Every Major FPL Changes Announced so Far in 2025-26 Season

The Premier League 2025-26 is less than a month away from kick-off, and the Fantasy Premier League has just gone live for the Fantasy managers. We are experiencing some significant FPL changes for the new season to make the challenges more viable and competitive.

Fantasy Premier League Changes for the Premier League 2025-26 season

All the official Fantasy Premier League changes for the 2025-26 season have been discussed below:

No Assistant Manager Chip

Last year, the Assistant Manager chip made its FPL debut as the “Mystery Chip”. While this chip was introduced and activated in the second half of the last PL season, the Fantasy managers could choose one active club manager along with 15 players (Playing XI + 4 substitutes) for three consecutive gameweeks, where the club managers could be replaced by another club manager during the chip activation period.

However, FPL has confirmed that the Assistant Manager chip will not be available in the 2025-26 season. It is one of the important Fantasy Premier League changes for the 2025-26 season.

4 Chips x 2

All four other important chips are available for the FPL 2025-26. These are Wildcard, Free Hit, Triple Captain, and Bench Boost. While the Fantasy managers could use the Wildcard chip twice in one season (once in the first half and the other in the second half), they could use the other three chips only once in the entire season.

However, in the FPL 2025-26, all four FPL chips can be used twice, which is among the sensational FPL changes. The first set of chips will be available only before the Gameweek 19 deadline passes at 18:30 GMT on December 30, 2025 (Tuesday). Fantasy managers can’t carry forward any of the unused first-half chips to the second half of the FPL 2025-26 season.

Defensive Contributions

Fantasy Premier League changes have put important marks on the defensive contributions. FPL 2025-26 will experience crucial defensive contribution points from every player, including defenders, midfielders, and forwards.

If any defender records 10 CBIT (clearances, blocks, interceptions, and tackles) in a single match, he will be awarded two FPL points.

On the other hand, the midfielders and forwards can enjoy CBIRT, where clearances, blocks, interceptions, and tackles will be counted as each of their defensive contributions, along with their “ball recoveries.” To earn two FPL points, each midfielder and forward has to record 12 CBIRT in one match.

Extra Assists

Apart from goals, assists also bring crucial points for every fantasy manager, as three points are awarded to the player making the assist, who made the final touch before a goal was scored. The Assist definition in the FPL rules book is “The final touch can be a pass, an inadvertent touch, an effort on goal, or winning a penalty or free-kick.”

For the FPL 2025-26, the “Assist” rules have been simplified to open up more assist points for the players, which will ultimately benefit the Fantasy managers. Previously, the “Assist” wasn’t awarded in the following scenarios:

• If a pass or cross was deflected by an opponent away from the intended target or destination.
• If a goal was scored due to an unforced defensive error.

• If a player won a penalty or free-kick for the team due to “unforced handball,” while the “forced handball” definition was, “the defending player had to be deemed to have been ‘forced' into the handball, for example by the quality of a cross.”

  While the “forced handball” definition has been scrapped from the “Assist” rule book, all the aforementioned scenarios will now bring the three key assist points. These are very crucial FPL changes to make Fantasy managers happier. However, if the assist pass or cross faces more than one defensive touch before reaching the goalscorer, there will be no Fantasy assist point.

Changes in “Bonus Points System”

The “Bonus Points System” or BPS is crucial to determine the top three FPL bonus points-earning players in a match. There are several important and useful FPL changes in the “Bonus Points System” for the 2025-26 season. The changes are as follows:

• Goalkeepers previously earned two points in the BPS for each save made. For the 2025-26 season, a goalkeeper will earn three BPS points for each save made after the shot taken inside the penalty area and two BPS points for each save made after the shot taken outside the box.
• For a goal-line clearance, each player previously earned three BPS points, but from the 2025-26 season, each player will earn nine BPS points.
• For a successful penalty goal, previously, a forward (24 BPS points), midfielder (18 BPS points), or defender (12 BPS points) was awarded different BPS points. However, for the 2025-26 season, any player will earn 12 BPS points for successfully converting a penalty.
• Previously, a player was awarded two BPS points for each “Successful Tackles (net),” which was calculated as “Total Tackles Won – Total Tackles Lost.” For the FPL 2025-26 season, each “Tackle Won” will bring two BPL points for the player.

AFCON Relief: Additional free transfers available

AFCON 2025, the Africa Cup of Nations 2025, has been scheduled between December 21, 2025, and January 18, 2026, in Morocco. While some players will temporarily leave their respective Premier League clubs to represent their nations in the AFCON 2025, there will be additional free transfers for Fantasy managers in Gameweek 16.

However, just like the previous season, each Fantasy manager can’t enjoy more than five free available transfers for a gameweek (excluding using any chip), including Gameweek 16.

Player position changes

Just like the past seasons, there are a few player position changes for the FPL 2025-26 season. The change of a player's position in the FPL is significant due to the various FPL points structures for the different positioned players. For the FPL 2025-26 season, there are 11 players whose FPL positions have been reclassified.

Introduction of two new leagues

The FPL 2025-26 is set to become more exciting for the Fantasy managers after the introduction of two new leagues. These two new leagues have been named:

• Top 1% League
• Top 10% League

Fantasy managers who finish among the top one per cent and top 10 per cent at the end of an FPL season will qualify for the respective FPL leagues for the next season. It is starting from the 2025-26 season, as the 2024-25 season results have been considered for these two new leagues.

There are exciting prizes available for winning each of the leagues, including merchandise from Puma (new Official Ball Supplier), an official Premier League club replica shirt, an EA SPORTS FC game, an FPL bundle, an exclusive FPL certificate, etc.

Team badges

The Premier League has a new partnership with Adobe, which brings a creative segment for the Fantasy managers. Now, every manager can create their unique team badge using Adobe Express and its Firefly generative AI tool.