Guide, Football
How a football league table works: points, goal difference and tiebreakers
Three points for a win, one for a draw, then goal difference. Here's how league tables are ordered and why tiebreak rules differ by league.
By Editorial team. Published .
Every football league table ranks teams the same basic way: points first. What happens when teams finish level depends on the league, and that difference has decided titles and relegations.
Points
Almost every league in the world awards:
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Win | 3 |
| Draw | 1 |
| Loss | 0 |
Three points for a win became the norm in the 1990s, replacing two, to reward attacking play. Cup group stages, including the Champions League league phase, use the same scale.
Reading the columns
- P: matches played
- W, D, L: won, drawn, lost
- GF, GA: goals for and against
- GD: goal difference, GF minus GA
- Pts: points
- Form: results of the last five matches, most recent last on this site
When teams are level on points
This is where leagues differ. The two main approaches:
Goal difference first. The Premier League separates teams on goal difference, then goals scored. Only after those does it look at the head-to-head record between the tied clubs.
Head-to-head first. La Liga, among others, compares the results between the tied teams before looking at overall goal difference. A side that beat its rival home and away finishes above it even with a worse goal difference.
So two tables with identical points and goals can be ordered differently depending on the competition. Our standings pages follow the order published by each competition's data feed.
Coloured zones
Positions near the top usually qualify for European or continental competitions, and those at the bottom are relegated. The exact places change each season depending on cup winners and coefficient rules, so treat the table note on each row as the official description for that season.
Why the table can mislead early on
In the first weeks, teams have played different opponents and sometimes a different number of games. Points per game and goal difference say more than position until about ten rounds in.