The vice-captain in Fantasy Premier League is your backup captain : if your captain doesn’t play at all in a gameweek, your vice-captain automatically gets the armband and their points are doubled instead.

Quick Scoop: What the vice-captain actually does

  • You pick one captain (C) and one vice-captain (V) in your XI each gameweek.
  • If your captain plays even 1 minute, only the captain’s points are doubled and the vice-captain scores normal points.
  • If your captain does not play any minutes (injury, rotation, late withdrawal), your vice-captain becomes captain and gets double points.
  • If both captain and vice-captain do not play, nobody in your squad gets double points for that gameweek.
  • When you use Triple Captain and that captain does not play, the vice-captain will receive the triple points instead.

Mini strategy: How to use your vice-captain

  • Choose a very reliable starter with strong minutes and solid expected points, not a risky rotation pick.
  • Many managers put their second-best attacker or a premium with a good fixture as vice-captain, so they’re covered if the main captain is unexpectedly benched.
  • In weeks with heavy rotation (double gameweeks, busy festive periods), the vice-captain choice becomes more important because surprise benchings are more common.

Simple example

  • You captain Haaland and vice-captain Saka. Haaland doesn’t play a single minute; Saka plays and scores 8 points.
  • Haaland’s points are 0, Saka’s 8 points are doubled to 16 as he becomes your effective captain for that gameweek.

SEO bits

  • Focus keyword: what does vice captain do in FPL – It is the backup captain whose points are doubled only if your main captain does not play at all in that gameweek.
  • Meta description: Wondering what the vice captain does in FPL? It’s your backup captain: if your main captain misses out, the vice steps in and gets double points instead.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.