As the 2025/26 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season draws to a close, Fantasy managers may be looking for a way to scratch the football itch until the new campaign begins.
Luckily, there’s the 2026 FIFA World Cup to look forward to!
And if this tournament is like the past few helmed by football’s world governing body, there will be an official Fantasy game to sink our teeth into as well.
Some questions about that remain unanswered thus far, but here’s what we know.
WHEN IS THE WORLD CUP?
This, we can definitely answer for you all at this point!
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, taking place across the United States, Canada and Mexico, gets underway on Thursday 11 June. Mexico and South Africa meet at Estadio Azteca at 8pm BST.
The group stage action at this expanded 48-team tournament then continues until 27 June (in US time).
This is followed by…
- Round of 32: 28 June to 3 July
- Round of 16: 4-7 July
- Quarter-finals: 9-11 July
- Semi-finals: 14-15 July
- Third-place play-off: 18 July
- Final: 19 July
Between now and that opening match, we’ll bring you plenty of preview content!
WILL BE THERE BE AN OFFICIAL FIFA WORLD CUP 2026 FANTASY GAME?
Almost certainly, yes!
We’ve seen official FIFA games in 2022, 2018, 2014 and 2010. Basically, as long as this site has been going!
WHEN WILL THE FIFA WORLD CUP FANTASY GAME LAUNCH?
This, friends, remains the million-dollar question.
What we do know is that FIFA have historically left it rather late when it comes to launching their official Fantasy game for the World Cup.
In Qatar 2022, for instance, the Fantasy game went live nine days before the action got underway.
That gap was even smaller at Russia 2018, standing at just seven days!
However, FIFA are evidently getting more accustomed to putting out Fantasy offerings for its tournaments. They did so for last summer’s Club World Cup as well. This was a much more polished game and was launched 23 days before the tournament started.
And we also spotted some work being done on the ‘Fantasy’ section of the FIFA Play website in late April, so the powers that be certainly seem to be aware of the appetite for another Fantasy game this year.
That could mean we see the 2026 edition launched farther in advance of the World Cup’s opening match than previous instalments have been, perhaps in mid-May if the Club World Cup is a precedent. This would give Fantasy managers more time than ever to get planning.
Rest assured, though, that whenever the FIFA World Cup game does launch this summer, Scout will be there to provide expert tips and guide you through how it all works.
HOW DOES WORLD CUP FANTASY 2026 WORK?
Again, a question we’ll be able to answer with more certainty when the game is live.
However, any eager beavers out there can take a look at our ‘How to play’ articles for the 2025 Club World Cup and 2022 World Cup games, as there could be some similarities to them.
These games have also carried some similarities to FPL as well as some differences.
For instance…
- + or – points for winning or conceding penalties,
- Extra points for attackers having shots on target
- Differences in the numbers of points awarded in different positions for scoring goals, carrying out defensive actions – similar to defensive contributions (DefCon) – or creating chances
- Bonuses for choosing low-owned players
- Different chips, or ‘boosters, like the 12th Man and Maximum Captain
In cup-format competitions, Fantasy managers are also typically given extra transfers to make changes to their squad as the rounds of the tournament progress.
In some such games, you can even sub players in and out of your starting line-up during a Matchday provided those coming in are yet to play.
We’ll put out a new guide for the 2026 game once we know all the ins and outs.
