Why the World Cup is more than fantasy
I’ve had a few emails asking if we’re going to be running a fantasy football game for the World Cup. The answer is no we’re not.
As you may be aware, BBC Sport ran a Premiership fantasy game for a number of years and we also did a version for the 2002 World Cup. But we closed down our Fantasy Football Monthly last year after four successful seasons, as part of a new BBC-wide online strategy aimed at providing more distinctive content.
It was not an easy decision to take.
A creative organisation like the BBC always finds it tough to actually stop doing stuff - whether it's long-running TV programmes, like Grandstand, or popular websites like fantasy football (which had 350,000 registered teams for it's final season). When the axe eventually does fall, there's inevitably a lot of internal soul-searching and a mixed reaction from the audience.
But it's important that we keep renewing what we do - and recognise there are some services that other commercial organisations can do just as well as us. Fantasy football definitely falls into that category - there are a host of World Cup games out there (like this one , from the people who used to run our own lamented monthly competition).
So, you are bound to ask, if you're not bothering with fantasy football, what are you doing for the World Cup?
I'm pleased to say our coverage won't be totally obsessed with Rooney's metatarsal - as well as the news and match reports, we're also running what I hope are two pretty distinctive games.
Firstly, there's World Cup Daq, which is a trading competition that builds on the success of two similar BBC games, Celebdaq and Sportdaq. As a fantasy football obsessive for more than a decade, I'm a relative newcomer to the Joy of Daq, but I'm glad to say I'm now a convert (although I'm struggling near the bottom of our office league).
And our second game is Goalfinger - which offers you the chance to win tickets to every round of next season's FA Cup. It's a trivia game, which uses Radio Five Live presenters and commentators to bring the World Cup to life. You choose one of the 32 teams and effectively play the tournament in the way they would, with each match consisting of five questions. The lower ranked the team you choose, the easier it is - and the challenge is to win the World Cup playing as one of the "weaker" nations, like Angola or Saudi Arabia. The leaderboard is already looking very impressive - and the tournament hasn't even kicked off yet.
Anyway, give the games a try and let us know what you think.
And if you are involved in a fantasy football competition for Germany 2006, then "Viel Glück" to your team...
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