It’s been a long summer, right? Three days in, it now feels acceptable to start speculating about the launch of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) for 2025/26.
Before hype causes coverage of the prestigious Club World Cup to escalate, it’s the thought on many FPL managers’ minds.
Using the timeline of past summers, we can estimate such a key upcoming date.
TRANSFER WINDOW
Things are a little bit different this year. Determined to maximise the potential of their newly revamped Club World Cup, FIFA have set up a small transfer window beforehand – an exceptional registration period that can awkwardly wedge in some extra global superstars.
To prevent any unfair advantages for the 32 competitors, all clubs can make transfers between Sunday 1 June and Tuesday 10 June.
The summer window shouldn’t exceed 12 weeks, but starting on 1 June would mean ending on 24 August. Clubs prefer a slightly later deadline, so a small non-transfer gap is required.
Therefore, the window will reopen on Monday 16 June and close during Monday 1 September.
DO WE KNOW THE PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES?
The Premier League fixtures will be released on Wednesday 18 June at 09:00 BST.
Once this happens, we’ll take a comprehensive look at the schedule and its opening fixture runs.
WHEN DOES THE 2025/26 PREMIER LEAGUE SEASON START?
The 2025/26 Premier League season is scheduled to get underway on Friday 15 August.
We’ll get international breaks in September, October, November and March, with the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) between late December and mid-January.
Like last season, the FA Cup fifth round takes place on a weekend. These, plus the quarter-finals, will all be exclusive of Premier League fixtures. This means there’ll be fewer Blank and Double Gameweeks than pre-2024/25.
Consisting of 33 weekend and five midweek match rounds, everything culminates with Gameweek 38, contested on Sunday 24 May.
WHEN WILL FPL 2025/26 LAUNCH?
PREVIOUS SEASONS
The million-dollar question and one we’re all waiting for an answer to, as those at FPL Towers never advertise the date.
What usually happens is they’ll tease us with a slow social media release of key player prices to build anticipation. The site then runs an update and officially goes live.
Recent launches have looked like this:
| SEASON | LAUNCH DATE | DAYS BEFORE GAMEWEEK 1 |
|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 17 July | 30 |
| 2023/24 | 5 July | 37 |
| 2022/23 | 5 July | 31 |
| 2021/22 | 23 June | 51 |
| 2020/21** | 15 August | 28 |
| 2019/20 | 27 June | 43 |
| 2018/19 | 5 July | 36 |
| 2017/18 | 12 July | 30 |
| 2016/17 | 19 July | 25 |
** This 2020/21 season was different because of the Covid pandemic
Last season, it was slightly later than in previous years due to Euro 2024. The average of these eight – not including the exceptional 2020/21 circumstances – is 35 days before the opener.
Working backwards from the Friday night opener, that would make 2025/26’s equivalent be Friday 11 July.
However, this is two days before the Club World Cup final, so perhaps Monday 14 July is a better estimate.
Either way, hang in there!
26 days, 22 hours ago2021/22 is more of an anomaly than the Covid delayed 2020/21 season in the chart. Any idea why FPL opened two weeks earlier than the average of 34 days before the start of the new season that year?