House Rules for The World Cup Football Game - A.J.Merritt 1998

I have always enjoyed The World Cup Football Game, and with the 1998 France World Cup I revisited it and updated it for myself so that I could replay France 98.

Modifications for France 98

The most obvious change is that there are 8 groups of 4 teams rather than just 6 as in previous years.  Therefore two extra groups are required. I have made a Word document with the France 98 Groups on, and this can be printed out, cut down to size and bluetacked onto the board.  Similarly the 2nd round matches are slightly different too, and so I have prepared a replacement 2nd round set of matches too, which should also be cut down to size and stuck onto the board.

There are two teams which are not in the teams provided.  I assigned them the following values - Jamaica 0.0, Croatia 1.0.  Stick a small piece of paper onto two of the unused teams for these teams.  You will also find there aren't enough stands.  I used old metal miniature stands for the extra teams.

House Rules

This is a game which is very open to rules tweaks.  These are the rules we use for for the France 98 game:

 * Before any cards are played each player secretly chooses 6 teams to support, 2x2 goal teams, 2x1 goal teams and 2x0 goal teams.  When a team's final position is determined the points that team gained eg. 8 points for losing in the final, are split between all players who supported that team.  Thus well supported teams are likely to do well, but the supporting players will all get relatively few points.  Points should he recorded exactly not rounded up or down.

 * All cards are played face up on the board.

 * While resolving the groups players play 2 cards on their turn.  One must be in the groups.  The other may either be on one of the first round matches or in the groups.  If in a group in must be a different group to the first card played.

 * As soon as a group has had all 12 cards played on it the group is resolved, and first and second places are moved up to their positions in the first round.

 * As soon as all groups have been resolved all the cards used in the groups are gathered up, shuffled and mixed in with the other cards remaining in the stock pile.  Players now admit to any teams they supported which didn't make it through the groups.

 * Now that the second round is being resolved players still play 2 cards, one must be in the second round.  The second may either be in a quarter final match or a different second round match.  When a match has all six cards played on it move up the winner to the appropriate position.

 * When the 2nd round is fully resolved players admit to teams they supported which didn't make it past the 2nd round.

 * During the quarter final stage players play 2 cards, one on a quarter final match and one either on a different quarter final match or on a semi-final match.  When the quarter finals are fully resolved players admit to any teams they supported which didn't make it past the quarter finals.

 * Once into the semi-finals players play only a single card on their turn, but may play it anywhere.  As soon as a match has all 6 cards played on it the winner and loser as moved up appropriately.

 * The player with the most points at the end is the winner.