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

[Sithara007]

Four countries as a World Cup host will be too much because that would be very unfair to the other teams who will have to qualify and have a hard time to go through the qualifiers of which 32 teams will be only accepted. I think 3 countries will be the maximum line, although there's no written rule for this, it will be a common sense not to have more than 3 hosts to remain fair.

It's just that Canada-America-Mexico agreed to make a bid together to increase their chances and indeed, they succeeded and they are the first ones who will host the world cup with 3 hosting countries.

I agree with your argument. At the most, only one team should qualify to the main tournament as hosts. Else European Union will host the tournament sometime in the future and will demand automatic qualification for all of its 27 member nations. There needs to be a clear-cut rule one the number of nations that can qualify directly. If 4 nations are hosting the tournament, then let them play a quadrangular series among themselves. The winner from that tournament can qualify directly, while the other three teams should be asked to participate in the qualifier tournaments.

[Strongkored]

I have to admit that it all makes no sense to me anymore.
Once upon a time, we had world cups with only 16 national teams and only 1 host.
In a few years we will have a world cup with 48 national teams and 3 hosts, and I would not be surprised if in 2030 FIFA organizes a world cup with 64 national teams and 4 hosts.
Obviously, FIFA no longer cares about football but only about making money, so maybe in 20 or 30 years we won't have qualifications for the World Cup at all because all the national teams of the world will have the right to participate 
I'm almost certain we'll have a world cup every 2 years soon.
All together this no longer makes sense.

Based on Wikipedia, the current number of countries is 194 countries. It is inconceivable if finally, FIFA continues to increase the number of World Cup participants, meaning that there is no more pride for countries that qualify because their chances are even greater and competition is very likely to be less competitive.
It has been debated that FIFA is becoming an organization with a money orientation rather than developing football properly, unfortunately, there is not much that can be done and when they make many changes that focus on getting more money, many countries still desire to be the organizer of the world cup so they don't mind even though they are seen being used because being able to play in the World Cup until now is a pride for many national teams, especially when they understand that the opportunity to get it is difficult if they have to go through qualification, so the shortcut is to become a host by investing a lot of money.

[beerlover]

Both of these teams can't qualify. Only the top ranked team from each group will qualify. That's why I said that in all probability one of these two teams will miss the ticket to USA. If either Nigeria and South Africa finish at no.2 in their group, then they will get a chance to play the inter-continent playoffs. But out of 9 second placed teams, only one will get a chance to play that match. It is going to be tough. So for both these teams, it is very crucial to finish at the top of the points table. Anyway, personally I will be disappointed in case Nigeria and South Africa lose out. Because I have always regarded them as some of the strongest teams in Africa.

Finishing at the top should be the reason why you go to world cup anyway, we have different results for Europe because football is much much bigger in Europe and usually European or Latin American teams are the winners most of the time, can't remember the last time any team outside of that two  continents ever won it to be fair. So when we are talking about African teams, that means the best should go, and second shouldn't, even if you are good, if you are not the best then you shouldn't.

Even one bad day and losing, like just one bad game, still not enough. I am not being ruthless, it's just how football is and if people are not used to it already then they should get used to it without a doubt. I know it will take some for these teams to be as good as European ones, maybe never.

[Bobrox]

Based on Wikipedia, the current number of countries is 194 countries. It is inconceivable if finally, FIFA continues to increase the number of World Cup participants, meaning that there is no more pride for countries that qualify because their chances are even greater and competition is very likely to be less competitive.
It has been debated that FIFA is becoming an organization with a money orientation rather than developing football properly, unfortunately, there is not much that can be done and when they make many changes that focus on getting more money, many countries still desire to be the organizer of the world cup so they don't mind even though they are seen being used because being able to play in the World Cup until now is a pride for many national teams, especially when they understand that the opportunity to get it is difficult if they have to go through qualification, so the shortcut is to become a host by investing a lot of money.

Current update, FIFA have 211 national associations as their member and FIFA World Cup 2026 with 48 participants seems one-third of the total number of FIFA members. FIFA have plan with added participants in FIFA World Cup 2026 almost several years although their reason give chance for national teams less participants in World Cup. I think money and sponsorship is the reason why FIFA agree with the addition 48 participants from 32 national teams.

Its not stop yet with many change happen later exactly FIFA World Cup is most profitable event, rumor with FIFA have planning with World Cup play each two years than usually every four years. Depend on FIFA member association will agree with this crazy ideas or not although have many players disagree what want to do by FIFA.

[Leviathan.007]

I have to admit that it all makes no sense to me anymore.
Once upon a time, we had world cups with only 16 national teams and only 1 host.
In a few years we will have a world cup with 48 national teams and 3 hosts, and I would not be surprised if in 2030 FIFA organizes a world cup with 64 national teams and 4 hosts.
Obviously, FIFA no longer cares about football but only about making money, so maybe in 20 or 30 years we won't have qualifications for the World Cup at all because all the national teams of the world will have the right to participate 
I'm almost certain we'll have a world cup every 2 years soon.
All together this no longer makes sense.

Based on Wikipedia, the current number of countries is 194 countries. It is inconceivable if finally, FIFA continues to increase the number of World Cup participants, meaning that there is no more pride for countries that qualify because their chances are even greater and competition is very likely to be less competitive.
It has been debated that FIFA is becoming an organization with a money orientation rather than developing football properly, unfortunately, there is not much that can be done and when they make many changes that focus on getting more money, many countries still desire to be the organizer of the world cup so they don't mind even though they are seen being used because being able to play in the World Cup until now is a pride for many national teams, especially when they understand that the opportunity to get it is difficult if they have to go through qualification, so the shortcut is to become a host by investing a lot of money.

Even if we have 194 counties in the world in some countries they don't have football at all or in some other countries football is not a priority and they pay more attention to other sports, I think increasing the number of teams can have bad effects because we can see more countries in the world cup we should not normally see them, more week team in world cup means lowering the quality.

[Juggy777]

I have to admit that it all makes no sense to me anymore.
Once upon a time, we had world cups with only 16 national teams and only 1 host.
In a few years we will have a world cup with 48 national teams and 3 hosts, and I would not be surprised if in 2030 FIFA organizes a world cup with 64 national teams and 4 hosts.
Obviously, FIFA no longer cares about football but only about making money, so maybe in 20 or 30 years we won't have qualifications for the World Cup at all because all the national teams of the world will have the right to participate  
I'm almost certain we'll have a world cup every 2 years soon.
All together this no longer makes sense.

Based on Wikipedia, the current number of countries is 194 countries. It is inconceivable if finally, FIFA continues to increase the number of World Cup participants, meaning that there is no more pride for countries that qualify because their chances are even greater and competition is very likely to be less competitive.
It has been debated that FIFA is becoming an organization with a money orientation rather than developing football properly, unfortunately, there is not much that can be done and when they make many changes that focus on getting more money, many countries still desire to be the organizer of the world cup so they don't mind even though they are seen being used because being able to play in the World Cup until now is a pride for many national teams, especially when they understand that the opportunity to get it is difficult if they have to go through qualification, so the shortcut is to become a host by investing a lot of money.

Even if we have 194 counties in the world in some countries they don't have football at all or in some other countries football is not a priority and they pay more attention to other sports, I think increasing the number of teams can have bad effects because we can see more countries in the world cup we should not normally see them, more week team in world cup means lowering the quality.

@Leviathan.007 every sport organisation is trying to milk the maximum money they can and thus FIfA is no different then other sport organisations who’re too trying to get maximum money they can from their respective sports eg ICC. Furthermore if FIFA World Cup is held every two year’s then most player’s will quit playing national football as it’ll increase their work load and the excitement of winning the World Cup will end.

[nullama]

~snip~
Finishing at the top should be the reason why you go to world cup anyway, we have different results for Europe because football is much much bigger in Europe and usually European or Latin American teams are the winners most of the time, can't remember the last time any team outside of that two  continents ever won it to be fair. So when we are talking about African teams, that means the best should go, and second shouldn't, even if you are good, if you are not the best then you shouldn't.

Even one bad day and losing, like just one bad game, still not enough. I am not being ruthless, it's just how football is and if people are not used to it already then they should get used to it without a doubt. I know it will take some for these teams to be as good as European ones, maybe never.

That's the thing.

Only Europe and South America has won the world cup.

In the entire history of the competition, almost 100 years, only countries from those 2 continents have won it. And they are really close.

The third continent is way below.

[Leviathan.007]

~snip~
Finishing at the top should be the reason why you go to world cup anyway, we have different results for Europe because football is much much bigger in Europe and usually European or Latin American teams are the winners most of the time, can't remember the last time any team outside of that two  continents ever won it to be fair. So when we are talking about African teams, that means the best should go, and second shouldn't, even if you are good, if you are not the best then you shouldn't.

Even one bad day and losing, like just one bad game, still not enough. I am not being ruthless, it's just how football is and if people are not used to it already then they should get used to it without a doubt. I know it will take some for these teams to be as good as European ones, maybe never.

That's the thing.

Only Europe and South America has won the world cup.

In the entire history of the competition, almost 100 years, only countries from those 2 continents have won it. And they are really close.

The third continent is way below.

Maybe after they increase the number of teams in the next world cup in 2026 we can see more countries from Asia and Africa and these countries will have more chance to win the title for the first time, also I think Asian teams are trying hard to invest more of football and if this continues we can see these counties winning the title soon.

[Sithara007]

Even if we have 194 counties in the world in some countries they don't have football at all or in some other countries football is not a priority and they pay more attention to other sports, I think increasing the number of teams can have bad effects because we can see more countries in the world cup we should not normally see them, more week team in world cup means lowering the quality.

We had this discussion infinite number of times in this thread. I would summarize my arguments in favor of increasing the number of participants:

1. Current setup favors UEFA teams. 40% of the representation is given to UEFA, despite their quality being declining for some time.
2. Gap between stronger teams and weaker teams continue to narrow.
3. In general, football is becoming more popular around the world
4. Asia and Africa are severely under-represented
5. A number of top players continue to miss out world cup, because their country can't qualify (Goran Pandeev, Erling Haaland.etc).

[Silberman]

With the increase on the number of teams I do not think FIFA has too much of a choice, the amount of money needed to organize the tournament has gone up while the logistic issues have scaled up as well, so it seems to me that the right decision was to let more than one country to host the world cup, what it must never happen again is to allow a country or a group of countries to buy the world cup, which is exactly what Qatar and probably Russia did before.

That doesn't matter by increasing the number of countries hosting the World Cup or countries being able to do it together, but there shouldn't be more than two countries because it will affect the number of countries that have the opportunity to qualify, because the host country will get automatic participation in the world cup later. If there are only two organizers, it will be easier to divide the portion of the matches for each country, each will get the same number of matches, one as the opening and the other as the closing, but FIFA always has an excuse because they are the organization with the power to regulate this, but if the 2030 World Cup organizers are won by 4 countries from the Americas how unpleasant that would be because it reduces the chances of other countries in CONMEBOL qualifying for the World Cup.

I have to admit that it all makes no sense to me anymore.
Once upon a time, we had world cups with only 16 national teams and only 1 host.
In a few years we will have a world cup with 48 national teams and 3 hosts, and I would not be surprised if in 2030 FIFA organizes a world cup with 64 national teams and 4 hosts.
Obviously, FIFA no longer cares about football but only about making money, so maybe in 20 or 30 years we won't have qualifications for the World Cup at all because all the national teams of the world will have the right to participate 
I'm almost certain we'll have a world cup every 2 years soon.
All together this no longer makes sense.

A world cup every two years is probably coming, however I do not think FIFA will ever get rid of the qualifiers, the qualifiers themselves take 18 months to 24 months to take place and there are way more games during the qualifiers than during the world cup, and as such they are another important source of income for FIFA and the rest of the federations, however I really think FIFA is abusing its power and the more they do it the higher the chances some players will begin to boycott the qualifiers and even the world cup, as they are exhausted already with the high number of games they need to play each year and they will be unable to deal with the additional number of games a world cup every two years would entail.

[borovichok]

Maybe after they increase the number of teams in the next world cup in 2026 we can see more countries from Asia and Africa and these countries will have more chance to win the title for the first time, also I think Asian teams are trying hard to invest more of football and if this continues we can see these counties winning the title soon.

Every country are keeping a closer sight on the upcoming competition. When the number of participants for the World Cup increases, I don't see any focus on Asia or Africa countries. Usually, Africa countries will perform at their level, and Asian countries will also be competitive, but no one knows the outcomes of football; the impossible can happen, but no one knows when. Bringing these countries together is a challenging task, and we should always expect the best from them. The 2026 World Cup would be one of the most difficult and popular competitions in the world, and everyone looks forward to it.

[Leviathan.007]

Maybe after they increase the number of teams in the next world cup in 2026 we can see more countries from Asia and Africa and these countries will have more chance to win the title for the first time, also I think Asian teams are trying hard to invest more of football and if this continues we can see these counties winning the title soon.

Every country are keeping a closer sight on the upcoming competition. When the number of participants for the World Cup increases, I don't see any focus on Asia or Africa countries. Usually, Africa countries will perform at their level, and Asian countries will also be competitive, but no one knows the outcomes of football; the impossible can happen, but no one knows when. Bringing these countries together is a challenging task, and we should always expect the best from them. The 2026 World Cup would be one of the most difficult and popular competitions in the world, and everyone looks forward to it.

It's not just about increasing the number of teams in the teams in world cup and having more participants. It's mostly about the Asian teams and especially teams like Saudi Arabia spending too much money and investing in their football. I'm sure in the next years this investment they have will give them good results and we can see them improving their performance that's why I said there is a chance for the in the next world cup.

[Leviathan.007]

With the increase on the number of teams I do not think FIFA has too much of a choice, the amount of money needed to organize the tournament has gone up while the logistic issues have scaled up as well, so it seems to me that the right decision was to let more than one country to host the world cup, what it must never happen again is to allow a country or a group of countries to buy the world cup, which is exactly what Qatar and probably Russia did before.

That doesn't matter by increasing the number of countries hosting the World Cup or countries being able to do it together, but there shouldn't be more than two countries because it will affect the number of countries that have the opportunity to qualify, because the host country will get automatic participation in the world cup later. If there are only two organizers, it will be easier to divide the portion of the matches for each country, each will get the same number of matches, one as the opening and the other as the closing, but FIFA always has an excuse because they are the organization with the power to regulate this, but if the 2030 World Cup organizers are won by 4 countries from the Americas how unpleasant that would be because it reduces the chances of other countries in CONMEBOL qualifying for the World Cup.

I have to admit that it all makes no sense to me anymore.
Once upon a time, we had world cups with only 16 national teams and only 1 host.
In a few years we will have a world cup with 48 national teams and 3 hosts, and I would not be surprised if in 2030 FIFA organizes a world cup with 64 national teams and 4 hosts.
Obviously, FIFA no longer cares about football but only about making money, so maybe in 20 or 30 years we won't have qualifications for the World Cup at all because all the national teams of the world will have the right to participate 
I'm almost certain we'll have a world cup every 2 years soon.
All together this no longer makes sense.

A world cup every two years is probably coming, however I do not think FIFA will ever get rid of the qualifiers, the qualifiers themselves take 18 months to 24 months to take place and there are way more games during the qualifiers than during the world cup, and as such they are another important source of income for FIFA and the rest of the federations, however I really think FIFA is abusing its power and the more they do it the higher the chances some players will begin to boycott the qualifiers and even the world cup, as they are exhausted already with the high number of games they need to play each year and they will be unable to deal with the additional number of games a world cup every two years would entail.

We already talking about having the world cup every two or three years instead of fours years and we all know if you see the world cup in a shorter period of time you won't have an interest to watch the games anymore because one good reason for people to have interest on watching the world cup is mostly that they have to wait fours years and get themselves ready for it which can increase the interest.

[FatFork]

Even if we have 194 counties in the world in some countries they don't have football at all or in some other countries football is not a priority and they pay more attention to other sports, I think increasing the number of teams can have bad effects because we can see more countries in the world cup we should not normally see them, more week team in world cup means lowering the quality. <cut>

Well, according to Wikipedia, there are currently 211 men's national football teams affiliated to FIFA, through their national football associations. So, what we can say is that football is played in almost every country of the world. But that is not all, there are also 23 subnational and dependent territories, as well as three states with limited international recognition that are also members of FIFA.

[MuffinMaster]

With the increase on the number of teams I do not think FIFA has too much of a choice, the amount of money needed to organize the tournament has gone up while the logistic issues have scaled up as well, so it seems to me that the right decision was to let more than one country to host the world cup, what it must never happen again is to allow a country or a group of countries to buy the world cup, which is exactly what Qatar and probably Russia did before.

That doesn't matter by increasing the number of countries hosting the World Cup or countries being able to do it together, but there shouldn't be more than two countries because it will affect the number of countries that have the opportunity to qualify, because the host country will get automatic participation in the world cup later. If there are only two organizers, it will be easier to divide the portion of the matches for each country, each will get the same number of matches, one as the opening and the other as the closing, but FIFA always has an excuse because they are the organization with the power to regulate this, but if the 2030 World Cup organizers are won by 4 countries from the Americas how unpleasant that would be because it reduces the chances of other countries in CONMEBOL qualifying for the World Cup.

I have to admit that it all makes no sense to me anymore.
Once upon a time, we had world cups with only 16 national teams and only 1 host.
In a few years we will have a world cup with 48 national teams and 3 hosts, and I would not be surprised if in 2030 FIFA organizes a world cup with 64 national teams and 4 hosts.
Obviously, FIFA no longer cares about football but only about making money, so maybe in 20 or 30 years we won't have qualifications for the World Cup at all because all the national teams of the world will have the right to participate 
I'm almost certain we'll have a world cup every 2 years soon.
All together this no longer makes sense.

A world cup every two years is probably coming, however I do not think FIFA will ever get rid of the qualifiers, the qualifiers themselves take 18 months to 24 months to take place and there are way more games during the qualifiers than during the world cup, and as such they are another important source of income for FIFA and the rest of the federations, however I really think FIFA is abusing its power and the more they do it the higher the chances some players will begin to boycott the qualifiers and even the world cup, as they are exhausted already with the high number of games they need to play each year and they will be unable to deal with the additional number of games a world cup every two years would entail.

We already talking about having the world cup every two or three years instead of fours years and we all know if you see the world cup in a shorter period of time you won't have an interest to watch the games anymore because one good reason for people to have interest on watching the world cup is mostly that they have to wait fours years and get themselves ready for it which can increase the interest.

I can somewhat agree with you. Actually FIFA football world cup is held after four years is very patience. As football fans are now addicted to football, FIFA can host the World Cup every two years if they want, because every country is now economically self-sufficient.

[KTChampions]

Maybe after they increase the number of teams in the next world cup in 2026 we can see more countries from Asia and Africa and these countries will have more chance to win the title for the first time, also I think Asian teams are trying hard to invest more of football and if this continues we can see these counties winning the title soon.

How would adding a Burkina Faso to the World Cup final stage affect the chances of the top teams? I don't think they will be a threat to anyone. Perhaps paradoxically, this will rather increase the chances of the top teams - they used to have chances to destroy each other in the early stages of the tournament (even in the group), but now they are more likely to get into the playoffs.

[Japinat]

Even if we have 194 counties in the world in some countries they don't have football at all or in some other countries football is not a priority and they pay more attention to other sports, I think increasing the number of teams can have bad effects because we can see more countries in the world cup we should not normally see them, more week team in world cup means lowering the quality. <cut>

Well, according to Wikipedia, there are currently 211 men's national football teams affiliated to FIFA, through their national football associations. So, what we can say is that football is played in almost every country of the world. But that is not all, there are also 23 subnational and dependent territories, as well as three states with limited international recognition that are also members of FIFA.

Seems quite a large figure because in one country, there many teams/clubs. But in the upcoming FIFA World Cup, we will have a new format because this time, 48 teams will play and it will be a much longer event compared to the recent World Cups that we have witnessed. As per speculations, we can say that there are some disadvantages and advantages but we will be more certain about those things after witnessing another World Cup that will be introducing a new format.

[fachant]

Maybe after they increase the number of teams in the next world cup in 2026 we can see more countries from Asia and Africa and these countries will have more chance to win the title for the first time, also I think Asian teams are trying hard to invest more of football and if this continues we can see these counties winning the title soon.

How would adding a Burkina Faso to the World Cup final stage affect the chances of the top teams? I don't think they will be a threat to anyone. Perhaps paradoxically, this will rather increase the chances of the top teams - they used to have chances to destroy each other in the early stages of the tournament (even in the group), but now they are more likely to get into the playoffs.

The Brazil team can do great things in the next World Cup. Because some of the young players in this team are currently performing exceptionally well, these players will have tremendous experience when the next World Cup comes around.

[Fuso.hp]

Maybe after they increase the number of teams in the next world cup in 2026 we can see more countries from Asia and Africa and these countries will have more chance to win the title for the first time, also I think Asian teams are trying hard to invest more of football and if this continues we can see these counties winning the title soon.

How would adding a Burkina Faso to the World Cup final stage affect the chances of the top teams? I don't think they will be a threat to anyone. Perhaps paradoxically, this will rather increase the chances of the top teams - they used to have chances to destroy each other in the early stages of the tournament (even in the group), but now they are more likely to get into the playoffs.

The Brazil team can do great things in the next World Cup. Because some of the young players in this team are currently performing exceptionally well, these players will have tremendous experience when the next World Cup comes around.

I am very optimistic about the Brazil team in 2026 World Cup because currently several young talented players are already performing well for various clubs in Europe. Besides the young talented players, another good news for Brazil is that Carlo Ancelotti may be the manager of Brazil in 2026 World Cup. The CBF has already appointed the manager as Brazil's national team coach on a one-year deal, who will take over the team between 2024 and 2024. If he can bring significant success for the team in one year, the CBF will definitely extend the contract with him until the 2026 World Cup. The 2026 World Cup will be a great World Cup for Brazil if Carlo Ancelotti extends his contract until 2026.

[darewaller]

every sport organisation is trying to milk the maximum money they can and thus FIfA is no different then other sport organisations who’re too trying to get maximum money they can from their respective sports eg ICC. Furthermore if FIFA World Cup is held every two year’s then most player’s will quit playing national football as it’ll increase their work load and the excitement of winning the World Cup will end.

I feel like making that much money must be the main reason for any business in the world. They are an "organization" and not a company perse, but the aim is the same, making as much money as possible. When you make it 4 years in between, people wait for it for a long time and the value of the cup increases.

Think about it, you could only play in 4 or 5 tournaments all your career, even if you get elected at 16, which is very rare, 20 years means 36, so 5 is usually the maximum amount anyone could ever join, usually less. But, when you make it 2 years, then it would be like 10, and suddenly all of your waiting is over very quickly and it's not that rare and unique anymore. I think it's quite important to just realize that if possible.