This page will walk you through how FM Fantasy works — from setting up your save in Football Manager to building your team, importing stats, and competing in leagues.
Whether you’re just starting or looking to fine-tune your strategy, everything you need to know is right here.
To begin your FM Fantasy experience, you'll need to initiate a campaign using one of your fantasy teams.
1. Navigate to Your Profile Page
On the Profile page, you'll see a list of your existing fantasy teams. Choose the one you want to use for this campaign by clicking Select Team. Alternativly you can create a new team by clicking Create New Team.
2. Join or Create a League
Once you've selected a team, you'll be prompted to either:
Create a new league — This makes your team the admin. You will:
Import all data from Football Manager
Play against bots
Receive a unique Join Code to invite friends
Join an existing league — This allows you to compete with friends in their campaign. Enter the league’s join code to link up.
Note: If you join a league, the league admin will handle all imports for match stats and players.
3. Import the Player Base
If you're the admin of a new league, your next step is to import the initial player base from FM.
For help exporting the necessary file from FM, follow the instructions in the >Export files from FM section to export a file named players.html. Make sure to perform this export during the pre-season or at the end of the previous season, so that player data is accurate and complete before your fantasy campaign begins.
Once you've exported the HTML file:
Go to the Import page in FM Fantasy
Click Select File and choose your exported HTML file
Click Import Player Data to load the base player pool
This creates the foundation for all teams in the league. The players you import here will be the ones available to all league members during team selection.
Next Step → Build Your Team
After importing the player base, you're ready to go to the Pick Team page to build your squad. For more on this step, see the section Pick Your Fantasy Team.
The Pick Team page is where you build and modify your fantasy team lineup. You can add or remove players to form your squad by using the player table at the bottom of the page. Next to each player in the table, you’ll find an Add button — click it to include the player in your team.
Team Building Rules:
Exactly 11 players must be in your final team.
1 Goalkeeper is required.
3–5 Defenders are allowed.
3–5 Midfielders are allowed.
1–3 Attackers are allowed.
You must select 1 Captain for your team.
You may have a maximum of 3 players from the same club.
The total value of your selected players cannot exceed your team’s budget.
As you build your team, your current squad and budget usage will be displayed at the top. Make sure your lineup follows the rules above before saving.
How to Add Players to Your Team
To add a player, simply click the Add button next to their name in the table below the team.
Here's a quick example:
How to Set a Captain
You must select one player as captain. To do this:
Click the player’s name in your selected team.
A menu will appear. Choose "Make Captain".
The selected captain will have a C icon and a golden border around their card. Your teams captain will recieve double points. You can change your captain at any time before the gameweek starts, but remember that only one player can be captain at a time.
Below is a short demonstration:
How Transfers Work
When you modify your squad after the initial setup, these changes are considered transfers.
Each team is given a number of Free Transfers that allow you to make squad changes at no point cost. These are shown at the top of the Pick Team page.
Once you've used up all your free transfers, every additional transfer will cost you 4 points.
Be strategic about your transfers — balancing between optimizing your team and minimizing point loss is key to climbing the leaderboard!
Once your team is ready, click the Save Changes button to confirm and apply your selected players. Changes will not take effect until you save them.
The Points page shows your team’s total points earned for each gameweek. At the top, you'll find a section that displays how many points your team collected during the currently selected gameweek.
Below this, you’ll see a breakdown of which players earned those points. Each player card displays their individual points for that week, and if a player was your Captain, their points are doubled and marked with a captain icon and golden border.
You can view historical gameweeks by using the Previous and Next buttons near the middle of the page. This lets you scroll through your team’s point history across different gameweeks.
Players that are injured or sold will marked with a red border.
The League page ranks all members of your league based on total points. At the top, you’ll see the league’s name and the Join Code — share this code with your friends so they can join the league!
Below the header is the leaderboard, where all teams in the league are sorted by their total fantasy points. Each row shows the team name, their current score, and their position in the league.
You can also click on any team name to view their historical team setup for each gameweek. This allows you to inspect your opponents’ strategies and transfers over time.
The Import Page is a central hub for managing your fantasy database. Its main purpose is to handle the import of match statistics from Football Manager, which is essential for progressing through gameweeks and updating scores.
What is a gameweek?
Every time you import a new match stats file, a new gameweek is created. During each gameweek, players earn points based on their in-game performances, and those points are added to your fantasy team’s total.
Recommended Import Schedule:
For a smooth experience, we recommend exporting match stats from Football Manager and importing them into FM Fantasy every Tuesday or Friday morning. These days are ideal to reflect matches typically played over the weekend or midweek.
Avoid importing during international breaks unless matches have been played. Gameweeks should follow a natural rhythm to maintain consistent scoring and comparisons across leagues.
Main Features
Import Match Stats – This is the core functionality. You must import the HTML file corresponding to the next gameweek in sequence. If you miss a gameweek or upload in the wrong order, the data may be invalid.
Import Players – This button allows you to add newly generated or signed players to your database without importing full match stats. This is helpful during transfer windows in FM to keep the pool of available players up to date.
Note: This action is optional — any new players that appear in future match stat imports will still be automatically added to the database.
Reset Season – This button resets the entire season. All fantasy teams in the league will be cleared and player statistics reset, allowing you to start a new campaign cleanly. Use this at the end of each season.
Note: You must import gameweeks in order!
Download the required files – You need both the custom view and the filter files for FM Fantasy.
Scroll to Downloads to get both files:
FmFantasyFilter.fmf in the filters folder (create one if it does not already exist)
FmFantasyView.fmf in the views folder (create one if it does not already exist)
Open FM and go to the Scouting page → Click your views dropdown and select: Custom → Import View... → Select FmFantasyView
Import the FM Fantasy Filter – In the scouting page:
Click Edit Search Filters
Click the gear icon (bottom left corner)
Choose Import and select FmFantasyFilter.fmf
Select the imported filter to activate it
Change the division filter to match the league you're playing in
A demonstration of the full process below.
Supported languages for imports:
FM must be set to one of the official languages seen below.
Export player data – Press Ctrl + A to select all, then Ctrl + P to export as HTML.
Choose your file name – You can name the file anything, but we recommend naming the initial import "players" and later exports with the gameweek number (e.g. 1, 2, 3...).
Choose your export folder – You can place the exported HTML wherever you'd like, but we recommend a structure like:
C:\Users\{your username}\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2024\
└── fantasy (Create a new folder if it doesn't exist)
└── {your save name} (Create a new folder for each of your saves)
└── {season 1} (Create a new folder for each season)
└── {your exports here}.html
Players in your team earn points based on their match performance. Here's how points are awarded:
Goals:
Goalkeeper: +10 points
Defender: +6 points
Midfielder: +5 points
Attacker: +4 points
Assist: +3 points
Clean Sheet: +4 points (for goalkeepers and defenders)
Player of the Match: +3 points
Penalty Save: +3 points
Interceptions: 1 point for every 3 interceptions
Minutes Played:
1 point if played any minutes
+1 extra point if played 60 minutes or more
Captain Bonus: Your captain earns double points for the gameweek!
