Fantasy FIFA World Cup is just hours away from starting!
Many of you have been consuming our content over the past few weeks, which you can find here.
A lot of you will also have your squads locked in, or nearing completion.
But if you’re a latecomer, have been roped in to play by family or friends and/or are new to the Fantasy World Cup format, we’ll attempt to steer you through the game.
THE BASICS
Firstly, head here to register and start building a team.
Much like Fantasy Premier League (FPL)…
- You pick a squad of 15 players (two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards) who will score points based on their on-field performances.
- Your budget is $100m – though this generously rises later in the tournament.
- You can only have three players per country in your squad. Again, this rises after the group stage.
Points are scored from the usual routes (appearances, clean sheets, goals, assists) and deducted for the usual actions (red card, yellow card, missed penalty etc).
However, there are a few differences:
- Goal from a direct free-kick: +1
- Scouting Bonus: Any of your players who are under 5% owned who score 4+ points: +2
- Winning a penalty: +2
- Conceding a penalty: -1
- Every three tackles from a midfielder: +1
- Every two chances created by a midfielder: +1
- Every two shots on target from a forward: +1
You can read the full rules and how to play below:
- READ MORE: How to play the FIFA World Cup Fantasy 2026 game
- READ MORE: Fantasy FIFA World Cup 2026: What is ‘Scouting Bonus’?
- READ MORE: Scouting Bonus tracker: See which Fantasy picks are close to 5%
WHAT’S A BOOSTER?
A ‘booster’ is the equivalent of an FPL chip. You can view/activate them via the ‘lightning’ icon on your My Team page.
There are five in all, but two (the Mystery Booster and the Qualification Bonus) can’t be used till the knockout rounds, so forget about them for now.
As for the other three…
| Wildcard | Unlimited free transfers for a specific round (except the Round of 32) |
| 12th Man | Allows an extra player to bring points… one who isn’t already in your squad, without any budget or player-per-team restrictions |
| Maximum Captain | Guarantees that your final XI’s highest scorer gets the armband for double points |
Many managers are playing them as follows:
- Wildcard: Round 3 (aka the third round of group games)
- 12th Man: Round 1 or 2
- Maximum Captain: Round 1, 2 or later in the tournament
WHICH PLAYERS TO PICK?
There’s more than one way to skin a cat but for the purposes of this piece, we’ll follow the ‘Wildcard in Round 3’ route. So, you only need to focus on the first two Rounds with your initial team.
Many Fantasy managers are focusing on the following teams, as rated by our Fixture Ticker:
Belgium, Brazil and France (perhaps Ecuador too) have slightly trickier Round 1 fixtures, but much better Round 2 games.
You could start without players from these teams but you only get two free transfers to use between Rounds (aka Gameweeks). So plan your future moves wisely! There are no price changes, at least.
To help you, there are our expected points tables, our AI team rater and, of course, the obligatory expert team reveals. If in doubt, consult the know-it-alls.
Don’t forget to check out the predicted line-ups, too, to make sure your player is going to start.
There’s also our Scout Picks, although they focus only on Round 1 in isolation.
It’s important to pick a squad of 15 good, playable players (and not just 11 stars and four bench-warming duffers) because…
SUBS + CAPTAINS: ORDER YOUR TEAM CHRONOLOGICALLY
Once you’ve picked your squad of 15, you’ll have to set your team up for the Round ahead.
As mentioned above, it’s optimal to have a full squad of playable picks and no wasted spaces.
That’s because:
- You can make manual substitutions, replacing underperformers in your starting XI with substitutes who are yet to play.
- You can change your captain, moving the armband from someone who perhaps hasn’t delivered many points to someone who has yet to play. You can do this multiple times until you are content with a score.
So, it’s important to set your squad in chronological order of when they are going to play. You can see how we’ve done this with the Scout Picks in the graphic above (ideally, we’d have Ryerson in over Sabitzer but a minimum of three midfielders are needed!).
There’s more info available here:
ENJOY – AND JOIN OUR MINI-LEAGUE!
That is pretty much a rough outline of how to play Fantasy World Cup. You can get plenty more content on the game via the links below.
Don’t forget to join our mini-league (as well as those of your family and friends!) for a chance to win some prizes.
READ MORE OF OUR FANTASY FIFA WORLD CUP 2026 CONTENT
GROUP A: Mexico | South Africa | Korea Republic | Czechia
GROUP B: Canada | Bosnia & Herzegovina | Qatar | Switzerland
GROUP C: Brazil | Morocco | Haiti | Scotland
GROUP D: USA | Paraguay | Australia | Turkiye
GROUP E: Germany | Curacao | Cote d’Ivoire | Ecuador
GROUP F: Netherlands | Japan | Sweden | Tunisia
GROUP G: Belgium | Egypt | Iran | New Zealand
GROUP H: Spain | Cabo Verde | Saudi Arabia | Uruguay
GROUP I: France | Senegal | Iraq | Norway
GROUP J: Argentina | Algeria | Austria | Jordan
GROUP K: Portugal | DR Congo | Uzbekistan | Colombia
GROUP L: England | Croatia | Ghana | Panama
Round 1 Scout Picks | Round 1 best captains | Round 1 best differentials: | Sleep-friendly XV | Players to avoid | Team reveals | Best players by position + price
Predicted line-ups | Penalty + corner takers | Direct free-kick takers
How to play World Cup 2026 Fantasy | What is ‘Scouting Bonus’? | How to order your starters + subs | Can you captain, transfer or sub 12th Man? | 150 of the best, worst and funniest team names
Join our mini-league + win prizes! | Stats Centre | FREE AI Team Rater | Fixture Ticker | Scouting Bonus tracker | Fixture calendar
