FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

[rdluffy]

the 2026 world cup in mexico,usa and canada will be held for the first time with 48 nations. 104 world cup matches will be played in 12 groups of 4 teams each.
this means that there will be 24 more than before. this was announced today by fifa in kigali.
the world cup will last 40 ( 39 ) days. the world cup in qatar only lasted 28 days. is this a good or bad change  

You guys are faster than me hahaha
It is very good that FIFA is already defining the rules and format of the championship for all teams and confederations to prepare.

As far as I know, the 2026 World Cup will be held on the same date as previous World Cups, excluding Qatar, which would be from June to July.
The dates speculated are from June 8 to July 3, 2026.
Fifa should soon announce the official dates for clubs and confederations to prepare.

I said this a few days ago, and I was right about the format of 12 groups of 4, but I was wrong about the dates.
The final match will be disputed on July 19th, and the first match probably June 8th
Another difference from the Qatar Cup will be the preparation time, which will be longer.
Between the rest and the World Cup itself, there will be 56 days in all.

Another very important fact, with the increase of games, FIFA needs to adjust the total matches in each country.
Instead of 10 matches in Canada and Mexico, there could be a few more matches in each country.

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[Leviathan.007]

I think decision to make it 12 groups with 4 teams is good. If they increased number of teams in groups there would be huge lack of competition and many teams would drive matches to 0-0 or 1-1 intentionally. I think this design is better even because third places in groups can be very worthwhile now if you are successful team. 8 out of 12 means, technically, it's very high chance that you get to next round if you win only 1 little match. Wonderful.

I think the decision with the new format was to accommodate the aspirations of the many teams participating and that was the best option, because with more teams that will qualify for the knockout rounds it will increase the motivation of each team to prepare themselves so they can at least qualify for the knockout rounds, because teams that have often played in the World Cup will be counted as strong teams so that it can be relatively easy to qualify for the next round.

I agree, plus this will make sure that big teams do not get there and then suddenly suck, because we have seen plenty of "good" teams that ended up in the group stages and started to lose games, if there are more teams then either those good teams will have to play better, or the teams that they beat to get there will have another chance to go further.

Look at Germany, they managed to go to world cup and then suck big time there, was that fair to whoever they displaced when they got here? If that team whoever they are was there, maybe they would play better and go out of the group stages? That is why it is important to include more teams to keep everyone on their toes.

We are talking about football so everything is possible, there is a chance for even good teams like Germany or England to lose the game against a weak team and if they let more nations enter the world cup there is a higher possibility to see this happening for many great teams when they fail to even pass the staging group but usually, the reason of they lose these game is the defensive playing style of the weak team lowering the speed of the game which can be a reason to lower the quality of the games in the world cup.

[nullama]

~snip~
We are talking about football so everything is possible, there is a chance for even good teams like Germany or England to lose the game against a weak team and if they let more nations enter the world cup there is a higher possibility to see this happening for many great teams when they fail to even pass the staging group but usually, the reason of they lose these game is the defensive playing style of the weak team lowering the speed of the game which can be a reason to lower the quality of the games in the world cup.

Absolutely. Just look at what happened in the previous world cup:

Italy, a previous champion, didn't manage to qualify.

The current champion, Argentina, lost against Saudi Arabia.

There are always surprises in the world cup, I'm just a bit worried that having so many teams will make the world cup a bit different, as the initial stages will almost look like the qualifiers.

For example, in South America there are 10 teams in the qualifiers. Currently there are 4 direct spots and one that goes to playoffs against Asia.

In the new version, there will be 6.5 slots. That means that in theory there might be up to 7 of those 10 teams in the world cup. So, basically almost the same as the qualifiers.

[Sithara007]

I totally agree with the first reason you said about increasing the number of teams in the world cup because letting more weak teams participate in the world cup will surely decrease the quality of the world cup and we will see more games where the weak team playing against a strong team with full defensive playing style from the beginning of the match with can make the world cup matches boring for the fans.

Again and again the same argument.. LOL.. do you guys never get tired. There are no "strong" and "weak" teams nowadays. Two or three decades ago, there used to be a huge gap between teams from UEFA/CONMEBOL and those from AFC/CAF. But that gap has vanished now. As we have seen, Morocco defeated some of the strongest teams from UEFA to reach the semi-finals during Qatar 2022. The so called "weak"-"strong" argument is just an excuse to allow backdoor entry for the stagnant teams from Europe such as Danmark and Belgium, who don't deserve a place in the tournament.

[Leviathan.007]

I totally agree with the first reason you said about increasing the number of teams in the world cup because letting more weak teams participate in the world cup will surely decrease the quality of the world cup and we will see more games where the weak team playing against a strong team with full defensive playing style from the beginning of the match with can make the world cup matches boring for the fans.

Again and again the same argument.. LOL.. do you guys never get tired. There are no "strong" and "weak" teams nowadays. Two or three decades ago, there used to be a huge gap between teams from UEFA/CONMEBOL and those from AFC/CAF. But that gap has vanished now. As we have seen, Morocco defeated some of the strongest teams from UEFA to reach the semi-finals during Qatar 2022. The so called "weak"-"strong" argument is just an excuse to allow backdoor entry for the stagnant teams from Europe such as Danmark and Belgium, who don't deserve a place in the tournament.

If a team like Morocco can beat some teams from UEFA this is still not a reason to say Morocco is at the same level as the UEFA teams, first, there are many unpredictable things to happen at any time in football and sometimes a miracle happens you may not believe it but that's all because of the luck, also the reason of why usually an unknown team can defeat famous teams in UEFA is sometimes arrogant and narcissistic of the European teams so they won't show their real performance.

[TopTort777]

Again and again the same argument.. LOL.. do you guys never get tired. There are no "strong" and "weak" teams nowadays. Two or three decades ago, there used to be a huge gap between teams from UEFA/CONMEBOL and those from AFC/CAF. But that gap has vanished now. As we have seen, Morocco defeated some of the strongest teams from UEFA to reach the semi-finals during Qatar 2022. The so called "weak"-"strong" argument is just an excuse to allow backdoor entry for the stagnant teams from Europe such as Danmark and Belgium, who don't deserve a place in the tournament.

What about so called "groups of death" ? When you are someone as Canada, but in a team with Germany, Brazil and Argentina. Also a saying from the past? What do you mean under "gap has vanished" ? If it has vanished we would see games with only 1 ball difference in score, but we have games that has ended with 3 or 4 ball advantages in Qatar World Cup. If the gap really has vanished, we would see completely mixed football club teams. But we dont see lots of Canadians, Americans, Poland, Morocco, Iran and etc players in other than national teams. I might write complicated, but I am trying to say that we dont see in Real Madrid, Bayern Munchen or MU players from Canada for example, if you say that all teams are even.

[Sithara007]

What about so called "groups of death" ? When you are someone as Canada, but in a team with Germany, Brazil and Argentina. Also a saying from the past? What do you mean under "gap has vanished" ? If it has vanished we would see games with only 1 ball difference in score, but we have games that has ended with 3 or 4 ball advantages in Qatar World Cup. If the gap really has vanished, we would see completely mixed football club teams. But we dont see lots of Canadians, Americans, Poland, Morocco, Iran and etc players in other than national teams. I might write complicated, but I am trying to say that we dont see in Real Madrid, Bayern Munchen or MU players from Canada for example, if you say that all teams are even.

If Canadian players are absent from UEFA teams, that doesn't necessarily mean that Canada is a weak team. The local league (Canadian Football League) is quite popular in Canada and a lot of the local players prefer to play in that league instead of moving to Europe. The case with Morocco is different. The local league (Botola Pro) is not very competitive and the salaries and benefits are not that attractive, and therefore most of the national players end up playing for the European clubs (although Wydad AC featured in the club world cup recently).

[TopTort777]

What about so called "groups of death" ? When you are someone as Canada, but in a team with Germany, Brazil and Argentina. Also a saying from the past? What do you mean under "gap has vanished" ? If it has vanished we would see games with only 1 ball difference in score, but we have games that has ended with 3 or 4 ball advantages in Qatar World Cup. If the gap really has vanished, we would see completely mixed football club teams. But we dont see lots of Canadians, Americans, Poland, Morocco, Iran and etc players in other than national teams. I might write complicated, but I am trying to say that we dont see in Real Madrid, Bayern Munchen or MU players from Canada for example, if you say that all teams are even.

If Canadian players are absent from UEFA teams, that doesn't necessarily mean that Canada is a weak team. The local league (Canadian Football League) is quite popular in Canada and a lot of the local players prefer to play in that league instead of moving to Europe. The case with Morocco is different. The local league (Botola Pro) is not very competitive and the salaries and benefits are not that attractive, and therefore most of the national players end up playing for the European clubs (although Wydad AC featured in the club world cup recently).

No doubt that Canadian football league is popular in Canada. But as you say there is no big gap between teams, then why other players prefer not to participate in Canadian league? They would better earn the same but participate in league B somewhere, than go there?

Ok, maybe you are right and there are no weak teams in World Cup, but can you tell me then why we have a backbone of almost same teams participating in every cup every years? Why we have only 32 teams in tournament, instead of 64 or even 206 that tried to qualify?

[rdluffy]

For example, in South America there are 10 teams in the qualifiers. Currently there are 4 direct spots and one that goes to playoffs against Asia.

In the new version, there will be 6.5 slots. That means that in theory there might be up to 7 of those 10 teams in the world cup. So, basically almost the same as the qualifiers.

It will be a great new experience and it will be very interesting to watch a World Cup with 48 teams. You may not agree, but it will be a different and curious experience, to say the least.

About the South American teams, I can tell you that there will be no disappointment as you are imagining.
Of the 10 teams that compete in the qualifiers, I can say that perhaps only Bolivia and Venezuela are far below normal and would have difficulties competing in a world cup.

The top tier teams are the 3 obvious ones: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

The national teams of Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia and Peru are teams that play the world cup regularly (not like the top 3), but all these countries have good players that play in the European leagues and a good team.
So if the 7 Conmebol teams qualify for the 2026 World Cup, you can be sure that they will be competitive teams and with good conditions to play at the same level of the second tier of European tems for example.

I believe that for 2026 those who will miss out will be Bolivia, Venezuela and Paraguay.

[SquallLeonhart]

It will be a great new experience and it will be very interesting to watch a World Cup with 48 teams. You may not agree, but it will be a different and curious experience, to say the least.

About the South American teams, I can tell you that there will be no disappointment as you are imagining.
Of the 10 teams that compete in the qualifiers, I can say that perhaps only Bolivia and Venezuela are far below normal and would have difficulties competing in a world cup.

The top tier teams are the 3 obvious ones: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

The national teams of Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia and Peru are teams that play the world cup regularly (not like the top 3), but all these countries have good players that play in the European leagues and a good team.
So if the 7 Conmebol teams qualify for the 2026 World Cup, you can be sure that they will be competitive teams and with good conditions to play at the same level of the second tier of European tems for example.

I believe that for 2026 those who will miss out will be Bolivia, Venezuela and Paraguay.

That's the whole point of this tournament, they may not be teams that will win the title, but neither did Morocco during this cup, they lost but did they leave a mark? They did and that's the only thing that matters. If you add in more teams, and a team like Peru suddenly plays in the quarter finals, isn't that a good thing? Or a Chile semi-finals? I am not saying that will happen, of course 90%+ chance that will not happen but the possibility of that is the main reason why we will have more teams.

To be fairly honest, I am down with even more teams, have 64 teams, have 16 groups with 4 teams, make them all play 6 games, twice each other, and then make them play a 32 team round facing each other, once again twice, then 16, then quarter finals, then semi, all twice, and finals would be one game. That would be so many games I don't even know how many, but that would be amazing to watch, could go on for months (could be done all year throughout).

[rdluffy]

That's the whole point of this tournament, they may not be teams that will win the title, but neither did Morocco during this cup, they lost but did they leave a mark? They did and that's the only thing that matters. If you add in more teams, and a team like Peru suddenly plays in the quarter finals, isn't that a good thing? Or a Chile semi-finals? I am not saying that will happen, of course 90%+ chance that will not happen but the possibility of that is the main reason why we will have more teams.

To be fairly honest, I am down with even more teams, have 64 teams, have 16 groups with 4 teams, make them all play 6 games, twice each other, and then make them play a 32 team round facing each other, once again twice, then 16, then quarter finals, then semi, all twice, and finals would be one game. That would be so many games I don't even know how many, but that would be amazing to watch, could go on for months (could be done all year throughout).

You are not wrong, I believe ( and statistics don't lie ) that there is almost always a team that nobody believes will make it to the final rounds and they do.
The most recent example was Morocco, but we already had Croatia as a surprise in 2018 in the final, in 2002 we had Turkey and South Korea in the semi final...
Anyway, the more teams, the more likely we are to have different teams competing in the final stages.
I am very hopeful about Africa in 2026, with 9 to 10 spots, we will see all the best African teams playing in the cup.

64 teams I think is too much haha, it would be unfeasible to accommodate all these countries.
With 48 teams I already think there is not much condition for the world cup to be held in only one country if it is a small country.

Another fact that I would like to comment on is the following, you can't calculate the level of soccer only with the results in the world cup, I was able to watch most of the matches of Catar 2022, and it was clear how Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Korea improved the level of soccer, they played very well, but by other factors could not get further in the competition.
In the 2026 World Cup, more teams will have the opportunity to evolve the level of soccer, and will have the chance to participate in a knockout round.
This greatly helps a team to become more prepared.

[uneng]

About the South American teams, I can tell you that there will be no disappointment as you are imagining.
Of the 10 teams that compete in the qualifiers, I can say that perhaps only Bolivia and Venezuela are far below normal and would have difficulties competing in a world cup.

The top tier teams are the 3 obvious ones: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

The national teams of Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia and Peru are teams that play the world cup regularly (not like the top 3), but all these countries have good players that play in the European leagues and a good team.
So if the 7 Conmebol teams qualify for the 2026 World Cup, you can be sure that they will be competitive teams and with good conditions to play at the same level of the second tier of European tems for example.

I believe that for 2026 those who will miss out will be Bolivia, Venezuela and Paraguay.

I think south american soccer resumes in two teams only: Argentina and Brazil. Uruguay was good by 2010, but now they play at same performance level of every other teams like Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru...

With the exception of those two teams, european soccer is much ahead in skills and strategies. Nonetheless, Europe is exporting many coaches to run national teams in another continents. Even Brazil was looking for a foreigner to train the national team after the fiasco against Croatia last year.

[Leviathan.007]

About the South American teams, I can tell you that there will be no disappointment as you are imagining.
Of the 10 teams that compete in the qualifiers, I can say that perhaps only Bolivia and Venezuela are far below normal and would have difficulties competing in a world cup.

The top tier teams are the 3 obvious ones: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

The national teams of Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia and Peru are teams that play the world cup regularly (not like the top 3), but all these countries have good players that play in the European leagues and a good team.
So if the 7 Conmebol teams qualify for the 2026 World Cup, you can be sure that they will be competitive teams and with good conditions to play at the same level of the second tier of European tems for example.

I believe that for 2026 those who will miss out will be Bolivia, Venezuela and Paraguay.

I think south american soccer resumes in two teams only: Argentina and Brazil. Uruguay was good by 2010, but now they play at same performance level of every other teams like Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru...

With the exception of those two teams, european soccer is much ahead in skills and strategies. Nonetheless, Europe is exporting many coaches to run national teams in another continents. Even Brazil was looking for a foreigner to train the national team after the fiasco against Croatia last year.

Regarding the south American teams, we cannot be sure to say if Argentina and brazil are the only good teams that perform well in the world cup because we know according to some news and according to what their coach said Messi is going to play for Argentina in next world cup in 2026 but can't be a reason to say the other teams will not show good performance, from the last world cup and what we saw in Morocco teams I can say each south American teams can have the chance to perform much better than Argentina or brazil in the next world cup.

[alegotardo]

Regarding the south American teams, we cannot be sure to say if Argentina and brazil are the only good teams that perform well in the world cup because we know according to some news and according to what their coach said Messi is going to play for Argentina in next world cup in 2026 but can't be a reason to say the other teams will not show good performance, from the last world cup and what we saw in Morocco teams I can say each south American teams can have the chance to perform much better than Argentina or brazil in the next world cup.

Honestly, apart from Brazil and Argentina I can't see other South American teams performing well in the world cup.
Those who can get "closer" would perhaps be Uruguay, which performed better on the world stage, but even so it is far below the world average of teams that compete in the world cup.

Africa, on the other hand, is seeing a huge rise of previously overlooked teams that are now coming to the fore.
Morocco was just one example of the potential for good players there. I believe that in the next World Cup we should see more African teams qualifying for the next phase and who knows, maybe this country will be able to win more places for the next editions of the World Cup.

[Sithara007]

Regarding the south American teams, we cannot be sure to say if Argentina and brazil are the only good teams that perform well in the world cup because we know according to some news and according to what their coach said Messi is going to play for Argentina in next world cup in 2026 but can't be a reason to say the other teams will not show good performance, from the last world cup and what we saw in Morocco teams I can say each south American teams can have the chance to perform much better than Argentina or brazil in the next world cup.

Even the South American teams that rarely qualify for the world cup (such as Bolivia and Venezuela) are exceptionally good. They can easily defeat the top sides from Asia, such as Iran, South Korea and Japan. So I agree with you. Argentina and Brazil are not the only good teams from CONMEBOL. Since limited number of slots are on offer, the CONMEBOL qualifiers are always fiercely fought. And 2030 is going to be even more funny in case the combined bid from the 4 South American countries wins the hosting rights.

[Bushdark]

~snip~
We are talking about football so everything is possible, there is a chance for even good teams like Germany or England to lose the game against a weak team and if they let more nations enter the world cup there is a higher possibility to see this happening for many great teams when they fail to even pass the staging group but usually, the reason of they lose these game is the defensive playing style of the weak team lowering the speed of the game which can be a reason to lower the quality of the games in the world cup.

Absolutely. Just look at what happened in the previous world cup:

Italy, a previous champion, didn't manage to qualify.

The current champion, Argentina, lost against Saudi Arabia.

There are always surprises in the world cup, I'm just a bit worried that having so many teams will make the world cup a bit different, as the initial stages will almost look like the qualifiers.

For example, in South America there are 10 teams in the qualifiers. Currently there are 4 direct spots and one that goes to playoffs against Asia.

In the new version, there will be 6.5 slots. That means that in theory there might be up to 7 of those 10 teams in the world cup. So, basically almost the same as the qualifiers.

What I have learnt about the world cup is that it is full of surprises. We did not know that Argentina could ever win the world cup when Saudi Arabia won Argentina at the initial stage. The next would cup that is cup is going to be competitive more than the previous years because most of the team would be more prepared than the previous years to make sure that they get qualified and win.
Messi winning the world for his country Argentina was a great achievement that is making most of his fans to think that Messi is far better then Ronaldo. Although Messi and Ronaldo may not be participating in the upcoming world cup competition.

[Naficopa]

~snip~
We are talking about football so everything is possible, there is a chance for even good teams like Germany or England to lose the game against a weak team and if they let more nations enter the world cup there is a higher possibility to see this happening for many great teams when they fail to even pass the staging group but usually, the reason of they lose these game is the defensive playing style of the weak team lowering the speed of the game which can be a reason to lower the quality of the games in the world cup.

Absolutely. Just look at what happened in the previous world cup:

Italy, a previous champion, didn't manage to qualify.

The current champion, Argentina, lost against Saudi Arabia.

There are always surprises in the world cup, I'm just a bit worried that having so many teams will make the world cup a bit different, as the initial stages will almost look like the qualifiers.

For example, in South America there are 10 teams in the qualifiers. Currently there are 4 direct spots and one that goes to playoffs against Asia.

In the new version, there will be 6.5 slots. That means that in theory there might be up to 7 of those 10 teams in the world cup. So, basically almost the same as the qualifiers.

What I have learnt about the world cup is that it is full of surprises. We did not know that Argentina could ever win the world cup when Saudi Arabia won Argentina at the initial stage. The next would cup that is cup is going to be competitive more than the previous years because most of the team would be more prepared than the previous years to make sure that they get qualified and win.
Messi winning the world for his country Argentina was a great achievement that is making most of his fans to think that Messi is far better then Ronaldo. Although Messi and Ronaldo may not be participating in the upcoming world cup competition.

Saudi Arabia beat Argentina haha. Based on this match, football fans thought Argentina would not do well in the World Cup. But Argentina is the 2022 World Cup Champions. In fact, I underestimated Argentina because they lost that match.

[Slow death]

What I have learnt about the world cup is that it is full of surprises. We did not know that Argentina could ever win the world cup when Saudi Arabia won Argentina at the initial stage.

man i remember that day like it was today, i'm a fan of argentina so i expected argentina to win that game against saudi arabia, but it was unbelievable to see that result at the end of the game, argentina that day had become the world's joke for having lost against saudi arabia, all social networks and tvs the subject was the same: the defeat of argentina; And everything even got worse because the Saudi Arabian players received a luxury prize, each player received a luxury car for having managed to beat Argentina, it was something unbelievable even for the Arabs themselves. but one thing is certain: argentina managed to score a goal first and then relaxed a lot and that's why they conceded a goal, they even did that in the last game, so betting on argentina and watching their games was a very difficult task, one had to be very patient until the end of the game
 

The next would cup that is cup is going to be competitive more than the previous years because most of the team would be more prepared than the previous years to make sure that they get qualified and win.
Messi winning the world for his country Argentina was a great achievement that is making most of his fans to think that Messi is far better then Ronaldo. Although Messi and Ronaldo may not be participating in the upcoming world cup competition.

in the next world cup there will be 48 teams so things will be very different from any other world cup, with many teams participating it will be very difficult for the usual favorites to reach the final comfortably, maybe not even reach the final. as for messi, for me he will not play in the 2026 world cup, but ronaldo will not be surprised if he participates, it seems to me that he has no intention of retiring and giving way to other players, if he does not retire he will create discomfort in the portugal team, because he does not accept being on the bench and argues with the coach

[Sithara007]

Saudi Arabia beat Argentina haha. Based on this match, football fans thought Argentina would not do well in the World Cup. But Argentina is the 2022 World Cup Champions. In fact, I underestimated Argentina because they lost that match.

I think the defeat to Saudi Arabia actually boosted Argentina. They woke up from their slumber and learnt to focus on the game rather than being complacent. The same can't be said about Brazil though. The loss to Cameroon didn't did them any good (Vincent Aboubakar scored in the 92nd minute to give Cameroon a 1-0 victory over Brazil). Brazil destroyed South Korea in the next match, but then they went down against Croatia in the quarter-finals (to be fair, the match was decided based on penalty though).

[bitgov]

Saudi Arabia beat Argentina haha. Based on this match, football fans thought Argentina would not do well in the World Cup. But Argentina is the 2022 World Cup Champions. In fact, I underestimated Argentina because they lost that match.

I think the defeat to Saudi Arabia actually boosted Argentina. They woke up from their slumber and learnt to focus on the game rather than being complacent. The same can't be said about Brazil though. The loss to Cameroon didn't did them any good (Vincent Aboubakar scored in the 92nd minute to give Cameroon a 1-0 victory over Brazil). Brazil destroyed South Korea in the next match, but then they went down against Croatia in the quarter-finals (to be fair, the match was decided based on penalty though).

You are right Argentina after losing to Saudi Arabia created a great atmosphere among themselves which reflected in the next matches. After losing the match, the team played their best and managed to reach the title.