Fantasy Football Maths Investigation

Here’s a maths investigation for upper KS2 involving number and place value, with a football hook and a budgeting/prioritising angle - the budget is a sizeable one!

Here are the instructions for pupils:

• You are the manager of (insert name of their favourite club) and need to put together a brand new side for a special trophy league - none of your team’s existing players are allowed to take part!
• You will need the best 11 players you can afford, consisting of:
• One goalkeeper
• 3 or 4 defenders, 3 or 4 midfielders, 2,3 or 4 strikers
• Your total budget is £204.35m - you should spend as much of it as possible
• Use the information on the 12 available players to work out the best line-up for both a 4-4-2 arrangement and 4-3-3.

Variations/extensions:

• If you had to include one substitute as well as the 11 main players, how would you spend your budget?
• If you were entering a 5-a-side tournament and had HALF the budget, who would you buy?
• Imagine you were picking the players for your arch-rival club - how could pick the WORST combination of players for them?