How to Run Your Own World Cup 2026 Tournament with Friends (Free Template)
The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on June 11 in Mexico City and runs for 39 days across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It's the first World Cup with 48 teams — 12 groups of 4, then a Round of 32, then single elimination through to the Final.
If you want to run your own version with friends, family, classmates, or office colleagues — whether you're scoring real matches as they happen, simulating in a video game, or running a sweepstake — Score7 ships a free template you can duplicate in one click. This guide shows you how.
The template, in one paragraph
score7.io/tools/world-cup-2026 gives you a frozen Score7 tournament with all 48 qualified teams pre-loaded (with flags), the full match schedule (datetime + venue for every group-stage match, plus the knockout structure), and zero results entered. Click Use this template and Score7 makes a copy that belongs to you — rename teams, edit the schedule, change the format, enter scores as you go. The original template stays pristine for the next visitor.
The duplicate works on the same anonymous-first principle as the rest of Score7: you don't need to sign up to start. The tournament is tied to your browser session immediately. If you want to save it across devices or invite editors, you can sign in (free) at any point — before or after you start scoring.
The format, in real numbers
| Stage | Teams in | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Group stage | 48 → split into 12 groups of 4 | 72 (each group plays a round-robin) |
| Round of 32 | top 2 of each group + 8 best 3rd-placed | 16 |
| Round of 16 | 16 | 8 |
| Quarter-finals | 8 | 4 |
| Semi-finals | 4 | 2 |
| 3rd-place playoff | 2 | 1 |
| Final | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 104 matches |
The 12-groups-of-4 format is new to FIFA in 2026 (previously 8 groups of 4 → R16). It's what makes the Round of 32 work — you need 32 advancing teams, and 12 × 2 = 24 from the group winners + runners-up, plus the 8 best third-placed teams to round it out.
The template matches FIFA's official December 2025 draw — group composition, the schedule, and the 16 host stadiums all line up with the real event. When you duplicate it, you get the same structure, but every match starts with a clean 0-0 you fill in yourself.
What you can do with the duplicate
Once you duplicate, the tournament is yours — Score7 records the result, but doesn't care how the result was produced. A few worked examples:
Real-matches sweepstake with friends. Each friend picks a team (or draws one randomly). As the actual matches are played, you enter the scores you watched. Standings update live. The person whose team wins the Cup wins the office pot. Use the Random Team Generator to draw who picks first.
Video game tournament (EA FC, eFootball, PES). Replace the team names with the 48 friends in your league (or your gamer handles). Play each match in your preferred game; enter the result. Score7 builds the standings and the knockout bracket exactly as the real tournament would, without needing a spreadsheet.
Simulation / fantasy bracket. Enter your predicted results before the tournament starts and treat the Score7 bracket as your forecast. Compare it to the real outcomes as matches finish. Multiple friends each duplicate the template → each gets their own private bracket.
School assembly or class project. Use the template to teach probability, tournament design, or international geography. Each student picks a team to track for the duration of the event.
In every case the same template works — that's the point. Score7 is the structure; you bring the scoring.
Step by step: duplicate the template
- Open
score7.io/tools/world-cup-2026in any of the 9 supported languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese). - Read the FAQ if you want a feel for what's included. Then click Use this template.
- Choose a name for your copy. By default Score7 suggests "FIFA World Cup 2026 (Copy)"; rename it to fit your group ("Casa di Marco 2026", "Office Pool", "Sunday League WC").
- Click Create my tournament. Score7 creates the copy and lands you on its overview page.
- Optional: invite friends as editors from the Access panel if you want multiple people to enter scores.
That's it. The template's 48 teams, 12 groups, 72 group-stage matches with dates and venues, and the auto-generated knockout bracket are all in your copy. You can rename teams, swap participants, edit the schedule, or change the format — your edits don't affect the public template that other visitors continue duplicating.
Scoring during the tournament
Score7 isn't a live-scores feed — you enter results yourself. That's deliberate: it's what makes the same template work for video-game tournaments, real-match watchalongs, simulations, and prediction brackets. You stay in control of what counts.
For each completed match:
- Open your duplicated tournament.
- Tap the match in the schedule.
- Enter the final score (and any optional details — match events, who scored, lineups if you've turned advanced match reporting on).
- Save. Standings recompute live; knockouts get re-bracketed as group standings change.
Share the standings page with your group (private link or public) — they can follow along without needing to sign up.
A note on the schedule
The template has every group-stage match populated with FIFA's official datetime and venue. The knockout matches are auto-generated by Score7's multi-stage engine once the group standings are known — by default the dates are placeholders. If you want the real datetimes and venues for the knockouts too, you can paste them in from FIFA's official schedule on a per-match basis (each knockout match has a date editable from the match view).
A small caveat for the early-tournament window: if you duplicate before some of the qualifying playoffs have been played, a handful of "TBD" entries may appear. Re-duplicate after the squads are confirmed, or just edit them yourself.
What Score7 doesn't do
To keep expectations honest:
- No predictions or auto-results. Score7 doesn't predict winners or pull in scores from anywhere — you enter them. That's what lets the same template work for so many different use cases.
- No live commentary or stats feed. Score7 is a tournament manager, not a sports media platform.
- No bracket re-shuffling once you commit. If you want to change the format mid-tournament you can, but Score7 will warn you about consequences (existing matches may need to be re-scored or discarded).
That's the whole template-and-you-do-the-rest contract. It's why the tool is free.
Try it now
Open the World Cup 2026 template →
48 teams, 12 groups, the full schedule, zero results — yours in one click, no sign-up required.