Every league needs someone to get it going and keep it fair, and that's you. The good news is that most of the work happens up front. Once the league is set up and the draft is done, being commissioner is mostly about enjoying the season with everyone else.

Along the way you get a few controls that other managers don't. This page walks through them in the order you'll need them: before the draft, when something goes wrong, and at the end of the season.

This is when you have the most to do, and the most freedom. Until the draft begins you can edit the league settings and rename the league, so take your time and get things how you want them.

Get Everyone In

• Share the league's invite code with the people you want to play with. You can send it yourself, or email it from the league settings.
• Need to make room? You can remove a team before the draft has started. The number of teams can only change while the league is in preseason.

Set Up the Draft

• Set the draft order at random, or arrange it by hand.
• Schedule the draft for a date and time that suits everyone, and change it any time before it starts.
• Start the draft when you're ready. Nothing begins automatically at the scheduled time, so don't forget to press start.
• If you need to, you can pause and resume a live draft, or cancel it. Cancelling clears the picks and rosters and returns the league to preseason, but keeps the draft order, each team's queue and any traded picks.

New to drafts? Our draft guide explains how the night works.

Fantasy leagues are full of human moments: a lineup someone forgot, a mix-up with a player, a stat that gets corrected. Commissioner Tools is a private area that only you can see, and it's there for exactly these moments.

• Pause Transactions: hit pause while you sort a problem out. Everyone else is held back from new add/drops, trade proposals and lineup changes, but you can still act. Waiver bids and anything already pending carry on.
• Manual Roster Move: add or drop a player on any team, on that manager's behalf.
• Re-Score Matchweek: recalculate a matchweek's totals and standings, which is handy after you've corrected a team's roster or lineup.

You can also edit any team's lineup, and process a trade between two teams without waiting for the other side to accept.

You don't have to be commissioner forever. You can hand the role to another member of the league whenever you like, and they take over all of the controls on this page.

When the final matchweek is done and the champion is crowned, the league moves into the offseason and it's your call what happens next. You can renew the league for another season, or archive it as a read-only record that can be renewed later. Dynasty leagues also let you set an optional keeper deadline, after which nobody can change their keepers.

We cover both choices in Season End & Dynasty.

• Start with a preset. They're built for different styles of play, and you can still change anything before the draft.
• Pick a draft time early. Give everyone plenty of notice, because a draft is much better when the whole league is there.
• Agree the rules before the draft. Settings lock when the draft starts, so it's the best moment to settle any disagreements.