WikiNational team & tournaments
At the start of every season league football takes a four-day break – and the best players in the world meet up for the big tournament. Your pros are called up for their home country automatically, and if you fancy it you can stand on the touchline yourself: as a national coach you pick the team, set the tactics and can win a title you'll find nowhere else.
The tournament rhythm
Which tournament is up next depends on the season – the same in every world:
- Even seasons – the World Cup: 64 nations from all six confederations.
- Odd seasons – the continental tournaments: the European, South America, North America, Asian, African and Oceania Championships all run in parallel.
This also applies to the pure Europe worlds, where only European clubs play: they get all six continental tournaments and the World Cup as well. The only difference is who qualifies – more on that below.
The formats
| Tournament | Teams | Group stage | Knockout stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Cup | 64 | 16 groups of 4, 3 matchdays | Round of 32 → Final (127 matches) |
| Europe, Africa, Asia, North America | 16 | 4 groups of 4, 3 matchdays | Quarter-finals → Final (31 matches) |
| South America, Oceania | 10 | 2 groups of 5, 5 matchdays | straight to the semi-finals (23 matches) |
Everywhere it is the top two of each group who go through. There, points decide first, then goal difference, then goals scored and finally the head-to-head record. The knockout stage works just like the cup: if it's level after 90 minutes, extra time follows and, if needed, a penalty shoot-out. The bracket is fixed from the very start and spread out – group opponents can't meet again before the final at the earliest. There is no third-place play-off.
The whole tournament runs over four days: on season days 2 to 5, each at 11:00 and 18:30. The league pauses during that time – so you never have to choose between club and country. At the World Cup that means two rounds a day: group matchdays 1 and 2 on day one, matchday 3 and the round of 32 on day two, the round of 16 and the quarter-finals on day three, the semi-finals and the final on day four. The draw is made overnight before the first season day, and the final always kicks off on the evening of the fourth tournament day.
Who qualifies
There are no qualifying matches: participation is decided by the countries' five-year ranking – the same calculation that hands out the international qualification spots, measured across the five seasons before the tournament. The cut-off is the night before season day 48, just before the application window for the coaching jobs opens.
Continental tournaments
The best 16 or 10 nations of each confederation take part. If a confederation has too few nations with a ranking of their own – in the Europe worlds, for example, where no clubs play outside Europe – the nations with the strongest player pool move up: measured by the average of their 26 best active players, provided they have at least 26 active players at all.
World Cup
At the World Cup every confederation has a fixed allocation:
| Confederation | World Cup spots |
|---|---|
| Europe | 24 |
| South America | 8 |
| Africa | 8 |
| Asia | 8 |
| North America | 8 |
| Oceania | 8 |
How the spots are handed out depends on how your world is built:
- Worlds with clubs from every confederation (World 1 and World 4): every confederation sends its best nations from the five-year ranking.
- Europe worlds (World 2 and World 3): Europe qualifies through the five-year ranking. The other confederations have no ranking there, so the previous season's continental tournament counts: from South America and Oceania the top four of both groups go to the World Cup, from Africa, Asia and North America the top two of every group – in other words, all quarter-finalists.
If spots are missing anywhere, for example because a continental tournament didn't take place, they are filled up by five-year ranking and squad strength.
Seeding pots and draw
The draw runs through seeding pots, and every group gets exactly one team from each pot. At the continental tournaments the order of the five-year ranking decides the pot. At the World Cup it's the current squad strength instead: the average of each nation's eleven strongest players, compared across all confederations. The 16 strongest nations go into pot 1, the next 16 into pot 2 and so on. On top of that, no more than two European teams may end up in the same World Cup group.
The squad
Call-ups happen automatically: every country fields a 26-man squad, filled position by position with the strongest players of that nationality – 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, 11 midfielders and 4 strikers. If two players are equally strong, the younger one gets the nod. One requirement: a running club contract – anyone without a club isn't called up and loses his place to the next best.
The squad is drawn up completely fresh at the start of the season and once more at the half-way point; in between, a replacement moves up daily for any player who has become clubless. A club change, by the way, does a call-up no harm at all. You can look at the current squad any time on the national team screen, and your pros' player files gain their own international block with caps and goals.
A call-up is a badge of quality – and it pays real money: for every player released to his national team his club receives a call-up bonus of 50,000 per tournament day, so 200,000 per player across the four tournament days. It's paid for the nomination, not for appearances – even the third-choice keeper brings in the full bonus. Anyone who has developed plenty of internationals earns handsomely from the tournament without being there at all.
Becoming a national coach
A coaching spell always covers one tournament. The posts are filled during the last three days of the previous season, in three rounds with increasing freedom:
| Round | What you can apply for |
|---|---|
| Round 1 | Only the country your club plays in, provided it takes part in the tournament – the home country has priority. |
| Round 2 | Up to three nations of your choice that still have no coach. |
| Round 3 | Up to three nations once more – whatever is still vacant. |
Every night the confederation decides. If several managers apply for the same country, the one with the best Ballon d'KoF rating as a manager wins; if they're level, manager points decide, and finally the draw. You can take charge of only one national team per season – land a country and your remaining applications lapse automatically. Nations without applicants play the tournament on autopilot.
Picking the team & coaching
As a national coach you don't need an extra screen: the international matches simply show up in your usual line-up and tactics – on the home screen just as in the matchday flow. Because no league football runs on tournament days, club and country never get in each other's way. You pick from the 26-man squad, choose your formation and set mentality, effort, aggression and planned substitutions as usual.
You're welcome to carry the tactics matrix over from your club routine – "Load last" falls back on your most recently saved setup. The planned substitutions, on the other hand, stay separate: national team and club have completely different squads, after all. If you don't pick a side at all, the automation puts out a balanced 4-4-2 from the strongest available players.
What's different at a tournament
International football is a competition of its own – it should neither harm your club nor quietly hand it advantages:
- No side effects for your club: freshness, stamina, morale and training are untouched, and the players don't age any faster.
- Injuries heal overnight: anyone injured at the tournament is fit again the next day – so your club never loses a player for weeks.
- Separate suspensions: cards only count within the tournament – the third yellow and a second yellow cost one match each, a red one to three. Conversely, nobody carries a league ban into the tournament.
- Neutral ground: matches are played in the tournament stadium in front of a full house, with no home advantage and no ticket income.
- Separate statistics: tournament goals don't count towards the top scorer crown, the league statistics or the Ballon d'KoF – instead there are dedicated tournament and international statistics.
What the title brings
True to the no-pay2win line, winning a tournament brings no money – but glory that lasts: manager points (250 for the world champion, 150 for a continental title), the title "World Champion" or "European Champion" in your manager office and the three new badges for national coach, continental champion and world champion coach. The tournament archive with tables, fixtures, top scorers and bookings stays available for good, and every nation keeps its own all-time record with titles, record appearance holders and record results.
A tournament opens every season: even seasons the World Cup with 64 nations, odd seasons the six continental championships – in every world. Qualification runs through the five-year ranking; in the Europe worlds the World Cup places outside Europe come from the previous season's continental tournaments. The 26-man squad picks itself. You apply as national coach on the last three days of the season – the Ballon d'KoF manager rating decides. Tournament matches leave your club untouched, but earn it a 50,000 call-up bonus per international and tournament day. The title pays in manager points and badges, not in money.