apterous.org

Notes from the organizer: The FIFA Men’s World Cup returns this summer held in USA, Canada & Mexico.

There is an uplift in qualifiers for the 2026 tournament to 48, which may prove ambitious in Apto terms, but let’s see where we get to.

For those who are unaware of how it works. All entrants (up to a max of 48) will be allocated a nation based on their Apto rating and will represent that nation in an Apto equivalent of the real-life tournament playing Human v Human matches throughout. Group Stage -> Last 32 -> Last 16 -> Quarters -> Semis -> Final.

Given we’re H v H, we will kick things off early (hence setting up the sign-up page now).

Group games will be played across a round robin format with matches taking place via the Apterous World Cup + ET format (LLNLLLNLNLN). Goals are scored if you get a max + beat your opponent in any round. Do I need to state that the team who scores the most goals in a match wins? Probably.

After the Group Stage I will reassess the best format for the knockout stages and potentially move to 15-rounders to avoid a lot of 0-0 draws. They’ll also be the small matter of how we approach extra time and penalties to work out.

If we don’t get 48 entrants, I’ll have to come up with a plan to fill any vacant spots (almost definitely with bots)

Ronan Higginson defends (or more likely doesn’t) the title he won at Qatar 2022 with Croatia.

Adam Latchford will be seeking further glory after taking England to the title at the Men’s Euro 2024, while Tom C will be hoping to repeat his Men’s COPA America 2024 success with USA.

Matthew Brockwell will be looking to translate his dominance of the women’s game to the men’s, having won both the Women’s World Cup 2023 (with Germany) and Women’s Euro 2025 (with Spain). And Florence will be hoping to figure again after her Women’s COPA 2025 win with Brazil.

Or... will Prune get allocated a filler spot and stun the world by leading Curaçao to glory?

All-comers welcome, but this does require a small commitment of making sure you take the time to schedule, play all your games within deadline otherwise everything becomes a bit of shenanigans.

Runs from: 13 April – 13 May 2026. Format: Apterous World Cup +ET. Matches: One-off. Approved.

Fixtures: 0. Completed: 0.