Detailed formats & options
League: single or double round
- Single round (default) — each team plays every other team once.
- Double round — each fixture is played twice (home + away), which doubles the number of matchdays.
The time between matchdays automatically spaces out the dates of successive matchdays (1 day → 2 weeks).
Tournament: groups & qualifiers
Teams per group
IFC offers the possible group sizes based on the total number of participants, respecting:
- a minimum of 3 participants per group;
- groups that are as balanced as possible.
Example — 16 teams: 3 teams (5 groups), 4 teams (4 groups), 5 teams (3 groups) or 8 teams (2 groups).
The number of groups follows from the choice (e.g. "4 teams · 4 groups").
Qualifiers per group
How many teams from each group advance to the final phase. The rule: at most (group size − 1) qualifiers.
When the number of qualifiers doesn't exactly fill the bracket, IFC adds lucky losers ("best runners-up / third-placed teams") to fill it out:
Example — 4 groups of 4:
- 2 qualifiers/group → 8 qualifiers → bracket of 8, perfect.
- 1 qualifier/group → 4 qualifiers + 4 best runners-up → bracket of 8.
A group format requires at least 6 participants. Below that, use a Cup (knockout).
Cup: knockout
No groups. The bracket is built right at the draw. A tied round in the final phase can be decided by penalty shootout.
Final phase: home / away
Some final-phase ties can include a first leg and a second leg
(order 1 and 2). This changes the penalty shootout rule — see
Penalty shootout.