FPL Rules & scoring

Fantasy Premier League (FPL) is the official fantasy game of the Premier League. This page summarizes how squads work, how players earn (and lose) points, and how bonus points are decided.

Official links
Key points

Short summary of what matters — each topic is expanded under the sections below.

  • Squad & picks:
    • 15 players and £100.0m starting budget.
    • No more than three players from one club.
    • Each gameweek: 11 starters in a valid formation and 4 bench players.
    • Non‑playing starters can be replaced by automatic substitutions (bench order matters).
  • Transfers & money:
    • One free transfer per gameweek, bankable up to five; extra transfers cost −4 each.
    • Squad value tracks your 15 listed prices and moves with overnight price changes.
    • Spare cash sits in bank. You pay buy and receive sell prices when trading — they can differ (see FPL Help).
  • Captaincy:
    • Your captain’s score is doubled (or tripled with the Triple Captain chip).
    • If the captain plays 0 minutes, your vice‑captain’s score doubles instead.
  • Chips (2025/26):
    • Two full sets — eight chips total (Wildcard, Free Hit, Triple Captain, Bench Boost per half).
    • At most one chip per gameweek.
    • First‑half chips must be used before the GW19 deadline; unused chips in that window don’t roll on.
  • Fantasy points: Goals, assists, clean sheets, saves, cards, etc. follow the official position scoring table (not the same as raw BPS).
  • Bonus (BPS): In each fixture the top three BPS totals earn +3 / +2 / +1 fantasy bonus points, with official tie‑break rules.
  • Deadlines: Confirm your team before the gameweek deadline in FPL (typically first kick‑off of the round).
  • Source of truth: This page is a companion summary — always check transfers, prices, chips, and edge cases in the official game, FPL Help, and Terms & conditions before you decide.

Jump to Game basics

  • Squad: 15 players, total starting budget £100.0m (subject to in-game pricing).
  • Club limit: You can own no more than three players from any one Premier League club.
  • Starting XI: Each gameweek you pick 11 starters in a valid formation:
    • 1 goalkeeper.
    • Outfield numbers must satisfy FPL limits — typically 3–5 defenders, 3–5 midfielders, 1–3 forwards (see Help for the full formation list).
  • Bench: 4 substitutes.
    • They do not score unless automatic substitutions replace non‑playing starters.
    • Order: reserve goalkeeper first, then outfield in bench order.
  • Transfers:
    • On a normal gameweek you receive one free transfer (your weekly “mint”). Unused free transfers roll forward up to a maximum of five at the start of a gameweek.
    • Each transfer beyond your free allowance costs −4 points (a “hit”).
    • Gameweek 16 (2025/26): free transfers are topped up to five ahead of AFCON — see What’s new for 2025/26.
    • Wildcard & Free Hit weeks: you can make unlimited transfers that gameweek and your banked free transfers are not spent — official help confirms saved transfers are kept for the following gameweek (see Fantasy Football Scout). FPLove’s league board also treats these chip weeks as having no +1 mint: your free-transfer bank at the start of that gameweek is your carry-over only (not carry-over plus one). That matches how banking behaves after back-to-back chip weeks or a Free Hit before a hit week.
  • Squad value & bank:
    • Your squad (team) value is the total of your 15 players’ prices as shown in FPL.
    • When those players rise or fall after overnight price changes, your squad value moves with them.
    • Bank is spare budget (cash not tied up in your squad); bank plus squad value shapes how much you can spend.
    • When you transfer, you pay a player’s buy price to bring them in and receive their sell price when they leave — those amounts can differ, including for players you already own (FPL Help explains purchase price, selling price, and current price).
  • Price (transfer) changes:
    • Listed prices move with net transfers in and out of squads across the game (see FPL Help for when changes apply and limits per change).
    • Each step is usually £0.1m.
  • Deadlines: Save your team before the gameweek deadline shown in FPL (usually the first kick‑off of the round).
  • Leagues:
    • Private mini‑leagues plus overall / global rankings.
    • 2025/26 also adds elite global leagues for top‑ranked managers — see official news.

Official wording: FPL Help (squads, formations, transfers, deadlines, leagues, prices & team value).

Jump to Fantasy points

Points follow match data (Opta). The table below matches the Premier League’s published FPL scoring summary — these are fantasy points, not raw BPS (see bonus section).

Playing time

  • 1 point for a shorter appearance — the official table labels this as playing up to 60 minutes (interpreted in practice as under 60 minutes of the counted playing time; see FPL Help for tie‑break edge cases).
  • 2 points for 60 minutes or more, counted excluding stoppage time (official wording).

Goals, assists, defence & Goalkeeping

Action GKP DEF MID FWD
Goal scored 10 6 5 4
Assist 3 (all positions)
Clean sheet (GKP/DEF/MID: needs 60+ mins) 4 4 1 0
Every 3 saves (goalkeeper) 1 point per 3 saves (official table)
Penalty save +5 (goalkeeper)
Defensive contributions (2025/26) — +2 per 10 CBIT +2 per 12 CBIRT +2 per 12 CBIRT
Goals conceded (while on pitch) −1 per 2 goals −1 per 2 goals — —

A goalkeeper scores 10 FPL points per goal; defender 6; midfielder 5; forward 4.

Discipline & other deductions

  • Yellow card: −1
  • Red card: −3
  • Own goal: −2
  • Penalty miss: −2 (taker)

Other match events (cards in combination, penalties won, etc.) follow the full rules in FPL Help — the Premier League’s public scoring table lists the core amounts above.

Notes

  • Defensive contributions: see the main scoring table (2025/26 — defenders CBIT, midfielders/forwards CBIRT). Goalkeepers are not eligible for this outfield rule.
  • Clean sheets:
    • Eligibility follows official playing‑time rules (typically 60+ minutes excluding stoppage time).
    • If you are substituted before your team concedes, you can still keep clean‑sheet points provided you already played 60+ minutes (Premier League summary).
  • Assists (2025/26):
    • Awarded to the scoring‑team player with the final pass or touch before the goal, under updated definitions (including rebounds, own‑goal routes, penalties and free‑kicks as per the official article).
    • Full detail: Changes to assists rules.
  • Bench & auto‑sub:
    • Reserve goalkeeper substitutes first for a non‑playing starting keeper.
    • Then outfield bench players replace non‑playing outfield starters in bench priority order.

Official points & definitions: FPL Help — Scoring · Premier League scoring summary.

Jump to Bonus points (BPS)

In each Premier League fixture, every player builds an internal BPS performance score from detailed match stats (supplied by Opta). That score is not the same as fantasy points: it is used only to decide who receives bonus points for that match.

Who gets bonus?

  • After the match, the three highest BPS totals in that match earn +3, +2, and +1 bonus fantasy points respectively.
  • Only players who actually played typically qualify (as per official rules on appearances).

Tie-breaks (official format)

From the Premier League’s published summary — if BPS scores tie, bonus is shared like this:

  • Tie for first place: players 1 & 2 receive 3 bonus points each; player 3 receives 1.
  • Tie for second place: player 1 receives 3; players 2 and 3 receive 2 each.
  • Tie for third place: player 1 receives 3, player 2 receives 2, players 3 & 4 receive 1 each.

More than three players can earn bonus in a match. Example from the official article: two players tied on the top BPS both get 3; three players tied on the next BPS can all receive 1 each.

Full BPS wording: FPL Help · 2025/26 BPS changes (Premier League) · Bonus points summary.

What feeds BPS? (conceptual)

BPS rewards “productive” match actions that don’t always map 1:1 to fantasy points, and can deduct for negative events. The precise weightings are defined by FPL/Opta and are updated from time to time.

  • Examples that often add BPS include:
    • Passing & creation: passes completed, key passes, crosses, big chances created.
    • Attacking threat: shots on target, successful dribbles.
    • Defensive work: clearances, recoveries, tackles (weights change by season).
  • Examples that often reduce BPS include off‑target shots, fouls, cards, and errors leading to goals.

2025/26 BPS highlights (official summary)

The Premier League announced several BPS adjustments for 2025/26. Highlights:

  • Goalkeeper saves:
    • BPS for saves now depends on shot location — e.g. 3 BPS from inside the penalty area and 2 BPS from outside (replacing a flat 2 BPS per save in older seasons).
    • A penalty save was adjusted in BPS and can combine with the inside-the-box save credit (official article cites e.g. 8 + 3 = 11 BPS for that sequence).
  • Goalline clearances: increased to 9 BPS (previously lower) to reflect match impact.
  • Penalty goals: a dedicated “penalty goal scored” BPS metric — 12 BPS for a penalty goal for all positions, while non-penalty goals still use the older position-based BPS scale.
  • Tackles: moved from a “net successful tackles” style metric to 2 BPS per tackle won (simplified, intended to reward defenders/midfielders more often).

Read the full article: premierleague.com — 2025/26 BPS changes · FPL Help

Jump to Captaincy

  • Each gameweek you choose a captain and vice‑captain from your starting XI. The same player cannot be both.
  • Captain:
    • Your captain’s total fantasy score for the gameweek is doubled.
    • With the Triple Captain chip it is tripled instead.
  • Vice‑captain: If your captain plays 0 minutes in that gameweek, your vice‑captain’s score is doubled instead (standard FPL automatic vice‑captain behaviour — confirm edge cases in FPL Help).

Official wording: FPL Help (captain & vice‑captain).

Jump to Strategic chips

  • For 2025/26, official FPL gives managers two full sets of chips — eight chips in total.
  • Each half of the season you get one Wildcard, one Free Hit, one Triple Captain and one Bench Boost (the old single set of chips no longer matches this structure).
  • You may activate at most one chip per gameweek (you cannot stack two chips in the same round).

First-half chip window (2025/26)

  • Your first set of four chips must be played before the Gameweek 19 deadline — 18:30 GMT on Tuesday 30 December 2025, per Premier League.
  • Unused first-half chips do not carry over into the second half.
  • Second half: A fresh set of the same four chips becomes available from Gameweek 20 through the end of the season.

The 2024/25 “mystery” chip was the Assistant Manager chip. For 2025/26 there is no Assistant Manager chip (official season updates).

Chip allowances for 2025/26 — confirm chip state any time under Pick Team → Chips and in FPL Help.
Chip First half Second half What it does
Wildcard 1 1
  • Unlimited free transfers in one round to rebuild within budget and squad rules.
  • Usual −4 hits for extra transfers don’t apply while confirming that Wildcard window.
  • Banked free transfers are kept — see official help.
Free Hit 1 1
  • Unlimited transfers for one gameweek; after the round your squad reverts to how it was before that Free Hit.
  • Official Scout guidance: because your squad must return after a Free Hit, you cannot play Free Hit in both Gameweek 19 and Gameweek 20 — plan around the half-season reset.
Triple Captain 1 1 Your captain’s score is tripled instead of doubled that gameweek.
Bench Boost 1 1 Points from all 15 players count that gameweek (starters plus bench).

Activation & cancellation (official chip explainers)

  • Bench Boost: chosen when saving your team; may be cancelled before the deadline.
  • Free Hit: triggered when you confirm transfers; cannot be cancelled after confirmation.
  • Wildcard: triggered when confirming otherwise point‑costing transfers; cannot be cancelled once played; you keep banked free transfers when playing it.

Official game & guides: fantasy.premierleague.com (use Pick Team → Chips for your live chip state) · FPL Help · What’s new for 2025/26 — Premier League · Two sets of chips — The Scout · How and when to use your chips (2025/26)

Jump to Official links

FPL™ is a trademark of the Premier League. FPLove is an independent companion app and is not affiliated with the Premier League. This page is a summary — always verify transfers, pricing, chips and edge cases in the official game, FPL Help, and Terms & conditions before making decisions.