Can clubs stop players' friends and family leaking FPL team news?

What the report says

Chelsea striker Joao Pedro’s absence from the team for the weekend loss to Tottenham was apparently hinted at through Fantasy Premier League activity, prompting fresh questions about how clubs can limit leaks. BBC Sport reported that accounts believed by FPL trackers to be linked to Chelsea staff, a player and a relative of a player appeared to move Pedro out of their teams before the deadline, before his injury was later confirmed by the club.

The article says Chelsea head coach Xabi Alonso was unaware of the leak when asked after the match. Pedro’s injury information emerged only after the FPL deadline, with BBC Sport noting that 1.7 million managers had already captained him. Alonso later said the striker had missed the game because of fluid on his knee. The report also says Pedro had been pictured in training during the week, which added to the surprise.

BBC Sport placed the incident in a wider pattern of clubs trying to manage team-news leaks. It cited earlier examples involving other Premier League sides and noted that FPL’s public nature can make it possible to infer injury and selection information from linked accounts. Chelsea have previously tightened internal security after earlier leak problems, but the report said monitoring friends and family members is much harder than controlling staff behaviour.

The key issue for clubs is that there is no league-wide rule preventing people in football from playing FPL, so any response is likely to be partial rather than complete.