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

[nullama]

~snip~
I am not arguing for even representation. It is not possible. If that is the case, then the most populous nations such as China, India and Indonesia would get automatic entry. But I don't want that, because I am ready to admit that these countries don't have the necessary standards to play FIFA world cup at this point. But the 2022 Qatar format doesn't sound proper for me. Asia, a continent with 4 billion people is just allotted 5 out of 32 slots (and the 5th slot came because Australia managed to defeat Peru). I want more representation for regions that are under-represented at this point. And it should be done without negatively impacting anyone. The only way to do this, is to increase the number of participants to 48.

And I strongly disagree, when you say that nations that doesn't care about football will get slots. There are a lot of countries in Asia and Africa were football is the most popular sport. I would not say that my own country can be included in the list, but there are football crazy nations such as Indonesia, Vietnam, South Africa and Nigeria. None of these countries featured in Qatar 2022.

Historically, South America and Europe have consistently performed way better than any other continents.

Personally, I actually think those two continents have too few slots to qualify, for example only 4.5 slots out of 10 for South America, and in Europe giants like Italy failed to qualify.

On the other hand, having Saudi Arabia or Qatar in the world cup instead of Italy just doesn't seem right to me as their skill is just not on par.

[1714652464]

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[1714652464]

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[LUCKMCFLY]

And my personal assumptions is that, US, being the world power probably does not want their territories to be over populated with immigrants, this could be the reason for the so strict requirements and documentation process to enter the country.

Your assumption may not be false but they have to be ready for more people that will troop in into the state in guise of coming to watch the next world cup. USA is a cherish country desirable by many to live in, so they have to expect that to happen. Among the three countries hosting the game, USA is hosting more of the games and that means more immigration of people to USA than Mexico and Canada.

I recently saw an announcement that an important figure in the country said that he was going to impose that anyone who enters the USA illegally will be punished by taking him out of the country and beating him for 5 years, I know that each country has its rules and that is respected, but the USA has also given many freedoms to immigrants, it is also the same government that promotes the American dream, and those who enter that way is not a good thing, the American dream does not exist, the people who enter to work are really well exploited and the fact of working at least 16 hours in a row is not life, what they do is sleep little and work from Sunday to Sunday in what they can, however in the World Cup that is being organized they want to do it in the best way , there won't be much input control for some, this will be a bit difficult for the US to control.

[Sithara007]

Historically, South America and Europe have consistently performed way better than any other continents.

Personally, I actually think those two continents have too few slots to qualify, for example only 4.5 slots out of 10 for South America, and in Europe giants like Italy failed to qualify.

On the other hand, having Saudi Arabia or Qatar in the world cup instead of Italy just doesn't seem right to me as their skill is just not on par.

I don't agree with your argument that CONMEBOL and UEFA are given too few slots to qualify. For Qatar 2022, CONMEBOL was allotted 4.5 slots for a total of 10 teams. That is 45%. For UEFA, the same statistic is 24%. Now this gets reduced to 12% for the AFC and 9% for the CAF. CONCACAF is also at the receiving end at 10%, but most of their members are small island nations. In terms of absolute numbers, 4.5 for CONMEBOL may sound a bit low. But their representation is almost 5 times that of the CAF (45% vs 9%).

Once again, I don't have an issue with more teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA getting included in the world cup. Teams such as Bolivia, Venezuela and Iceland deserve to be in the world cup. But at the same time, I want more teams from CAF and AFC to be included. The world cup will be more exciting, if teams such as Nigeria, China, Indonesia and South Africa are included.

[Silberman]

-snip-

My guess is that FIFA want to put Qatar behind and start off with the right foot in North America.
Besides, they may believe that changing the size of the tournament could bring more attention and profit to the next World Cup. It may have something too do that this next time it will be a bigger event (geographically) and plan to do it bigger on all sense.

Bigger does not mean better, though. I remain neutral to that decision.

FIFA has to do this right, I remember that when I first heard the number of teams was going to expand to 48 I agreed with the decision as this will allow to give more spots to the confederations that were underrepresented, and fortunately this is exactly what happened, but the idea of 16 groups of 3 teams is terrible as this could allow for teams to collude and fix some results, however the latest I got to know about this seems to indicate FIFA has decided against this and they are now planning 12 groups of 4, which seems like a better option to me.

[Daniel91]

I am not arguing for even representation. It is not possible. If that is the case, then the most populous nations such as China, India and Indonesia would get automatic entry. But I don't want that, because I am ready to admit that these countries don't have the necessary standards to play FIFA world cup at this point. But the 2022 Qatar format doesn't sound proper for me. Asia, a continent with 4 billion people is just allotted 5 out of 32 slots (and the 5th slot came because Australia managed to defeat Peru). I want more representation for regions that are under-represented at this point. And it should be done without negatively impacting anyone. The only way to do this, is to increase the number of participants to 48.

And I strongly disagree, when you say that nations that doesn't care about football will get slots. There are a lot of countries in Asia and Africa were football is the most popular sport. I would not say that my own country can be included in the list, but there are football crazy nations such as Indonesia, Vietnam, South Africa and Nigeria. None of these countries featured in Qatar 2022.

OK, to end this discussion, let's wait and see how will the games in the World Cup 2026 look like. I agree that every nation should have a chance to compete, but I don't agree that FIFA should let nations that lack quality in football play in the championship just to make it more attractive to the people of those countries.

I can completely agree with this.
On the one hand, it is clear that other continents should get the opportunity to participate in world championships with more national teams, which would increase the popularity of football in those countries, but the higher quality of European and South American national teams should not be ignored.
Personally, I have the feeling that the leadership of FIFA does not really care so much about other continents and their representation at the world championships, but that this is just their plan to get more votes in the next elections for FIFA officials.
Increasing the number of national teams at the world championship will greatly increase the costs of the organizers and will not increase the quality of the competition.
It seems to me that the leadership of FIFA does not have a clear vision and strategy for the development of football, but they are only interested in profit and being re-elected at the next FIFA assembly.

[nullama]

~snip~
I don't agree with your argument that CONMEBOL and UEFA are given too few slots to qualify. For Qatar 2022, CONMEBOL was allotted 4.5 slots for a total of 10 teams. That is 45%. For UEFA, the same statistic is 24%. Now this gets reduced to 12% for the AFC and 9% for the CAF. CONCACAF is also at the receiving end at 10%, but most of their members are small island nations. In terms of absolute numbers, 4.5 for CONMEBOL may sound a bit low. But their representation is almost 5 times that of the CAF (45% vs 9%).

Once again, I don't have an issue with more teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA getting included in the world cup. Teams such as Bolivia, Venezuela and Iceland deserve to be in the world cup. But at the same time, I want more teams from CAF and AFC to be included. The world cup will be more exciting, if teams such as Nigeria, China, Indonesia and South Africa are included.

I don't think every continent should have the same amount of teams, or the same amount of percentage. It should be based on the quality of the teams involved.

Here's some historical evidence that backs the current percentages:

To date, the final of the World Cup has only been contested by teams from the UEFA (Europe) and CONMEBOL (South America) confederations. European nations have won twelve titles, while South American nations have won ten

Even though Europe has way more teams than South America, they have won a similar amount of times.

Venezuela and Bolivia are not that strong, they usually aren't able to qualify. That's the whole point. If we just add more slots then the world cup itself will be the qualifying stage.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

And my personal assumptions is that, US, being the world power probably does not want their territories to be over populated with immigrants, this could be the reason for the so strict requirements and documentation process to enter the country.

Your assumption may not be false but they have to be ready for more people that will troop in into the state in guise of coming to watch the next world cup. USA is a cherish country desirable by many to live in, so they have to expect that to happen. Among the three countries hosting the game, USA is hosting more of the games and that means more immigration of people to USA than Mexico and Canada.

I recently saw an announcement that an important figure in the country said that he was going to impose that anyone who enters the USA illegally will be punished by taking him out of the country and beating him for 5 years,

Well, this is more of a threat than a law 😁, and to be sincere, it does not look serious to me, this to me looks like one of those threat we normally receive from our parents when we  were kids, when they tell us not to do this, else we will be flogged, and out of curiosity or stubbornness, we will still end up doing that thing, and without receiving the said punishment at the end of the day.

What am I saying, a threat as thing does not seem strong enough to deter strong headed people from trying to enter USA through illegal means, even with this in place, I tell you, many will still go ahead and try to enter USA illegally just to watch the world cup when denied visa.

[Hispo]

-snip-

My guess is that FIFA want to put Qatar behind and start off with the right foot in North America.
Besides, they may believe that changing the size of the tournament could bring more attention and profit to the next World Cup. It may have something too do that this next time it will be a bigger event (geographically) and plan to do it bigger on all sense.

Bigger does not mean better, though. I remain neutral to that decision.

FIFA has to do this right, I remember that when I first heard the number of teams was going to expand to 48 I agreed with the decision as this will allow to give more spots to the confederations that were underrepresented, and fortunately this is exactly what happened, but the idea of 16 groups of 3 teams is terrible as this could allow for teams to collude and fix some results, however the latest I got to know about this seems to indicate FIFA has decided against this and they are now planning 12 groups of 4, which seems like a better option to me.

Of course, they have to do it right in 2026.
Finally people will be able to drink alcohol and have (hopefully) proper accommodations and it would be a shame if the whole party gets spoiled because decisions made by the FIFA itself which could open the possibility for scandals and problems to happen.

I feel optimistic, but still many things can happen in 3 years.

[Sithara007]

Of course, they have to do it right in 2026.
Finally people will be able to drink alcohol and have (hopefully) proper accommodations and it would be a shame if the whole party gets spoiled because decisions made by the FIFA itself which could open the possibility for scandals and problems to happen.

I feel optimistic, but still many things can happen in 3 years.

I don't know how many people would agree with me, but IMO Qatar 2022 was a disaster. Obviously the Qataris were able to splash all their wealth and many of the westerners were in awe. But then, the fans were left high and dry with all the restrictions. What is the point in having a major tournament like this, if the fans can't relax and enjoy themselves? There was this last minute restrictions on alcoholic beverages. And the Qataris very cunningly announced it just two days before the first match, to make sure that all the fans have already booked their ticket. And then there was extreme discrimination against unmarried couples and LGBT people. I just hope that FIFA will never allow regressive countries such as Qatar to host such tournaments in the future.

[nullama]

~snip~
I don't know how many people would agree with me, but IMO Qatar 2022 was a disaster. Obviously the Qataris were able to splash all their wealth and many of the westerners were in awe. But then, the fans were left high and dry with all the restrictions. What is the point in having a major tournament like this, if the fans can't relax and enjoy themselves? There was this last minute restrictions on alcoholic beverages. And the Qataris very cunningly announced it just two days before the first match, to make sure that all the fans have already booked their ticket. And then there was extreme discrimination against unmarried couples and LGBT people. I just hope that FIFA will never allow regressive countries such as Qatar to host such tournaments in the future.

Yeah, there were organizational issues, but the tournament itself, the football, was quite entertaining.

It was a great tournament, with lots of talented people, and many surprises.

I enjoyed watching it a lot.

[Japinat]

And my personal assumptions is that, US, being the world power probably does not want their territories to be over populated with immigrants, this could be the reason for the so strict requirements and documentation process to enter the country.

Your assumption may not be false but they have to be ready for more people that will troop in into the state in guise of coming to watch the next world cup. USA is a cherish country desirable by many to live in, so they have to expect that to happen. Among the three countries hosting the game, USA is hosting more of the games and that means more immigration of people to USA than Mexico and Canada.

I recently saw an announcement that an important figure in the country said that he was going to impose that anyone who enters the USA illegally will be punished by taking him out of the country and beating him for 5 years,

Well, this is more of a threat than a law 😁, and to be sincere, it does not look serious to me, this to me looks like one of those threat we normally receive from our parents when we  were kids, when they tell us not to do this, else we will be flogged, and out of curiosity or stubbornness, we will still end up doing that thing, and without receiving the said punishment at the end of the day.

What am I saying, a threat as thing does not seem strong enough to deter strong headed people from trying to enter USA through illegal means, even with this in place, I tell you, many will still go ahead and try to enter USA illegally just to watch the world cup when denied visa.

Well, there's nothing out of ordinary about that because that's just how the USA impose some threats because I don't think that there's some words in that phrase that needed some emphasis to help the people understand. It's just like a friendly reminder from their behalf but believe me, they will literally do that when an alien forces their way inside the country. But the thing is we won't know because surely, they won't be doing that publicly.

[slackovic]

~snip~
I don't know how many people would agree with me, but IMO Qatar 2022 was a disaster. Obviously the Qataris were able to splash all their wealth and many of the westerners were in awe. But then, the fans were left high and dry with all the restrictions. What is the point in having a major tournament like this, if the fans can't relax and enjoy themselves? There was this last minute restrictions on alcoholic beverages. And the Qataris very cunningly announced it just two days before the first match, to make sure that all the fans have already booked their ticket. And then there was extreme discrimination against unmarried couples and LGBT people. I just hope that FIFA will never allow regressive countries such as Qatar to host such tournaments in the future.

Yeah, there were organizational issues, but the tournament itself, the football, was quite entertaining.

It was a great tournament, with lots of talented people, and many surprises.

I enjoyed watching it a lot.

It depends from which side are you looking at the World Cup 2022. If you watched it on a TV from your home, everything was great and most of the games were interesting. However I'm sure that fans that were stopped in the airport because they didn't get their visa on time. There was a situation where two guys payed almost $3000 for a game and airplane ticket to go to one game. One guy got his visa and the other guy didn't get it in time. The guy without a visa got stopped from entering a plane in Frankfurt, Germany and his friend didn't want to go alone. In the end not only have they lost $3000, they had to buy another plane ticket to get home from Frankfurt.

And then there were those discriminate situations where something that is normal in "our" world was forbidden in Qatar, but I won't go into that.

[Sithara007]

It depends from which side are you looking at the World Cup 2022. If you watched it on a TV from your home, everything was great and most of the games were interesting. However I'm sure that fans that were stopped in the airport because they didn't get their visa on time. There was a situation where two guys payed almost $3000 for a game and airplane ticket to go to one game. One guy got his visa and the other guy didn't get it in time. The guy without a visa got stopped from entering a plane in Frankfurt, Germany and his friend didn't want to go alone. In the end not only have they lost $3000, they had to buy another plane ticket to get home from Frankfurt.

And then there were those discriminate situations where something that is normal in "our" world was forbidden in Qatar, but I won't go into that.

Visa issues during 2026 edition will be much worse than what they had in 2022. Qatar at least issues tourist visa without much delay, unless you are from the pariah states such as North Korea or Cuba. Getting a tourist visa for the United States is next to impossible for most of those who are residing in the third world nations. I am not sure whether they will make some exemptions for the 2026 World Cup, but we are going to witness a lot of ugly scenes at the airport.

Perhaps football fans need to wait until 2030, if they don't want to waste their hard earned money. But we don't know about hosts for the 2030 edition yet. Right now there are at least a dozen bids, including those from Morocco, combined Uruguay–Argentina–Chile–Paraguay, combined Spain–Portugal–Ukraine, and the joint bid from United Kingdom-Ireland. Voting will be held sometime in 2024.

[beerlover]

It depends from which side are you looking at the World Cup 2022. If you watched it on a TV from your home, everything was great and most of the games were interesting. However I'm sure that fans that were stopped in the airport because they didn't get their visa on time. There was a situation where two guys payed almost $3000 for a game and airplane ticket to go to one game. One guy got his visa and the other guy didn't get it in time. The guy without a visa got stopped from entering a plane in Frankfurt, Germany and his friend didn't want to go alone. In the end not only have they lost $3000, they had to buy another plane ticket to get home from Frankfurt.

And then there were those discriminate situations where something that is normal in "our" world was forbidden in Qatar, but I won't go into that.

I will. What is "normal" in our nation is literally just women wearing whatever the hell they want, that's a freedom, if you are going to put pressure on women that goes to Qatar, and I do not even mean women of their own nations, I mean women that goes to visit, and tell them to wear "proper" clothing, that's not just limiting someone's freedom, but that's literally a crime in our nation.

You can't force women, you can't force lgbtq people, you can't force anyone to do what you want to do, and that was disgusting. West may have a lot of troubles, as someone who is not from west I can say that they have many many faults, but freedom to wear whatever you want is a key difference because if even that's an issue, then imagine all the other ones we do not know about.

[gagux123]

My guess is that FIFA want to put Qatar behind and start off with the right foot in North America.
Besides, they may believe that changing the size of the tournament could bring more attention and profit to the next World Cup. It may have something too do that this next time it will be a bigger event (geographically) and plan to do it bigger on all sense.

Bigger does not mean better, though. I remain neutral to that decision.

I have mentioned manytimes before, I remain as a strong supporter of the decision by FIFA to increase the number of participants to 48. As we have seen from Qatar 2022, some of the most entertaining matches involved teams that would struggle to qualify for a 32-team event (I am talking about teams such as Cameroon, Morocco and South Korea). Also, when we are calling this tournament as a world cup, there is a requirement to ensure representation from all the geographies around the world. Look at the map below, and please let me know whether you find this representation or not:

You can never have all locations in the world evenly represented in the FIFA World Cup because European countries play better football and more of them qualifies. It's just a matter of which sport is more popular (and funded). The same thing is with some other sport that's not as popular in Europe as in other parts of the world. For example, you can't expect that many European countries will qualify for a world championship in cricket.

That's true European countries are dominating football world and that's why Morocco when made it to semi-final this year was a shock and surprise for whole world . And as far as Asia is concerned there are still no football teams representing in fifa like Pakistan and India and these teams are dominating in cricket world so that's they difference.
I hope so among 48 teams in 2026 Pakistan and India should be inside it .

Well, to be honest, I confess that I was very surprised with Morocco disputing this semifinals of this world cup, I never imagined that they could have reached there, but they played with a lot of vigor and determination, and in fact the results they achieved were deserved!!

[nullama]

~snip~
Well, to be honest, I confess that I was very surprised with Morocco disputing this semifinals of this world cup, I never imagined that they could have reached there, but they played with a lot of vigor and determination, and in fact the results they achieved were deserved!!

I think that was one of the biggest surprises of the tournament. They literally made history, being the first African nation to reach to the semi finals of the world cup.



Another surprise was of course Saudi Arabia winning against the future world cup winner, Argentina.

And I think there were a few other results that no one was expecting. It was a pretty entertaining world cup.

[romero121]

~snip~
Well, to be honest, I confess that I was very surprised with Morocco disputing this semifinals of this world cup, I never imagined that they could have reached there, but they played with a lot of vigor and determination, and in fact the results they achieved were deserved!!

I think that was one of the biggest surprises of the tournament. They literally made history, being the first African nation to reach to the semi finals of the world cup.



Another surprise was of course Saudi Arabia winning against the future world cup winner, Argentina.

And I think there were a few other results that no one was expecting. It was a pretty entertaining world cup.

Agreed, unexpected outcomes kept the entire tournament interesting. From the beginning to the last more teams that are expected to win came out earlier. Morocco is really good at its game and gained good support from people around the world, who were once in favour of the top nations.

Came across a video of Saudi players getting threatened by an official for losing a match. I don't know whether that is true or not. If someone have come across the video please post what is being discussed.

[Hispo]

-snip-

... I just hope that FIFA will never allow regressive countries such as Qatar to host such tournaments in the future.

Keeping in mind the ongoing scandal in Europe about politicians who seemed to have been under the influence of Qatar (a.k.a bribery and lobbying), one could expect some future backlash from European government towards the FIFA when comes to the selection of hosts for the World Cup. I am not an expert at FIFA policies, but I am sure paying for hosting and paying politicians is not part of the legal protocol.

In the end, the only way to punish corrupt people is to punch them both in the wallet and their life time. Jail.

[og kush420]

Some probably will, but in the end that is not responsibility of the FIFA, but rather of the United States government.
Since traveling to another country counts as tourism, USA immigration would be more careful when comes to granting Visas to those seeking to watch the matches, making sure they have no reason to move illegally and return to their home after the event.

They won't give visas to those who can't provide proof of job, income and family in their native motherland.

Most of the time people visit to go abroad. They wish to travel and work there but not in their own country.
I wish people work hard in their own country too so to bring prosperity and wealth to their local country.

[gagux123]

I think that was one of the biggest surprises of the tournament. They literally made history, being the first African nation to reach to the semi finals of the world cup.



Another surprise was of course Saudi Arabia winning against the future world cup winner, Argentina.

And I think there were a few other results that no one was expecting. It was a pretty entertaining world cup.

Yes, absolutely! In fact Morocco played as if that game was the last game of their lives, literally they played above their 100%.

If Morocco had the same tactical and quality level as an elite team, for example Brazil, France and Argentina, and if they played with the same determination that they had in this World Cup, I have no doubt that they would be champions!
Several friends and I thought about this possibility.

I even forgot to comment, in my opinion Japan also surprised the world, because they beat Germany and Spain and managed to take Croatia to the penalties in the "round of 16", but unfortunately they lost.

Well, the conclusion I can reach is that football has become a sport widely known and practiced all over the world, and several countries are getting special attention to football, which proves what I said are the unexpected results we had in this last world cup.