Fantasy Premier League's own explainers for the 2026/27 season changes are written for people who already know what CBIT stands for. Most managers don't, and don't need to — they just want to know what actually changed and what it means for their squad. This is that version: the three real rule changes for 2026/27, translated into plain language, with real players as examples, and a note on exactly what used to happen before each change so the difference is obvious.
Defensive Contributions: What Changed and Why It Matters
Before the 2025/26 season, a defender's Fantasy score came from three things only: playing time, clean sheets, and any goals or assists he happened to get. If his team lost 2-1 and he didn't score, his own individual performance — no matter how good — earned him nothing beyond his appearance points. A centre-back could make ten last-ditch tackles and it would show up nowhere on his scoresheet.
That changed with the introduction of defensive contribution points, and the Premier League has confirmed the rule continues unchanged for 2026/27. Here's the actual mechanic, without the acronym first: if a defender makes a combined total of 10 clearances, blocks, interceptions, and tackles in a single match, he earns 2 bonus points — regardless of the score, regardless of whether his team wins, loses, or draws. Picture a centre-back away at a strong side, on the losing end of a 2-1 scoreline. In the past, that's a poor return: maybe 1 or 2 points for the whole match. But if he made 5 clearances, 3 tackles, and 2 interceptions along the way — 10 actions in total — he now banks those 2 extra points anyway, purely for the defensive work itself. Senesi is the real example worth knowing: he picked up 50 points last season from this rule alone — more than most strikers get from goals across a whole campaign — built entirely from repeatedly hitting that action count, match after match.
Midfielders and forwards work under the same idea with a slightly higher bar: 12 actions instead of 10, because they also get credit for ball recoveries — winning back a loose ball — on top of the same four defensive actions. That's the whole system. FPL's own shorthand for it is CBIT (Clearances, Blocks, Interceptions, Tackles) for defenders and CBIRT (the same four, plus Recoveries) for midfielders and forwards — worth knowing the acronyms exist since you'll see them elsewhere, but the concept is simply "enough defensive actions in one match equals 2 free points." For the full data-driven breakdown — screening criteria, which player profiles hit the threshold most reliably, how it interacts with clean sheets — see our complete defensive contributions explainer and our guide to finding reliable DefCon scorers.
Bonus Points Are Getting Fairer for Attackers and Full-Backs
Bonus points have always worked the same basic way: the three best-performing players in a match, measured by a points system most managers never see, get 3, 2, and 1 extra points. What's changing for 2026/27 is which actions count toward that hidden score — and the Premier League's own breakdown of the changes makes clear who benefits.
Here's the change that matters most: previously, any player who got tackled lost a point toward his bonus-point chances — even if he was simply trying to beat a defender, which is literally his job if he's a winger or an attacking full-back. That penalty is gone entirely for 2026/27. Rogers is the clearest real example of who this helps: he was tackled 156 times last season, more than any other player in the league, simply because he takes players on constantly. Under the old system, every one of those 156 moments quietly worked against his bonus-point total. Under the new system, none of them do. Full-backs who get forward and take players on, like Kayode — tackled 83 times last season, the most of any defender — benefit the same way.
Goalkeepers get a cleaner, fairer system too. Previously, a save from close range was worth more than a save from further out, an odd distinction most fans never actually knew existed. Now, every save is worth the same flat amount, with a bonus on top for a save from close range, and a further bonus for saving what FPL calls a "big chance" — a situation where the opponent was very likely to score, like a one-on-one or a penalty. Pickford made more of these big-chance saves than any other goalkeeper last season, 28 in total, with Kelleher close behind on 27 — exactly the kind of keeper this change rewards. For the complete breakdown of every action that feeds into a player's bonus-point score, see our full bonus points explainer.
Chips Are Staying Exactly the Same
Unlike defensive contributions and bonus points, nothing is changing about chips for 2026/27 — and the Premier League has confirmed the same structure continues. You get two of each chip across the season: two Wildcards (unlimited squad changes), two Free Hits (a one-week-only unlimited reshuffle that reverts after that Gameweek), two Triple Captains (your captain's points count three times instead of two), and two Bench Boosts (your bench's points count toward your total for that Gameweek). Eight chips in total, with the first set of four needing to be used before the Gameweek 19 deadline in early January, or they're lost for good.
A simple example of how to think about timing: a good rule of thumb for a Triple Captain is a big-name attacker playing at home against one of the season's three newly promoted clubs. Haaland plays at home to all three promoted sides in the first half of 2026/27, while Fernandes hosts two of them — both realistic windows to consider tripling their score. For the complete chip-by-chip timing framework, see our full FPL chips guide.
You Don't Have to Track Any of This Yourself
Manually working out whether a defender is hitting 10 defensive actions a match, or whether a goalkeeper's save profile suits the new bonus-point rules, is exactly the kind of tedious stat-tracking most fans don't want to do by hand — and don't need to. Every player page on FPL Oracle's Player Hub already shows a player's defensive contribution rate and bonus-point profile worked out for you. And you can just ask Oracle directly, in plain language — "is this defender a good DefCon pick" or "who should I Triple Captain this week" — without needing to know what CBIT stands for at all.
None of these rules require you to memorise an acronym. A defender who does his defensive job consistently earns bonus points for it now, a winger who takes players on no longer gets quietly punished for it, and the chips work exactly like they did last season. That's the whole picture.
The Oracle Takeaway
Three real things changed for 2026/27 — defensive contributions continue exactly as before, bonus points now favour attackers and full-backs over pure defensive volume, and chips are entirely unchanged — and none of them require learning new jargon to use well.
Three things worth doing with this: check whether your current defenders and defensive midfielders are the kind who reliably rack up tackles, blocks, and interceptions, since that's now a real, repeatable source of points independent of clean sheets. Stop worrying about your tricky wingers or attacking full-backs losing points for being dispossessed — that penalty is gone. And plan your first set of chips with the Gameweek 19 deadline in mind, since an unused chip at that point is lost for good.
FPL Oracle tracks every one of these rules automatically for every player in the game, and explains what they mean for your specific squad in plain language rather than acronyms. Browse the live Player Hub to see any player's defensive and bonus-point profile already worked out, or ask FPL Oracle directly what these changes mean for your team.
Before reading this, had you actually heard of CBIT — or is this the first time these rules have been explained without the jargon? 👇