Fantasy football player makes billboard apology after ‘catastrophic’ season

A fantasy football manager has had his face displayed on a giant billboard in central Manchester, to publicly apologise for finishing last in his friends’ league.

Zac Evans, 30, a marketing director from Leeds, told the PA news agency his Fantasy Premier League season was “an absolute catastrophe”, so he agreed to fulfil the forfeit for coming bottom of the pile against his friends.

A post on X, formerly Twitter, shows Mr Evans posing next to a vast digital billboard in Salford Quays, Manchester, with a picture of himself and a statement saying: “I would like to publicly apologise to the below for my pathetic performance.”

The caption is followed by a list of the names of players who finished above him in the league.

The apology appears in a slideshow on the billboard directly after a Labour Party campaign advert of Sir Keir Starmer posing next to his “six pledges”.

“Keir Starmer’s up there, he’s obviously trying to change the world and stuff, and then there’s me acting like an absolute idiot,” Mr Evans said.

“I thought it would be a good bit of fun at the end of the day and life’s a bit boring, so it’s a good talking point for the memory book.”

Mr Evans, who is a Spurs fan, has been playing fantasy football with a group of friends for three years.

He said: “It got to part-way through the season and there were just four of us at the bottom.

“So we kind of said ‘What’s the point in concentrating, what’s the point of changing the team?’

“So we said let’s make a bet.

“We all used to play Fifa back in the day, and we used to do a public apology when you lost 5-0. We’re a bit too old for that, but we could do an official sign, so that’s what we did.”

Mr Evans finished last out of 31 teams, despite his team name being Shock He’s Top FC.

“I think the lads think it’s funny because of my team name, which I’ve used for three years running,” said Mr Evans.

“There were too many injuries and things getting in the way.

“I thought (Manchester City striker Erling) Haaland would be in better form.

“(Brentford’s) Ivan Toney when he came back was doing me absolute wonders and then he peeled off towards the end and I’d already used my wildcard, so I had to either deduct points to make more changes or stick it out.

“There’s far too many games in the season now and it’s messing up people’s fantasy and they only give us two wildcards.”

Asked whether he had higher hopes for next season, Mr Evans said: “I’m feeling confident.”