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World Cup 2026


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Asian qualification is about the most ludicrously convoluted in history.

On paper can play 24 games over 7 rounds lasting 2.5yrs but not qualify (indeed strong likelihood somebody will play 21-22 and not):


Sep 2023 free   

First Round
  2 games     lowest 20 nations play-off over 2 legs     winners progress     Oct 2023

Second Round
  6 games     9 groups of 4     top 2 in each group progress     Nov 2023/Mar-Jun 2024

Third Round
10 games     3 groups of 6     top 2 in each group qualify/middle 2 progress     Sep-Oct-Nov 2024/Mar-Jun 2025

Sep 2025 free   

Fourth Round
  2 games     2 groups of 3     winner of each group qualify/2nd progress     Oct 2025

Fifth Round
  2 games     playoff over 2 legs     winner progresses to Intercontinental Playoff     Nov 2025

Intercontinental Playoff Semi-Final
  1 game     playoff over 1 leg     Mar 2026

Intercontinental Playoff Final
  1 game     playoff over 1 leg     Mar 2026

Edited by HibeeJibee
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In both cases this is because they also take the place of qualifiers for continental competition - Asia double theirs up with Asian Cup qualifying, and South America don't obviously have any qualifiers for Copa America.

The obvious solution in the latter case would be to combine the Americas together for qualifying, but North America are never going to go for that because there would be far fewer of their teams qualifying.

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I'd imagine broadcasters also like the guarantee of Argentina vs Brazil and Mexico vs USA games.

One fairly obvious change they could make to CONMEBOL is to rename the qualifiers "The CONMEBOL Nations League", or something like that, and give the team that finishes top an actual trophy. That would at least maintain a bit of interest to the end, there are going to be shitloads of dead rubber games with so many teams qualifying now.

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1 hour ago, craigkillie said:

In both cases this is because they also take the place of qualifiers for continental competition - Asia double theirs up with Asian Cup qualifying, and South America don't obviously have any qualifiers for Copa America.

The obvious solution in the latter case would be to combine the Americas together for qualifying, but North America are never going to go for that because there would be far fewer of their teams qualifying.

i often thought there should be 4 zones from Qualification, all with similar number of teams

Europe, Africa, The Americas and Asia including Oceania 

 

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20 hours ago, realmadrid said:

i often thought there should be 4 zones from Qualification, all with similar number of teams

Europe, Africa, The Americas and Asia including Oceania 

 

I don’t think North America would go for this, although it would probably be better to have the likes of Venezuela and Bolivia qualify than some of the Central American diddies that sneak in (especially in the next World Cup when the best 3 teams in CONCACAF qualify automatically). 
 

Oceania might have gone for this before they finally got an automatic qualification space. New Zealand are a dead certs to qualify every time now unless Australia rejoin at any point.

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2 hours ago, Donathan said:

I don’t think North America would go for this, although it would probably be better to have the likes of Venezuela and Bolivia qualify than some of the Central American diddies that sneak in (especially in the next World Cup when the best 3 teams in CONCACAF qualify automatically). 

Oceania might have gone for this before they finally got an automatic qualification space. New Zealand are a dead certs to qualify every time now unless Australia rejoin at any point.

OCF + NZ proposed this back in 2000s/early 2010s: their winner (i.e. NZ) join Asia's last stage (2 pools of 6) with each's intercontinental playoff slots merged in 1 extra automatic slot. Asia said "no".

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17 hours ago, Swarley said:

Could be some big scores in tonight/today's Asia Qualifying games. 

 

_20231116_192155.JPG

So there were:

Qatar 8-1 Afghanistan  - Afghanistan had to play U21 players as their senior team was on strike after unpaid wages.
Australia 7-0 Bangladesh - Harry Souttar opened the scoring with Jamie Maclaren sniping a hat-trick
Japan 5-0 Burma
South Korea 5-0 Singapore
Iran 4-0 Hong Kong - 6,000 turning up to their 78k national stadium for that one - tells you how popular the current regime is there.
Iraq 5-1 Indonesia - How can a country of 250 million be so bad at football (same with China and India)
Saudi Arabia 4-0 Pakistan

Couple of other results
Malaysia 4-3 Kyrgyzstan - A last minute winner for Malaysia
Syria 1-0 North Korea - Played in Saudi Arabia - yikes. There was a start for Han Kwang-song - former Juventus player - who hasn't been seen since moving back to North Korea two years ago.

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On 17/11/2023 at 02:03, Bully Wee Villa said:

Both Argentina and Brazil lose. Brazil currently below Venezuela in the qualifying table.

Another defeat for Brazil last night, this time against Argentina.

They now sit 6th in the last automatic spot. I would find it hilarious if they failed to qualify but that seems highly unlikely given the percentage of COMNEBAL teams that will qualify for the finals.

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Just now, NorthernLights said:

Another defeat for Brazil last night, this time against Argentina.

They now sit 6th in the last automatic spot. I would find it hilarious if they failed to qualify but that seems highly unlikely given the percentage of COMNEBAL teams that will qualify for the finals.

I agree, would love to see Brazil fail to qualify. But no doubt FIFA would let them in somehow, via invitation or some nonsense. Also agree it seems ridiculous that 60% of South America can qualify automatically.

All seemed to kick off in the stands pre match with the Brazilian police battering the Argentine support.

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CAF qualifiers started in this international break too. The increase in places means that from the previous system of three rounds with 10 groups of 4 in the second round then the group winners having a playoff, they've now moved to a less cutthroat all in format with 9 groups of 6, group winners qualify then the four best runners-up playoff for the one spot in the intercontinental playoffs. Although one group is down to five teams only as Eritrea withdrew before qualifying started.

Long way to go with groups of that size, but some potentially big results at an early stage for teams who might look to challenge the favourites. Rwanda beat South Africa 2-0, Nigeria are also in that group but started with draws v Lesotho & Zimbabwe, the latter also drawing with Rwanda. Comoros beat Ghana 1-0 and have 6 points after two games having also beaten Central African Republic.

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On 22/11/2023 at 08:09, Swarley said:

I agree, would love to see Brazil fail to qualify. But no doubt FIFA would let them in somehow, via invitation or some nonsense. Also agree it seems ridiculous that 60% of South America can qualify automatically.

All seemed to kick off in the stands pre match with the Brazilian police battering the Argentine support.

 

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