Soccer IQ tests compared
Most tests sold as a soccer IQ test check what you know about football, or ask you to rate yourself. Only a few show you a situation and ask what you would do, which is closer to what coaches mean by soccer IQ.
Four kinds of test
Trivia quizzes
Questions about players, clubs, history and the rules. Fun and quick, but they measure football knowledge, not how you read a game.
Self-ratings
Checklists where you rate your own scanning, positioning or decision-making. Useful for reflection, but nobody checks the answers.
Profile quizzes
Situations with no right answer that describe your style. They tell you what kind of player you are, not how well you read the game.
Decision tests
A match situation, then a choice of what to do, scored against a best answer. The closest a quiz can get to soccer IQ, and the kind Footy Eye's Test is.
The tests people search for
| Test | Kind | Format | Cost and access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Footy Eye | Decision test | 10 match situations animated on a tactics board, 4 options each, 20 seconds per decision; scored 60 to 140; every answer explained. | Free in the browser, no account needed. |
| TacticUP | Decision test | Rates game reading and decision-making against 12 tactical principles. Its research version, a video test with four options per scene, was published and validated in Frontiers in Psychology (2020). | Free sign-up and summary; paid full report and club credits. |
| Soccer Blade Soccer IQ Test | Trivia and tactics quiz | 20 multiple-choice questions in three modes (tactics, rules, general) and three difficulties; untimed; short explanations on some questions. | Free in the browser, with ads. |
| Football IQ | Trivia quiz | 30, 50 or 100 questions on trivia, badges, stadiums and careers, with a soft 30-second timer; scored 0 to 200 against its own players. | Free in the browser, no sign-up; a freemium iOS app. |
| iqtest-free.org Soccer IQ Test | Trivia quiz | 9 multiple-choice questions on rules, history and facts; shows the right answer without reasoning; described as for fun. | Free in the browser. |
| LevelUp Soccer IQ Test | Self-rating | A 19-item checklist in four areas (scanning, decision-making, positioning, anticipation) that you rate yourself on; no overall score. | Free to read; the site's coaching product is a paid subscription. |
| CalculatorScore Football IQ Test | Profile quiz | 10 scenarios with no right answer; decision time is tracked; gives an 80 to 160 score, a seven-trait profile and a legend comparison. | In the browser, no sign-up. |
| Sporcle soccer quizzes | Trivia quizzes | A large library of user-made quizzes (type in names, put things in order), each with its own timer. | Free with ads; optional subscription. |
| Soccer IntelliGym | Cognitive training | Not a test: a training program of 30-minute sessions for anticipation, awareness and decision-making, with research cited by the company. | Paid subscription with a free trial. |
Which should you use?
- For fun with friends, a trivia quiz is quick and easy to share.
- To reflect on your own game, a self-rating checklist gives you a list to work on.
- To test and train how you read situations, use a decision test, ideally one that explains every answer so you learn from the ones you miss.
- For academy or club assessment, look for a tool with published validation research.
Footy Eye is ours, so read this page with that in mind. Its Football IQ is a game score: the scale has not been validated against match performance, and the methodology page says what it does and doesn't measure. How Footy Eye works