How to Play Fantasy Premier League: A Complete Guide for 2026/27

Fantasy Premier League starts with a £100 million budget, 15 players and one simple objective: build a squad capable of collecting more points than everyone else while making the right decisions at the right moments throughout the season.

The first deadline is already looming, with Gameweek 1 locked on Friday, August 21 at 18:30 BST, which means new managers have plenty of time to build their squads but very little reason to leave registration until the last minute.

Fantasy Premier League, usually shortened to FPL, turns the real Premier League into a second competition running alongside it. Your players score points according to what they do on the pitch, from goals and assists to clean sheets, saves, defensive contributions and bonus points, while your job is to decide who starts, who sits on the bench, who wears the captain’s armband and when your special chips are worth using.

The beauty of FPL comes from the small decisions that accumulate over 38 Gameweeks, because a player you bought for £6 million can suddenly become the difference between winning your mini-league and watching your friend celebrate at the end of the season.

What is Fantasy Premier League?

Fantasy Premier League is a free-to-play fantasy football game operated by the Premier League, where millions of managers select real players and receive points based on their performances in actual Premier League matches.

Every manager begins with £100 million and must use that money to assemble a 15-player squad consisting of:

• Two goalkeepers
• Five defenders
• Five midfielders
• Three forwards

You can select no more than three players from the same Premier League club, a rule that prevents managers from filling their entire squad with players from one dominant team.

Your 15 players are divided into a starting XI and four substitutes. Substitutes become important when one of your starters does not play, and automatic substitutions are required at the end of the Gameweek.

The game runs throughout the Premier League season, with your performance measured by weekly Gameweek scores, overall rankings, and private leagues where you can compete directly against friends, colleagues, family members, or anyone else you persuade to join your competition.

How To Register for Fantasy Premier League

The registration process takes only a few minutes, and the official FPL website is the safest place to create your account and select your 2026/27 squad.

Register for Fantasy Premier League 2026/27

If you have never played before, follow these steps:

1. Open the official FPL website

Go to the official Fantasy Premier League website and select Register Now, then choose the option to create a new account if you do not already have a Premier League account.

2. Enter your personal details

You will be asked for an email address, password and basic information such as your name, date of birth and country, followed by preferences involving your favourite Premier League club and communication options.

3. Confirm your email address

Check your inbox for the confirmation message and complete the verification process, because your account needs to be activated before you can properly manage your Fantasy team.

4. Pick your preferences

The registration process allows you to choose a favourite club and other teams you would like to follow, although your favourite club does not need to dominate your Fantasy squad, and allowing emotion to dictate every selection can become expensive very quickly.

Once registration is complete, you can move directly into the squad-building screen.

How To Pick Your FPL Squad

This is where the game becomes interesting, because £100 million sounds like a fortune until you realise that Erling Haaland alone costs £15.5 million in 2026/27, while Bruno Fernandes costs £12 million and Gabriel is priced at £8 million.

Those three players alone consume £35.5 million, leaving £64.5 million for the other 12 positions, so building a squad around expensive stars requires careful decisions elsewhere.

The basic structure remains straightforward, but the quality of those 15 selections matters enormously.

Goalkeepers

You need two goalkeepers, but many experienced managers avoid spending heavily on both because only one can start each Gameweek.

A sensible approach is to choose a reliable first-choice goalkeeper with a strong run of fixtures and pair him with an inexpensive goalkeeper who actually has a reasonable chance of playing when needed, rather than spending money on two premium options who cannot both contribute points in the same Gameweek.

Still confuse on which keeper to choose from? Check the best goalkeepers in the Premier League as of 2026 and decide which one to splash your funds on.

Defenders

Defenders can provide far more value than their position suggests because they can collect points through clean sheets, goals, assists, defensive contributions and bonus points, with attacking full-backs often offering several routes to a strong weekly score.

The best defensive picks are rarely based on clean sheets alone, because a defender who regularly creates chances, takes set pieces or gets forward can continue producing Fantasy points even when his team concedes.

Midfielders

Midfield is usually where the biggest Fantasy decisions happen, because the position contains explosive scorers, creative players, set-piece takers and cheaper options who can deliver excellent value when their role becomes secure.

The 2026/27 position changes are worth checking before finalising your squad, with players including Myles Lewis-Skelly, Omar Marmoush, Patrick Dorgu and Georginio Rutter receiving new Fantasy classifications that alter how managers can use them.

Forwards

You need three forwards, although that does not mean all three need to be expensive.

Haaland’s £15.5 million price creates an obvious strategic problem for managers who want him, because selecting the Manchester City striker means finding cheaper players elsewhere who can still provide regular minutes and enough attacking potential to justify their place.

For those who are confused about how to sign players cheaply, read on about how top Premier League clubs sign great players on a bargain.

SEE ALSO | Premier League Managers 2026/27: Styles, Tactics

The New FPL Squad-building Help For 2026/27

New managers have an easier route into the game this season because FPL has introduced an optional squad-building assistant that can generate an initial team according to your preferences.

The system asks three main questions about your preferences, including whether you want players from your favourite club, whether you prefer a strong squad with greater depth or a cheaper bench, and whether you want more of your budget concentrated in attack or defence.

The generated squad can then be changed before you submit it, and you can even regenerate the selection if the first version leaves you staring at your screen wondering who made such a strange decision.

For complete beginners, this is a useful starting point, but it should be treated as a starting point rather than a substitute for understanding fixtures, minutes, injuries and player roles.

How FPL Points Are Scored

Understanding the scoring system is more important than memorising a list of famous players, because FPL rewards certain types of involvement and that can make apparently ordinary footballers surprisingly valuable.

Players earn points for goals, assists, clean sheets and other actions, while goalkeepers receive additional points for saves and penalty saves, with deductions possible for goals conceded, cards, own goals and missed penalties.

Defensive contribution points also remain part of FPL in 2026/27, following their introduction for the previous campaign.

The Bonus Points System provides another layer, with Opta data used to calculate performance scores before the top three players in a match receive bonus points.

The highest BPS scorer receives three bonus points, the second receives two and the third receives one, with specific tie-breaking rules determining how the points are distributed when players finish level.

This is one reason a defender can sometimes outscore a midfielder who scored the winning goal, particularly when the defender produces strong defensive numbers and contributes across several areas of the match.

SEE ALSO | 10 Greatest Bargain Signings In Premier League History

How To Choose Your Starting XI

Once you have selected 15 players, you need to decide which 11 will actually start the Gameweek, and this is where fixture difficulty, expected minutes and player roles should become more important than reputation.

A famous player sitting on your bench because his team faces Manchester City can be a perfectly sensible decision, while a cheaper midfielder facing a newly promoted side may offer a much better opportunity for points.

Your formation must contain at least three defenders, at least two midfielders and at least one forward, while the remaining positions can be distributed according to your squad structure.

You also need to select a captain and vice-captain before every deadline.

How The Captain Works

Your captain is the most important individual selection you make each Gameweek because his points are doubled, making the armband capable of turning an average week into a huge score or wrecking an otherwise promising Gameweek.

The vice-captain becomes your captain if your chosen captain does not play at all, so choosing a reliable starter as vice-captain is more sensible than handing the role to another player whose minutes are uncertain.

The best captaincy decisions usually combine several factors, including attacking involvement, expected minutes, fixture quality, home advantage, penalties and recent performances, rather than simply selecting the most expensive player in your squad.

How Transfers Work

FPL gives you one free transfer per Gameweek, and unused transfers can be carried forward, with managers now able to accumulate up to five free transfers.

You can make additional transfers whenever you want, but every extra move beyond your available free transfers costs four points from your Gameweek score.

That means selling one player and bringing another in for a four-point deduction can make sense when the incoming player has a strong enough opportunity, but taking repeated hits simply because one footballer had a bad weekend can quickly destroy a carefully built squad.

Transfers should usually have a reason behind them, such as an injury, suspension, loss of starting position, difficult fixture run, improved role or a better long-term opportunity elsewhere.

How Player Prices Work

Player prices change during the season according to transfer activity, meaning a player who becomes extremely popular can rise in price while a player being sold heavily can fall.

The 2026/27 season introduces a Price Change Predictor, which tracks players’ progress towards potential rises and falls and updates its information every 15 minutes after the Gameweek 1 deadline.

Prices remain locked before the first deadline, so managers can make unlimited changes to their initial squads without worrying about losing money through pre-season price movements.

This makes the period before Gameweek 1 especially useful because you can continue testing different squad structures while waiting for the final injury news, line-up clues and transfer developments.

SEE ALSO | Premier League 2026/27 Fixtures: Full Schedule, Key Dates

The Four FPL Chips

Chips are special powers that can dramatically change your score, and 2026/27 managers once again receive two sets of four chips, giving every manager eight chips across the campaign.

The four chips are:

• Wildcard: Allows unlimited transfers for your squad, with the new players remaining in your team afterwards.
• Free Hit: Gives you unlimited transfers for one Gameweek before your squad returns to its previous structure.
• Bench Boost: Adds the points scored by your substitutes to your Gameweek total.
• Triple Captain: Multiplies your captain’s score by three instead of two.

Each chip can be used once in each half of the season, while only one chip can be played during a single Gameweek.

The first set must be used before the Gameweek 19 deadline on Saturday, January 2, 2027 at 13:30 GMT, because unused first-half chips cannot be carried into the second half of the campaign.

That creates an important strategic wrinkle for experienced managers, particularly around Blank Gameweeks and Double Gameweeks, when some clubs have no fixture while others play twice.

How To Create a League With Your Friends

FPL becomes much more enjoyable when your mates are involved, because watching your carefully selected captain blank while someone else’s bargain defender scores twice feels considerably worse when you can see their name sitting above yours in the league table.

After creating your squad, go to the Leagues & Cups section and choose the option to create or join a league.

If you are creating a private league, give it a name and share the invitation code or joining details with your friends, family members or colleagues.

You can also join an existing private league using the information supplied by its administrator.

FPL automatically places managers into certain leagues, including leagues connected with nationality and favourite clubs, but private leagues give you the direct competition that makes the game far more personal.

There is another useful change for 2026/27, because league rankings will update in real time during matches rather than waiting for the old update cycle, meaning your position can move while the game is still being played.

How To Approach Your First Gameweek

The temptation before the opening weekend is to chase every exciting player, especially after watching pre-season clips, reading transfer rumours and seeing one striker score three goals against a club’s third-choice defence.

Try to resist that noise.

Instead, build your Gameweek 1 squad around players who are expected to start, have favourable fixtures and occupy roles that give them several ways to collect points.

Look closely at:

• Starting probability, because a brilliant player who only receives 25 minutes is difficult to justify at a premium price.
• Fixtures, because the strength of the opposition can dramatically change a player’s expected output.
• Set pieces, particularly penalties and corners, because they can create cheap routes to goals and assists.
• Attacking role, because midfielders playing close to the striker generally carry greater goal potential than deeper players.
• Defensive contribution, which can make certain defenders and midfielders useful even without goals or assists.
• Price, because the strongest squad is usually built through a balance of premium stars and dependable value picks.

The official FPL squad views now make this process easier by allowing managers to see information such as Fixture Difficulty Ratings, ownership and upcoming opponents directly from the squad pages, with form and price-change information appearing once the season gets underway.

When Should You Make Your Final Changes?

The first Gameweek deadline is Friday, August 21 at 18:30 BST, and managers can continue making unlimited free changes to their initial squad until that deadline arrives.

That means there is no need to lock yourself into a squad simply because you created it early.

A sensible routine is to build an initial squad, monitor pre-season team news, watch for injuries and transfers, then make your final decisions shortly before the deadline while avoiding unnecessary last-minute changes based on rumours that have no reliable source.

The Premier League has also introduced deadline reminders through its app, email and digital calendar options, which could be particularly useful this season because four of the first five Gameweeks have Friday deadlines.

How To Get Better At FPL

The managers who consistently perform well rarely rely on one spectacular prediction every weekend, because FPL rewards people who keep making sensible decisions while accepting that some good decisions will still produce poor scores.

Track minutes, fixtures, injuries, tactical roles and price changes rather than obsessing over one player’s points from the previous Gameweek.

Avoid transferring players simply because they blanked once, and avoid keeping a player for six weeks simply because you paid a high price for him earlier in the season.

Most importantly, remember that FPL is a long game.

There will be weekends when your captain scores two points, your goalkeeper concedes in stoppage time, your rival’s £4.5 million defender scores from a corner and the entire plan looks ridiculous by Sunday evening.

That is part of the game.

The managers who recover best are usually the ones who resist panic, look at the next run of fixtures and make decisions based on what is likely to happen rather than trying to recover every lost point immediately.

SEE ALSO | How to Stream the Premier League Live Online in 2026: Free and Paid Options

Your 2026/27 FPL Starting Checklist

Before the Gameweek 1 deadline arrives, make sure you have completed the basics:

• Register your official Fantasy Premier League account.
• Build a 15-player squad within the £100 million budget.
• Check that your squad contains two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards.
• Make sure you have no more than three players from the same Premier League club.
• Select your starting XI.
• Choose your captain and vice-captain.
• Check the latest injury and team-news updates before the deadline.
• Review your fixture difficulty and expected starters.
• Create or join your private mini-league with friends.
• Save your final team before Friday, August 21 at 18:30 BST.
• Set deadline reminders so a busy weekend does not cost you points.

The rest comes with the season, and that is where FPL becomes addictive, because every Saturday brings another set of decisions, every goal changes the league table and even a match involving two clubs you barely follow can suddenly feel like the most important 90 minutes of your weekend.

For a new manager, the best starting point is not trying to predict all 38 Gameweeks before the season begins. Build a balanced squad, understand why each player is there, pay attention to the fixtures and give yourself room to adapt, because the strongest FPL teams are rarely the ones that look perfect in August.

They are the ones that keep improving as the season unfolds.