8 Football Drinking Games That Actually Make the Match Better

Even when your team doesn't.

Look, not every match is a classic. Sometimes it's 0-0 until the 89th minute and your best player is on the bench for reasons nobody can explain. Sometimes VAR ruins everything. Sometimes your team just... does that thing they do.

But right now football is actually delivering. The Champions League is deep into the knockout stages, the World Cup is around the corner, and there's genuinely a lot of football coming your way whether you asked for it or not.

Point is, you're going to be watching it with people. You might as well make it interesting.

These are eight ways to do that.

1. Choose your horse
   

Pick a player at the start of the match. That's your horse. Every time your horse touches the ball, you drink. Every time they score, everyone else drinks. Every time they get booked, you drank.

The chaos comes from the choices. Someone always picks a centre back and spends the whole game drinking on clearances. Someone picks a midfielder who gets subbed off at half time and has to start over. Choose wisely.

2. Goalkeeper
   

This one works best with a coffee table full of drinks and snacks.

At the start of the match everyone picks one item in front of them to protect. Their phone, their lighter, their glass, a crisp. Whatever. That's their ball. They're the goalkeeper.

If someone tries to steal your item and you catch them in the act, they drink. If they successfully take it without you noticing, you drink and you don't get it back until you steal it from someone else.

No looking away. No checking your phone. Eyes on the ball.

(This one gets genuinely difficult to do by the second half.)

3. Foul-play:

Two teams, supporting whichever side they want. Every time your team commits a foul, the other side drinks.

For groups who want more chaos: drink the sum of the jersey numbers of the players involved in the foul. A foul between number 9 and number 4 means the other team takes 13 sips. A goalkeeper bringing someone down in the box means everyone's in trouble.

If you've got a Drink Drank Drunk deck handy, swap the drinks for cards. Every foul means the other team draws from the deck and does whatever it says. Suddenly a yellow card situation becomes a Coochie Coo situation and now everyone has to talk to you like a small child for the rest of the half.

4. RefWatch
   

Every time the referee appears in a closeup on screen, everyone drinks.

That's it. That's the game.

It sounds passive but VAR has changed everything. That walk to the monitor, the huddle of players, the four replays, the assistant ref getting involved — that's a lot of screen time for a man in a yellow shirt who nobody asked for.

5. Guess

Before kick off everyone writes down 10 predictions. Not vague ones. Specific ones. First player to get a yellow card. Which minute the first goal is scored. Who gets subbed off first. Whether the keeper pulls off something ridiculous in the first half.

Every time your prediction comes true, everyone else drinks and you cross it off. At the final whistle, count your uncrossed predictions and take one drink for each.

Extreme mode: number your predictions 1 to 10. Add up the numbers of your uncrossed ones and take that many sips. Left with predictions 6, 7 and 9 uncrossed? That's 22 sips. Maybe be a bit more realistic with your predictions next time.

6. Goal Kick Roulette
   

Simple one for when things slow down.

Every time there's a long goal kick, count how many headers and lobs the ball takes before it hits the ground. Everyone drinks that many sips.

Short passing goalkeeper? Barely drink all half. A team that just hoofs it long every time? Absolute carnage. You'll know which type of match you're in by about the third minute.

Drink Drank Drunk: Soccer Mode!

Pull out the deck and put the Rule, Power, Weakness and Special cards in seperate piles.

Before kick off draw two Rule cards and place them in the middle. They apply to everyone for the whole first half. At every goal, switch one out for a new one. At half time, swap them both out for two new ones. You're watching 45 minutes of football under one set of rules, then 45 minutes under a completely different set. No Phone Zone in the first half, Monkey in the second. The possibilities are deeply stupid and brilliant.

When your team scores you earn a Power card. When your team concedes you get a Weakness card. By the 70th minute in a 3-2 thriller someone's got two Power cards and someone else is a broken man with three Weaknesses who can't use their dominant hand, has to make monkey sounds before drinking, and must call everyone by their full name.

Predictions work like this: any player can make one prediction per half. If it comes true within five minutes, they draw a Special card to use whenever they want. If it doesn't, they drink. Maximum three predictions per half or it just becomes commentary.

Play until the final whistle. Or until someone's team concedes a 94th minute equaliser and they need a moment.

Drink Drank Drunk is available at drinkdrankdrunkthegame.com. 200 cards, five categories, works during football, parties, pre-drinks, or any situation where things need to get more interesting.

Play responsibly. Especially during penalties. If you dont have Drink Drank Drunk the latest edition yet, get it now by clicking the link below!