Initiating in the 2025/26 Fantasy Premier League: A Guide
The new season of Fantasy Premier League (FPL), the official fantasy game of the world's most popular football league, is here! FPL is a free-to-play fantasy football game where you create and manage a team of real Premier League players to score points based on their actual performance in matches.
As a beginner, you start by selecting a squad of 15 Premier League players within a £100 million budget, including 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 3 forwards, with a maximum of three players allowed from any one club. Balance is important—don't focus too heavily on one position.
Each Premier League gameweek, you set your "starting XI" who will earn points for that round. You must also pick a captain whose points are doubled, and a vice-captain who takes over if the captain doesn’t play. You can transfer players between gameweeks—1 free transfer each time, with additional transfers costing points.
Points come from real player actions like goals, assists, clean sheets, and negative points for yellow/red cards or own goals. Bonus points are awarded to the best performers on the pitch each week based on stats like passes and tackles. If more transfers are made than the number of free available, a penalty of -4 points is incurred for each additional transfer.
If a starting player doesn’t play, substitutes come in automatically based on your bench order and formation rules. Substitutions can be crucial, as they can help you maximise your points even when your selected players are benched.
To build a well-balanced squad, consider player form, fixtures (difficulty of upcoming matches), price, and position. Beginners should build a well-balanced squad before the season starts and adjust as the season progresses to bring in in-form players or favorable fixtures. Rotating players between starting lineup and bench depending on fixtures is a common tactic.
FPL Draft mode is an alternative format where each player can only be owned by one team in your league and players are picked via a draft system. This mode complements the classic FPL game.
For beginners, several step-by-step guides and videos are available that walk through how to register, pick your squad, join leagues, and manage your team during the season. Starting with these basics and gradually learning advanced strategies will help you enjoy and compete in FPL effectively.
After signing up, players must build a squad of 15 within a budget of £100m. FPL gives a visual guide to how difficult the next three fixtures for players are, with green indicating a difficulty rating of two out of five, grey indicating three, bright red indicating four, and dark red indicating five. Points are awarded based on factors such as goals, assists, clean sheets, minutes played, defensive contributions, and saves. Points can also be deducted for conceding goals, yellow cards, red cards, penalty misses, and own goals.
Chips become available one at a time in the first half of the season and again in the second half of the season, with no carryover from the first to the second half. The deadline for transfers and changes to the starting XI is usually 90 minutes before the first game of a gameweek starts.
Players can compete against friends, family, and other players from around the world. FPL is played by millions of people worldwide. To get started with FPL, head to the Fantasy Premier League website or the 'Fantasy' section of the Premier League app and sign up with an email and password.
In FPL, player values fluctuate throughout the season, with good performances increasing value and poor performances or non-selection decreasing value. The most expensive player in the game is Mohamed Salah, with a value of £14.5m, while the cheapest starting players have a value of £4.0m.
[1] https://fantasy.premierleague.com/help/teams/ [2] https://fantasy.premierleague.com/help/transfers/ [3] https://fantasy.premierleague.com/help/scoring/ [4] https://fantasy.premierleague.com/help/draft/ [5] https://fantasy.premierleague.com/help/guides/
In the world of fantasy sports, particularly the Fantasy Premier League (FPL), you can immerse yourself in a virtual football league, managing a team of real Premier League players. (sports, football)
Balancing your squad by considering factors like player form, fixtures, price, and position is crucial for a well-rounded team, as starting with a balanced squad and adjusting as the season progresses maximizes your chance of success. (sports, football)
