World Cup

The World Cup is played between national teams, not clubs. Each national team is picked by its elected manager from players at manager-run clubs (see National teams). It runs through the season next to the league and the cup: a group stage first, then a knockout. It has its own tab in Competitions.

Who enters

The field is set when an admin starts the season. Every national team with an elected manager and at least ten players called up is in, and the squads are fixed from then on: call-ups only change in the off-season. With fewer than eight such national teams, that season has no World Cup.

Group stage

The national teams are drawn at random into groups of four, with some groups of three when the field does not divide evenly. Each team meets every other team in its group once, over three matchdays (in a group of three, each team sits one matchday out). Draws are allowed, and a group is ranked exactly like a league table: 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw, then goal difference, head-to-head and goals scored.

The group winners go through to the knockout, then the runners-up, then, if places are left, the best of the next place across the groups. Teams in the same place in different groups are compared per match played, so a group of three is not at a disadvantage. The tinted rows in a group table are the places that go through.

Knockout

The knockout takes half the field or fewer (8 teams send 4 through, 16 send 8, up to 64), and a group winner always meets a runner-up from another group in the first round. Each tie is one match with a winner, using the cup's extra time and 7 metre shootout. The two semi-final losers play a 3rd-place match at the same time as the final.

When it is played

World Cup rounds kick off at 18:00 Lisbon time, between the cup round and the second league round of the day, spread over the season so the final is played before the last league round. A player called up for his country plays for it as well as for his club. His World Cup minutes count towards his training week, his World Cup numbers appear in his statistics, and he can be injured or suspended in either kind of match.

Forfeits

A national team that cannot field seven available players forfeits, 15 to 0. In the group stage, if neither side can, both lose 0 to 0 with no points. In the knockout, if neither side can, the better-seeded team goes through.

Medals, prizes and ranking

The champion's national team wins the World Cup trophy, and the 2nd and 3rd place take a medal. They go in the national team's own cabinet, not a club's.

Each country's federation also pays a prize to every manager-run club from that country: 4,000 EUR for the champion, 2,500 EUR for 2nd and 1,500 EUR for 3rd in the entry division, scaled by the division each club plays in (the league's multipliers). It arrives when the final is played and shows in your finances as a World Cup prize.

Every team that reaches the knockout earns ranking points: 1 for the first knockout round and 1 more for each round after it, plus 4 for the champion, 2 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd. The national team ranking adds them up over every World Cup.