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

[Ale88]

FIFA is a disgrace for football, and the 48-team World Cup is the natural result of a corrupted association that only cares about making money in any possible way, legal or not.

Imho, things will become only worse in the future. Last month I read that some South American countries are pushing for 64 teams in 2030 WC. While I don't think its gonna happen as of yet, there is a solid chance that we see it in lets say 10-15 years.

Yes, because South America needs more spots, they only qualify 6, possibly 7 teams out of team, they need at least 9 teams in World Cup

Yes, the reasoning is correct, but we must also consider that there are nations like Italy that have not seen their national team participate for a very long time and yet they watch the World Cup regardless of whether they are protagonists, and I have seen this several times.

Ok, but do you think that Italians are going to watch Jordan or Uzbekistan playing? Are you excited to eventually see Tunisia vs New Zealand? Or Cape Verde against Qatar? I don't know about you but I won't even turn the tv on for such matches, I couldn't care less. We're not talking about Spain, Argentina, Brazil, etc etc, we're talking about teams with completely unknown players. Does anybody know the Tunisia squad? Or Jordan? Or Qatar? Come on, they are a bunch of average players that maybe in Europe could play in second division.

[KTChampions]

Exactly this. The group stage has been turned into such garbage that it's unclear who will watch it. I'm not sure even Brazil fans will watch a game like Brazil vs. Papua New Guinea. If we talk about visiting the stadium (for a lot of money), then even more so. In general, it would be rational to assume that the audience for this historical competition, already known to everyone, is already at its maximum, new formats and an increase in the number of teams can only reduce it.

Typical European arrogance. Wake up and smell the coffee. Europe is no longer the kings of football. Neither are teams from the CONMEBOL. ~

  I'm afraid I won't see anything funnier today.
Europe is the undisputed king, CONMEBOL is the prince, everyone else is just furniture and scenery against which the main action takes place.
You can be offended by the actual state of affairs as much as you like, but before you say that the king is dead, you need to at least remotely see some hint of it, pathetic isolated victories in individual games mean literally nothing.

[Volgastallion]

Exactly this. The group stage has been turned into such garbage that it's unclear who will watch it. I'm not sure even Brazil fans will watch a game like Brazil vs. Papua New Guinea. If we talk about visiting the stadium (for a lot of money), then even more so. In general, it would be rational to assume that the audience for this historical competition, already known to everyone, is already at its maximum, new formats and an increase in the number of teams can only reduce it.

Typical European arrogance. Wake up and smell the coffee. Europe is no longer the kings of football. Neither are teams from the CONMEBOL. ~

  I'm afraid I won't see anything funnier today.
Europe is the undisputed king, CONMEBOL is the prince, everyone else is just furniture and scenery against which the main action takes place.
You can be offended by the actual state of affairs as much as you like, but before you say that the king is dead, you need to at least remotely see some hint of it, pathetic isolated victories in individual games mean literally nothing.

Mmmm i dont really know, european qualifiers are boring as fuck since the best teams are split into the diferent groups so i dont like it so much, UEFA nations league is a diferent thing since the top teams are all in the A league and they play against each other.

But in the normal qualifiers for me CONMEBOL is way better and mroe competitive.

[ILuckyGuyI]

I'm afraid I won't see anything funnier today.
Europe is the undisputed king, CONMEBOL is the prince, everyone else is just furniture and scenery against which the main action takes place.
You can be offended by the actual state of affairs as much as you like, but before you say that the king is dead, you need to at least remotely see some hint of it, pathetic isolated victories in individual games mean literally nothing.

I'm also on the same page with you on this topic. Europe is still the best. It's easy to see it even just by checking the last winners of the World Cup.

Last 5 winners:

• Argentina
• France
• Germany
• Spain
• Italy

Only 1 country from CONMEBOL here... European football is still at a higher level. CONMEBOL countries were the kings in early 2000s and before. But after that the balances have been upset.

Honestly I expect a national team from Europe to win the next World Cup.

[KTChampions]

I'm afraid I won't see anything funnier today.
Europe is the undisputed king, CONMEBOL is the prince, everyone else is just furniture and scenery against which the main action takes place.
You can be offended by the actual state of affairs as much as you like, but before you say that the king is dead, you need to at least remotely see some hint of it, pathetic isolated victories in individual games mean literally nothing.

I'm also on the same page with you on this topic. Europe is still the best. It's easy to see it even just by checking the last winners of the World Cup.

Last 5 winners:

• Argentina
• France
• Germany
• Spain
• Italy

Only 1 country from CONMEBOL here... European football is still at a higher level. CONMEBOL countries were the kings in early 2000s and before. But after that the balances have been upset.

Honestly I expect a national team from Europe to win the next World Cup.

There is simply nothing to discuss here, the final of every World Cup is either European or Europe versus CONMEBOL, no other federations. The closer to the final, the higher the percentage of European + CONEBOL teams (Europe dominates) and if we take the percentage of players, then the closer to the final, the percentage of those playing in Europe (regardless of which federation the player is from) becomes close to 100%. To seriously say that Europe (AND CONMEBOL) is no longer king is just some kind of narcotism.

[el kaka22]

Playoffs will be the most important part, it's going to be very interesting to see. We are going to see 16 teams playing in these playoffs and it is going to decide who will go and who won't. In that "win or go home" type of situations, any team could beat any team. We have seen Italy literally win Euro and then fail to go to World cup, so things are not always that easy and could change at any given moment.

For example, Turkey has been talked here on recent pages, those guys are second place, and they are going to end up facing some other teams. Sure teams they are going to face are not great teams, it's teams like Macedonia, Poland and what not, but that doesn't mean they can easily win, one bad day, one unlucky game and they are out. It is very exciting if you ask me.

[Ahli38]

Türkiye secured an easy win last night. Beating Georgia was very important, and we did it comfortably. We?ve guaranteed second place in the group and will now compete for the top spot. Turkey has two games left, against Bulgaria and Spain. We need to beat Spain, and Spain also needs to drop points. I know these possibilities are slim and probably won?t happen, but we still have hope.

Reviews about Turkey beating Georgia, it was a simple task for them and they smashed up all area to come out been the best. Turkey had a good treat in the world cup qualifiers because we can see clearly how they humbled oppositions with high goal margin. Turkey should not be underrated because they've good players that are ambitious and patriotic to play to any level for their country. This is what we should be talking about, to see Turkey on a fly level of competing with European countries in the world cup. Turkey facing Spain, a controversial game for them to win because it's going to be extreme difficult.

Turkey has a golden generation at the moment and it's a fact that Arda Güler and Kenan Y?ld?z are two players who are easily worth 100m between them.
And indeed they are great players and whoever underestimates Turkey is wrong, because they have very strong players.

Yes, that's right. Turkey cannot be underestimated as they have many experienced players and even some of them have played in very prestigious leagues. Kenan Yildiz plays for Juventus and has a market value of around €76 million. Hakan Calhanoglu plays for Inter and has a market value of around €25 million. Arda Guler plays for Real Madrid and has a market value of around €63 million. And there are many other players who are quite famous, where they are experienced playing for various teams or leagues. So this actually made Turkey very strong and ready to conquer their opponents. And I'm sure the team facing Turkey won't take it easy. They will be very serious when playing against them.

[M47AK16]

I'm sorry but seriously, who is going to watch Jordan or Uzbekistan playing? Even online, let's say those two teams play against each other or against Cape Verde or Bolivia or Qatar, besides people from those two countries who is going to care? Do you really think that many people are excited about games like those? Come on, let's be honest and real, nobody cares.

I know I won't. Back in the old format I watched like 90% of the games, and now I will have to wait for the 2nd round to finally get more competitive football. Thanks to this new format, you will have better chances to go through the group stages than not.  

I am not entirely sure, I think every single world cup game itself will be watched. I understand these games until we decide who goes to world cup will only be watched by the nations for their nations games and nothing more, but I think it's clear the world cup itself will be watched. Nobody says that the new system is better, but even if it got worse, that doesn't mean we will not watch it.

World cup is the most watched football in the whole world, everyone watches it, we are talking about billions of people all around the world. India and China usually are not in it, if they were, it would have been the most watched thing ever in the world history. So long story short, we are going to watch them anyways, it won't change.

[Ale88]

Exactly this. The group stage has been turned into such garbage that it's unclear who will watch it. I'm not sure even Brazil fans will watch a game like Brazil vs. Papua New Guinea. If we talk about visiting the stadium (for a lot of money), then even more so. In general, it would be rational to assume that the audience for this historical competition, already known to everyone, is already at its maximum, new formats and an increase in the number of teams can only reduce it.

Typical European arrogance. Wake up and smell the coffee. Europe is no longer the kings of football. Neither are teams from the CONMEBOL.

So who are exactly the "kings of football" since European teams won 4 of the 5 last WC?

Remember the match between Cameroon and Brazil during FIFA World Cup of 2022?

Do you mean a completely useless match for Brazil because they had already qualified as first team in the group? While Cameroon got eliminated? I do, so what's the point you're trying to prove?

[rdluffy]

Guys, does anyone believe that Brazil can win the 2026 World Cup or at least be among the top four?

As a Brazilian, I'm quite discouraged and don't have the courage to bet on Brazil the way they've been playing.
Even with Ancelotti, the team still seems to be struggling to find its footing, and each game gets more difficult because the time is running, less than a year to the cup and other teams are way better, like Argentina, Spain, France...

[Unsoldier]

I strongly disagree: the World Cup is already the most watched sporting event in the world so I really struggle to understand how the presence of countries such as Jordan, New Zealand, Cape Verde or Uzbekistan can noticeably improve the number of watchers. I actually think it's even counterproductive for the stadiums because the tickets are already extremely expensive so who is willing to spend $2-300 to go watch Jordan playing? In my opinion many matches will have little attendance. If I go to the World Cup I expect to see the best teams in the world, not a bunch of average teams that qualified only because FIFA chose to increase the number of spots. With this new formula 1 federation out of 4 will qualify to the World Cup, it's just too much, we're talking about 25% of the national teams taking part to a tournament that is supposed to be only for the best of the best.

Exactly this. The group stage has been turned into such garbage that it's unclear who will watch it. I'm not sure even Brazil fans will watch a game like Brazil vs. Papua New Guinea. If we talk about visiting the stadium (for a lot of money), then even more so. In general, it would be rational to assume that the audience for this historical competition, already known to everyone, is already at its maximum, new formats and an increase in the number of teams can only reduce it.

True, the group stage has become boring, I agree. But there’s one upside to these international breaks — club football feels twice as exciting afterward. Just look at this weekend: Liverpool–United, Roma–Inter, Bayern–Dortmund, Barca–Girona… After a week of internationals, you start missing real football, and that makes the weekend fixtures even sweeter.

[Mr Reporter]

Exactly this. The group stage has been turned into such garbage that it's unclear who will watch it. I'm not sure even Brazil fans will watch a game like Brazil vs. Papua New Guinea. If we talk about visiting the stadium (for a lot of money), then even more so. In general, it would be rational to assume that the audience for this historical competition, already known to everyone, is already at its maximum, new formats and an increase in the number of teams can only reduce it.

Typical European arrogance. Wake up and smell the coffee. Europe is no longer the kings of football. Neither are teams from the CONMEBOL. ~

  I'm afraid I won't see anything funnier today.
Europe is the undisputed king, CONMEBOL is the prince, everyone else is just furniture and scenery against which the main action takes place.
You can be offended by the actual state of affairs as much as you like, but before you say that the king is dead, you need to at least remotely see some hint of it, pathetic isolated victories in individual games mean literally nothing.

Mmmm i dont really know, european qualifiers are boring as fuck since the best teams are split into the diferent groups so i dont like it so much, UEFA nations league is a diferent thing since the top teams are all in the A league and they play against each other.

But in the normal qualifiers for me CONMEBOL is way better and mroe competitive.

European qualifiers can feel repetitive when top teams are in different groups. The UEFA Nations League offers a more competitive format with top teams facing each other. CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation) qualifiers are indeed known for their intensity and competitiveness, with teams like Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay often producing thrilling matches.

[Belarge]

Guys, does anyone believe that Brazil can win the 2026 World Cup or at least be among the top four?

As a Brazilian, I'm quite discouraged and don't have the courage to bet on Brazil the way they've been playing.
Even with Ancelotti, the team still seems to be struggling to find its footing, and each game gets more difficult because the time is running, less than a year to the cup and other teams are way better, like Argentina, Spain, France...

Brazil is lacking that good chemistry that use to exist between players, check their performance on the pitch, that cooperation is no longer there and everyplayer that's a Brazilian finding it hard to develop because of the high level of fitness competition. Tell me face to face, if you're a solid young lad coming up and been featuring in the Brazil frontline, you know the level of outstanding players found in the frontline category? Who do you think Carlo Ancelotti will bench for you to see game? Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo? Which of them? Brazil have so many wonderful lads coming up but with the current presence of big names, these players won't be uneasy with their style.

Brazil performance in the upcoming 2026 world cup, definitely its going to be an eligible one for the the Brazilians, we know how hard they fought to reach this standard and they're not looking away to make things rough and not adding to their pressing errors, they ought to be relieved and know themselves on the pitch and the  ultimate goal.

[Ale88]

Guys, does anyone believe that Brazil can win the 2026 World Cup or at least be among the top four?

As a Brazilian, I'm quite discouraged and don't have the courage to bet on Brazil the way they've been playing.
Even with Ancelotti, the team still seems to be struggling to find its footing, and each game gets more difficult because the time is running, less than a year to the cup and other teams are way better, like Argentina, Spain, France...

Brazil is lacking that good chemistry that use to exist between players, check their performance on the pitch, that cooperation is no longer there and everyplayer that's a Brazilian finding it hard to develop because of the high level of fitness competition. Tell me face to face, if you're a solid young lad coming up and been featuring in the Brazil frontline, you know the level of outstanding players found in the frontline category? Who do you think Carlo Ancelotti will bench for you to see game? Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo? Which of them? Brazil have so many wonderful lads coming up but with the current presence of big names, these players won't be uneasy with their style.

For me it's not only the lack of chemistry rather than the lack of real Brazilian players. I have no problems admitting that I've never been a fan of players like Vinicius Jr or Rodrygo because I feel like they are kept in high consideration just because they play for Real Madrid. And Vinicius Jr is already 25 years old and he didn't really prove anything: for many people he is one of the best players in the world, but for what? What did he achieve exactly? He is no Ronaldo and no Messi, he's just a player above average. Neymar at his age was way better than him, and Neymar would play great matches also for the Brazilian team. I don't see any of this with Vinicius.
And I don't even want to talk about Rodrygo, he's been at Real Madrid for 6 years and still now he spends more time on the bench than on the field.
How can we call these players "Brazilian stars"? They are not even worth one foot of players like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Neymar, Kakà... Those were real stars. Even Robinho in my opinion was better than them.

[Sithara007]

I'm afraid I won't see anything funnier today.
Europe is the undisputed king, CONMEBOL is the prince, everyone else is just furniture and scenery against which the main action takes place.
You can be offended by the actual state of affairs as much as you like, but before you say that the king is dead, you need to at least remotely see some hint of it, pathetic isolated victories in individual games mean literally nothing.

Europe is dying. Just because teams such as England, France and Spain are surviving, it doesn't mean that situation is healthy in the overall region. Look at teams such as Danmark, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. These teams used to be among the top. Where are they now? Many of these teams are going to miss the boat to 2026 World Cup. The rise of Asia and Africa is unstoppable. We have new teams such as Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde and Ivory Coast qualifying for the world cup. And in another two editions (by 2034?) the world cup itslef will be dominated by the AFC and CAF teams. 

[Obari]

Europe is dying. Just because teams such as England, France and Spain are surviving, it doesn't mean that situation is healthy in the overall region. Look at teams such as Danmark, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. These teams used to be among the top. Where are they now? Many of these teams are going to miss the boat to 2026 World Cup. The rise of Asia and Africa is unstoppable. We have new teams such as Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde and Ivory Coast qualifying for the world cup. And in another two editions (by 2034?) the world cup itslef will be dominated by the AFC and CAF teams.  

It's okay to agree with you about Africa and Asian continent bouncing ferociously back to football. This upcoming World Cup will be tremendous and compelling. European football is indelible and these sovereign countries wouldn't have to get bother about anything. It's fine to discern the grandiose performance of these European countries. You talked about Europe fading away, I differ from your aspects about this scenario. Wait a minute, have you calmly sit down and watched 2 to 3 European football games currently? Oh please don't form reliance on the fact that European players will catch fatigued, these players are absolutely wonderful in their making and wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their path to 2026 World Cup, besides they're awe-inspiring when it comes to big games.

[KTChampions]

I'm afraid I won't see anything funnier today.
Europe is the undisputed king, CONMEBOL is the prince, everyone else is just furniture and scenery against which the main action takes place.
You can be offended by the actual state of affairs as much as you like, but before you say that the king is dead, you need to at least remotely see some hint of it, pathetic isolated victories in individual games mean literally nothing.

Europe is dying. Just because teams such as England, France and Spain are surviving, it doesn't mean that situation is healthy in the overall region. Look at teams such as Danmark, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. These teams used to be among the top. Where are they now? Many of these teams are going to miss the boat to 2026 World Cup. The rise of Asia and Africa is unstoppable. We have new teams such as Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde and Ivory Coast qualifying for the world cup. And in another two editions (by 2034?) the world cup itslef will be dominated by the AFC and CAF teams. 

  If you're writing this seriously, you should be performing in a circus. You haven't reached the level of a stand-up comedian, but as a clown you can delight the audience.
European teams are exactly where they were - on the throne, the fact that sometimes one European team can be displaced by a good generation of another European team (Iceland, Norway, Greece, North Macedonia, etc.) does not change the balance of power in the world.
You can set any timeframe, even the year 2400, but throughout our lifetime we will see the dominance of Europe (+CONMEBOL) under the leadership of European coaches and performed by players who play mainly in Europe.

[TelolettOm]

Europe is dying. Just because teams such as England, France and Spain are surviving, it doesn't mean that situation is healthy in the overall region. Look at teams such as Danmark, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. These teams used to be among the top. Where are they now? Many of these teams are going to miss the boat to 2026 World Cup. The rise of Asia and Africa is unstoppable. We have new teams such as Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde and Ivory Coast qualifying for the world cup. And in another two editions (by 2034?) the world cup itslef will be dominated by the AFC and CAF teams. 

In fact, each top-ranked team this time also featured their usual top teams. Group leaders like
Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Belgium, England, and Croatia have all regularly advanced to the next phase. Perhaps the only difference is Italy, which this time finished second in its group.

And well, here are some interesting notes about Italy and their coach's statement. They will be in the playoffs.

Source: Italy head coach Gennaro Gattuso

[*Ace*]

Europe is dying. Just because teams such as England, France and Spain are surviving, it doesn't mean that situation is healthy in the overall region. Look at teams such as Danmark, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. These teams used to be among the top. Where are they now? Many of these teams are going to miss the boat to 2026 World Cup. The rise of Asia and Africa is unstoppable. We have new teams such as Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde and Ivory Coast qualifying for the world cup. And in another two editions (by 2034?) the world cup itslef will be dominated by the AFC and CAF teams. 

In fact, each top-ranked team this time also featured their usual top teams. Group leaders like
Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Belgium, England, and Croatia have all regularly advanced to the next phase. Perhaps the only difference is Italy, which this time finished second in its group.

And well, here are some interesting notes about Italy and their coach's statement. They will be in the playoffs.

Source: Italy head coach Gennaro Gattuso

Losing out on World Cup qualification for the third time in a row is truly mortifying, especially when you are the strongest national team in that group.
So I fully understand the words of coach Gattuso, who unfortunately inherited a situation that is not easy to manage.

[Rikafip]

The group stage has been turned into such garbage that it's unclear who will watch it. I'm not sure even Brazil fans will watch a game like Brazil vs. Papua New Guinea.

Of course Brazil fans will watch that game, and same goes for any other country, but problem is that no one except people from those two countries would watch that game.

Europe is dying.

Yes, Europe is dying so much that in the last WC, 5/8 teams in quarterfinal were from Europe while in 2018, 6 out of 8 were from Europe. And chances are that it will be the same case next year.

Look at teams such as Danmark, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. These teams used to be among the top. Where are they now? Many of these teams are going to miss the boat to 2026 World Cup. The rise of Asia and Africa is unstoppable.

Put any of these teams in any asia/african qualification group and they will easily qualify for WC.

The rise of Asia and Africa is unstoppable.

Will be interesting to see how many of them will reach let's say 1/4 final.