What’s changed as FPL goes live?

Fantasy Premier League (FPL) has returned for the 2025-26 season and includes some updated features.

As well as price alterations and plenty of new arrivals into the league, there have also been announcements of new ways to score points and extra chips to apply to your team throughout the campaign.

A big change for the new season is players are now allowed two uses of all four chips.

They are: bench boost, free hit, triple captain and wildcard. Players will now be permitted one use of each chip in the first half of the season and another in the second.

Bench boost is where the points of all four of a team’s substitutes count towards a total score in that gameweek.

Free hits allow players to temporarily change as many players as they wish in a single gameweek, but their team will be reset to how it was in the following week.

Triple captain is where a team’s captain’s score is tripled instead of doubled for a single gameweek.

A wildcard allows a player to make unlimited permanent transfers to their team in a single gameweek.

Outfield players will now earn bonus points based on the number of defensive actions they make in one match.

For defenders, clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles all count as defensive involvements.

For midfielders and forwards, clearances, blocks, interceptions, tackles and ball recoveries are classified as such.

For every 10 defensive actions, a defensive player makes in a single match, they will receive two bonus points. For midfielders and forwards, two points are awarded for every 12 actions made.

Had this been in play for the 2024-25 season, Everton’s James Tarkowski would have been the top-scoring player for defensive involvements. He would have earned 44 bonus points – four more than any other player.

There have also been changes to how bonus points are awarded.

Bonus points are given to the best three players in each match based on the Bonus Points System (BPS) that comprises of statistics from Opta.

Previously, goalkeepers would get two BPS points for each save made. For saves of shots from inside the box, that has now increased to three, with shots from outside remaining at two.

A saved penalty would have previously given a goalkeeper nine BPS points. That has been reduced to eight for the save, but is balanced out by an increase to shots from inside of the penalty area being saved.

All scored penalties are now worth 12 BPS points, regardless of a player’s position. That was previously 18 and 24 points for midfielders and forwards respectively.

Making a goalline clearance has tripled in value from three BPS points to nine.

The final change to BPS points is tackles. All successful tackles are worth two BPS points. Previously, two points were awarded the number of net tackles completed (tackles won minus tackles lost).

There have also been changed into what is now being classed as an assist in order to allow for more.

For assists that took a deflection off a defender, assists will now be awarded regardless of whether the assist reached its intended target, providing it only took one touch off a defender and was received by the goalscorer inside the penalty area.

Unforced defensive errors will also now lead to an assist being given by the player whose pass led to it, as long as the defensive error in question is not a missplaced pass.

Again, the maximum one touch from a defender rule remains in play.

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations will take place during the Premier League season.

To help players navigate the prospect of losing a number of their players to the tournament, all managers will receive five free transfers for Gameweek 16, regardless of how many free transfers they had remaining in the previous week.

As is the case every year, the cost of players may change.

Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland will cost £14.5m (from £12.5m last season) and £14m (from £15m) respectively this time around.

England and Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford starts the new season at a price of £5.5m (£5m last season).

Manchester City left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri, who signed from Wolves last month, will be priced at £6m (£4.5m last season).

Liverpool’s club record signing and Germany international Florian Wirtz will cost £8.5m at the start of the season.

Newcastle’s Swedish striker Alexander Isak starts at £10.5m (£8.5m last season).

FPL has also announced position changes for 11 players.

Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo, Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush, Manchester United’s Matehus Cunha and Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye have switched from forwards to midfielders.

West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen has been switched from a midfielder to a forward, while Arsenal teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly has been switched from a midfielder to a defender.

As per previous years, BBC Sport will be running its own dedicated FPL league for our readers to join and compete against each other.

You can join now using the code bbcfpl

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