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

[LUCKMCFLY]

/snip

But I find it funny how host countries are sometimes able to somehow beat favorite teams. Russia played so well that they were eliminated in quarter-finals while almost beat Croatia, that went into finals and Qatar beat Argentina, a team that defeat all the other teams and won Fifa World Cup.
Russian players were definitely on steroids because they were running like horses but idk about Qatar.

Qatar didn't beat Argentina in the World Cup. They played really badly and it was evident that they don't have the quality to play against top teams of the world. They played four games in the group stage and managed to score only one goal against Senegal.

But I see your point. Playing at home often makes players give an extra effort for the fans and then surprises can happen. But sadly that didn't work out for Qatar.

Not that kind of advantage really that will boost the team's morale, I strongly think that it is the other way around where most of them are already feeling the pressure because they are the host and the people, and their federation are expecting that they can at least defeat some teams along the way so that the host team, for example Qatar, will still be relevant and won't get embarrassed in the early phase.

The thing about the house and the advantage is somewhat ambiguous, if it is necessary to consider that a host team has a little more advantage, but you must have a little more tact when it comes to giving a red or yellow card, because it is the advantage of the host, then it cannot be dealt with radically and harshly either, the hosts are the ones who usually win the first game, but in the case of Qatar things were very different, they even said that Ecuador had offered a lot of money to the players to let themselves win, I don't know if it was speculation or truth, but somehow that causes a lot of curiosity.

in the past, countries that had strong teams struggled to organize the world cup because they had expectations that they could win the world cup, and they had a strong team, they had luxury hotels, so everything was heading towards high profits and prestige when they won the world cup they were organizing, but now the situation has become different

many countries are wanting to organize the world cup just for the profits they can get and the publicity that the hotels, beaches and many places of entertainment that these countries will have with the organization of the world cup, and I do not blame them because soccer today nowadays it has become a business, everyone wants to make money in this market, even fifa benefits a lot from it

Let's be realistic, in the past the journey was much longer, for example the national teams traveled to the first world cup in Uruguay in 1930 for weeks on a passenger ship, and they would arrive at the world cup tired and unprepared. At that time, the household advantage was really great, but it has not been like that for a long time.
Today, many small countries without a football tradition, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others, want to organize the World Cup in football due to the possibility of making money but also promoting their unpopular regimes in the world, and this is a fact.
For them, football results and successes are actually secondary in that story.
After all, Qatar spent so much money on new football stadiums that they are actually at a loss after the end of the World Cup, but that obviously doesn't even matter to them, because they got a lot more than possible earnings from the World Cup, and that is a big international promotion of the country.

Yes, in that sense you are absolutely right, they didn't really care about ROI, because they just wanted to show that their country is very big in terms of wealth and above all they wanted to let people know what kind of culture they have.

What I found strange is that they didn't give large corporations the opportunity to advertise, which, I don't know if it was good or bad, what I could see is that this culture is very radical, they respect their laws and even though they have very strict rules, things work very well under a regime where everyone in that country accepts it, and the quality of life is quite high. There was a lot of criticism, but as I said, everyone has their rules and visitors must abide by them, and that was something that many visitors did not like.

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[Sithara007]

It would makes sense that the aging population of Japan is not helping them to get closer to the world cup, but besides of that, I think there are also other factors that could be minimizing their possibilities.

If I had to guess, I would say the Japanese culture towards football is very different from what we see in countries that are considered to be the best ones and with the best performances. In Latin America, the football is a passion which starts at a very young age, here you can see children and teens not only watching the matches and following their favorite teams, but also partaking in their own matches, practicing during years and years, not matter whether they come from a middle-class family or a low-class family, they all do it and their training can be intensive.

Those who become professionals are generally the best of the best.

in Japan, I doubt it is like here. So the career path in that country does not pick the best talents among the people.

Japan, just like China, gives equal importance to Olympic sports. They are really good in Olympics, martial arts (esp. Judo) and wrestling. During the last Olympics (2021 Tokyo), Japan was 3rd in terms of medal tally and won a total of 58 medals including 27 golds. But when it comes to football, Asian teams in general are weak. But at least in case of Japan, we can say that they are a lot better than some of the more populous nations such as China, India and Indonesia. Only issue is that their quality has remained stagnant for sometime now.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

It would makes sense that the aging population of Japan is not helping them to get closer to the world cup, but besides of that, I think there are also other factors that could be minimizing their possibilities.

If I had to guess, I would say the Japanese culture towards football is very different from what we see in countries that are considered to be the best ones and with the best performances. In Latin America, the football is a passion which starts at a very young age, here you can see children and teens not only watching the matches and following their favorite teams, but also partaking in their own matches, practicing during years and years, not matter whether they come from a middle-class family or a low-class family, they all do it and their training can be intensive.

Those who become professionals are generally the best of the best.

in Japan, I doubt it is like here. So the career path in that country does not pick the best talents among the people.

Japan, just like China, gives equal importance to Olympic sports. They are really good in Olympics, martial arts (esp. Judo) and wrestling. During the last Olympics (2021 Tokyo), Japan was 3rd in terms of medal tally and won a total of 58 medals including 27 golds. But when it comes to football, Asian teams in general are weak. But at least in case of Japan, we can say that they are a lot better than some of the more populous nations such as China, India and Indonesia. Only issue is that their quality has remained stagnant for sometime now.

Since I started watching world cup football matches as a kid, even until now that I am grown up, I have never watched China, India play, I think I have watched Indonesia one time, Japan, like you said have constantly been in the game but, personally, I don't think they take the game of football really serious like the European countries, Asian countries normally, are not that good in football, or maybe they haven't really invested the time and resources required to become good, but from my personal presumptions, they give more credence to olympics and martial art games than they do to football.

[KTChampions]

This list is of the year 2021. Now this could've got big difference. Based on the ranking it looks like the first six teams on the list could easily make its entry as the number of participants have been increased. Based on the updated list there were little changes.



I believed China to have good team based on their competing performance in the Olympics, big the thing is different with football. Most welcome the Arab nations have given much importance to football and they're placed at the lead position.

Japan, South Korea, Australia - Ok. Iran is Ok too, as they always end up in the same group with the USA and this becomes the most interesting match of the tournament (in terms of the number of journalists) 
As for the rest... I really want to look at Oman, Iraq or Uzbekistan... Football loses so much when these teams are not in final part of World Cup 

[bitgolden]

It would makes sense that the aging population of Japan is not helping them to get closer to the world cup, but besides of that, I think there are also other factors that could be minimizing their possibilities.

If I had to guess, I would say the Japanese culture towards football is very different from what we see in countries that are considered to be the best ones and with the best performances. In Latin America, the football is a passion which starts at a very young age, here you can see children and teens not only watching the matches and following their favorite teams, but also partaking in their own matches, practicing during years and years, not matter whether they come from a middle-class family or a low-class family, they all do it and their training can be intensive.

Those who become professionals are generally the best of the best.

in Japan, I doubt it is like here. So the career path in that country does not pick the best talents among the people.

I think "space" is also another problem as well. In my nation almost everywhere, kids play football, because they have the space for it, even if they can't find a ball to play, they will make a ball out of anything they could find and they play nevertheless, because they have that wide space to run around, which helps them fall in love with the game from a young age.

On the other hand, Japan is one of the most crowded nations in the world, I assume there could be some free space away from the crowded places, but how are you going to get Japanese kids in Tokyo to fall in love with football when they can't even play it on the streets easily? That is the main issue if you ask me.

[Leviathan.007]

This list is of the year 2021. Now this could've got big difference. Based on the ranking it looks like the first six teams on the list could easily make its entry as the number of participants have been increased. Based on the updated list there were little changes.


I believed China to have good team based on their competing performance in the Olympics, big the thing is different with football. Most welcome the Arab nations have given much importance to football and they're placed at the lead position.

Japan, South Korea, Australia - Ok. Iran is Ok too, as they always end up in the same group with the USA and this becomes the most interesting match of the tournament (in terms of the number of journalists) 
As for the rest... I really want to look at Oman, Iraq or Uzbekistan... Football loses so much when these teams are not in final part of World Cup 

I'm not gonna say Asia doesn't have a strong team but even the first team of Asia can't have much chance to pass the staging group of the world up compared to the European teams and that's mostly because of the different standards they have in Asia and Europe, so I guess even in 2026 we should wait for a miracle to see an Asian team even passing the staging group.

[rahmad2nd]

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~snip~

In my predictions, the "confirmed" countries that will qualify will be:

Japan
Iran
South Korea
Australia
Saudi Arabia

These 5 countries are in a better level than any others, so there's 3 spots remaining.
For the number of inhabitants that India has, it would be a great deal for FIFA if the country participated in a cup, and it would certainly help to draw attention to soccer in the country, but it is very difficult to qualify.

Still, too soon total about the qualified teams for the next world cup and we can't consider the current situation of the national teams to say whether they will be qualified for the next world cup or not. Regarding Asia usually, we have some teams that will get qualified every year and the team you write about here usually get qualified in any world cup especially Japan, Iran, and South Korea they even try to pass the staging group every time but this time Saudi Arabia invested a lot and I guess they will be qualified before any team. 

Yes, the 2026 world cup still has a long time lag, with an increase in quota rations for Asian countries. at least we will witness first, when the teams mentioned in this post play their matches at the 2023 Asian Cup.

even the Qatar national team, has the potential to qualify and take part in the 2026 world cup later. because, after all they were the 2019 Asian Cup finalists who toppled the teams we mentioned in this thread. or maybe, team squads from other Asian countries also have the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup later. so, I will not speculate in advance, despite the fact, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, are teams that have always been representatives of Asian countries that have qualified for the World Cup championship tournament.

[Silberman]

It would makes sense that the aging population of Japan is not helping them to get closer to the world cup, but besides of that, I think there are also other factors that could be minimizing their possibilities.

If I had to guess, I would say the Japanese culture towards football is very different from what we see in countries that are considered to be the best ones and with the best performances. In Latin America, the football is a passion which starts at a very young age, here you can see children and teens not only watching the matches and following their favorite teams, but also partaking in their own matches, practicing during years and years, not matter whether they come from a middle-class family or a low-class family, they all do it and their training can be intensive.

Those who become professionals are generally the best of the best.

in Japan, I doubt it is like here. So the career path in that country does not pick the best talents among the people.

Japan, just like China, gives equal importance to Olympic sports. They are really good in Olympics, martial arts (esp. Judo) and wrestling. During the last Olympics (2021 Tokyo), Japan was 3rd in terms of medal tally and won a total of 58 medals including 27 golds. But when it comes to football, Asian teams in general are weak. But at least in case of Japan, we can say that they are a lot better than some of the more populous nations such as China, India and Indonesia. Only issue is that their quality has remained stagnant for sometime now.

Since I started watching world cup football matches as a kid, even until now that I am grown up, I have never watched China, India play, I think I have watched Indonesia one time, Japan, like you said have constantly been in the game but, personally, I don't think they take the game of football really serious like the European countries, Asian countries normally, are not that good in football, or maybe they haven't really invested the time and resources required to become good, but from my personal presumptions, they give more credence to olympics and martial art games than they do to football.

While soccer is by far the most popular sport around the world, different countries have different sports they consider their national sports, for example at Russia their national sports are hockey and weightlifting, at India we have cricket, at USA we have football, baseball and basketball, European countries dominate the Winter Olympics, so it is natural that countries with a lot of people and resources are not able to compete at soccer which has a very long tradition at Europe and South America countries.

[shogun47]

It would makes sense that the aging population of Japan is not helping them to get closer to the world cup, but besides of that, I think there are also other factors that could be minimizing their possibilities.

If I had to guess, I would say the Japanese culture towards football is very different from what we see in countries that are considered to be the best ones and with the best performances. In Latin America, the football is a passion which starts at a very young age, here you can see children and teens not only watching the matches and following their favorite teams, but also partaking in their own matches, practicing during years and years, not matter whether they come from a middle-class family or a low-class family, they all do it and their training can be intensive.

Those who become professionals are generally the best of the best.

in Japan, I doubt it is like here. So the career path in that country does not pick the best talents among the people.

Japan, just like China, gives equal importance to Olympic sports. They are really good in Olympics, martial arts (esp. Judo) and wrestling. During the last Olympics (2021 Tokyo), Japan was 3rd in terms of medal tally and won a total of 58 medals including 27 golds. But when it comes to football, Asian teams in general are weak. But at least in case of Japan, we can say that they are a lot better than some of the more populous nations such as China, India and Indonesia. Only issue is that their quality has remained stagnant for sometime now.

Since I started watching world cup football matches as a kid, even until now that I am grown up, I have never watched China, India play, I think I have watched Indonesia one time, Japan, like you said have constantly been in the game but, personally, I don't think they take the game of football really serious like the European countries, Asian countries normally, are not that good in football, or maybe they haven't really invested the time and resources required to become good, but from my personal presumptions, they give more credence to olympics and martial art games than they do to football.

While soccer is by far the most popular sport around the world, different countries have different sports they consider their national sports, for example at Russia their national sports are hockey and weightlifting, at India we have cricket, at USA we have football, baseball and basketball, European countries dominate the Winter Olympics, so it is natural that countries with a lot of people and resources are not able to compete at soccer which has a very long tradition at Europe and South America countries.

Very true but to a certain degree it is also dependent on the geographic conditions of a country. That doesn't apply to most indoor sports, except for hockey, which is a good example for being a favorite sport in countries where there are mostly cold temperatures. The United States is a bit of an outlier.

In soccer it's not surprising that it is the most favorite sport where the weather is mediterranean. That was the case for a very long time as temperature does play a big role when it comes to sports and whether they can be played in a location or not. Only due to advanced technology in stadium construction it is now possible that you could have soccer in extremely warm areas as we have seen with the last World Cup.

The upcoming World Cup takes place in great locations. It is not necessarily mediterranean weather there, but it is also not hot like in the desert. It's going to be an enjoyable event for everyone. Countdown is running, only 3.5 years to go!

[nullama]

Japan has demographic reasons why its challenged in any improvements, they have one of the oldest average age populations.  Somewhere like India with a majority of the population 30 or below should be able to improve far quicker with the mass of available people in the right age group.   That factor is probably a large part of what drives the eternal economy in footbal; that throws forward stars into world cup level football.  Clubs can buy stars, nations must produce quality at every level down to beginners to advance at their best.

Yeah, but they were not in that situation about a hundred years ago. The World Cup started in 1930, that's 93 years ago. At that time Japan didn't have the current issue of aging population.

They were not interested really, while countries like Uruguay were hosting it:



As you can see, there was no interest at all from Japan at this stage:

Thirteen teams (seven from South America, four from Europe, and two from North America) entered the tournament. Only a few European teams chose to participate because of the difficulty of traveling to South America due to an economic crisis.

This made me remember that in 2 world cups, 2030, we will be celebrating 100 years from the original world cup.

[alegotardo]

This made me remember that in 2 world cups, 2030, we will be celebrating 100 years from the original world cup.

I would very much like the 2030 World Cup to be held again in South America, where it all began.
So far most competitions have taken place in Europe.
The last two that took place in South America were Brazil in 2014 and Argentina in 1978.

As far as I know... Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay already launched their joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup last year. This candidacy was made official at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, where Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in the 1930 World Cup final and became the first world champion.

It would be very impressive if the centenary were held there and the final match in that same stadium.

[Sithara007]

Yes, the 2026 world cup still has a long time lag, with an increase in quota rations for Asian countries. at least we will witness first, when the teams mentioned in this post play their matches at the 2023 Asian Cup.

even the Qatar national team, has the potential to qualify and take part in the 2026 world cup later. because, after all they were the 2019 Asian Cup finalists who toppled the teams we mentioned in this thread. or maybe, team squads from other Asian countries also have the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup later. so, I will not speculate in advance, despite the fact, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, are teams that have always been representatives of Asian countries that have qualified for the World Cup championship tournament.

While it is true that the quota for Asia has been increased from 2026 edition onwards, I would still claim that the continent continues to be under-represented. Asia is given 8 1⁄3 slots for 2026, while Africa is being provided with 9 1⁄3 slots. Why a larger quota for AFC? Asia is home to more than half of the world's population and they should have been given at least the same number of slots as CAF. Under the current system, CAF will witness the maximum increase in representation for the 2026 World Cup, as their quota goes up to 9 1⁄3 from 5.

[nullama]

~snip~
I would very much like the 2030 World Cup to be held again in South America, where it all began.
So far most competitions have taken place in Europe.
The last two that took place in South America were Brazil in 2014 and Argentina in 1978.

As far as I know... Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay already launched their joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup last year. This candidacy was made official at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, where Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in the 1930 World Cup final and became the first world champion.

It would be very impressive if the centenary were held there and the final match in that same stadium.

A joint South American world cup would be amazing to celebrate the centenary of the world cup.

I hope they actually end up winning, that would be very fitting.

[Sithara007]

A joint South American world cup would be amazing to celebrate the centenary of the world cup.

I hope they actually end up winning, that would be very fitting.

If 4 countries are co-hosting the tournament, does all of them get automatic qualification? For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, all the three hosts (United States, Canada and Mexico) have been granted automatic entry, which has been criticized by a lot of people. But this will be even more tricky. If they grant automatic entry for a total of 4 teams, then it will reduce the importance of qualifying tournament. IMO, only one host should be given this right, and others should earn their place through participating in the qualifying tournament.

[Leviathan.007]

If 4 countries are co-hosting the tournament, does all of them get automatic qualification? For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, all the three hosts (United States, Canada and Mexico) have been granted automatic entry, which has been criticized by a lot of people. But this will be even more tricky. If they grant automatic entry for a total of 4 teams, then it will reduce the importance of qualifying tournament. IMO, only one host should be given this right, and others should earn their place through participating in the qualifying tournament.

My prediction is that one country is going to be the main host of the world cup while other countries will just assist them with hosting and that country will be qualified for the world cup in 2026. Otherwise, if indeed four countries host the world cup at the same time, then I guess they will have to get qualifying for the world cup. However, this will not be good because there will be four American teams that will be qualified without racing against other teams.

[nullama]

A joint South American world cup would be amazing to celebrate the centenary of the world cup.

I hope they actually end up winning, that would be very fitting.

If 4 countries are co-hosting the tournament, does all of them get automatic qualification? For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, all the three hosts (United States, Canada and Mexico) have been granted automatic entry, which has been criticized by a lot of people. But this will be even more tricky. If they grant automatic entry for a total of 4 teams, then it will reduce the importance of qualifying tournament. IMO, only one host should be given this right, and others should earn their place through participating in the qualifying tournament.

Yeah, well, if 2026 happens and we have 3 countries qualifying plus a load of new countries qualifying, then I don't see why not having 4 countries hosting the next world cup.

I think it's a bit weird, but that's the reality we're facing at the moment.

[rdluffy]

If 4 countries are co-hosting the tournament, does all of them get automatic qualification? For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, all the three hosts (United States, Canada and Mexico) have been granted automatic entry, which has been criticized by a lot of people. But this will be even more tricky. If they grant automatic entry for a total of 4 teams, then it will reduce the importance of qualifying tournament. IMO, only one host should be given this right, and others should earn their place through participating in the qualifying tournament.

In my opinion, the host countries should automatically be qualified, without any exceptions, even if there are 4 host countries.
Just an observation, FIFA is reluctant to make the world cup with 4 countries, I don't know if this can be the tie-breaking factor for a possible choice.

If there is a World Cup in a country and this country does not participate, you can imagine that there will not be so much appeal to the inhabitants of that country, disfiguring one of the main purposes of the competition which is to promote soccer in these places. Other things like sponsorship, support and interest would suffer greatly.
So at this point I support automatic qualification yes, after all the country in question has a huge job to do to host a cup, and deserves the spot.

Despite being 4 countries, they are very close to each other in South America, making transportation and logistics much easier, unlike in 2026 where there are 3 countries of continental proportions.

You must also remember that automatic slots are counted and subtracted from the traditional slots of each federation.
In the next World Cup, CONCACAF will have 3 direct and one contested spot.

About this:

then it will reduce the importance of qualifying tournament

I think that the ones who suffer the most from this issue are the qualified teams themselves, since they will not participate in a championship worth qualifying at a high level.
The only thing left to do is to play friendly matches, against weaker teams in general, and this can harm the 4-year project that the teams are doing.

[Zaguru12]

If 4 countries are co-hosting the tournament, does all of them get automatic qualification? For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, all the three hosts (United States, Canada and Mexico) have been granted automatic entry, which has been criticized by a lot of people. But this will be even more tricky. If they grant automatic entry for a total of 4 teams, then it will reduce the importance of qualifying tournament. IMO, only one host should be given this right, and others should earn their place through participating in the qualifying tournament.

There’s no cause to worry in this kinda of situation. I think FIFA will look to expand the of the host continent by providing them more slots at the play offs. Although if we look at this four countries they have been the ones that usually qualifies in almost every edition. So having other countries to go through qualification with is exception of one is likely to be more biased than offering them slot.

[Sithara007]

There’s no cause to worry in this kinda of situation. I think FIFA will look to expand the of the host continent by providing them more slots at the play offs. Although if we look at this four countries they have been the ones that usually qualifies in almost every edition. So having other countries to go through qualification with is exception of one is likely to be more biased than offering them slot.

I don't agree with your argument. Out of the 4 countries mentioned here (Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay), only two managed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. And for the 2030 edition, the 4 slots will be reduced from the quota for CONMEBOL, which means that only two countries (including Brazil) will be able to qualify from CONMEBOL qualifiers. In my opinion, this is very unfair for the other teams such as Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Since Brazil is almost certain to qualify, there is going to be fierce competition for the sole remaining slot.

[Leviathan.007]

If 4 countries are co-hosting the tournament, does all of them get automatic qualification? For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, all the three hosts (United States, Canada and Mexico) have been granted automatic entry, which has been criticized by a lot of people. But this will be even more tricky. If they grant automatic entry for a total of 4 teams, then it will reduce the importance of qualifying tournament. IMO, only one host should be given this right, and others should earn their place through participating in the qualifying tournament.

In my opinion, the host countries should automatically be qualified, without any exceptions, even if there are 4 host countries.
Just an observation, FIFA is reluctant to make the world cup with 4 countries, I don't know if this can be the tie-breaking factor for a possible choice.

If there is a World Cup in a country and this country does not participate, you can imagine that there will not be so much appeal to the inhabitants of that country, disfiguring one of the main purposes of the competition which is to promote soccer in these places. Other things like sponsorship, support and interest would suffer greatly.
So at this point I support automatic qualification yes, after all the country in question has a huge job to do to host a cup, and deserves the spot.

Despite being 4 countries, they are very close to each other in South America, making transportation and logistics much easier, unlike in 2026 where there are 3 countries of continental proportions.

You must also remember that automatic slots are counted and subtracted from the traditional slots of each federation.
In the next World Cup, CONCACAF will have 3 direct and one contested spot.

About this:

then it will reduce the importance of qualifying tournament

I think that the ones who suffer the most from this issue are the qualified teams themselves, since they will not participate in a championship worth qualifying at a high level.
The only thing left to do is to play friendly matches, against weaker teams in general, and this can harm the 4-year project that the teams are doing.

But that's not right to get for the host teams to get a qualification without playing any matches while all other American teams should race for the qualification where is not any special thing about the team who hosts the world cup, they just invest some money and build stadiums for the games while they will pay back what they invested when the tournament started, but getting qualified is not something they should get without racing like the other teams, not just about this world cup but about all other world cups.