World Cup 2026

There has to be a World Cup competition, doesn’t there. And the build started earlier in the year, and as at now (April) is almost complete, just a few tweaks needed 👍👍

It all Kicks off on 11th June and then on 19th July, 104 games later, the Champions of the World will be crowned, and then immediately have to hand the trophy over to Trump for him to keep with all the other trophies he’s collected.

It's going to be manic.

There's 12 groups, 48 countries, and last I read FIFA were even considering letting Chelsea join in, after all, they have won it all. 32 countries will qualify for the first round of knock out games, once they have all played each other in their groups, which means only 16 of them (15 plus Scotland) don’t get to make it to the next phase

I've been giving thought to what I should include in our/my competition, actually quite a bit of thought. 🤔🤔

I’ve taken inspiration from a few things you’ve probably been involved in this year so far, if you’ve played in Season 25/26. For me it's big enough to have pre-kick off predictions, as well as the fun of then 'Guessing' the scores of the games.

Makes sense then, that as always, the score predictions will be the Main Part, the 'Pinnacle', le pièce de résistance of the competition.

However, there's scope for more and during the Cup Competition this year (32 of us joined in that) the Last Team Standing worked well, and so I will also feature this in World Cup 2026.

Let’s start with the important stuff though.

The signing on fee will be £35 which will get you into everything and at least £12 of the fee will go to charity, and for the World Cup this year, we are supporting Help For Heroes.

IF YOU'RE A FIRST TIME PLAYER THEN A MINIMUM OF £35 WILL GO TO HELP FOR HEROES

We last supported them for the F1 last year, and I’d hope we will raise another £300/£400 for them this time by the time this competition is up and running.

Update : 6th April : We already have £415 pledged through sign ups and other donations 👏👏👏

In addition to the footy competition, we’re having a get together in London for the Quarter-Finals in July, which will support Great Ormond Street Hospital over the two evenings.

Update : 6th April : We already have £294 pledged from donations from the 23 joining the weekend 👍👍👍

As I update this in April, that’s over £700 pledged into total to both charities, which is incredible, I might have to raise the target I had of £1,000 combined across the two to £1,500.

All of this will bring our donations well above £12,000 in the last 4 years, which will make the 8 charities we support by far the biggest winners from all this madness we take part in 👍🙏👏

Once the final World Cup entry numbers are known, I will also be able to confirm the make up of the Prize Pot split between the Main Competition, the Last Player Standing Competition and pre-kick off competition. I’d expect the pot to be close to £600

OK, let me explain what you need to do and when by

Step 1 - Register as soon as possible to let me know you're up for it

Step 2 - Spread the word, there must be loads of others that would fancy playing along to the World Cup. AND REMEMBER EVERY NEW PLAYER THAT JOINS UP ADDS £35 TO HELP FOR HEROES

Step 3 - Submit your 'Pre-Competition' GuessWork before 10th June

Step 4 - Make sure you're ready to predict the scores for the games, with the first set of 12 games needed before a ball is kicked

Step 5 - AND, if you want to, Sign Up to come and join us in London on 10/11th July for the World Cup Quarter Finals as we gather to hopefully watch England move into the semis (well most of us hope). We will also take part in some indoor golf, interactive darts & pool, indoor clay pigeon shooting, eating, drinking and you’ll even be split into teams for a footy related quiz on the Saturday night before the serious stuff takes place

Registering is EASY.

Just fill in the form below, quick and easy, giving me all the information I need to set you up in the competition.

Here's a quick guide to what will be going on.

Main Competition

As with the footy competition that runs throughout the Premier League season, all you need to do is 'Predict/Guess' the scores of the games.

Basically, there's 10 points plus the winning margin, for getting a correct Score, (a 2-0 win is worth 12), 4 points if you get the result correct and the margin of the result correct (you say it will be 3-1 and it finishes 2-0) and 2 points if you get the result correct.

The results from ALL the games are counted as the scoreline at the end of normal time. We don't count anything that happens after the final whistle goes, so extra-time and penalties are not taken into account.

OK, there is a bit more than that behind the scenes, of course there is. Countries will have coefficients set by the FIFA World Ranking as at 1st June for the competition, and these will adjust the above points accordingly.

As an example, let's have a quick look at how those rankings could influence one of the group games, Brazil v Scotland. Brazil (as I write) would have a coeff of 1.07, Scotland, 1.25. (Set by FIFA, not me). A 3-0 win would be worth 13 points if the teams had the same ranking/coefficient, but they don’t. (and let’s be brutally frank, are never likely to have)

This adjusts the points, and if it's a Brazil 3-0 win, it's adjusted to 11.13, if it's a Scotland 3-0 win, adjusted to 15.19.

You do get 'fined' if you get things completely wrong. If you say Brazil will win the above game (let's face it we all will), then if it's a draw, you escape a fine, but if you (we) are totally wrong and Scotland win, then there's a price to pay, and the price is how many points a Scotland win is worth, which is 2.31 points for the correct result (2 points for the result adjusted by the coeffs)

And finally, you can increase the points further, by 'Banking' on the games. Simply Put - you can bet points on either doubling or trebling the amount you win if you get predictions correct, although the penalties are much higher if you get them wrong.

You will be allowed 3 (Three) bankers for each set of fixtures.

Points for games will increase as the competition progresses In the Round of 32 they will double, Round of 16, treble, up to the Play-Off which will be worth 6 X and Final where they will be worth 7 X the basic amount.

Whoever has the most points by the end of the Final, will be our World Cup Champion.

Last Player Standing Competition

Running alongside the Main Competition, you don't have to do anything extra, your guesses for the main competition add you into this, will be the Last Player Standing Competition.

The worst players in each set of fixtures are exiled from the competition, until we get to the Quarter-final stage when the last eight games will decide the winner. There will be eliminations at the end of the first round of group games, and more again at the end of the second round of group games, the third then through the knock out rounds

That's 9 elimination rounds, before the Last Players Standing fight it out. And, the points totals in this competition ignore Bankers and any penalties for wrong guesses, literally you only score points for getting things right!!!

Both these competitions will be decided by the score predictions you submit from Game 1 to the Final.

Alongside will be the 'Overall Predictions' of what will happen over the four and a bit weeks, your Picks for the World Cup.

World Cup Picks

The Picks are made before a ball is kicked. You will pick countries, players and clubs that you expect to do well and therefore earn you points throughout June and July.

If you want to, you can leave it all to chance and tick the Pot Luck option on the GuessWork form, OR you can even pick the bits you want to and then the gaps will be filled in, with random selections at this end

But where’s the fun in that.

Here’s what you what you should do when submitting your picks

COUNTRIES - you will pick who you think is going to win it, and who will be runner-up. In addition you will get to pick two countries from each group you expect to get out of the groups, to win you points. The more games they play, the more points they will win you, and the points won will be the same as those explained in the Brazil v Scotland game above, and, as previously mentioned, increase each round your picks progress through With potentially 3 countries progressing from the group, the ‘fringe’ ones could be key

PLAYERS - you will pick an 11 man team, and in honour of Mike Bassett, possibly the greatest England manager, they will be playing 4-4-2. Points are awarded from the scores they are awarded by SofaScore (as per the footy competition, each player scored out of a maximum of 10). Goals, assists & clean sheets will all add bonuses, and XG and GP will also adjust points totals. All will increase each knoack out round. If the player doesn’t make it onto the pitch, they will not pick up any points, why should you get points for players that sit on the bench the whole tournament . You will get to pick a Captain, and their points will be doubled.

Beside the 4-4-2 formation, the only other restriction will be a maximum of FOUR per country on your player choice. No others. If you want to pick all 11 players from one club, go for it. If you want to pick all Liverpool players, you can.

THERE WILL BE NO CHANGES ALLOWED ONCE THE FIRST BALL HAS BEEN KICKED IN THE OPENING GAME

CLUBS - you will pick 4 clubs, 2 from the Premier League, 2 from outside it. Every time one of their players plays in the World Cup, you will get a share of the points they are awarded from the section above. Again points will be awarded all the way through from Game 1 to the Final, and so the more of players for the clubs that you pick, that make it through to the latter stages, and play more, the more points they will win you.

All the points from the above will go towards The World Cup Picks, and decide the winner of that part of the competition.

What Do I Have To Do NOW

For now, all I need to know is that you want to join in. I don't need any pennies until the week before it all starts, but do need to know the numbers, and you might want to start giving some thought to those Picks, especially as you can go off piste with a number of your selections and not just select from the short lists I’ve added to the Picks Form

Want to know more, and access LINKS to all the forms then check out the page on my website NOW

So if you’ve got this far, why not let me know you’re going to join in 👍👍👍