How to play FPL

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Fantasy Premier League (or FPL as it’s more commonly known) is a fantasy game based on the Premier League.

Managers are required to select a squad of Premier League players, with those players able to accumulate points based on their on-pitch performances. Players accumulate points for minutes played, goals, assists and clean sheets, while points are deducted for things like bookings, goals conceded and missed penalties.

A squad of 15 players must be chosen with a £100.0m budget with players fluctuating in price relative to their projected points. The squad must include two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards. You can choose a maximum of three players per club.

Managers choose 11 players for their team for each round of Premier League fixtures or gameweek, including at least one goalkeeper, three defenders, two midfielders and one forward. If a starting player does not feature for their club then the points scored by the first player on your bench will be counted. 

Each gameweek, managers are required to choose a captain and a vice captain. The points total for the captain will be doubled. If a captain plays zero minutes, then the captain points multiplier will pass to the vice captain.

Managers are given one free transfer to use each gameweek to change a member of their squad within the budget. Additional transfers cost four points and players can carry over a maximum of two transfers to subsequent gameweeks. 

Players can fluctuate in price once the season has started based on their popularity in the transfer market. Any profit on sale of a player is subject to a sell-on fee of 50%. 

Each season fantasy managers are traditionally given two wildcards, one per half of the season. The wildcard allows managers to make unlimited transfers ahead of a new gameweek, to give your entire squad a new look. It is considered the most powerful chip in FPL. Once the wildcard is activated it cannot be cancelled and it is only possible to use one chip per gameweek. 

Aside from the wildcard, fantasy managers are traditionally given three additional chips in a season: Triple Captain, Bench Boost and Free Hit. For Triple Captain, the captain points are tripled. On Bench Boost, all bench players contribute to the overall gameweek total. Free Hit works similar to a wildcard with unlimited transfers, but these changes are only live for one gameweek, before your team reverts back to your previous one. 

Sometimes the fixture scheduling can change due to clashes with Cup competitions, outbreaks of illness, bad weather or significant historic events. A blank gameweek is where at least one team doesn’t have a fixture. A double gameweek is where at least one team has more than one fixture. Some gameweeks can be a combination of a blank and double gameweek.

As well as accumulating points for in-game contributions, bonus points are awarded at the end of every fixture in the breakdown 3-2-1, but can fluctuate if players finish on equal points. The bonus points act as additional points for the top performing players in the match, with a more in-depth scoring matrix which factors in creative and defensive contributions. 

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