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Arif Tachril is a die-hard Chelsea Football Club supporter.

But about two weeks ago, he was more than pleased when Manchester City forward Emanuel Adebayor scored a goal and goalkeeper Shay Given kept a clean sheet in City’s 1-0 win against Portsmouth. The week before, winger Nani’s goal and assist during Manchester United’s 5-0 trashing of Wigan Athletic made Arif’s day — even though Manchester United is Chelsea’s arch nemesis.

Arif is not a traitor. In real life, he bleeds only for Chelsea. But he roots for non-Chelsea players because he’s involved in a serious online game of fantasy football.

Fantasy football involves participants building virtual teams of real football players from a particular league, including the English, Italian and Spanish leagues. The participants earn points based on the players’ real-life performance during league games.

“It’s basically a managerial game,” said 27-year-old Arif, a project manager who has been playing the game for the past three years.

There are different fantasy football Web sites and each has its own rules. Just like Arif, Adyatama Sumantri, a bank employee, and Victor Tanuadji, a student in Shanghai, are registered on Yahoo’s Fantasy Football league and they compete in the English Premier League.

Arif said that some Web sites, including Yahoo, allow participants to choose only 11 players each week and lets participants change their starting lineup every week. Others allow participants to pick 15 players for the whole season, with a limited number of player switches.

Different fantasy football sites have different rules on scoring points. But typically, each position can earn points in a number of different ways.

Forwards are given points by scoring goals, having shots on target and winning fouls. Midfielders earn points by winning corners and assisting scorers. Defenders can help the team by tackling, blocking shots and intercepting passes. Goalkeepers earn points by saving a goal.

But a fantasy football participant can also have points deducted if their players are given a yellow or red card, score an own goal or commit a foul.

Arif said that the participants were usually given a particular budget to shop for players — Yahoo participants, for example, are given 100 points.

The players are valued according to their perceived value. The market value of the players can fluctuate, depending on their previous performances.

A star from a big team, such as Steven Gerrard of Liverpool FC, can cost 20 or more points, while benchwarmers could be priced below five. “Steven Gerard costs a lot because he creates a lot of fantasy points,” Arif said.

Most players agree that players should be valued differently. Victor, who only started playing this season, said he would quit if all the players were given the same value. “That would be the worst idea ever. Because then there would be no strategies or challenges,” he said.

“The point is to try and get maximum points out of a given budget,” Arif said, adding that each participant must decide whether they want to choose a combination of three expensive players and eight cheaper players, or spread their points more evenly across a team. “It’s about spending wisely and guessing who will perform well.”

“To me, this is more about scouting skills,” Adyatama said. And the hardest part of the game is picking the last two players. “This is where you have to find the best players for the fewest points.”

The three participants agree that in fantasy football, points matter more than loyalty to a team. “I’m a Chelsea fan, but it’s a bad idea to play Shevchenko for my [fantasy football] team,” he said.

The Ukrainian Shevchenko was a second-stringer at Chelsea who has now moved to a different club.

But for Arif, when he chooses a player from his favorite team and the player scores loads of points, it’s a bonus because it’s “a strong bragging point.”

Adyatama said he only changes his team’s formation in the first couple of weeks. But Victor has a completely different strategy — he revamps his team every week. “No player performs well all the time,” he said. “Even Pele — one of the greatest players in the history of football — has off days once in a while.”

Victor said that he spends 10 hours every week conducting research. “Obviously it’s advantageous if you know who’s injured, who’s not playing and who’s been suspended,” he said.

He then spends more time deciding which teams he should be scouting players from. “I usually look for teams that I think are going to win first, because the chances are that players from the winning team will perform better.”

Adyatama said he spends between 15 and 30 minutes every night before he goes to bed, and more time on Friday night or Saturday morning, just before the online deadline. “I still need to find a balance between work and leisure.”

Fantasy football participants can join the main league, in which they compete individually with other participants from around the world, or they can create a league of their own. Arif and Adyatama are in a league of seven teams called the JRFC-BPL Fantasy.

Victor’s group, Wenatics Football League, is comprised of 12 football-loving friends. “The joy of playing fantasy football is competing with your friends,” he said. “Since the beginning of time, men have bragged about their sports knowledge. Fantasy football just provides a venue to put your money where your mouth is.”

For these football fans, the online game can strengthen the participants’ love for the 11-a-side sport as “it tests how much you know about the game,” Arif said.

For Victor, the online game makes him pay attention to matches that he would usually deem insignificant. “For example, I wouldn’t usually care about the results of newly-promoted teams like Wolves and Burnley,” he said. “But if I had a fantasy player from one of those teams, then I would probably follow the game pretty closely.”

Adyatama said that one of the joys of playing fantasy football derives from the fact that it heightens the excitement of watching the actual game.

“As a Muslim, this is another way to increase the intensity of watching the game without having to gamble,” he said. “Heck, it might even be a bit better [than gambling] and you don’t risk losing money.”

The greatest thing about fantasy football, according to Arif, is that he gets to learn more about the game while having the same level of excitement that comes with playing poker or playing on the stock market. But what makes it different, he said, is that “the game has no consequences whatsoever — except your dignity.”