Chelsea warn staff against leaking team news through Fantasy football
Chelsea warned staff against revealing confidential team information through their Fantasy picks amid concerns that forward Joao Pedro’s injury had been leaked before it was officially announced, according to a BBC Sport report published on Monday.
The warning came after claims circulated that Pedro’s absence from Chelsea’s 2-0 home defeat by Tottenham had been indicated by changes to Fantasy line-ups before the match. Pedro was absent with a thigh injury, which the club later confirmed.
Prominent Fantasy content creators said they had evidence that Aston Villa forward Morgan Rogers and some Chelsea staff had left Pedro out of their virtual teams before kick-off, despite no official announcement of his injury. Asked about the alleged leak after the defeat, Xabi Alonso said he was unaware of it because he does not follow Fantasy football.
The report cited previous leaks of Chelsea information, including the team line-up being leaked before the home and away matches against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League during former manager Liam Rosenior’s tenure, and Marc Cucurella’s barber revealing last season that Pedro and Cole Palmer would miss the trip to Brighton. But the club does not expect to impose further restrictions on staff taking part in Fantasy football, and considers the latest incident an isolated case that can be addressed through awareness-raising.
The report added that changes to Fantasy teams had prompted claims involving players at Arsenal, Liverpool, Leicester City and Newcastle United. One prominent case was Jack Grealish being left out of Aston Villa’s squad before their match against Leicester in February 2021; Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers said at the time that he had heard rumours about the player’s injury before the game. The game has more than 11 million players, according to the report, while the Premier League provides no specific guidance to clubs on players and staff taking part, leaving each club to manage the matter itself.