@cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

Written by Martin Zhen

What’s the Fantasy Premier League (FPL), and what’s all the hype around it? At the top of the English football pyramid sits the Premier League, composed of 20 of the country’s best football teams, battling for European competition spots, a chance to win the league, and to ultimately avoid being demoted into lower leagues. On the Premier League app, there sits a game that has millions of football fans around the world engaged, and that is the Fantasy Premier League, or known as FPL. T

he way FPL works is through a scoring system, the higher the better. Players manage their own team, buy players in the league with a set budget, make transfers, and enable powerups to better their chance of scoring points. The way points are scored in FPL are determined by each player’s performance, ranging from 10 points when a goalkeeper scores, 2 points when a player plays more than 60 minutes, -3 points when a player gets a red card, and many other performance metrics (Premier League). These points are scored at the end of each matchday, which is when all the teams have finished playing another team, and the scores reset at the beginning of each matchday. FPL allows players to form leagues with their friends and compete to see who has the highest score at the end of each matchday.

So why is it so popular now?

This is mostly due to social media and an idea called “forfeits.” FPL forfeits are light punishments for players who often come in dead last in the league, and they create a sense of competition among friends. Recently, FPL Forfeits have started popping up on social media, with some forfeits being filmed and uploaded. Some examples of these forfeits include participating in embarrassing trends, dances, and many other silly punishments.

Luckily, FPL also helps players choose good players to put on their squad. For example, to prepare for the next matchweek (weekend when games are being played), one would want to transfer players who are playing relatively easier teams. If one had a Manchester United player on their team, who would be playing Arsenal (a higher ranking), they would probably substitute that player for another who has an easy game coming up.

FPL also hooks players due to the different powerups available, such as triple captain, which triples the amount of points their captain earns. These add more action to players and the league they are in, allowing for everyone to have a chance at earning the top spot in a league. Ultimately, FPL’s unique gameplay system, coupled with one of the world’s most watched football leagues, makes it a big game among football fans, especially when social media adds a twist in the form of forfeits. 

Work Cited

Premier League. “FPL basics explained: Scoring points.” Premier League, 1 July 2025, https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/2174909/fpl-basics-scoring. Accessed 3 January 2026.