Where Fantasy Is Reality

At United London FC, the position of a traditional coach is unnecessary. Instead, the line-up is SELECTED BY THE TEAM’S FANS each week. Formed this year and currently playing in the Essex Alliance Premier League — the 12th tier of England’s competitive football pyramid — United London FC claims to be the world’s only manager-less club.

- Jack Williams

At first glance, the side line of a United London FChome game features exactly what one would expect from an amateur-level football match on a rented field in England’s capital. Water bottles, a collection of balls, substitutes warming up! A crowd that United London’s chairman, Mark North, describes as “one man and his dog.”

What is missing is more notable: a manager.

At United London FC, the position of a traditional coach is unnecessary. Instead, the line-up is selected by the team’s fans each week.

Formed this year and currently playing in the Essex Alliance Premier League — the 12th tier of England’s competitive football pyramid — United London FC claims to be the world’s only manage less club. In place of a traditional coach, the team’s business model brings together elements of reality TV voting and player analytics similar to those used in video games and by scouts.

It employs a fantasy football- style system that awards or deducts points to the team’s fans (acting individually as managers) based on whether their selections make the starting 11, score or record an assist, or play a role in posting a shutout.

“IN NONLEAGUE FOOTBALL, there’s not much in the way of eyeballs, because the Premier League just takes over everything,” North, 38, said. “That’s where we want to be different, in that we are building an online fan base, rather than a localised one.”