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World Cup 2026


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9 hours ago, Donathan said:

Look for push back from the clubs as teams can now play 8 games rather than 7. I would imagine FIFA might react by increasing squads to 29-30 and allowing 11 substitutions. 

The big clubs won't be pleased, but the six nations who can actually win the tournament would likely be happy enough with that - adding more depth and quality to their squads and allowing them more scope to rest their star players before the later rounds. Meanwhile, everyone else is debating whether to call up their uncapped eighth-choice midfielder from St Johnstone's bench, or gamble on the teenager banging in the goals for Farsley Celtic  :P

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22 hours ago, Highland Capital said:

If there's going to be 20-odd more games, would that mean they could add a couple more venues?  If so I'd like to see Denver and Edmonton added.

If we are adding another Canadian venue it should be Montreal (and I am not just saying that because it's closer to where I live).  Could be a good excuse for them to actually clean and spruce up the Big O 

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1 hour ago, senorsoupe said:

If we are adding another Canadian venue it should be Montreal (and I am not just saying that because it's closer to where I live).  Could be a good excuse for them to actually clean and spruce up the Big O 

Montreal pulled out of the bidding ages ago for some reason.  I mean really with only two venues it feels like Canada has just been tagged on at the end - I'd have like to have seen it be a bit more equal, especially given America and Mexico have had it before.  Would've been good to see Edmonton, Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary included.

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They have added forty games to the tournament compared to 2022, in order to eliminate the extra sixteen sides. And gone from a straightforward 'bottom two are on their way home' to 'two-thirds of you third-placed losers might make it depending on freak scorelines and/or tougher groups.'

At least somebody thought of The Money. 

(Multiple edits because of beer, wine, and possible OCD). 



 

Edited by IncomingExile
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Mexico 86 and Italia 90 were two of the most popular tournaments TBF, even if everyone forgets that the latter was one of the worst (although I don't think that was entirely down to the format).

Personally, I'm looking forward to getting the slide rule out again and seeing Uruguay brutally grind their way into the second round as the worst side. Ah, the memories.

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Stick with four team groups due to the excitement of the final group games in 2022; put two thirds of the third placed teams through to remove that excitement.

A far better approach with 48 teams would be to put the best 8 group winners straight through to the round of 16, then have an intermediate knock out round with the other 4 group winners and 12 runners-up. It's still not ideal, but it keeps every group game meaningful. As we've seen with the Euros, third placed teams going through is going to give an absolutely massive advantage to teams who play the top seed in the last game, as a side who've already qualified rest players (Ireland beating Italy in 2016 comes to mind).

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Possibly significant in terms of future hosting rights. Indonesia have the u-20s taken off them as they kicked up a fuss about hosting Israel.

Pushes any potential Indonesian World Cup bid/partnership even further down the track.

This seemed to be gathering pace a while back, but violence, stadium disasters, and now this. Indonesian World Cup off the agenda, you'd imagine.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/29/fifa-strips-indonesia-of-the-right-to-host-footballs-under-20-world-cup

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No big surprise With Israel qualifying. It was always going to become seriously problematic. I don’t think it really has any significant impact on future hosting rites as these would have been unrealistic anyway. 

Indonesia have zero ability to host a world cup and even a joint regional bid would be most practical with either or both of Malaysia and Indonesia and it would be near impossible for Malaydia to make the guarantees Indonesia tried to do.

All in all its the right decision as an Israeli team/supporters in Indonesia would have been a magnet for the nutters.

I wouldn’t be surprised that after extensive discussions to make this work, it's been mutually agreed between Indonesia and FIFA and any sanctions will not have a major impact. The current government is constantly undermined by some of the right leaning religious groups.

Any team sanction will be a shame as the current Indonesian team is young and pretty good (by regional terms) and getting better under Shin Tae-Yong (ex South Korea Manager). 

 

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On 31/03/2023 at 17:55, The Other Foot said:

Proper lot of whingers in the footballing fraternity, worried about sunshine, public transport and shitty hotels. What happened to the idea of adventure?

A WC somewhere like Indonesia would be phenomenal. Europe is for dullards.

 

A world cup in Indonesia would be phenomenal, but absolutely impossible. It's not shitty hotels and public transport, but a complete lack of them. The investment needed to make it possible would be wholly impractical and complete waste of money.

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 23/03/2023 at 20:06, Dunning1874 said:

Stick with four team groups due to the excitement of the final group games in 2022; put two thirds of the third placed teams through to remove that excitement.

The group conclusions at Euro2020 were pretty exciting. It's not a perfect solution but does mean it's very difficult for a team to be eliminated before their last game, even then particularly for the early groups when finishing 3rd isn't a certain qualification teams have to really go for it.

An extra 40 games is a humongous change though, the biggest increase in the history of the tournament by a distance. Scheduling fixtures and the ability to host the competition is going to be a major challenge if the format continues like that.

(Also, can't believe I missed this news in March!)

 

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I wonder how easy it’ll be to get tickets for this World Cup?

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Scotland can get there and that they get some games at the 49ers stadium near San Francisco (or actually nearer  San Jose).

Surely England must be due a World Cup at some point. No World Cup since 1966 seems a while for one of the bigger European countries.

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On 14/06/2023 at 17:30, Scary Bear said:

Surely England must be due a World Cup at some point. No World Cup since 1966 seems a while for one of the bigger European countries.

They've only actually ever failed with 2 bids.... WC 2006 won by Germany (who'd hosted in 1974) and WC 2014 won by Russia.

They withdrew from bidding for WC 1990 ahead of vote in 1984 and from bidding for WC 1998 after landing Euro 96.

[West] Germany is the only European nation to have hosted more than once since WWII.

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  • 2 months later...

To save others searching Castillo might have been born in 1995 in Columbia or 1998 in Ecuador. FIFA sided with the later but in a case taken to the court of arbitration for sport they say teh 1995 date and location is correct , however he is free to play for Ecuador as he is an Ecuadorian citizen entitled to play for Ecuador even although it looks like his family illegally entered the country. FIFA then issued a fine and points deduction as at some point the FEF knew the truth but went along with the false birth certificate.

Maybe that's how the Saudi team in the youth world cup final against Scotland did it. 

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