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The quadrennial festival of footballing fortitude known as the World Cup brings together all kinds of people. People doing a World Cup winner sweepstake at work. People putting a few quid at the bookmakers on top goalscorer. And people putting an incredibly ill-judged accumulator on England to win and Dirk Kuyt as top goalscorer. So, all kinds of people.

Best of all are football prediction leagues. These allow individuals to meticulously plan out the likely outcome of each match, and then to subsequently lord it over their friends and colleagues once they sit atop the prediction league table. Or in reality, grumble about how they were cheated and that fifth Costa Rican goal was definitely offside. 

The BrokenTV Brazil 2014 World Cup Prediction League is one such league. Predict the outcomes of each match, along with a few important other categories (Who will win the tournament? Who will be top goalscorer? What will be the first letter of the first word Adrian Chiles says at the very beginning of the opening match coverage?). All against other people from around the country. Or the three people on Twitter who kind of take pity on the amount of time it took to put this all together.

The entry fee is just £2, with all collected moneys going to my nominated charity. At the end of the tournament, the winner will receive a super-secret football-related goody bag (the contents of which are yet to be disclosed, but the value of which will far exceed that £2 stipend). Simply pledge your £2 then send an email to brokentvworldcup@gmail.com, and I'll send out a prediction form to be filled in. Once returned, points will start being totted up right from the first match, and information updated at http://brokentvpredictionleague.tumblr.com/ daily.

The rules: simple. Predict the score of each match. Five points for a correct score, two points for a correct outcome. Predict all of the group matches from the start, and lists of the knockout matches to be sent when the line-up is decided.

So, off we go!