Handbook

Everything you need to play GoalDen Football — a free prediction game for the FIFA World Cup. Predict matches, earn points for accuracy, and climb your league and the regional boards.

1. Quick start — before your first match

1. Sign up and set your country (it places you on the regional boards).
2. Join or create a league — with a join code/link, or a discoverable one on the map.
3. Open Predict and enter the exact scoreline for each upcoming match.
4. Optionally add a Game Flow pick per match and your one-off Bonus picks for the whole tournament.
5. Everything locks at kickoff (bonus picks lock at the tournament's first kickoff). Come back for live scores and points.

2. How it works

Three things earn you points, all stacking into one total:

• Match prediction — the scoreline of each game (the core of the game).
• Game Flow — up to three optional bonus calls per match.
• Bonus picks — tournament-wide calls (champion, top scorer, qualifiers…), made once.

You make one prediction per match and it counts in every league you belong to — no need to re-enter picks per league.

3. Match predictions & scoring

Predict the exact final score of each match. You can edit any time up to kickoff, after which it locks. Points for the result:

• Exact score — 5 points
• Correct goal difference (not exact) — 3 points
• Correct result (win / draw / loss only) — 1 point
• Wrong — 0 points

In the knockout stages there are two extras:

• Who advances — +2 for correctly picking the team that goes through (after extra time / penalties).
• Round multiplier — the organiser may weight later rounds (e.g. a final worth more). The standard scheme uses ×1.

The scoring scheme is standard for everyone, so league, country and global boards stay comparable.

4. Game Flow predictions

On each match card, once you've entered a scoreline that isn't 0–0, an optional Game Flow section opens with up to three bonus calls (up to +4 per match):

• Q1 — Which team scores first? (+1). If your scoreline has a team on 0 (e.g. 2–0), the first scorer is already implied, so this becomes “Will the first half be goalless?” (+1). Answering Yes auto-fills the next two (half-time 0–0, more goals in the 2nd half).
• Q2 — Half-time score (+2 for the exact half-time scoreline; it can't exceed your full-time score).
• Q3 — Which half has more goals? — first / second / equal (+1).

Each Game Flow call is optional and saved with your scoreline. They're scored independently against the real result — keeping them consistent with your scoreline is up to you.

5. Bonus picks

Made once for the whole tournament from the Bonus tab, these lock at the first kickoff of the tournament. Points:

• World champion — 30
• Top scorer — 25  ·  Best player — 25
• Most goals (team) — 10
• Finalists — 15 each (the two teams that reach the final)
• Third-place winner — 10
• Group winners — 3 each (per group)
• Round-of-32 qualifiers — 1 each (pick the 32 that reach the knockouts)
• Round of 16 (pre-quarter) — 2 each (pick the 16)
• Quarter-finalists — 3 each (pick the 8)
• Semi-finalists — 5 each (pick the 4)

The qualifier picks are multi-select — you score per correct team. Most answers resolve automatically from results; top scorer, best player and most-goals team are confirmed by the organiser.

6. Leagues

• Create or join — share a join code / invite link, or make a league discoverable on the map (pinned to a school, college or club) so people can request to join with admin approval.
• Admins — every league has one owner plus up to five co-admins (six total) who can manage members and settings.
• Chat — each league has a shout-box (admins can turn it off); messages auto-clear after a few days.
• One set of picks — your predictions count across all your leagues at once.

7. Leaderboards & standings

Your total = match points + Game Flow + bonus picks. You appear on:

• League boards — ranked against your league's members.
• Regional player boards — your district/region, state, country and global.
• League of leagues — leagues ranked by average points per member in a region.

Ties are broken by most exact scores. The same points show on every board, so they always line up.

The Standings page shows the official group tables — top two of each group, plus the eight best third-placed teams, advance to the Round of 32. Knockout fixtures and results appear on the Matches page.

8. Live scores

During match hours the Live now widget shows in-play scores, refreshing automatically. When a match finishes, points are computed and the leaderboards update.

9. Your account

• Sign in with email + password, or with Google / Facebook.
• Region — your country (and optionally state/district) places you on the regional boards.
• Achievements — earn badges for milestones as you play.
• Your data — manage or delete your account from settings; see the Privacy page.

10. FAQ

See also the short Rules and FAQ.