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

[mirakal]

As far as I can see it, only two things will happen;

1. FIFA learned their lesson and will not let these Muslim countries to host another FIFA event in the future
2. FIFA will still let these said countries to host an event given that they will flexible enough to accept that there might be some rules that needed to be bend

Either way, FIFA is still on the winning side because there are still many countries out there that can host an event successfully without having some problems. A country that is more open and can give freedom to the people that will flock to their country to watch the said event.

Qatar, Dubai or Saudi Arabia, these three countries are strong enough financially, so if any of these three countries wants to host the World Cup, then maybe FIFA should not stop them. In the last World Cup, we saw Qatar beat the United States to become the World Cup hosts themselves. But when Qatar was the host country in the last World Cup, as a Muslim country, they set some policies for foreign visitors. The Qatari government has made it clear that they cannot change their religion for one month, and FIFA supports their policy. I think not only Islamic countries but all other countries will never change their religion for a month and also change their laws.

Dubai is not a country mate, it's just an emirate or a state which belongs to the country of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Also, I said that it's either of the two things because of the struggles that a non-Muslim visitor could experience if a world cup will again be hosted by another Muslim country, financial power wasn't even discussed because there is no need for that as it is quite evident that these countries are rich.

Lastly, I haven't said anything that the Qatari government should change their religion for one month I only said something about their rules so that it will be friendly enough to a non-Muslim visitor as it's almost safe to assume that 80% of people that will watch the event is non even a Muslim.

[1714685219]

1714685219

[marcous]

As far as I can see it, only two things will happen;

1. FIFA learned their lesson and will not let these Muslim countries to host another FIFA event in the future
2. FIFA will still let these said countries to host an event given that they will flexible enough to accept that there might be some rules that needed to be bend

Either way, FIFA is still on the winning side because there are still many countries out there that can host an event successfully without having some problems. A country that is more open and can give freedom to the people that will flock to their country to watch the said event.

Qatar, Dubai or Saudi Arabia, these three countries are strong enough financially, so if any of these three countries wants to host the World Cup, then maybe FIFA should not stop them. In the last World Cup, we saw Qatar beat the United States to become the World Cup hosts themselves. But when Qatar was the host country in the last World Cup, as a Muslim country, they set some policies for foreign visitors. The Qatari government has made it clear that they cannot change their religion for one month, and FIFA supports their policy. I think not only Islamic countries but all other countries will never change their religion for a month and also change their laws.

Dubai is not a country mate, it's just an emirate or a state which belongs to the country of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Also, I said that it's either of the two things because of the struggles that a non-Muslim visitor could experience if a world cup will again be hosted by another Muslim country, financial power wasn't even discussed because there is no need for that as it is quite evident that these countries are rich.

Lastly, I haven't said anything that the Qatari government should change their religion for one month I only said something about their rules so that it will be friendly enough to a non-Muslim visitor as it's almost safe to assume that 80% of people that will watch the event is non even a Muslim.

Broadly speaking, Qatar has successfully held the 2022 World Cup event, regardless of the pros and cons. Every country has the same right to nominate itself as the host of the World Cup, FIFA has rules and requirements that must be met by every country that submits itself.

There are many aspects that must be met by candidates for the World Cup host, in general, political, financial and security guarantees must be guaranteed during the implementation stages. Of course this does not conflict with the host country's regulations, I think this is in line with the purpose of any country's rules. So nothing has been changed, let alone changed religion, that is very unlikely to happen.

[uneng]

~snip~
The world cup is a transnational competition so FIFA should consider other people's cultures or beliefs before giving hosting rights to nations. Most of the most influential or longtime sponsors of the world cup are breweries or brewing companies. The world cup in Qatar made them lose their advertisement slots. FIFA was not too concerned about the implication because Qatar had money to compensate for FIFA's financial losses. But the religious and cultural beliefs affected the world cup negatively. Host nations should be flexible during the world cup period and they can continue with their laws after the world cup.

After all Saudi Arabian government permitted Cristiano Ronaldo to cohabit with his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez because they wanted him to play football in the country. This means that these laws can be readjusted or relaxed to suit world cup fans. These laws should be restricted to only the nationals of the country and those that have the same religious or cultural beliefs. But fans with different religious views or cultural beliefs should be allowed to enjoy the world cup without restrictions.

FIFA usually changes the rules of the places where it hosts the world cup.

For example in Brazil they had a law that didn't allow selling alcohol inside the stadiums, but when the world cup was hosted there, they literally changed the law to allow that.

FIFA is a massive corporation, able to do pretty much anything they want to.

Although Brazil was forced to change that rule, we did not notice any change in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, that is, the game was completed according to the rules set by the Qatari government from the beginning of the season until the end. 
Alcohol was banned in Qatar, extramarital affairs were banned, homosexuality was banned, there were specific rules on women's clothing but none of these were changed by the Qatari government. Despite these strict regulations, the Qatari government managed to successfully complete the World Cup tournament. Qatar is a predominantly Muslim country, so it is natural to have such a rule in that country. Hope future world cup football lovers can sit in the stadium and enjoy the match well by enjoying the maximum facilities.

Depending the country which is hosting the world cup event rules change temporarily. I believe the determining factor is always what is more important for the people leading the country. In Qatar we saw it was their religion and traditions above everything else, including money (profitability), while in Brazil we see money is above all the rest, since the mentioned rule above was changed during the games to generate extra profit for the person or business selling alcohol inside the stadium, of course much more expensive than the alcohol sold outside at supermarkets.

And now, for the next world cup we have USA which is also very unlikely to change any rules to please the event and its components, since what comes first for them is national security and physical integrity of their citizens.

[STT]

The main difficulty was the temperature as I understand it hence the date change from a normal scheduled world cup.  Qatar politically wants to position themselves as a key ally to the west and world hence hosting the competition was important to them generally.  The idea of profit exactly is pretty remote on the whole deal of hosting a world cup, I think Greece struggled after hosting the Olympics ironically it was a bit much so theres all kinds of reasons why some countries should not go forward on hosting; its important the country itself wants to bear that burden for a number of years before during and after.   I had a member of my extended family attend the world cup in not the best health as part of their dream holiday he'd always wanted to support their team;  he actually passed away during the event due to long term health concerns.  The family were grateful about how they were treated and help and care received during such difficult circumstances with all the people required for logistics of transporting him back home.
    I've missed any great negative conclusion drawn about the hosting, considering all the upset fans wandering around after their team loses there is plenty reason why things can go badly.

[Sithara007]

Dubai is not a country mate, it's just an emirate or a state which belongs to the country of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Also, I said that it's either of the two things because of the struggles that a non-Muslim visitor could experience if a world cup will again be hosted by another Muslim country, financial power wasn't even discussed because there is no need for that as it is quite evident that these countries are rich.

Lastly, I haven't said anything that the Qatari government should change their religion for one month I only said something about their rules so that it will be friendly enough to a non-Muslim visitor as it's almost safe to assume that 80% of people that will watch the event is non even a Muslim.

No one asked the Qataris to change their religion or to dance as per the whims and fancies of the tourists. All we asked as to keep the promises that the Qataris gave, when they won the rights to host FIFA World Cup. Qataris used the tournament as a venue to splash their wealth. They spend anywhere from $250 billion to $300 billion on hosting this tournament (and at the same time refusing to provide a penny as compensation to the 6,000+ dead construction workers). They broke their own word by imposing a total ban on beer, just two days before the tournament. Beer was available only to those with the top-tier ticket. Also, there was a lot of discrimination towards unmarried and LGBT couples.

[Silberman]

The main difficulty was the temperature as I understand it hence the date change from a normal scheduled world cup.  Qatar politically wants to position themselves as a key ally to the west and world hence hosting the competition was important to them generally.  The idea of profit exactly is pretty remote on the whole deal of hosting a world cup, I think Greece struggled after hosting the Olympics ironically it was a bit much so theres all kinds of reasons why some countries should not go forward on hosting; its important the country itself wants to bear that burden for a number of years before during and after.

And because of the difficult weather conditions the schedule for the world cup had to be changed and this affected players as well, as they were used to a specific workload and this was changed, and I really think this caused several injuries as players were forced to play too many games in a time span that was too short, also I think that while spreading soccer all over the world is a good idea, the costs of doing so for the hosts are too high, so at least to me it makes sense that the world cup was given from now on to countries with a strong local soccer league as a way to reduce the investments they need to make, and the world cup instead of being a burden becomes an opportunity to produce profits.

[armanda90]

And because of the difficult weather conditions the schedule for the world cup had to be changed and this affected players as well, as they were used to a specific workload and this was changed, and I really think this caused several injuries as players were forced to play too many games in a time span that was too short, also I think that while spreading soccer all over the world is a good idea, the costs of doing so for the hosts are too high, so at least to me it makes sense that the world cup was given from now on to countries with a strong local soccer league as a way to reduce the investments they need to make, and the world cup instead of being a burden becomes an opportunity to produce profits.

FIFA World Cup 2022 schedule matches change and move more than several months with usually begin on June to July move to November to December, Qatar know as countries with hot temperature and FIFA have to change match schedule with not really hot weather or temperature. Its working when Qatar become FIFA World Cup 2022 host but get bad impact with many players have absent after injury, based on all league still have competition and some players less get time for getting rest.
Next World Cup 2026 seems difference because Latin America know with cold temperature and not necessary for changing matches schedule, for Asian and Africans player need to adapt with cold temperature because in their country has hot temperature.

[Sithara007]

FIFA World Cup 2022 schedule matches change and move more than several months with usually begin on June to July move to November to December, Qatar know as countries with hot temperature and FIFA have to change match schedule with not really hot weather or temperature. Its working when Qatar become FIFA World Cup 2022 host but get bad impact with many players have absent after injury, based on all league still have competition and some players less get time for getting rest.
Next World Cup 2026 seems difference because Latin America know with cold temperature and not necessary for changing matches schedule, for Asian and Africans player need to adapt with cold temperature because in their country has hot temperature.

The next edition of the FIFA World Cup (2026) will be played during June-July, when the temperatures will be mild. It won't be too cold, and it won't be too hot. That said, Northern cities such as Vancouver, Seattle and Toronto will be hosting some of the matches. Asian and African players may find it difficult to get adjusted to the climatic conditions in these cities. Also, as we move from group phase to the knockout phase, teams will be moving form one city to another. They need to quickly adapt to the conditions, as many of these cities are thousands of kilometers apart from each other.

[nullama]

~snip~
No one asked the Qataris to change their religion or to dance as per the whims and fancies of the tourists. All we asked as to keep the promises that the Qataris gave, when they won the rights to host FIFA World Cup. Qataris used the tournament as a venue to splash their wealth. They spend anywhere from $250 billion to $300 billion on hosting this tournament (and at the same time refusing to provide a penny as compensation to the 6,000+ dead construction workers). They broke their own word by imposing a total ban on beer, just two days before the tournament. Beer was available only to those with the top-tier ticket. Also, there was a lot of discrimination towards unmarried and LGBT couples.

How would random people know if a couple is married or not though?

And in which way were they discriminated?, did they not get to buy a ticket?, I haven't read this so no idea what actually happened.

[Leviathan.007]

The main difficulty was the temperature as I understand it hence the date change from a normal scheduled world cup.  Qatar politically wants to position themselves as a key ally to the west and world hence hosting the competition was important to them generally.  The idea of profit exactly is pretty remote on the whole deal of hosting a world cup, I think Greece struggled after hosting the Olympics ironically it was a bit much so theres all kinds of reasons why some countries should not go forward on hosting; its important the country itself wants to bear that burden for a number of years before during and after.   I had a member of my extended family attend the world cup in not the best health as part of their dream holiday he'd always wanted to support their team;  he actually passed away during the event due to long term health concerns.  The family were grateful about how they were treated and help and care received during such difficult circumstances with all the people required for logistics of transporting him back home.
    I've missed any great negative conclusion drawn about the hosting, considering all the upset fans wandering around after their team loses there is plenty reason why things can go badly.

You are wrong, we didn't ask and expect to see the Qatar government change the whole country's rules and traditions and drink beer in the streets all the time and make the team leave Islam, I just wanted to say they could do some temporary changes in some rules and make it easier for the visitors from other counties with other religions, or they could make some special rules during the world cup and make sections for the tourists.

[shogun47]

Dubai is not a country mate, it's just an emirate or a state which belongs to the country of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Also, I said that it's either of the two things because of the struggles that a non-Muslim visitor could experience if a world cup will again be hosted by another Muslim country, financial power wasn't even discussed because there is no need for that as it is quite evident that these countries are rich.

Lastly, I haven't said anything that the Qatari government should change their religion for one month I only said something about their rules so that it will be friendly enough to a non-Muslim visitor as it's almost safe to assume that 80% of people that will watch the event is non even a Muslim.

No one asked the Qataris to change their religion or to dance as per the whims and fancies of the tourists. All we asked as to keep the promises that the Qataris gave, when they won the rights to host FIFA World Cup. Qataris used the tournament as a venue to splash their wealth. They spend anywhere from $250 billion to $300 billion on hosting this tournament (and at the same time refusing to provide a penny as compensation to the 6,000+ dead construction workers). They broke their own word by imposing a total ban on beer, just two days before the tournament. Beer was available only to those with the top-tier ticket. Also, there was a lot of discrimination towards unmarried and LGBT couples.

This is indeed true and many people fail to understand that hosting these events and much deeper implications than just the sport itself. The political agenda is massive. The construction companies hired to build stadiums and infrastructure are also partners who would never judge the government from Qatar for any political decisions. it is about creating financial dependencies that can be exploited in many ways and on many occasions. The truth is that these countries are extremely powerful financially and they know they can afford to do stuff that otherwise would be rejected as unacceptable.

The beer isn't really the biggest issue, but the whole drama surrounding the unmarried and LGBT people was a farce. Infantino's speech in which he said that he feels Qatari, he feels gay, he feels all kinds of feelings... I would really like to know how much Infantino was paid for the trash he talked and did.

[bitgolden]

~snip~
No one asked the Qataris to change their religion or to dance as per the whims and fancies of the tourists. All we asked as to keep the promises that the Qataris gave, when they won the rights to host FIFA World Cup. Qataris used the tournament as a venue to splash their wealth. They spend anywhere from $250 billion to $300 billion on hosting this tournament (and at the same time refusing to provide a penny as compensation to the 6,000+ dead construction workers). They broke their own word by imposing a total ban on beer, just two days before the tournament. Beer was available only to those with the top-tier ticket. Also, there was a lot of discrimination towards unmarried and LGBT couples.

How would random people know if a couple is married or not though?

And in which way were they discriminated?, did they not get to buy a ticket?, I haven't read this so no idea what actually happened.

When you went to a hotel to stay with your girlfriend, they can check if you are married or not, it says so right on your passport that you have different names, and if you have the same name you were allowed to stay in the same room, if you didn't had the same last name then you were asked if you were married or not (because you can be married and still have different names) and if you weren't, you weren't allowed to stay in the hotel.

This may not be the issue for some of the very top hotels there, but it was an issue for lower level ones for sure. People need to realize that Qatar forced their own tradition and culture and it was literally by force, literally detained when you carried any lgbt flag anywhere, they had ZERO respect towards peoples beliefs and they hide it behind the mask of "respect my culture" when they did it. Worst world cup host in its history.

[nullama]

~snip~
When you went to a hotel to stay with your girlfriend, they can check if you are married or not, it says so right on your passport that you have different names, and if you have the same name you were allowed to stay in the same room, if you didn't had the same last name then you were asked if you were married or not (because you can be married and still have different names) and if you weren't, you weren't allowed to stay in the hotel.

This may not be the issue for some of the very top hotels there, but it was an issue for lower level ones for sure. People need to realize that Qatar forced their own tradition and culture and it was literally by force, literally detained when you carried any lgbt flag anywhere, they had ZERO respect towards peoples beliefs and they hide it behind the mask of "respect my culture" when they did it. Worst world cup host in its history.

That's a pretty strange way of checking marital status.

You could be staying with your sibling and you would be seen as married? 

Really weak enforcement anyway, because anyone can say yes, they are married. There's no official way of checking anything. They shouldn't be asking that anyway, but maybe it's not illegal there.

[Sithara007]

When you went to a hotel to stay with your girlfriend, they can check if you are married or not, it says so right on your passport that you have different names, and if you have the same name you were allowed to stay in the same room, if you didn't had the same last name then you were asked if you were married or not (because you can be married and still have different names) and if you weren't, you weren't allowed to stay in the hotel.

This may not be the issue for some of the very top hotels there, but it was an issue for lower level ones for sure. People need to realize that Qatar forced their own tradition and culture and it was literally by force, literally detained when you carried any lgbt flag anywhere, they had ZERO respect towards peoples beliefs and they hide it behind the mask of "respect my culture" when they did it. Worst world cup host in its history.

Yes.. this is exactly what happened. If you stay with your girlfriend, then it will be treated as adultery in Qatar and some of the other Arab nations. And the punishment for adultery is death by beheading. In reality, this law is rarely implemented and usually they doesn't prosecute unmarried couples. But in the past, there were instances of people getting jailed for pregnancies outside the wedlock. Westerners are mostly unaware of these Qatari rules, and a few of them fell victim to the strict laws during the world cup. It soured the overall experience of participating in the world cup.

[LUCKMCFLY]

~snip~
Here I consider something, at the moment that people buy the tickets to the world, those people have to be assigned a visa immediately, according to the number of tickets that the people buy, because it is something that has to be like that, I think that in A World Cup should not have or exist borders for anyone, neither for Africans nor for people who come from other places that other countries consider prohibited or prohibited, because that does not make sense to me, and even less because it comes from decisions of world wars or something like that, I think that the existence of borders is something that should not exist, because we are all humans, or at least until now things with the aliens have not yet been released to the public to know how it is.

As long as there is only one race, which is human , that should not exist, Unless a world War is created and all the countries of the world participate to remove that beto , the truth is that for me it does not make sense, then in Such a glass a visa to go see the world is not bad , I Consider that a person who eats enters to go to the World Cup, should be granted from at least 5 days before the start of the World Cup and that it expires 5 days after the World Cup ends I believe that this is the most appropriate , and for any person without exception, wherever they come from and those who remain in the country illegally , as this is very difficult to Control, but that is what the authorities are for and I believe that this is not so hard for them to grab people and throw them away.

I know that any method that is going to be applied by the USA so that they can enter the country will be used, that is something that can and will happen, people who want to enter the USA will only have to get a ticket for a soccer match, I don't know if they will give visas for a certain time, or how it will be, if it is for a permit for 1 month or something like that, what is difficult to determine is how many people are going to stay in the country Illegally , that is what is difficult Easy to determine , I don't know how they will do it , but it's quite a Challenge Really.

Borders are absolutely necessary.

Each country has it's own way of existing, with their own laws. And people inside those countries live the outcome of their own government.

Part of those laws is defining who gets to stay in the country. A citizen might lose their citizenship based on their actions. Another person might be granted citizenship based on their actions.

You can't just have a wild west where anyone can just come in and out as they please. Would you be happy to have anyone just entering your own home without you first deciding if you want to invite them? The same applies to a country.

Of course, you are right about that, I say it from the point of view that the people who enter a country have a certain kind of respect, that they are very respectful of the rules, something like the world in Qatar, the people who were They complained a lot about that country, too much, about their customs, their way of life, even their culture, but what I want to point out is that as everywhere, the rules must be followed, we cannot let in anyone who have a very strong criminal record or are a person who basically does not like anything but make a fuss, but we have seen that there are people who comply with everything to be the most normal in the world and end up being completely crazy, even entering in a suit.

But I understand in the sense that you say it, however I have seen that things, at least in the USA, are unfortunate due to the number of people who are trained and that makes things begin to change, that is, many go to work to earn Well, I understand that the hour to do a job , for example , washing dishes if they were paid at 25 usd per hour, now for so many migrants there are, they are offering them 10-12 usd per hour due to the massive amount that is coming in, so In fact, there are reports that I have seen that there are many who stay lying on the streets of New York Sleeping and Asking for money, something that seems Dangerous to me, however this is taking place long before the World Cup, at the rate we are going, in the World Cup for I don't know how much will have Changed in less than 1 year to move to the USA, this becomes a very big social problem if they are not able to Control it now, in fact those people, many of those who are there, have legal entry, that's the most important thing, so I don't know how that could be handled anymore.

I am in favor of the fact that for a country like the USA, those who must Enter with a VISA do so with a VISA, but there are many people from Europe who are not very well balanced and they enter without having to comply with these things, so that is where the great detail lies. However, I think that this should be fixed quickly because a problem like this can help tarnish an event as good as a soccer World Cup, although as it will be in a defined place, I imagine that in those places the special forces, police , they will be in charge of cleaning that type of thing and Removing people who do Not contribute Anything.

[Sithara007]

The schedule for CONMEBOL qualifiers are out. This time South American teams will get a total of 6 slots, compared to 4.5 slots that they had in 2022 (4.5 was reduced to 4, after Peru lost to Australia during playoffs). The CONMEBOL qualification tournament will start next month (September 2023), and will run till September 2025. As usual, 10 teams in total will be taking part. On 7th September, there will be a total of 3 matches and defending champions Argentina will start their campaign against a strong Ecuador. For Brazil, the first match is going to be against Bolivia on 8th September.

[shogun47]

The schedule for CONMEBOL qualifiers are out. This time South American teams will get a total of 6 slots, compared to 4.5 slots that they had in 2022 (4.5 was reduced to 4, after Peru lost to Australia during playoffs). The CONMEBOL qualification tournament will start next month (September 2023), and will run till September 2025. As usual, 10 teams in total will be taking part. On 7th September, there will be a total of 3 matches and defending champions Argentina will start their campaign against a strong Ecuador. For Brazil, the first match is going to be against Bolivia on 8th September.

It is a relatively strong group of 10 teams in general. And with 6 slots at the World Cup every team in the CONMEBOL qualification has a serious chance to make it to the tournament. Usually the slots were mostly taken by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and then it was close I think for the 4th, but with 6 teams the situation is quite different for all of the participants.

Bolivia's last World Cup qualification for example, it was in 1994. Now it is possible since they need to make it into the top 6 of that group stage right? Or are there any other play-offs after that group stage consisting of 10 teams?

[Kasabus]

Dubai is not a country mate, it's just an emirate or a state which belongs to the country of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Also, I said that it's either of the two things because of the struggles that a non-Muslim visitor could experience if a world cup will again be hosted by another Muslim country, financial power wasn't even discussed because there is no need for that as it is quite evident that these countries are rich.

Lastly, I haven't said anything that the Qatari government should change their religion for one month I only said something about their rules so that it will be friendly enough to a non-Muslim visitor as it's almost safe to assume that 80% of people that will watch the event is non even a Muslim.

No one asked the Qataris to change their religion or to dance as per the whims and fancies of the tourists. All we asked as to keep the promises that the Qataris gave, when they won the rights to host FIFA World Cup. Qataris used the tournament as a venue to splash their wealth. They spend anywhere from $250 billion to $300 billion on hosting this tournament (and at the same time refusing to provide a penny as compensation to the 6,000+ dead construction workers). They broke their own word by imposing a total ban on beer, just two days before the tournament. Beer was available only to those with the top-tier ticket. Also, there was a lot of discrimination towards unmarried and LGBT couples.

Yes, that simple but seeing the things as they seem now, it's like it will be too much to ask because they are really not that inclined to make their rules flexible enough to make the visitors enjoy their time in their country and be entertained. This must be changed and should be given a time by the FIFA council specially if Saudi Arabia is also looking forward to host a world cup soon. Nobody is arguing about Qatar's capabilities to host a world cup nor their religion, it's not what people wanted, it's just a big misunderstanding because when it comes to rules, people tend to involve religion and beliefs in it too.

[sana54210]

The schedule for CONMEBOL qualifiers are out. This time South American teams will get a total of 6 slots, compared to 4.5 slots that they had in 2022 (4.5 was reduced to 4, after Peru lost to Australia during playoffs). The CONMEBOL qualification tournament will start next month (September 2023), and will run till September 2025. As usual, 10 teams in total will be taking part. On 7th September, there will be a total of 3 matches and defending champions Argentina will start their campaign against a strong Ecuador. For Brazil, the first match is going to be against Bolivia on 8th September.

It is a relatively strong group of 10 teams in general. And with 6 slots at the World Cup every team in the CONMEBOL qualification has a serious chance to make it to the tournament. Usually the slots were mostly taken by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and then it was close I think for the 4th, but with 6 teams the situation is quite different for all of the participants.

Bolivia's last World Cup qualification for example, it was in 1994. Now it is possible since they need to make it into the top 6 of that group stage right? Or are there any other play-offs after that group stage consisting of 10 teams?

It's obvious that each continent is sending the best teams of their continent for that year and they are going to end up with a good result compared to teams that didn't went there, it's rarely about luck and mostly about talent. However, the latin american one is the hardest one considering there are so many great teams and very few spots for them, and they will certainly have hard time.

Same goes for African teams as well, we see players from those nations end up being decent enough, and national teams are where players can show their talents as well, but very few spots for them and any good player in a terrible team will not be able to show himself to the bigger european clubs because of it as well. It's a tough deal.

[shogun47]

The schedule for CONMEBOL qualifiers are out. This time South American teams will get a total of 6 slots, compared to 4.5 slots that they had in 2022 (4.5 was reduced to 4, after Peru lost to Australia during playoffs). The CONMEBOL qualification tournament will start next month (September 2023), and will run till September 2025. As usual, 10 teams in total will be taking part. On 7th September, there will be a total of 3 matches and defending champions Argentina will start their campaign against a strong Ecuador. For Brazil, the first match is going to be against Bolivia on 8th September.

It is a relatively strong group of 10 teams in general. And with 6 slots at the World Cup every team in the CONMEBOL qualification has a serious chance to make it to the tournament. Usually the slots were mostly taken by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and then it was close I think for the 4th, but with 6 teams the situation is quite different for all of the participants.

Bolivia's last World Cup qualification for example, it was in 1994. Now it is possible since they need to make it into the top 6 of that group stage right? Or are there any other play-offs after that group stage consisting of 10 teams?

It's obvious that each continent is sending the best teams of their continent for that year and they are going to end up with a good result compared to teams that didn't went there, it's rarely about luck and mostly about talent. However, the latin american one is the hardest one considering there are so many great teams and very few spots for them, and they will certainly have hard time.

Same goes for African teams as well, we see players from those nations end up being decent enough, and national teams are where players can show their talents as well, but very few spots for them and any good player in a terrible team will not be able to show himself to the bigger european clubs because of it as well. It's a tough deal.

I just noticed that there are 6.5 spots for South America right? Damn it I think I can't even understand how this qualification works. There will again be play-offs and it is inter-confederation, which means that South America could have 7 out of 10 teams to qualify for the final round. But I don't understand how these different coefficients should make sense when you divide qualification participants by the slots. Shouldn't that be as even as possible?