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

[stompix]

The World Cup will certainly be more lively if Indonesia participates, because Indonesia has supporters of around 277 million people.

And you think that If India qualifies 1.3 billion would watch the World Cup?
The maximum viewership in the US was barely 4 million at a 300 million population and the USA managed to get past the knock-out stage, how many in Indonesia will watch this out of those milions?

And for most of the players who entered the Japanese national team, they are players who have careers in the top European leagues. and this is what makes Japan the strongest team in Asia.

That's the thing, almost the whole Japanese team plays in European clubs, and they are used to playing against tough adversaries match after match against adversaries with different styles of play, for Indonesia, the team plays most in their national championship, there is a complete lack of experience and this will prove a real factor in the matches if they make it to the World Cup, and it's not going to be a pretty sight when looking at the scoreboard.

[Agbe]

The World Cup will certainly be more lively if Indonesia participates, because Indonesia has supporters of around 277 million people.

You made me laugh. Though I am not saying that Indonesia is not good to qualify or play the World Cup but your assertion that it is Indonesia team will make the World Cup more interesting is not true. I have watched many World Cups and I have not noticed that team in any of the World Cups I have watched and they are interested. What makes football more interesting is the team and not the number of fans chanting in the stadium. And nobody can force a team to participate but the strongness of the team to win others can make the team to qualify to participate in the main tournament.

Every fans want their country National Team to participate in the World Cup so they can support them but if they know they can't scale through the group stage in the World Cup, it is better they should not qualify in the Qualifiers Stage.

[imamusma]

i still not fully understand about new format of qualification stages for Europa zone but if i am not mistaken there will be 12 Groups total from 55 countries who will fight at this stages

There will be 12 groups. 6 groups of four and 6 groups of five teams.
The winner of each group will qualify the world cup directly and the second placed teams will go to the play-off round.

The play off round will contain 16 teams and 4 paths. 12 teams will come from the group stage and the other 4 will come from the nations league.
Winner of each path will qualify for the world cup.

Yes, in the Playoff round each team will compete for the remaining 4 tickets. The 2026 World Cup qualifying round for the UEFA zone is scheduled to take place from March 2025 to March 2026. Currently, the initial draw for each Pot has been determined, which is based on the FIFA ranking assessment.
Sorce - https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/procedures-and-seedings-uefa-draw
         - https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/uefa-qualifying-teams-schedule-dates-places

[Fiatless]

The World Cup will certainly be more lively if Indonesia participates, because Indonesia has supporters of around 277 million people.

You made me laugh. Though I am not saying that Indonesia is not good to qualify or play the World Cup but your assertion that it is Indonesia team will make the World Cup more interesting is not true. I have watched many World Cups and I have not noticed that team in any of the World Cups I have watched and they are interested. What makes football more interesting is the team and not the number of fans chanting in the stadium. And nobody can force a team to participate but the strongness of the team to win others can make the team to qualify to participate in the main tournament.

Every fans want their country National Team to participate in the World Cup so they can support them but if they know they can't scale through the group stage in the World Cup, it is better they should not qualify in the Qualifiers Stage.

Indonesia have only participated in the world cup once in 1938 and they competed with the name Dutch East Indies. Since then they have never gone to the world cup. Just as you said, other nations don't care if Indonesia qualifies or not. Only Indonesians will experience an exciting competition if the Garuda Warriors make it to this prestigious competition.

Indonesia is in group C of the World Cup qualifiers and it is very tight because almost every country in that group has the chance to qualify. With the recent victory of Indonesia over highly rated Saudi Arabia, they might qualify for the next level.

Only qualifying to the world cup is a great achievement for some countries. So I don't agree that it is better not to qualify than to be knocked out in the group stage.

[baeva]

The World Cup will certainly be more lively if Indonesia participates, because Indonesia has supporters of around 277 million people.

You made me laugh. Though I am not saying that Indonesia is not good to qualify or play the World Cup but your assertion that it is Indonesia team will make the World Cup more interesting is not true. I have watched many World Cups and I have not noticed that team in any of the World Cups I have watched and they are interested. What makes football more interesting is the team and not the number of fans chanting in the stadium. And nobody can force a team to participate but the strongness of the team to win others can make the team to qualify to participate in the main tournament.

Every fans want their country National Team to participate in the World Cup so they can support them but if they know they can't scale through the group stage in the World Cup, it is better they should not qualify in the Qualifiers Stage.

Indonesia have only participated in the world cup once in 1938 and they competed with the name Dutch East Indies. Since then they have never gone to the world cup. Just as you said, other nations don't care if Indonesia qualifies or not. Only Indonesians will experience an exciting competition if the Garuda Warriors make it to this prestigious competition.

Indonesia is in group C of the World Cup qualifiers and it is very tight because almost every country in that group has the chance to qualify. With the recent victory of Indonesia over highly rated Saudi Arabia, they might qualify for the next level.

Only qualifying to the world cup is a great achievement for some countries. So I don't agree that it is better not to qualify than to be knocked out in the group stage.

Whether they can qualify for the World Cup or not will not change the number of viewers from Indonesia. Whoever needs to come to see the World Cup in person or turn on the TV. I doubt that if they don't qualify for the World Cup, their country will be banned from showing the World Cup on TV. Maybe the number of viewers would actually increase a bit, but on a global scale it doesn't matter at all

[AirtelBuzz]

The teams who qualified for the World Cup are hard working teams and the players of that teams are very confident players.  These team have to give good effort to win against big teams because in World Cup they will face top teams of the World which are performing well. We saw last match of Japan team which it played against China football team and that was one sided match and we saw Japan team was top class team of World Cup qualifing round.

Every team works hard to qualify for the World Cup and the players of that team are confident that their team will qualify for the World Cup. Among those teams, there are a few teams who consistently perform well and qualify for the World Cup. Japan is currently performing best in the FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifier matches. I also watched the match where Japan beat China, basically it was a one sided match. According to the current FIFA ranking, Japan is very strong at number 15, on the other hand, according to FIFA ranking, China is at number ninety.
If you look at the FIFA rankings, you will understand that China is a very weak team.

https://inside.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men

[Hanadawa]

And you think that If India qualifies 1.3 billion would watch the World Cup?
The maximum viewership in the US was barely 4 million at a 300 million population and the USA managed to get past the knock-out stage, how many in Indonesia will watch this out of those milions?

I think there are a few things we can discuss here. First, almost all Indians prefer cricket over football. Football is not that popular in their country. You can google it. Same goes for America. Most Americans prefer basketball and American football. But in Indonesia football is the number 1 popular sport in the country. Maybe almost on par with badminton. I think that could be the reason why if Indonesia qualifies for the world cup then there is a possibility that the number of world cup viewers from Indonesia will break the record.

As a comparison, excluding famous players like Son, you can see which football players from Asia have the most followers on social media. I think Indonesian players will currently be in the top 20 of Asian players with the most followers on social media. I don't guarantee that the number of world cup viewers will increase drastically. But I can guarantee that Indonesia has a very big enthusiasm for football.

[moneystery]

I think there are a few things we can discuss here. First, almost all Indians prefer cricket over football. Football is not that popular in their country. You can google it. Same goes for America. Most Americans prefer basketball and American football. But in Indonesia football is the number 1 popular sport in the country. Maybe almost on par with badminton. I think that could be the reason why if Indonesia qualifies for the world cup then there is a possibility that the number of world cup viewers from Indonesia will break the record.

As a comparison, excluding famous players like Son, you can see which football players from Asia have the most followers on social media. I think Indonesian players will currently be in the top 20 of Asian players with the most followers on social media. I don't guarantee that the number of world cup viewers will increase drastically. But I can guarantee that Indonesia has a very big enthusiasm for football.

the enthusiasm of the Indonesian people for football is unquestionable, i dare say that indonesia is one of the countries whose people love football so much, even when this country last appeared in the world cup in 1938, but its people remain optimistic that one day indonesia can appear in the world cup again.

football is like a sport that is inherent in society, and when supporting the Indonesian national team, the Indonesian people are usually very serious and they will continue to support it, putting aside political choices or other things, it is a proof of how the Indonesian people really love football. so if one day Indonesia qualifies for the world cup, then I'm sure there are 150 million people or more than that who will watch and support this national team.

[SATWAT]

I think there are a few things we can discuss here. First, almost all Indians prefer cricket over football. Football is not that popular in their country. You can google it. Same goes for America. Most Americans prefer basketball and American football. But in Indonesia football is the number 1 popular sport in the country. Maybe almost on par with badminton. I think that could be the reason why if Indonesia qualifies for the world cup then there is a possibility that the number of world cup viewers from Indonesia will break the record.

As a comparison, excluding famous players like Son, you can see which football players from Asia have the most followers on social media. I think Indonesian players will currently be in the top 20 of Asian players with the most followers on social media. I don't guarantee that the number of world cup viewers will increase drastically. But I can guarantee that Indonesia has a very big enthusiasm for football.

the enthusiasm of the Indonesian people for football is unquestionable, i dare say that indonesia is one of the countries whose people love football so much, even when this country last appeared in the world cup in 1938, but its people remain optimistic that one day indonesia can appear in the world cup again.

football is like a sport that is inherent in society, and when supporting the Indonesian national team, the Indonesian people are usually very serious and they will continue to support it, putting aside political choices or other things, it is a proof of how the Indonesian people really love football. so if one day Indonesia qualifies for the world cup, then I'm sure there are 150 million people or more than that who will watch and support this national team.

Please read all matter before writing reply they are not talking about Indonesia they are talking about India where cricket is the most popular game, and they are lacking about soccer which is also good but not as cricket.

[Palakka]

~snip~

You made me laugh. Though I am not saying that Indonesia is not good to qualify or play the World Cup but your assertion that it is Indonesia team will make the World Cup more interesting is not true. I have watched many World Cups and I have not noticed that team in any of the World Cups I have watched and they are interested. What makes football more interesting is the team and not the number of fans chanting in the stadium. And nobody can force a team to participate but the strongness of the team to win others can make the team to qualify to participate in the main tournament.

Every fans want their country National Team to participate in the World Cup so they can support them but if they know they can't scale through the group stage in the World Cup, it is better they should not qualify in the Qualifiers Stage.

Indonesia have only participated in the world cup once in 1938 and they competed with the name Dutch East Indies. Since then they have never gone to the world cup. Just as you said, other nations don't care if Indonesia qualifies or not. Only Indonesians will experience an exciting competition if the Garuda Warriors make it to this prestigious competition.

Indonesia is in group C of the World Cup qualifiers and it is very tight because almost every country in that group has the chance to qualify. With the recent victory of Indonesia over highly rated Saudi Arabia, they might qualify for the next level.

Only qualifying to the world cup is a great achievement for some countries. So I don't agree that it is better not to qualify than to be knocked out in the group stage.

If we look at the history of 1938, we can say that actually at that time it was the Netherlands (Netherland East Indies) that qualified for the World Cup and not Indonesia, because after all at that time Indonesia was a Dutch colony although the squad was inhabited by the majority of players from Indonesia, I think what happened in the past is actually the opposite of what happened today when the Indonesian squad was dominated by players of  descent from netherland,  but apart from that, qualifying for the World Cup is an extraordinary achievement for any national team, including Indonesia, so we are here of course talking about pride and recognition from the world later about the ability of Indonesian football.

[stompix]

I think there are a few things we can discuss here. First, almost all Indians prefer cricket over football. Football is not that popular in their country. You can google it. Same goes for America. Most Americans prefer basketball and American football. But in Indonesia football is the number 1 popular sport in the country. Maybe almost on par with badminton. I think that could be the reason why if Indonesia qualifies for the world cup then there is a possibility that the number of world cup viewers from Indonesia will break the record.

I don't know, looking at the first league stats, the numbers are disappointing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_Liga_1_(Indonesia)
Average attendance   4,022
For comparison, Romania which has 10 times less population has twice the average attendance for football matches.

People talking about football doesn't mean people watching the match, I can see that every day in this forum where if you judge by people's posts they are watching 3 matches live continuously from dusk till dawn.

[virasog]

Whether they can qualify for the World Cup or not will not change the number of viewers from Indonesia. Whoever needs to come to see the World Cup in person or turn on the TV. I doubt that if they don't qualify for the World Cup, their country will be banned from showing the World Cup on TV. Maybe the number of viewers would actually increase a bit, but on a global scale it doesn't matter at all

It is not only relevant to Indonesia but there are many other countries in Asia where there is a craze for the football and a lot of people watch the football matches but their national team does not represent in the Fifa World Cup. I think fifa World cup is the only tournament that is watched globally regardless of the team participating in the tournament.

Unfortunately, the dilemma with the Asian region is that they love football and it is incredibly popular but the nations that can quality for the World Cup are minimal as compared to European and American nations.

[dezoel]

And you think that If India qualifies 1.3 billion would watch the World Cup?
The maximum viewership in the US was barely 4 million at a 300 million population and the USA managed to get past the knock-out stage, how many in Indonesia will watch this out of those milions?

I think there are a few things we can discuss here. First, almost all Indians prefer cricket over football. Football is not that popular in their country. You can google it. Same goes for America. Most Americans prefer basketball and American football. But in Indonesia football is the number 1 popular sport in the country. Maybe almost on par with badminton. I think that could be the reason why if Indonesia qualifies for the world cup then there is a possibility that the number of world cup viewers from Indonesia will break the record.

As a comparison, excluding famous players like Son, you can see which football players from Asia have the most followers on social media. I think Indonesian players will currently be in the top 20 of Asian players with the most followers on social media. I don't guarantee that the number of world cup viewers will increase drastically. But I can guarantee that Indonesia has a very big enthusiasm for football.

In India media is wild, and they understand the physiology of their peoples so they are doing things which bring more viewers besides them even I believe there are large community which is also lover of soccer, and they can develop good league which can bring good changes into their soccer system but no one wants to take risk and have things favourable for other sports as well so just because of this we have fever of cricket all 12 months.

Sometime back we have few peoples jump into this, and they try to bring some good and positive things, but things were not as they were looking for so we have all games on back foot which is not heading for complete control of IPL and cricket with 1.3 Billion population we can expect they surely able to bring nearly 50000 to 60000 fans for any soccer match with FIFA is also looking for big market which is surely going to help them.

[Leviathan.007]

If I'm not wrong, Uzbekistan should fight for the World Cup ticket but Iran is already qualified to the 2026 World Cup with Japan.

No team has already qualified for the world cup.

In group A, Iran now has 6 more points than the third placed team and given that there are 4 more matches remaining for each team, it's still possible that Iran will not finish the group at the top two places.
In group C, Japan now has 10 more points than the third place team. It's very unlikely that Japan will fail to qualify for the world cup, but that's still possible.

Thanks for the information. You are right and no team already qualified for the 2026 World Cup yet officially in Asia. Not Japan and Iran. I meant these two teams can have no stress or at least they will have less stress because they already got more points than the other teams in these two groups and consider the performance of these two teams and the results they got so far in the game we saw from these two, I can say there is a much higher chance for both Japan and Iran to be in the 2026 World Cup than other teams.

[Docnaster]

Whether they can qualify for the World Cup or not will not change the number of viewers from Indonesia. Whoever needs to come to see the World Cup in person or turn on the TV. I doubt that if they don't qualify for the World Cup, their country will be banned from showing the World Cup on TV. Maybe the number of viewers would actually increase a bit, but on a global scale it doesn't matter at all

I don't think the number of viewers from Indonesia is they don't qualify will still be the same when they qualify. The FIFA World Cup is the biggest football competition in the world and for a country like Indonesia who have participated in the tournament just ones which was in 1938 that was hosted by France, you should expect a massive turn out of viewers if they qualify to play which I don't think will happen when they fail to qualify.

[Hanadawa]

I think there are a few things we can discuss here. First, almost all Indians prefer cricket over football. Football is not that popular in their country. You can google it. Same goes for America. Most Americans prefer basketball and American football. But in Indonesia football is the number 1 popular sport in the country. Maybe almost on par with badminton. I think that could be the reason why if Indonesia qualifies for the world cup then there is a possibility that the number of world cup viewers from Indonesia will break the record.

I don't know, looking at the first league stats, the numbers are disappointing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_Liga_1_(Indonesia)
Average attendance   4,022
For comparison, Romania which has 10 times less population has twice the average attendance for football matches.

I agree with you that if you look at the statistics from wikipedia, the numbers are really disappointing. And in fact, Indonesians prefer watching EPL than Liga 1. Liga 1 in Indonesia has many problems such as corruption cases, match fixing, or referee injustice which are still problems. Simply, the management in Liga 1 is still very bad so that makes Indonesians dislike watching their own league. Indonesians don't know much about League 1. But they really like discussing football especially EPL. I think if we could find data on how many viewers watch Liga 1 and national team matches during the World Cup qualifiers, maybe you could see a very significant difference. Sorry, unfortunately I haven't been able to find it. But I think people from Indonesia can confirm the facts that I have said.

[sana54210]

I agree with you that if you look at the statistics from wikipedia, the numbers are really disappointing. And in fact, Indonesians prefer watching EPL than Liga 1. Liga 1 in Indonesia has many problems such as corruption cases, match fixing, or referee injustice which are still problems. Simply, the management in Liga 1 is still very bad so that makes Indonesians dislike watching their own league. Indonesians don't know much about League 1. But they really like discussing football especially EPL. I think if we could find data on how many viewers watch Liga 1 and national team matches during the World Cup qualifiers, maybe you could see a very significant difference. Sorry, unfortunately I haven't been able to find it. But I think people from Indonesia can confirm the facts that I have said.

Indonesia is not economical strong country with political instability is also problem for them in last many decades which hurting them badly we can't expect good number of fans in stadium or as viewers even they are in or out of the World Cup but still currently they are in top 5 Asian countries for the soccer love, and they need to work on their development which can bring better results in the future.

Currently, they are doing good job and have good chance of going into Fourth Stage, but we have to wait for the result of remaining matches which will played in coming months as we have read in above posts soccer in Asia is never been priority for any country even they are having the best available sources, but recent work from few countries are good and can give them good hope for better results in the future.

[Jody.Drummer]

I don't think the number of viewers from Indonesia is they don't qualify will still be the same when they qualify. The FIFA World Cup is the biggest football competition in the world and for a country like Indonesia who have participated in the tournament just ones which was in 1938 that was hosted by France, you should expect a massive turn out of viewers if they qualify to play which I don't think will happen when they fail to qualify.

1983 was not Indonesia, but still called the Dutch East Indies.
In Indonesia, Football is a very popular sport, especially when the Indonesian National Team plays. In several years I saw when the World Cup was held, several regions in Indonesia welcomed it very enthusiastically and even changed their environment with that theme.
However, I agree that there will definitely be a difference when Indonesia can qualify for the World Cup and if not, it is undeniable that they will be very enthusiastic beyond what is imagined. In age groups alone, we can see the excitement of Indonesia when playing.

[stompix]

~

I agree with you that if you look at the statistics from wikipedia, the numbers are really disappointing. And in fact, Indonesians prefer watching EPL than Liga 1. Liga 1 in Indonesia has many problems such as corruption cases, match fixing, or referee injustice which are still problems. Simply, the management in Liga 1 is still very bad so that makes Indonesians dislike watching their own league. Indonesians don't know much about League 1. But they really like discussing football especially EPL. I think if we could find data on how many viewers watch Liga 1 and national team matches during the World Cup qualifiers, maybe you could see a very significant difference. Sorry, unfortunately I haven't been able to find it. But I think people from Indonesia can confirm the facts that I have said.

And you see that was exactly my point.
If they like football that much then they would have watched the world cup even without Indonesia playing at all, so the team qualifying will not suddenly mean an increase in viewership of 200 million people, also, don't forget about the timezone, matches that will be late night in the USA will be early morning in Indonesia, I don't see that many people stating home at 9 AM watching a game rather than going to work.

[SquallLeonhart]

Whether they can qualify for the World Cup or not will not change the number of viewers from Indonesia. Whoever needs to come to see the World Cup in person or turn on the TV. I doubt that if they don't qualify for the World Cup, their country will be banned from showing the World Cup on TV. Maybe the number of viewers would actually increase a bit, but on a global scale it doesn't matter at all

It is not only relevant to Indonesia but there are many other countries in Asia where there is a craze for the football and a lot of people watch the football matches but their national team does not represent in the Fifa World Cup. I think fifa World cup is the only tournament that is watched globally regardless of the team participating in the tournament.

Unfortunately, the dilemma with the Asian region is that they love football and it is incredibly popular but the nations that can quality for the World Cup are minimal as compared to European and American nations.

I agree with your view about soccer and Asian region but here we need to check few things which are hurting badly for long time and AFC fail to fix things like these UEFA and other sports organizations are strong and have enough power but here due to geopolitics we have few problems which can fixed but no one taking first step.

AFC needs to go ahead brutally and end few regional events and work on just one event which helps them with they are having enough sources with them AFC can bring many good things and positive results we have in African region, and now they are producing one of the best soccer players for UEFA which are giving them good funds here we have too many events without any specific authority and many countries are lack of facilities which needed good support but nothing happening favourable for them.