Football league table and tiebreakers
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Write the score however you like: 2 x 1, 2-1 and 2:1 all read the same. Whatever sits before and after the score is taken as the team names, so spaces in them are fine.
Results
Top of the table under the rule you picked
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| Pos | Team | Pts | Pld | Won | Drawn | Lost | GF | GA | GD |
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Points and wins are counted first either way, and only teams still level after that go to the tiebreaker. When it is the matches between them, the mini table is built from those matches alone, which is what the rulebooks actually say and not the same as looking at the full table again.
The six results this page starts with are worth a look. The three leaders each beat one of the others and lost to another, so between themselves they are perfectly level on points. Goal difference across the whole competition puts one of them first; the matches between them put that same team last.
Can the tiebreaker really change who wins?
It can change the whole order, not just the top. The six results this page starts with leave three teams on the same points and the same number of wins. Ranked by goal difference across the competition they come out one way; ranked by the matches between themselves they come out in exactly the reverse order, so the team that was first is last.
Nothing on the pitch changed between those two tables. Only the rule did, which is why competitions have to write the order of the criteria down before the season rather than after it.
What happens when the matches between the tied teams do not settle it?
That is not a rare accident, it is built into the idea. If three teams each beat one of the others and lose to another, they all come out of that mini table on the same points. The circle has no start and no end.
It is exactly why goal difference stays in the list even in competitions that put the head to head first: something has to break a circle, and a rule that can fail on its own needs another one behind it.
How is the head to head table built?
From the matches between the tied teams and nothing else. Only the teams still level on points and wins go into it, and only the games they played against each other count.
That is not the same as looking at the full table again, which is the mistake that makes people get a different answer from the official one. A thrashing handed to a team outside the tie changes the goal difference but has no business in the head to head.
Which order is the right one?
There is no right one, only the one written in the rules of the competition you are looking at. Some put goal difference first; others start with the matches between the tied teams. Both are defensible and they disagree often enough to matter.
This page shows the table under the rule you pick, and tells you when the other rule would have produced something different. That comparison is the useful part.
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