As the 2026 World Cup draws closer, we asked the question: which competing nation has the best Football Association website?
These sites serve fans, players, parents, coaches, journalists, sponsors, grassroots volunteers and international audiences – which means they need to load quickly, work well on all devices, inspire trust and handle a lot of traffic.
We compared the performance, accessibility and security of each website to give each FA website an overall score.
🏆 Follow the drama and excitement of the tournament from the Group Stage to the Final to see which nation’s website lifts the Cup! ⬇️
Rules Of The Game
Testing was carried out in May 2026. Each website could score up to 70 points: 30 for performance, 20 for accessibility and 20 for security.
- Performance was measured with Lighthouse. Each site was run three times on mobile and three times on desktop, with the mean values used for scoring to account for one-off variation caused by network conditions, browser automation, CDN behaviour or third-party scripts.
- Accessibility combined Lighthouse accessibility scoring with pa11y checks.
- Security used results from HTTP Observatory and focused on publicly visible signals such as HTTPS, HTTP-to-HTTPS redirects, HSTS, Content Security Policy, frame protection, referrer policy and related headers.
With real World Cup 2026 groupings in place, the tournament was ready for kick off.
Group Stage Shocks
From the first whistle, it became clear that reputation would count for nothing in the World Cup Of Websites tournament.
Group A Results
Mexico, one of the real-world host nations, delivered the goods in Group A. Their balance across performance, accessibility and security helped them finish ahead of South Korea who also progressed with a solid all-round score.
South Africa went through as one of the best third-placed websites automatically as Czechia was not able to be fully assessed in our testing environment.
Group B Results
Canada, another host nation, also made it through Group B, finishing top ahead of Bosnia & Herzegovina and Switzerland thanks to their overall balance. Quatar‘s weaker performance left them short of a knockout place.
Group C Results
🏴 Scotland comfortably beat Haiti and then, astonishingly, toppled Brazil.
Brazil’s performance was let down by weaker security and we saw one of football’s biggest names miss out on a best-third-place spot in another shocking upset delivered by Haiti’s great handling of accessibility and security.
Morocco could not be fully assessed in our automated testing environment.
Group D Results
🇺🇸 The United States performed well but Paraguay’s stronger security kept them off the top of Group D. Still, the US fended off fierce competition from Australia and Türkiye to make it through the Group Stage.
Group E Results
Germany were the second major World Cup nation to stumble, finishing below Curaçao in Group E after Curaçao’s stronger all-round score helped them top the group.
Ivory Coast‘s strong performance won the day against Ecuador‘s capable security score.
Group F Results
Sweden looked like a serious contender from Group F, topping the table ahead of Tunisia and the Netherlands. Japan had the toughest run, with its strong accessibility score undone by the lowest performance score in the tournament.
Group G Results
Belgium also fell early. Egypt and New Zealand both finished ahead of them in Group G, with Belgium’s low performance score leaving them short of the knockout places. Iran couldn’t be fully assessed in our automated testing environment.
Group H Results
Tournament newcomers Cape Verde topped a tough Group H ahead of Saudi Arabia and Spain, combining strong security/header hygiene with enough performance and accessibility quality to look like a genuine contender.
Uruguay fumbled the ball at a key moment with weaker performance and security, missing out on a best third-placed slot.
Group I Results
France suffered one of the biggest shocks of the Group Stage, finishing bottom of Group I while Norway, Senegal and Iraq all progressed.
Group J Results
Current World Cup holders Argentina were another giant to fall early, going out in Group J as Austria topped the group, Jordan earned their spot in the knockouts and Algeria‘s accessibility score carried them to third place.
Group K Results
Portugal winning Group K was no surprise, but DR Congo finishing ahead of Colombia added another unexpected twist to the tournament story. Uzbekistan were competitive on accessibility, but performance left them short and allowed Columbia to progress to best third-place.
Group L Results
Panama weren’t able to be fully assessed in our automated testing environment.
🏴 England made a confident start, reaching the top of Group L ahead of Croatia and Ghana thanks to impressive accessibility and security scores. Could football be coming home?
With the excitement of the Group Stage still in the air, 32 nations moved forward into the knockouts.
Knockout Stage Surprises
Round of 32
The knockouts wasted no time cutting the field in half.
Cape Verde swept past New Zealand with a dominant all-round display. The Netherlands pushed past Australia with strong security/header hygiene. Spain made light work of DR Congo, using a stronger overall score to book their place in the next round.
Austria produced a strong performance-led win over Ivory Coast, keeping their impressive tournament run alive while Sweden comfortably beat Switzerland, with their clean technical performance making them look like serious contenders.
Senegal edged past Haiti, with performance proving to be the difference in a tight match up. Saudi Arabia saw off Egypt with a dominant win, helped by stronger security/header hygiene.
Curaçao, the smallest nation in the tournament, delivered one of the first major shocks of the Round of 32, knocking out Canada and ending one of the host nations’ hopes early.
Norway powered past Colombia, with their performance score once again doing most of the damage.
🇺🇸 The United States managed to get one past Croatia early in the first half. Despite an impressive performance, Croatia weren’t able to equalise and the US emerged from one of the closest matches in the round as the victor.
Portugal beat Jordan with a dominant performance-led display, setting up a dangerous-looking knockout run. Tunisia overcame Iraq with a comfortable win, helped by stronger security/header hygiene.
🏴 Scotland swept past South Africa, with their excellent security score making the difference.
🏴 England beat South Korea, pulling ahead just before the final whistle to keep hopes of football coming home alive.
Mexico comfortably beat Bosnia & Herzegovina, continuing their strong tournament as one of the real-world host nations.
Paraguay produced another statement result, beating Germany to continue their impressive run after topping Group D.
What became clear from these matches is that anything could happen in the Round of 16.
Round of 16
🏴🏴 Scotland were the stronger team and ended England’s dreams in the Round of 16 in one of the best match-ups of the entire event: two home nations, one knockout place and Scotland coming out on top. Football did not come home in this World Cup of Websites tournament.
🇺🇸 Norway’s powerful performance proved too much for the United States, while Portugal’s performance put them ahead of Tunisia’s superior security just after half time and led them to a well-earned win.
The rest of the Round of 16 had plenty more action in store!
Cape Verde swept past the Netherlands, Spain survived a nail-biter against Austria winning on penalties while Sweden comfortably beat Senegal.
Saudi Arabia ended Curaçao’s giant killing run with a strong header play that put them ahead.
Mexico pushed past Paraguay’s head turning accessibility score with inspiring performance and security results, setting up a Quarter-Final packed with genuine contenders.
The Quarter-Finals
Cape Verde made their biggest statement yet by knocking out Spain with another strong all-round display.
Sweden succeeded against Saudi Arabia by a sliver with just 0.55 points between them in a thrilling extra-time showdown.
Norway’s pace once again carried them through past their Portuguese opponents and onto another victory.
🏴 Scotland’s security held out against Mexico’s ferocious performance to solidify the roster for the Semi-Finals.
Sensational Semi-Finals
With just four nations left in the competition, the World Cup of Websites Tournament became even more thrilling!
Sweden are the only one of these teams to have ever made it to the real World Cup Semi-Finals. Norway’s best is the Round of 16 while Scotland have not yet made it out of the Group Stage.
Most surprising of all is that 2026 is Cape Verde’s first ever World Cup! Let’s see how their beginner’s luck holds up.
Cape Verde went up against Sweden in the first Semi-Final. Sweden had one of the cleanest technical performances in the tournament, but Cape Verde’s stronger security/header hygiene helped them to stay just ahead.
🏴 The other Semi-Final was even tighter. Norway beat Scotland by the narrowest of margins, with a mere 0.16 points separating the two sites in a heart racing penalty shootout.
That left us with a final between Cape Verde and Norway: a strong all-rounder against the performance powerhouse.
The Final: Cape Verde Vs Norway
Norway brought the pace. Its performance score was miles ahead, with near-perfect Lighthouse performance and extremely strong Core Web Vitals-style results.
In a pure speed contest, Norway wins this tournament.
As every fan knows, there’s far more to the game than speed!
Cape Verde combined solid performance with brilliant accessibility and excellent public security/header hygiene. Cape Verde’s balance gave them the highest overall score, and led to the nation lifting the cup.
With a final score of 50.16 to 48.81, Cape Verde became the first ever winner of our World Cup Of Websites tournament.
Tournament Highlight Reel
🏆 The Surprise Champion
Cape Verde topping the table shows that a smaller football association can outperform bigger names online by getting the fundamentals right.
⚡ The Speed Specialist
Norway was the fastest site in the tournament. Its performance numbers were well ahead of the rest of the field, especially on mobile. The trade-off was that its security/header hygiene score held it back from the overall title.
🔒 The Defensive Masterclass
Scotland did not top the overall table, but it had the strongest public security/header hygiene score. That made it a semi-finalist and a great example of a site putting in the technical work.
👎 Football Giant Stumbles
Brazil is one of the most recognisable football nations in the world, but its website finished third in Group C and missed out on a best-third-place spot. Poor security/header hygiene dragged down an otherwise more competitive score.
🤯 Shock Upset
Japan lost all three matches in the Group Stage. The main issue was performance: the site scored 0.85 out of 30 in that category. Accessibility was stronger, but not enough to offset the performance result.
Full Results Table
For readers who want the raw rankings, here are the results:
The following football association websites were not able to be fully assessed in our testing environment at the time of writing, and were not included in our results:
Post-Game Analysis
The biggest lesson from the World Cup Of Websites is that websites need balance.
A site can be secure but slow. It can be fast but inaccessible. It can look amazing but perform poorly where most users actually browse: their phones. The fundamentals matter just as much for football associations as they do for other websites:
- Optimise mobile first. Fans are often checking information on the move.
- Keep pages lean. Tackle heavy scripts, large images and bloated templates and use a CDN.
- Prioritise accessibility. National organisations serve broad public audiences.
- Do the security work. Public header hygiene is not glamorous, but it matters.
- Plan for traffic spikes. Tournament traffic is unpredictable, especially around fixtures, squad announcements and big results.
The best sites in the tournament were strong all-rounders. They combined speed, structure, accessibility and technical hygiene to outperform the rest of the field and score well.
Cape Verde are our Website World Cup champions, but who’s winning the real thing?
Tell us your World Cup winner prediction in the comments section. Are you backing one of the favourites, calling an upset, or sticking with your home nation?
