checking Morgan Rogers's FPL team and then Rogers's brother's; the brother's side sold Joao Pedro for Nicolas Jackson, and Karim's post went viral before the injury was confirmed.
- Liam Rosenior faced three significant Chelsea team-news leaks during his short tenure: two before each leg of the record 8-2 aggregate Champions League defeat by Paris St-Germain and a third before his final match; Marc Cucurella's barber later revealed Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro were unavailable because of injury.
- Chelsea responded to earlier leaks by reminding players to be careful about information-sharing and building new fencing around its first-team pitches, but the Joao Pedro episode showed that information could still emerge unexpectedly.
- Fantasy Premier League is played by more than 11 million people and provides an open participant database that lets trackers link teams to club figures; some top players withhold findings for smaller circles, while FPL Focal said many linked accounts remain unidentified and aliases are increasingly used.
- Premier League has no league-wide rule against people involved in football playing FPL and defers emerging leaks to clubs; clubs can discourage or ban participation, but monitoring friends and family is considerably more difficult.
- Jack Grealish was absent for Aston Villa's 2-1 loss to Leicester City in February 2021; Brendan Rodgers said he had heard about the issue before the match, while Dean Smith reportedly barred club figures from playing FPL and Pep Guardiola later called the behavior unethical and unprofessional.
Why it matters: The deadline turned the leak into an FPL selection problem: 1.7 million managers had already made Joao Pedro captain, a choice worth double points, before his absence was confirmed. With no league-wide rule stopping people involved in football from playing and enforcement left to clubs, Chelsea can influence staff and players, but monitoring friends and family is considerably harder.
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