Ligue 1 2026/27 Prediction League: predict French football with your group, no betting

A Ligue 1 2026/27 prediction league is a points game: you, your mates or your colleagues call the exact scores of French top-flight fixtures and the app keeps the table. The season starts on Friday 21 August 2026.

In trefa.app the French season is already loaded in full — 306 fixtures across 34 matchweeks between 18 clubs. It opens on Friday 21 August 2026 with Marseille v Strasbourg at 20:45 French time, which is 19:45 for you, and the last matchday is Saturday 29 May 2027. Nothing is staked and nothing is paid out: no entry fee, no odds, no kitty, just points and the right to be insufferable until May. Predict the whole division, or narrow it to the one club you actually follow.

What a private prediction league is, and why it isn't betting

Everyone in a closed group calls the same fixtures, the app compares each prediction against the real result and turns the difference into points. What separates it from most of what a search for French football turns up is what is absent: no stake, no entry fee, no odds, no prize fund. The app takes no deposits and pays out no winnings.

In a British workplace that distinction is the whole ball game. The office sweepstake where everyone puts a fiver in an envelope is a money game, which is why a lot of managers quietly decline to run one. Take the money out and the awkward part goes with it. It is a different contest from a bookmaker's, too: there you play the house for a return, here you play the two people in the group chat who swear they watched Ligue 1 before you did.

Setting one up before the opening Friday

1. Sign in with Google. On the login page one tap with a Google account gets you in — no password to invent, no registration form.
2. Create the league and pick the competition. Open create a league. A tree menu takes you from the sport down to Ligue 1 2026/2027, where you can also tick the club you want.
3. Set the scoring and the look. Decide what each type of correct call is worth, then apply a colour palette.
4. Invite people. The app produces an invite link and a QR code. Drop it in the WhatsApp group, post it to your supporters' club page or leave it on the bar. Whoever taps it plays.

Add it to your phone's home screen while you are there: trefa.app is a PWA, not an App Store download, so nobody has to install anything.

What you predict, and how the points work

The heart of it is the exact score. You call 2-1, and how close you land decides what you collect: a perfect scoreline scores highest, the right goal difference with the wrong scoreline less, the right winner least of all.

Nothing is handed down from above: as the founder you set what an exact score, a correct winner and a called draw are each worth, so no two groups end up with the same league. Rather than start from a blank form, borrow the worked examples in scoring rules.

Groups who want more to argue about can switch on predictions for the goalscorer, the assist and the time of the first goal, with the organiser defining the minute brackets. All of it is optional and scored automatically at full time, so nobody retypes a result into a spreadsheet. The full list is on the features page.

One warning for a British group: predictions lock the moment a match kicks off, and a French evening fixture lands earlier in your evening than a domestic one; the app can push a reminder before the deadline.

All 18 clubs, or only the one you follow

Inventing a scoreline for two clubs you have no feelings about is how a season-long league dies in September. If you follow Lens, you want to call Lens games.

Team selection at setup lets you tick one club or several, and everyone in the league then sees only the fixtures those clubs appear in, home and away. Out of 306 fixtures the list comes down to your club's 34 — one a week for ten months, which even the least committed member can keep up with.

You can change it later: an admin can add the rival in October. The one restriction is that a club cannot be removed once somebody has predicted one of its fixtures. Tick nothing and you get the whole division. The same approach across the continent is in the prediction league for supporters' clubs and national leagues 2026/27.

Ligue 1 2026/27 by the numbers

Fixtures arrive automatically from a sports data feed — you never type in a kick-off time.

Those numbers matter if your group tried an English table last season and ran out of steam by Boxing Day. Eighteen clubs rather than twenty means 74 fewer fixtures and nine games a matchweek instead of ten — a lighter ask over ten months.

Opening night of Ligue 1 2026/27

The rest of matchweek 1 follows over the weekend and appears as the times are confirmed, with a countdown to each deadline. Times in the app are shown on Central European time, the clock France uses — nothing is converted to your local time, so take an hour off whatever you see.

The 18 clubs loaded for the season: Angers, Auxerre, Estac Troyes, Le Havre, Le Mans, Lens, Lille, Lorient, Lyon, Marseille, Monaco, Nice, Paris FC, Paris Saint Germain, Rennes, Stade Brestois 29, Strasbourg and Toulouse.

One table for France and England

Here is the detail that makes this worth setting up even for a group that mostly talks about English football: both seasons open on the same Friday, and Marseille v Strasbourg kicks off a quarter of an hour before the Premier League opener. One evening, two openers, one group chat losing its mind.

You do not have to run them as separate leagues either. The multi-league setting merges competitions of the same sport into one prediction league: fixtures interleave into a single chronological list and every point lands in the same leaderboard. You can add more competitions later, though one that already has predictions on it cannot be removed. A follow a club across leagues toggle carries your club into each one you add.

One table then covers a Friday night in Marseille, a Saturday afternoon in England and the midweek European rounds. The Premier League 2026/27 prediction league covers the English season, and the European cups 2026/27 prediction league explains where the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League fit in.

Who a Ligue 1 prediction league suits

Offices. The season runs from August to May, and it levels the field: in an English table the one person who watches everything wins by February, whereas nobody in a British office has a real edge on Le Havre v Auxerre.

Supporters' groups, pubs and online communities. Following a French club from Britain usually means watching alone; a season-long table gives a scattered group a weekly reason to talk, and five mates in a group chat get the same league as a branch of a hundred.

An admin can also repaint the league in a palette drawn from real club colours. The palettes are not named after clubs and none of it is official branding — the change is cosmetic.

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When it isn't the right fit

Worth being straight about the limits. If your group watches two French fixtures a season, the group chat will do. If the appeal is playing for a cash pot, this is deliberately the wrong tool: there is no way to take money in or pay any out. And if you would rather pick a starting eleven, that is fantasy football, a different game.

Get your league running before 21 August

French football is back on Friday 21 August. Current terms and prices are on the pricing page — a pool of up to five participants costs nothing and from the sixth member it is charged per member — every feature works from matchweek one, and no money changes hands anywhere in the app.

Start your league now, send the link round tonight, and by May you will know which of your mates watches Ligue 1 and which only talks about it. Set yours up here.

Frequently asked questions

When does Ligue 1 2026/27 start and when does it finish?

The season opens on Friday 21 August 2026 with Marseille v Strasbourg, kicking off at 20:45 French time — 19:45 in the UK. The final matchday is Saturday 29 May 2027.

What time will I see next to a fixture in the app?

Central European time, the clock France uses. The app does not convert kick-offs to your local time, so from the UK subtract an hour: a fixture listed at 20:45 starts at 19:45 for you.

Is a prediction league the same as betting?

No. There is no stake, no entry fee, no odds and no prize fund; the app takes no deposits and pays out nothing. You play your own group for points and a place in the table, not a bookmaker for a return.

How many Ligue 1 fixtures are ready in the app?

The whole season: 306 fixtures across 34 matchweeks between 18 clubs. The calendar arrives automatically from a sports data feed, so nobody types in a fixture, a date or a kick-off time.

Can I predict only my own club's fixtures?

Yes. When you create the league you tick one club or several, and only their fixtures appear, home and away. Out of 306 fixtures the list comes down to your club's 34.

Can I put Ligue 1 and the Premier League in the same prediction league?

Yes. The multi-league setting merges competitions of the same sport into one chronological fixture list and one shared leaderboard, so a single table can cover both countries and the European nights.

How much does a Ligue 1 prediction league cost?

A pool of up to five participants costs nothing; from the sixth member onwards it is charged per member; current terms and prices are on the pricing page. No money passes between players either — no stakes, no payouts.

Do we have to install anything, and can a stranger find our league?

Nothing to install: trefa.app is a PWA you add to the home screen from your browser, so there is no App Store download and nothing for IT to approve. The league is private, cannot be searched for, and people get in only through your invite link or QR code.