Staff Writer Guy de Basto explains the newly updated 26/27 Fantasy Premier League game, with guaranteed tips for success.
(This is part one of a Roar News mini-series on Fantasy Premier League.)
Yes, I’m ecstatic to announce it’s that time of year again. WhatsApp groups are being resurrected from their summer hibernation, groupchat names are changing to a painfully unfunny football pun and somewhere in the Maughan, someone is already agonising and losing sleep over whether to captain Haaland or take a punt on a differential. Fantasy Premier League is back, and with over 13 million players registered worldwide, there’s a strong likelihood that more than half your flat is already firmly deep in a group league by kickoff weekend.
This article is the first instalment in a Roar News mini-series following the highs, lows, and inevitable rage-quits of this FPL campaign. Before we get into strategy, rivalries, and the weekly “who benched their captain” inquest, we need to start from the very beginning and importantly ask: how does this game actually work?
The Boys
At the start of the season, every player partaking starts with a budget of £100 million to build a 15-player squad comprised of 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 forwards, who will hopefully be scoring as many goals as possible.
It is important to note that you can pick up to three players from any single Premier League club. So no, you can’t just load up on the entire Arsenal back four and call it a day. I hope that doesn’t dash your hopes too much.
Of those 15 players, only 11 start each gameweek, arranged in a valid formation of the player’s choice with a minimum of one goalkeeper, three defenders and one forward. The remaining four sit on your bench, more than ready to be summoned by “automatic substitutions” if your starters don’t play.
Game On…
This is where FPL, rightfully, earns its addictive reputation. Players earn points based on the real-world performance of their players for that gameweek:
Goals: 10 points for a goalkeeper, 6 for a defender, 5 for a midfielder, 4 for a forward. (Yes, a goalkeeper scoring is worth more than a Haaland tap-in, which tells you everything about how rare that is)
Assists: 3 points (regardless of position)
Clean sheets: 4 points for defenders and goalkeepers, 1 for midfielders
Appearances: 1 point for under 60 minutes, 2 for 60+
Goalkeeper saves: 1 point for every 3 shots saved; 5 points for a penalty save
Bonus points: the top three performers in each match (as ranked by the Bonus Points System) get 1–3 extra points
Deductions: yellow cards (-1), red cards (-3), missed penalties (-2), own goals (-2), goals conceded by defenders/keepers (-1 per two goals)
Defensive Contributions: a newer addition to the scoring system. Defenders who rack up 10+ combined clearances, blocks, interceptions, and tackles (CBIT) in a single match earn 2 points; midfielders and forwards need 12+ of the same actions plus ball recoveries (CBIRT) to earn theirs. This has quietly turned some unglamorous, defensively industrious players into surprisingly good-value picks, which will be narrowed down in later editions.
El Capitano
Every gameweek, you choose a captain, whose individual points are doubled, and a vice-captain, who steps in if your captain doesn’t play. Get this right and you’re flying up the ranks. Get it wrong by bench your in-form striker for a “safe” pick who then blanks for instance, and you’ll be refreshing the app in despair by Saturday teatime. Captaincy decisions are, without exaggeration, the single biggest cause of FPL heartbreak and the best predictor of campaign success.
In or Out?
You get one free transfer per gameweek, and unused transfers now roll over (up to a maximum of five, under rule changes that happened recently) so you can save them up for a bigger squad reshuffle if you’re thinking about potential matchups. Additional transfers beyond your free one cost 4 points each, which are then deducted from your gameweek total, meaning trigger-happy squad tinkering can quietly tank your score (which is why you should never open your FPL on a night out – you’ll thank me later.)
Chips: Your Secret Weapons
Another staple of the game. FPL gives you one-time-use “chips” to deploy strategically across the season. Since the game now splits the campaign into two halves, you get two of each chip, one to use in the first half of the season, one for the latter, for a grand total of eight chips:
– Wildcard: unlimited free transfers for one gameweek, letting you rebuild your squad from scratch
– Free Hit: a one-gameweek-only wildcard, reverting back after
– Bench Boost: your bench players’ points count too, for one week
– Triple Captain: your captain’s points are tripled instead of doubled
Timing your chips right, say, saving your Bench Boost for a gameweek when every team plays twice, is half the fun (and half the anxiety) of the season.
The Deadline
Every gameweek has a transfer deadline, which is 90 minutes before the first match kicks off for the vast majority of weeks. Miss it and your squad simply rolls over unchanged. This is also the source of FPL’s most sacred ritual: the mainstay Friday-evening, one-eye-open, “just checking my team” scroll before bed.
Study up…
Once the rules click, FPL becomes less about football knowledge and more about probability, timing, and nerve, which is exactly why it’s taken over lecture theatres and group chats across King’s and the country more generally. In the next instalment of this series, we’ll get into strategy: differentials, template teams, and how to actually climb your mini-league rather than just make up the numbers.
Until then: Get your squad sorted, pick your captain wisely, and don’t say we didn’t warn you about deadline day.
Fantasy Premier League can be played on the official FPL website.
Bear with us
A quick editor’s note: the 2026/27 FPL game officially launches later this summer, ahead of the season kicking off on 21 August with newly promoted Coventry facing off against Prem Winners Arsenal. The scoring system, chip mechanics, transfer rules, and squad structure below are pulled directly from the official FPL rules and are very unlikely to change season to season — but the site is still showing 2025/26 branding as of writing, so exact prices and the 2026/27 gameweek calendar aren’t locked in yet. We’ll update this once they are.
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