Chelsea’s head coach Xabi Alonso was caught off‑guard after the club’s 2‑0 defeat to Tottenham on Saturday when reporters asked if he had known that Joao Pedro’s injury had been leaked through the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) app. Alonso replied that he was not involved in fantasy football and therefore had no idea. The revelation came after the FPL deadline had passed, meaning over 1.7 million managers had already named Pedro as captain for the match, a decision that could have doubled his points return.
The leak began when an FPL manager known online as “FPL Karim” noticed that Chelsea’s star forward had been sold from a relative’s team a few gameweeks earlier. Karim traced the change to the brother of Chelsea striker Morgan Rogers, who had dropped Pedro and added Nicolas Jackson. “It seemed odd to sell a player who is one of the most‑owned forwards in the game,” Karim said, and his post went viral, sparking speculation that Pedro was the missing player. The injury was confirmed only after the deadline, leaving the club’s squad list unchanged for the match.
Alonso, who has previously expressed a preference for keeping injury details to a minimum, described Pedro’s absence as a case of “fluid on his thigh.” The incident follows a string of leaks that have plagued Chelsea in 2026, including three major breaches during Liam Rosenior’s brief spell as manager. In those cases, information about unavailable players surfaced before key matches, including the club’s 8‑2 aggregate loss to Paris Saint‑Germain in the Champions League. The club has since tightened security, adding fencing around training pitches and reminding staff and players to be cautious about sharing information.
The popularity of FPL—played by more than 11 million people—has made it a tool for tracking player availability. Because the game’s leaderboard is public, analysts can infer changes in a club’s lineup by monitoring accounts linked to staff, players, or their relatives. This method has previously uncovered the absence of Jack Grealish from Aston Villa in February 2021, prompting Villa’s boss Dean Smith to ban staff from playing the game after the loss. Similar leaks have been reported for Arsenal, Liverpool, Leicester, and Newcastle, with some top FPL players keeping information within tight circles to gain a competitive edge.
Experts such as FPL Focal have noted that many players are now using aliases to conceal their identities, and that verifying an account’s authenticity can be challenging. While the Premier League has no rule against club personnel playing FPL, it treats any resulting leaks as a club matter, leaving clubs to decide how to manage the risk. Options range from encouraging staff to avoid selecting their own club’s players to, in extreme cases, banning the game entirely—though such measures would be difficult to enforce.
The Joao Pedro episode underscores that even with heightened security, information can still leak through unconventional channels. Clubs must continue to educate players and staff on the importance of discretion, while also considering whether stricter controls on fantasy participation are warranted to protect sensitive team news.