Blog · July 26, 2026
HNL 2026/27 Prediction League: a private score predictor for your group
The Croatian top flight is back on Friday 31 July 2026. The whole season is already in trefa.app — 180 fixtures, 10 clubs, 36 rounds. Set up a private prediction league for your mates, your supporters' club or the Croatian crowd in your city, with your own scoring rules and nothing staked.
An HNL 2026/27 prediction league is a points game where you, your mates or your supporters' club predict exact scores in the Croatian top flight. The app keeps the table. The season starts on Friday 31 July 2026.
In trefa.app the whole season is already loaded — 180 fixtures across 36 rounds between 10 clubs. It opens on Friday 31 July 2026 at 20:00, when Dinamo Zagreb host NK Slaven Belupo, and the final round is played on Saturday 22 May 2027. Nothing is staked and nothing is paid out: no entry fee, no odds, no prize pot, just points and bragging rights. Predict the entire division, or narrow it down to the fixtures of the one club you actually support.
What a prediction league is — and why it isn't betting
Everyone in a closed group calls the same fixtures, the app compares each prediction with the real result and turns it into points. What makes it different from most of what surrounds football online is what is missing: there is no stake, no entry fee, no odds and no prize fund. The app accepts no deposits and pays out no winnings.
Worth spelling out, because football online is never far from a bookmaker's banner. This is the opposite category: you are not playing the house for a payout, you are playing the people in your group chat for a place in a table. It also removes the awkward part of the traditional supporters' club version, where somebody has to collect the money, hold it and hand it over at the end.
How to set up an HNL prediction league
It takes a few minutes, on a phone or a laptop, and needs no technical knowledge.
- Sign in with Google. On the login page you sign in with your Google account — no password to invent, no registration form.
- Create a league and pick your club. Open create a league. A tree menu walks you through it — choose Football, then HNL 2026/2027, then optionally tick the club whose fixtures you want.
- Set the rules and the colours. Configure the scoring the way your group argues it should work, and choose a palette.
- Invite people. The app generates a unique invite link and QR code. Drop it in the WhatsApp group, post it to the supporters' club page, or let people scan it at the bar. Whoever clicks, plays.
Do add it to your phone's home screen. Trefa.app is a PWA, so you will not find it in the App Store or on Google Play — you save it from the browser with one button and it behaves like a normal app. Nobody installs anything, which matters for a group spread across several countries.
What you predict, and how the points work
The core of every league is the exact score. You call 2–1, and how close you land decides what you take home: points come from a perfectly correct scoreline, the right goal difference with the wrong scoreline, or simply picking the right winner.
There is no scoring system handed down from above. As the founder you decide what an exact score is worth, what a correct winner is worth and how a called draw is rated — so two leagues rarely look the same. For a starting point rather than a blank page, use the breakdown in scoring rules.
Groups who want more than a scoreline can also switch on predictions for the goalscorer, the assist and the time of the first goal, with the organiser setting the minute brackets. All of it is optional and scored automatically once the match finishes; the full list is on the features page.
Predictions close the moment a match kicks off, so nothing can be changed afterwards and there is no arguing about who called what. If you tend to remember only when the whistle has gone, the app can push a reminder before the deadline.
All 10 clubs — or just yours
The 2026/27 line-up in the app is: Dinamo Zagreb, HNK Gorica, HNK Hajduk Split, HNK Rijeka, Istra 1961, NK Lokomotiva Zagreb, NK Osijek, NK Slaven Belupo, NK Varazdin and Rudes.
This is the feature supporters' clubs reach for first. Not everyone wants to invent a scoreline for a fixture between two clubs they have no feelings about — if you follow Hajduk, you want to call Hajduk games.
Team selection when you create the league lets you tick one club, or several. Everyone then sees only the fixtures your chosen clubs appear in, home and away. Nothing else from the division shows up. So out of 180 fixtures across the season, your list comes down to your club's 36.
You can adjust it later — if three rounds in you decide the rival's games should count too, add that club in the settings. The one limit: a club cannot be removed once somebody has predicted one of its fixtures. Tick nothing at setup and you get the full division. How this plays out across Europe is covered in the supporters' club prediction league for national leagues 2026/27.
HNL 2026/27 by the numbers
Fixtures load automatically from a sports data feed, so you never enter a match, a date or a kick-off time by hand.
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| Competition | HNL 2026/2027 (the Croatian top flight) |
| Clubs | 10 |
| Fixtures in the app | 180 (whole season) |
| Rounds | 36 |
| First fixture | Fri 31 July 2026, 20:00 Croatian time — Dinamo Zagreb v NK Slaven Belupo |
| Final round | Sat 22 May 2027 |
Opening round of the HNL 2026/27
| Date | Kick-off | Fixture |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 31 Jul 2026 | 20:00 | Dinamo Zagreb v NK Slaven Belupo |
The rest of the opening round follows over that weekend and is already in the app alongside the opener. One practical note for anyone playing from abroad: kick-off times are shown on Central European time, the clock Zagreb and Split run on, so you work out your own offset once and forget it.
Ten clubs, four meetings — why a small league suits this game
Ten clubs and 180 fixtures works out at an average of four meetings for every pairing, and that changes the character of a prediction league in a way bigger divisions cannot match.
In a 20-club league you call your club's rival twice a season and much of the rest is filler. Here the fixtures that actually make people argue — Dinamo against Hajduk, the Zagreb clubs against each other, Rijeka and Osijek in the mix — come round again and again, and each one is another chance for someone in your group to be spectacularly wrong in public. With 36 rounds, one bad weekend settles nothing and a late run can still turn the standings over.
Your club's colours
So the league looks like it belongs to your group rather than to us, the admin can apply a colour palette drawn from real club colours.
The palettes are not named after clubs and this is not official club branding — just visual inspiration. Changing colours is cosmetic and touches neither the fixtures nor anything already predicted.
Who an HNL prediction league suits
Supporters' clubs and fan groups. A season-long table keeps a group talking between matchdays, without anyone collecting subs or holding a cash box.
Croatian communities abroad. Friends scattered across Germany, Ireland, Austria, Canada or Australia rarely watch the same match on the same sofa any more, but they can all call the same scoreline before kick-off and share one table for ten months. One invite link, nothing to install.
Pubs and sports bars. The regulars tap their calls in before kick-off, and by full time it is settled who the resident expert is.
Offices. The league runs from the end of July to late May, most of a working year, and a prediction league among colleagues is more natural than a scheduled team-building afternoon.
A group of mates, or an online community. Five people in a group chat get the same league as a branch with a hundred members, and a club Facebook group, Discord or subreddit joins with one tap.
Following your club into Europe as well
Croatian clubs do not only play the domestic season, and a separate league for European nights would mean two leaderboards and twice the admin. The multi-league setting merges several competitions of the same sport into one prediction league — one chronological fixture list, one table — and a follow a club across leagues toggle adds your club to each of them automatically. The European cups 2026/27 prediction league covers how that works this season.
When a prediction league isn't the right fit
For a one-off call on a single derby, a season-long table is overkill. If your group's whole point is playing for a cash pot, this is the wrong tool by design — there is deliberately no way to take money in or pay it out. And if what you enjoy is transfers and picking a starting XI, that is fantasy football, a different game; here you call scorelines and nothing else. What it does well is keep a fixed group engaged across a long season with nothing at stake but pride.
Set up your league before the opening round
The HNL 2026/27 begins on 31 July and the opening weekend arrives quickly. Current terms and prices are on the pricing page, every feature works from the first round, and no money is involved anywhere. Create your league today, send the invite round and find out who in your group actually reads the game.
Frequently asked questions
When does the HNL 2026/27 season start?
The season opens on Friday 31 July 2026 at 20:00 Croatian time (Central European), when Dinamo Zagreb host NK Slaven Belupo. The final round is played on Saturday 22 May 2027.
Is a prediction league the same as betting?
No. There is no stake, no entry fee, no odds and no prize fund — the app accepts no deposits and pays out no winnings. You compete for points and a position in the table, not against a bookmaker.
How much does an HNL prediction league cost?
A pool of up to five participants costs nothing; from the sixth member onwards it is charged per member. The current terms and prices are on the pricing page. It is not a betting company — you place no bets, you play for points and your place in the standings.
How many HNL fixtures are ready in the app?
The whole season: 180 fixtures across 36 rounds between 10 clubs. The schedule loads automatically from a sports data feed, so you never type in a fixture, a date or a kick-off time.
Which clubs are in the app for HNL 2026/27?
All ten: Dinamo Zagreb, HNK Gorica, HNK Hajduk Split, HNK Rijeka, Istra 1961, NK Lokomotiva Zagreb, NK Osijek, NK Slaven Belupo, NK Varazdin and Rudes.
Can I predict only Dinamo Zagreb's or Hajduk Split's matches?
Yes. Team selection lets you tick one club or several, and only the fixtures they appear in show up — home and away. Out of 180 league fixtures your list shrinks to your club's 36.
Can we play from different countries and time zones?
Yes. Everyone plays in a browser wherever they are, and kick-off times are shown on Central European time, the clock Zagreb and Split run on. The league is private and cannot be searched for — you get in only through an invite link or QR code.
Do I have to download anything from the App Store?
No. Trefa.app is a PWA — you add it to your phone's home screen straight from the browser in a few seconds. There is nothing to download and nothing for IT to approve.