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

[armanda90]

During the last World Cup, there were rumors that Messi and Ronaldo would retire after the Qatar World Cup but they have not yet taken any decision on retirement. In the World Cup in Qatar we saw Ronaldo being benched for a few matches which was a big disappointment for Ronaldo fans. But Messi was unstoppable in the last World Cup. Argentina won the World Cup in Qatar due to his great performance and experience. If Messi wants to play another World Cup, Argentina Football Federation will always welcome him. But it remains to be seen whether Messi can maintain his fitness and whether he will be seen on the field in the next World Cup. But Ronaldo will want to play one more World Cup.  Although he has made his career bright, he has not been able to bring success in any significant tournament for the country so far. As Portugal currently has a number of quality players, Ronaldo will want to combine quality players to lead the team to a good position in a major tournament.

Possibilities for Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will participants in FIFA World Cup 2026, regarding with Portugal and Argentina national teams FIFA matchday, both player take part for their national teams. Looks optimistic with one year later between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi still get called from their national teams and opening chance for playing in FIFA World Cup 2026. But depend on their performance with club and during not get injured I believe they will be icon for their national teams. Last FIFA World Cup 2022, Cristiano Ronaldo can't show best perform and more spent in the bench, difference with Lionel Messi success help his national teams winning FIFA World Cup tittle and he hasn't planning for retiring from national teams.

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[shogun47]

While we have been discussing about the upcoming FIFA, I would like to add a small information about India. With the win against Kuwait, India became the SAFF Championship Winners of 2023. With this win India have come under the top 100 countries on the FIFA rank list. This doesn't look like a big achievement for others, but as a person from India I find this to be something great.

It is always nice to see some countries climb up the ranking in world soccer although it also means that others had to be dropping in the ranking first

But still when India would take soccer more seriously and it were to establish as a national sport over the coming decades, imagine how much potential the country has to source players from their population. But this shows that population is only a minor factor whether a nation has a good team or not or otherwise China would also be leading the ranking or be in the top 10 or something. Now they are 79th I think.

[Volgastallion]

While we have been discussing about the upcoming FIFA, I would like to add a small information about India. With the win against Kuwait, India became the SAFF Championship Winners of 2023. With this win India have come under the top 100 countries on the FIFA rank list. This doesn't look like a big achievement for others, but as a person from India I find this to be something great.

It is always nice to see some countries climb up the ranking in world soccer although it also means that others had to be dropping in the ranking first

But still when India would take soccer more seriously and it were to establish as a national sport over the coming decades, imagine how much potential the country has to source players from their population. But this shows that population is only a minor factor whether a nation has a good team or not or otherwise China would also be leading the ranking or be in the top 10 or something. Now they are 79th I think.

We always talk about population and ammount of players you can produce, and yes theorically and in maths this its correct, but we see in the reality this doesnt happen.

China still doesnt produce any DECENT player, and thei invest some money on football, USA its developing someone but more from Latin people who emigrates into USA than real USA players.

The main example can be Mexico, a country where football its one of the main sports and they still not making any good in football.

[KTChampions]

To be honest, I can't understand where the sarcasm is, as Infantino already lobbies for a World Cup every two years. Of course, as you correctly noted, this will destroy all records, but I think everyone will understand the value of new records compared to those that were set in the old format.

Well.. what is wrong with having a world cup every two years? If leagues such as English Premier League, Ligue1 and Serie A can be conducted every year, spanning for 4-5 months, then what is wrong in having a FIFA tournament every 2 years which will get completed in around 1 month duration? IMO, clubs are having a disproportionate influence in global football and the importance of international competitions are going down. IMO, this is not a move in the right direction, because the clubs only care about money and not about the overall growth of the game.

Do you believe in good fairy officials who take care of the game? 
Football is a business. Clubs are those who do business and they are responsible for it with their money. Everything else - FIFA, UEFA and other shit is parasites. I always trust a businessman more (because I have a direct influence on him with my money) than degenerate officials who dispose of the fruits of other people's labor. I have a completely different view of things than you: in my opinion, clubs should have more influence (like the NHL), and all other officials and competitions held by them should be in a marginal niche.

[Finestream]

Regarding about the stadium that will be used in the final game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, here's the final detail.

The final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place on Sunday, July 19, 2026. The MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey is the intended stadium and host city for the final match of the 2026 FIFA men’s soccer World Cup in North America.

https://www.2026worldcupnorthamerica.com/fifa-football-final-world-cup-soccer-2026/#:~:text=The%20final%20of%20the%202026,World%20Cup%20in%20North%20America.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas has been on the list but because of the said reason above, FIFA has decided that it will be more compelling to the people around the world if they will hold it in the home of New York Jets and New York Giants. Also, MetLife has been chosen to host the final game because it can cater more audience.

In terms of capacity, there is not much difference between the AT&T stadium and the MetLife Stadium. IMO, the fact that weather at that time in Texas can be extremely hostile probably turned the tables for the MetLife stadium. And I haven't heard anything about the capacity in these stadiums getting increased. But there is plenty of time, as the next world cup is three years away. The Lusail stadium, which hosted the final between Argentina and France in the FIFA World Cup in 2022 also had a similar capacity (88,966).

Capacity is not the most important factor for world cup stadiums I mean the stadium can have even 100K capacity but it doesn't really matter if these stadiums don't have the quality they need to have. Since America got three years to rebuild and repair the stadiums for the 2026 world cup, I think they can even do some rework and increase the capacity for some stadiums they are going to use for hosting the world cup.

It is safe to say that these stadiums will undergo some repair and extensions so that it will meet the requirements of the FIFA as we all know by now that FIFA got its own requirements and yes, capacity is the least of their problem. We can't just compare the North American hosts to the Qatar hosts just because the latter build their own stadiums just for the sake of the FIFA games, they've got their own situations to solve because Qatar doesn't have major leagues or any games that requires them to have those stadiums. IMO, if it weren't because of FIFA, I highly doubt if Qatar will build those massive stadiums.

[RewFrew]

Canada, Mexico and United States are arranging Fifa world cap 2026 it is very good news for such countries. Maxico playing world cap from many years ago. And Canada and United States comparatively new. And they are trying to good play. Constantly striving to improve the quality of the game United States and Canada. For host people are very happy of thats countries. I think it will be very helpful to increase supporters and players. And i am also waiting to see american arrangement. And fifa increase total team from 32 to 48. It will be Very helpful for new country who are trying to getting chance to paly world cap.

[Vaculin]

Regarding about the stadium that will be used in the final game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, here's the final detail.

The final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place on Sunday, July 19, 2026. The MetLife Stadium in New York/New Jersey is the intended stadium and host city for the final match of the 2026 FIFA men’s soccer World Cup in North America.

https://www.2026worldcupnorthamerica.com/fifa-football-final-world-cup-soccer-2026/#:~:text=The%20final%20of%20the%202026,World%20Cup%20in%20North%20America.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas has been on the list but because of the said reason above, FIFA has decided that it will be more compelling to the people around the world if they will hold it in the home of New York Jets and New York Giants. Also, MetLife has been chosen to host the final game because it can cater more audience.

In terms of capacity, there is not much difference between the AT&T stadium and the MetLife Stadium. IMO, the fact that weather at that time in Texas can be extremely hostile probably turned the tables for the MetLife stadium. And I haven't heard anything about the capacity in these stadiums getting increased. But there is plenty of time, as the next world cup is three years away. The Lusail stadium, which hosted the final between Argentina and France in the FIFA World Cup in 2022 also had a similar capacity (88,966).

In fact:

The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority recently approved a contract worth roughly $16 million to expand MetLife Stadium to meet FIFA’s requirements for hosting the soccer games. Construction is set to begin in December and run through May 2025.

https://www.thirteen.org/programs/nj-spotlight-news/vo-world-cup-1687813014/

I guess an extension factor to increase the capacity of this stadium is also included on the stated amount of expansion aside from making it a soccer format to match the FIFA requirements.

Also, I don't think that an argument is needed for this because the FIFA has already said that MetLife will the one that will be used in the final game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and not the AT&T Stadium. We can also say that there have been discussions held at first before they decided what stadium will be used because it's not that easy to choose what stadium is eligible.

[Silberman]

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

In fact, the idea of holding the World Cup every 2 years has been discussed for a long time and is no longer a big news.
As far as I remember, UEFA and the European national teams were the most opposed to that idea, because even now European football players have too demanding a schedule and too many matches in the season.
FIFA has stopped discussing this proposal for now, but I am almost certain that it will happen because every world cup brings huge profits to FIFA and they will not give up those profits.
FIFA has already increased the number of national teams participating in the next World Cup in 2026, and holding the World Cup every 2 years is the next logical step in that process.

Correct, they can only increase the number of teams that can qualify to the world cup by that much before people begin to notice a drop on the quality of the tournament, so decreasing the time you need to wait for the world cup to take place is something they want to see done, and even if I am fan of soccer and whenever the world cup ends I missed already I think this is a terrible idea, players are already over their limits with how many games they need to play and clubs are already protesting, can you imagine adding another set of qualifiers and the world cup on top of that? At that point it would not surprise me if clubs then decided that they will not hire a player unless they give up on their national team as a way to protect their interests.

[shogun47]

To be honest, I can't understand where the sarcasm is, as Infantino already lobbies for a World Cup every two years. Of course, as you correctly noted, this will destroy all records, but I think everyone will understand the value of new records compared to those that were set in the old format.

Well.. what is wrong with having a world cup every two years? If leagues such as English Premier League, Ligue1 and Serie A can be conducted every year, spanning for 4-5 months, then what is wrong in having a FIFA tournament every 2 years which will get completed in around 1 month duration? IMO, clubs are having a disproportionate influence in global football and the importance of international competitions are going down. IMO, this is not a move in the right direction, because the clubs only care about money and not about the overall growth of the game.

Do you believe in good fairy officials who take care of the game? 
Football is a business. Clubs are those who do business and they are responsible for it with their money. Everything else - FIFA, UEFA and other shit is parasites. I always trust a businessman more (because I have a direct influence on him with my money) than degenerate officials who dispose of the fruits of other people's labor. I have a completely different view of things than you: in my opinion, clubs should have more influence (like the NHL), and all other officials and competitions held by them should be in a marginal niche.

That's a good point of view, but would it really solve all the problems? I agree that I prefer the model how it is handled in the NHL as well and Gianni Infantino is the perfect example why these huge centralized institutions shouldn't have that much power. That also applies to Sepp Blatter before and to other officials as well. But one problem was that votes were bought for example for the World Cup in Qatar. But how would the problem of too much influence be solved when sheikhs just buy a relative majority of clubs in a league? Wouldn't you still need a governing body? I know that could be bribed the same way, but what would your idea here be if you have one? I have a rough overview over the NHL, but they are probably not free from external influences or the rule of money instead of law.

[Rockstarguy]

While we have been discussing about the upcoming FIFA, I would like to add a small information about India. With the win against Kuwait, India became the SAFF Championship Winners of 2023. With this win India have come under the top 100 countries on the FIFA rank list. This doesn't look like a big achievement for others, but as a person from India I find this to be something great.

It is a big achievement for India because India is known as to be inexperienced when it comes to football, with this achievement from India it tells they will do well in coming competitions. For a longtime that India have not been participating in football I thought it will be a problem to them now. India performance in the FIFA world cap coming up won't be as bad if they can be the win SAFF Championship of 2023,  it is a very impressive result from them.

[alegotardo]

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

World Cup every two years? Impossible!!!

As ambitious for money as FIFA is, this would be a totally inappropriate suggestion for a competition of the magnitude that the world cup has.

In order to hold this event, there must be large investments by the host countries, a lot of mobility and changes in the schedule, there is no way to do this every two years.

Fifa has already increased the number of teams in the competition and this is what they can do best.

Another solution would be to make the tournament a regular competition and more spread out between the years, but that would take the "brightness" out of the tournament and become a "normal" competition.

The less Fifa messes with the world cup, the better!

[nullama]

~snip~
World Cup every two years? Impossible!!!

As ambitious for money as FIFA is, this would be a totally inappropriate suggestion for a competition of the magnitude that the world cup has.

In order to hold this event, there must be large investments by the host countries, a lot of mobility and changes in the schedule, there is no way to do this every two years.

Fifa has already increased the number of teams in the competition and this is what they can do best.

Another solution would be to make the tournament a regular competition and more spread out between the years, but that would take the "brightness" out of the tournament and become a "normal" competition.

The less Fifa messes with the world cup, the better!

The world keeps changing, and who knows what will happen in the future. Money talks.

Maybe there will be an alternative world cup tournament that comes around every 2 years, or maybe every 4 but 2 years apart from the original world cup.

And maybe they end up merging, like what happened to golf

[Leviathan.007]

To be honest, I can't understand where the sarcasm is, as Infantino already lobbies for a World Cup every two years. Of course, as you correctly noted, this will destroy all records, but I think everyone will understand the value of new records compared to those that were set in the old format.

Well.. what is wrong with having a world cup every two years? If leagues such as English Premier League, Ligue1 and Serie A can be conducted every year, spanning for 4-5 months, then what is wrong in having a FIFA tournament every 2 years which will get completed in around 1 month duration? IMO, clubs are having a disproportionate influence in global football and the importance of international competitions are going down. IMO, this is not a move in the right direction, because the clubs only care about money and not about the overall growth of the game.

The thing about World Cup is all countries should get themselves ready and train for a long time, after waiting for this long time they can have the chance to play in the world cup and race for the title while decreasing the space between world cups can decrease the quality of this tournament and I think the national teams won't enough pay attention to it anymore.

[Pulsar77]

I also think the World Cup shouldn't be organized every 2 years. This is too much for players considering how busy schedule they would have together with Euro tournaments on one hand. In addition to these biggest tournaments for national teams there are tournaments such as the Nations League, Copa America and so on. This would increase the risk of getting injured quite much. I assume teams wouldn't also be happy with risking their players in a this much tight schedule at their national teams either.

The current system is already great for us as well I think. Because every 2 years we watch either one of Euro or the World Cup tournaments.

[Daniel91]

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

In fact, the idea of holding the World Cup every 2 years has been discussed for a long time and is no longer a big news.
As far as I remember, UEFA and the European national teams were the most opposed to that idea, because even now European football players have too demanding a schedule and too many matches in the season.
FIFA has stopped discussing this proposal for now, but I am almost certain that it will happen because every world cup brings huge profits to FIFA and they will not give up those profits.
FIFA has already increased the number of national teams participating in the next World Cup in 2026, and holding the World Cup every 2 years is the next logical step in that process.

Correct, they can only increase the number of teams that can qualify to the world cup by that much before people begin to notice a drop on the quality of the tournament, so decreasing the time you need to wait for the world cup to take place is something they want to see done, and even if I am fan of soccer and whenever the world cup ends I missed already I think this is a terrible idea, players are already over their limits with how many games they need to play and clubs are already protesting, can you imagine adding another set of qualifiers and the world cup on top of that? At that point it would not surprise me if clubs then decided that they will not hire a player unless they give up on their national team as a way to protect their interests.

Such things are already happening. We already know that some clubs and coaches openly say that they are not satisfied with the number of matches their players have to play due to club and national team commitments.
As far as I remember, Klopp and Pep were the most unhappy about it in recent seasons.
On the other hand, by increasing the number of national teams at the world cups, it is obvious that the quality and interest of the competition will decrease.
For me personally, lately the EURO is a much more interesting competition than the World Cup, with a lot more quality and uncertain matches.

[freedomgo]

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

World Cup every two years? Impossible!!!

As ambitious for money as FIFA is, this would be a totally inappropriate suggestion for a competition of the magnitude that the world cup has.

In order to hold this event, there must be large investments by the host countries, a lot of mobility and changes in the schedule, there is no way to do this every two years.

Fifa has already increased the number of teams in the competition and this is what they can do best.

Another solution would be to make the tournament a regular competition and more spread out between the years, but that would take the "brightness" out of the tournament and become a "normal" competition.

The less Fifa messes with the world cup, the better!

You didn't even notice his sarcasm he just said it mate.

A World Cup in every two years really do sounds ambitious and I don't think that it will be granted if ever the FIFA council will try to make it. Countries around the world will lose their desires to host for this kind of event as it will be not rare anymore and people won't be that interested anymore as they know that they can always see the next World Cup in the next two years, instead of four years where they will indeed prepare for it and will not lose the chance to see the event.

[Merit.s]

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

World Cup every two years? Impossible!!!

As ambitious for money as FIFA is, this would be a totally inappropriate suggestion for a competition of the magnitude that the world cup has.

In order to hold this event, there must be large investments by the host countries, a lot of mobility and changes in the schedule, there is no way to do this every two years.

Fifa has already increased the number of teams in the competition and this is what they can do best.

Another solution would be to make the tournament a regular competition and more spread out between the years, but that would take the "brightness" out of the tournament and become a "normal" competition.

The less Fifa messes with the world cup, the better!

You didn't even notice his sarcasm he just said it mate.

A World Cup in every two years really do sounds ambitious and I don't think that it will be granted if ever the FIFA council will try to make it. Countries around the world will lose their desires to host for this kind of event as it will be not rare anymore and people won't be that interested anymore as they know that they can always see the next World Cup in the next two years, instead of four years where they will indeed prepare for it and will not lose the chance to see the event.

World cup in every two years would be interesting and the competition will loss it's value and zeal of players to be part of the competition. FIFA wouldn't even try to put it into consideration because it will be stressful for them too. So much funds will be involved within a short period of time that might become a burden on the host country. I guess FIFA might have thought of this due to their love for money but they must have considered it boring. For a player to appear in three consecutive world cup competition that means that the player started playing very young but if it is every two years,I might say that the same country might win it back to back.

[Docnaster]

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

World Cup every two years? Impossible!!!

As ambitious for money as FIFA is, this would be a totally inappropriate suggestion for a competition of the magnitude that the world cup has.

In order to hold this event, there must be large investments by the host countries, a lot of mobility and changes in the schedule, there is no way to do this every two years.

Fifa has already increased the number of teams in the competition and this is what they can do best.

Another solution would be to make the tournament a regular competition and more spread out between the years, but that would take the "brightness" out of the tournament and become a "normal" competition.

The less Fifa messes with the world cup, the better!

You didn't even notice his sarcasm he just said it mate.

A World Cup in every two years really do sounds ambitious and I don't think that it will be granted if ever the FIFA council will try to make it. Countries around the world will lose their desires to host for this kind of event as it will be not rare anymore and people won't be that interested anymore as they know that they can always see the next World Cup in the next two years, instead of four years where they will indeed prepare for it and will not lose the chance to see the event.

The beauty of the FIFA World Cup tournament is the fact that it is being held every 4 years, so I think that making it biannual competition would make it look boring and uninteresting to many football fans.
One thing about the current board of FIFA is that they really want to monetize everything. They know that if the FIFA World Cup is held every two years it will generate more income that it does when it is held every 4 years football must not be all about the money. Current FIFA executives should not please  ruin the fun and beauty of the beautiful round leather game.

[Litzki1990]

That would be a great record to have, but FIFA is so concentrated on making money and extracting as many resources from the world cup that it would not surprise me if at some point they had the fantastic idea, notice my sarcasm, to play the world cup every two years instead of doing so every four years, in which case the record of Ronaldo will be easily crushed, now this may seem unrealistic now but it would not surprise me if they actually tried to do this in a few decades.

World Cup every two years? Impossible!!!

As ambitious for money as FIFA is, this would be a totally inappropriate suggestion for a competition of the magnitude that the world cup has.

In order to hold this event, there must be large investments by the host countries, a lot of mobility and changes in the schedule, there is no way to do this every two years.

Fifa has already increased the number of teams in the competition and this is what they can do best.

Another solution would be to make the tournament a regular competition and more spread out between the years, but that would take the "brightness" out of the tournament and become a "normal" competition.

The less Fifa messes with the world cup, the better!

You didn't even notice his sarcasm he just said it mate.

A World Cup in every two years really do sounds ambitious and I don't think that it will be granted if ever the FIFA council will try to make it. Countries around the world will lose their desires to host for this kind of event as it will be not rare anymore and people won't be that interested anymore as they know that they can always see the next World Cup in the next two years, instead of four years where they will indeed prepare for it and will not lose the chance to see the event.

World cup in every two years would be interesting and the competition will loss it's value and zeal of players to be part of the competition. FIFA wouldn't even try to put it into consideration because it will be stressful for them too. So much funds will be involved within a short period of time that might become a burden on the host country. I guess FIFA might have thought of this due to their love for money but they must have considered it boring. For a player to appear in three consecutive world cup competition that means that the player started playing very young but if it is every two years,I might say that the same country might win it back to back.

In football, not only the World Cup is held but several tournaments are held every year and after two years usually the Copa America and Euro tournaments are held, in which case it is a good decision to hold a major tournament like the World Cup every four years. When the World Cup tournament is held after four years, this World Cup is of great interest to the people of all countries. If this kind of tournament is organized every two years, it will be very difficult for FIFA to collect such a huge amount of funds and FIFA will not get the popularity that it gets if it is held every four years. If the World Cup could be held after two years then FIFA should have decided long ago. Since many tournaments are held every year, the World Cup should be held every four years.

[Bobrox]

I also think the World Cup shouldn't be organized every 2 years. This is too much for players considering how busy schedule they would have together with Euro tournaments on one hand. In addition to these biggest tournaments for national teams there are tournaments such as the Nations League, Copa America and so on. This would increase the risk of getting injured quite much. I assume teams wouldn't also be happy with risking their players in a this much tight schedule at their national teams either.

The current system is already great for us as well I think. Because every 2 years we watch either one of Euro or the World Cup tournaments.

Looks ambitious from FIFA if want World Cup play every two years because players has many schedule on every years with EURO, Copa America and Asian Cup, its enough with huge ambition from FIFA after increasing the number participants and the first time on FIFA World Cup 2026 has 48 participants national teams than last edition with 32 teams national participants. FIFA World Cup is most profitable and I think is the reason why FIFA try to add teams national participants and earn much money if World Cup play on every 2 years.

Can't believing how FIFA World Cup 2026 will begin success later due 48 national teams and actually has many matches will play, its mistake did by FIFA by adding national teams or participants or World Cup still interested.