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

[Sithara007]

Football is first priority in some countries like Brazil, that's why we can see people think a country like Brazil got more chance to win the world cup ticket than other teams in CONMEBOL, also since the European countries invest much more than other countries, we usually see these teams on Europe have better performance in world cup every year.

The advantage with European teams is that they have the best football leagues in the world. This means that their younger players get a chance to play with some of the best in football. This is a luxury that is not provided to the younger players in CONMEBOL, AFC or CAF. However, the situation is changing now, as Saudi league is gaining a lot of traction. Even then, it is just this one league in AFC, while all the other popular leagues are in UEFA. And despite all this, some of the UEFA teams are in continuous decline (Germany, Netherlands, Danmark.etc).

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[sana54210]

Football is first priority in some countries like Brazil, that's why we can see people think a country like Brazil got more chance to win the world cup ticket than other teams in CONMEBOL, also since the European countries invest much more than other countries, we usually see these teams on Europe have better performance in world cup every year.

I feel like it's more like a cultural thing than anything else. Argentina is not a rich nation at all, they do not have money to invest into anything at all, most of the players that become world stars ended up getting there from a poor family that lived in terrible sheds as well. I believe that there are some born rich ones as well, but not all of them at all. This is why I believe that we need to make sure that things look as good as it could potentially look.

I understand that it is not going to be easy to handle but it is still a situation to see and should be considered a big deal. I know that we are at a stage where we just have to accept whichever teams go from which continent, but it's cultural and not money related.

[Litzki1990]

Football is first priority in some countries like Brazil, that's why we can see people think a country like Brazil got more chance to win the world cup ticket than other teams in CONMEBOL, also since the European countries invest much more than other countries, we usually see these teams on Europe have better performance in world cup every year.

The advantage with European teams is that they have the best football leagues in the world. This means that their younger players get a chance to play with some of the best in football. This is a luxury that is not provided to the younger players in CONMEBOL, AFC or CAF. However, the situation is changing now, as Saudi league is gaining a lot of traction. Even then, it is just this one league in AFC, while all the other popular leagues are in UEFA. And despite all this, some of the UEFA teams are in continuous decline (Germany, Netherlands, Danmark.etc).

Every player from European countries plays football for different clubs for a whole season, which gives European teams an added advantage when it comes to team building. Very few players from African or Asian teams play for some European clubs and they don't get a chance to play a lot of matches throughout the season, so chances of Asian or African teams doing well are very low. Asian or Latin American teams never counter it with European teams, the main reason is that Asian or Latin American players are relatively less powerful than European players, which is why European teams have the most success in countering it.  

The performance of these four teams, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark or Italy, is not the same as before, we have noticed a lot of decline in their performance in the last World Cup. Germany was eliminated from the group stage in the last World Cup. The performance of these teams in Europe must change.

[armanda90]

Football is first priority in some countries like Brazil, that's why we can see people think a country like Brazil got more chance to win the world cup ticket than other teams in CONMEBOL, also since the European countries invest much more than other countries, we usually see these teams on Europe have better performance in world cup every year.

The advantage with European teams is that they have the best football leagues in the world. This means that their younger players get a chance to play with some of the best in football. This is a luxury that is not provided to the younger players in CONMEBOL, AFC or CAF. However, the situation is changing now, as Saudi league is gaining a lot of traction. Even then, it is just this one league in AFC, while all the other popular leagues are in UEFA. And despite all this, some of the UEFA teams are in continuous decline (Germany, Netherlands, Danmark.etc).

Its not guarantee with their opportunity for winning FIFA World Cup, you can see what happen England have competitive league and the best around the world but their national team difficult become the winner. Have been more than 50 years England never won World Cup and best achievement lead to semifinal stage. Usually UEFA national teams have bigger chance winning World Cup but last edition on FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar have CONMEBOL national teams Argentina success become the champion. I am little disappointed with Asian national teams failed to lead until semifinal or final stage and last achievement from South Korea success become third position in World Cup 2002 and have been twenty years.

[Sithara007]

✂✂✂✂
The performance of these four teams, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark or Italy, is not the same as before, we have noticed a lot of decline in their performance in the last World Cup. Germany was eliminated from the group stage in the last World Cup. The performance of these teams in Europe must change.

Yeah.. I should have added Italy as well. Until the late 1990s, they constantly ranked as one of the top-5 teams. Now they are not even in top-10 and for Qatar 2022 they didn't even managed to qualify. Central European teams are having serious issues in replacing their retiring players. And this is happening despite the fact that quality of their national leagues remain intact. At the same time, teams like England and France are not facing this issue. A lot of quality players are rising through the ranks in these two nations.

[nullama]

~snip~
The advantage with European teams is that they have the best football leagues in the world. This means that their younger players get a chance to play with some of the best in football. This is a luxury that is not provided to the younger players in CONMEBOL, AFC or CAF. However, the situation is changing now, as Saudi league is gaining a lot of traction. Even then, it is just this one league in AFC, while all the other popular leagues are in UEFA. And despite all this, some of the UEFA teams are in continuous decline (Germany, Netherlands, Danmark.etc).

Yes, that's true, but also the teams in those leagues have people from all around the world, not just from Europe, so they might be from those other confederations.

I wouldn't say Germany and the others are in decline, it's just that it's now much more competitive than before.

[gagux123]

The advantage with European teams is that they have the best football leagues in the world. This means that their younger players get a chance to play with some of the best in football. This is a luxury that is not provided to the younger players in CONMEBOL, AFC or CAF. However, the situation is changing now, as Saudi league is gaining a lot of traction. Even then, it is just this one league in AFC, while all the other popular leagues are in UEFA. And despite all this, some of the UEFA teams are in continuous decline (Germany, Netherlands, Danmark.etc).

Yes this is true! Many young European players have a great possibility of playing in some European team, of course, there are teams that are the elite of Europe, but there are also teams that are of a lower quality.
For a young man to play for a big club, it will depend on his performance, opportunity and also on his manager.

In the last world cups, I confess that Germany played below its potential, it is far from being the team of the 2014 cup, I could even say that the German team is in decline, another team (outside Europe) that is also in decline is Brazil, they will hardly have another team like the 2002 or 2006, for example.

[Leviathan.007]

Football is first priority in some countries like Brazil, that's why we can see people think a country like Brazil got more chance to win the world cup ticket than other teams in CONMEBOL, also since the European countries invest much more than other countries, we usually see these teams on Europe have better performance in world cup every year.

I feel like it's more like a cultural thing than anything else. Argentina is not a rich nation at all, they do not have money to invest into anything at all, most of the players that become world stars ended up getting there from a poor family that lived in terrible sheds as well. I believe that there are some born rich ones as well, but not all of them at all. This is why I believe that we need to make sure that things look as good as it could potentially look.

I understand that it is not going to be easy to handle but it is still a situation to see and should be considered a big deal. I know that we are at a stage where we just have to accept whichever teams go from which continent, but it's cultural and not money related.

I saw some people say Football is the sport for poor people and poor nations because this sport needs just one ball, but in this new generation, the rich countries with better situations will invest money there and this investment is the reason for other countries Venezuela to have bad performance and usually fail in the race with other teams.
 

[Sithara007]

Yes this is true! Many young European players have a great possibility of playing in some European team, of course, there are teams that are the elite of Europe, but there are also teams that are of a lower quality.
For a young man to play for a big club, it will depend on his performance, opportunity and also on his manager.

In the last world cups, I confess that Germany played below its potential, it is far from being the team of the 2014 cup, I could even say that the German team is in decline, another team (outside Europe) that is also in decline is Brazil, they will hardly have another team like the 2002 or 2006, for example.

I am not sure whether you can compare Germany with Brazil. The problem with Germany is that younger players are not coming up. They are overdependent on some of the oldies such as İlkay Gündoğan, Marco Reus, Manuel Neuer and Thomas Müller. On the other hand, although there is some dependence on Neymar, Brazil do have a great bunch of younger players. I am talking about Antony, Emerson, Vitor Roque and Raphinha.  The only issue with Brazil is that their national league is not strong and most of the players are dependent on European leagues.

[Silberman]

Football is first priority in some countries like Brazil, that's why we can see people think a country like Brazil got more chance to win the world cup ticket than other teams in CONMEBOL, also since the European countries invest much more than other countries, we usually see these teams on Europe have better performance in world cup every year.

I feel like it's more like a cultural thing than anything else. Argentina is not a rich nation at all, they do not have money to invest into anything at all, most of the players that become world stars ended up getting there from a poor family that lived in terrible sheds as well. I believe that there are some born rich ones as well, but not all of them at all. This is why I believe that we need to make sure that things look as good as it could potentially look.

I understand that it is not going to be easy to handle but it is still a situation to see and should be considered a big deal. I know that we are at a stage where we just have to accept whichever teams go from which continent, but it's cultural and not money related.

I saw some people say Football is the sport for poor people and poor nations because this sport needs just one ball, but in this new generation, the rich countries with better situations will invest money there and this investment is the reason for other countries Venezuela to have bad performance and usually fail in the race with other teams.
 

This is about accessibility, the more expensive the sport is the less people will practice it while the cheaper it is the more people will be able to practice it, soccer is relatively inexpensive for kids to play as you only need some open space, some friends, a ball and some rocks or another item to indicate the position of the goal line, while a sport like hockey requires all kind of equipment that can only be afforded by those which have a significant amount of money.

[nullama]

~snip~
I saw some people say Football is the sport for poor people and poor nations because this sport needs just one ball, but in this new generation, the rich countries with better situations will invest money there and this investment is the reason for other countries Venezuela to have bad performance and usually fail in the race with other teams.

Not even one ball.

Kids everywhere in the world would just start kicking anything to play football, it's typical to see in the favelas in Brazil barefoot kids just kicking whatever object was around them for a quick game.

[Leviathan.007]

The advantage with European teams is that they have the best football leagues in the world. This means that their younger players get a chance to play with some of the best in football. This is a luxury that is not provided to the younger players in CONMEBOL, AFC or CAF. However, the situation is changing now, as Saudi league is gaining a lot of traction. Even then, it is just this one league in AFC, while all the other popular leagues are in UEFA. And despite all this, some of the UEFA teams are in continuous decline (Germany, Netherlands, Danmark.etc).

Yes this is true! Many young European players have a great possibility of playing in some European team, of course, there are teams that are the elite of Europe, but there are also teams that are of a lower quality.
For a young man to play for a big club, it will depend on his performance, opportunity and also on his manager.

In the last world cups, I confess that Germany played below its potential, it is far from being the team of the 2014 cup, I could even say that the German team is in decline, another team (outside Europe) that is also in decline is Brazil, they will hardly have another team like the 2002 or 2006, for example.

Yes, and I think the main reason for the younger European people to play in the European teams and become superstars in mostly because of their facilities and the better coaches they have, then you have a great coach and good sports facility you can have higher chance to use the talents they have.
In Germany they try to pay attention to the kids and their talents, that's how these people can have good performances in most of the world cups, Germany is usually stable in the world cups while other countries are not.
 

[Lucasgabd]

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.

really looking forward for this match Brazil vs Bolivia
I'm betting 2x1 for Brazil
curious to see the results

good to know that south american teams will have 6 slots now, I think 4.5 slots was just too few
what do you think about that?

[wheelz1200]

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.

really looking forward for this match Brazil vs Bolivia
I'm betting 2x1 for Brazil
curious to see the results

good to know that south american teams will have 6 slots now, I think 4.5 slots was just too few
what do you think about that?

I think 6 is a good spot for south America.  At 4 too many good teams get left out.  I've said it before but I'm all for the best teams in the world being part of this tourny.  I know every region needs to be represented but there ends up being teams that don't need to be there in place of a team that could fight to get into the elimination rounds.

[Sithara007]

I think 6 is a good spot for south America.  At 4 too many good teams get left out.  I've said it before but I'm all for the best teams in the world being part of this tourny.  I know every region needs to be represented but there ends up being teams that don't need to be there in place of a team that could fight to get into the elimination rounds.

Disagree.

6 I believe is still low and it would mean that 4 out of the 10 quality teams would still fail to qualify. I am not saying that FIFA should give world cup entry to 10 out of 10 teams, but the teams that fail to qualify from CONMEBOL should get another opportunity to enter the main tournament. There are no weak teams in CONMEBOL. It is not impossible for the lowest ranking team (Bolivia?) to defeat the top-ranking teams like Argentina and Brazil. But in UEFA do you really expect teams like Liechtenstein and San Marino to defeat teams such as France and Spain?

[Litzki1990]

~snip~
I saw some people say Football is the sport for poor people and poor nations because this sport needs just one ball, but in this new generation, the rich countries with better situations will invest money there and this investment is the reason for other countries Venezuela to have bad performance and usually fail in the race with other teams.

Not even one ball.

Kids everywhere in the world would just start kicking anything to play football, it's typical to see in the favelas in Brazil barefoot kids just kicking whatever object was around them for a quick game.

From the moment children are born in Brazil, soccer becomes an important part of their lives. All the footballers in Brazil so far have come from very poor families. A child born into a poor family in Brazil has the goal of becoming a footballer and ending his poverty. I saw a video of children in Brazil playing soccer with bare feet, and they used a bunch of paper to tie it into a ball with a string and use it as a soccer ball. I would not have realized how much interest in football children can play football like this if I had not seen videos of children playing football in Brazil. They love football and they consider football a part of their lives, that's why every year so many talented footballers from their country perform brilliantly for various clubs in Europe.

[Strongkored]

From the moment children are born in Brazil, soccer becomes an important part of their lives. All the footballers in Brazil so far have come from very poor families. A child born into a poor family in Brazil has the goal of becoming a footballer and ending his poverty. I saw a video of children in Brazil playing soccer with bare feet, and they used a bunch of paper to tie it into a ball with a string and use it as a soccer ball. I would not have realized how much interest in football children can play football like this if I had not seen videos of children playing football in Brazil. They love football and they consider football a part of their lives, that's why every year so many talented footballers from their country perform brilliantly for various clubs in Europe.

Football is a common sport in Brazil and many top Brazilian players have testified how football saved their lives from all bad things because they were born in a poor area in Brazil and also from poor families, so Brazil will be a country that will not lack of talented young players, even because of the many players they have and play in elite leagues in Europe making competition to become a Brazilian national player difficult.
Qatar World Cup, one of the top players who is no longer included in the Brazil squad, is Roberto Firmino, even though he was still 30 at the time and still playing for an elite club in one of the toughest leagues in the world, he was unable to compete with Richarlison who played at Tottenham, even though Richarlison was only there were more on the bench than the main players and it seems that it was due to age or because the Brazil coach at that time Tite made a mistake in assessing Brazilian players who he considered could make a big contribution to Brazil in the world cup.
With the change of coach in the Brazilian national team, there will be big changes in their squad

[nullama]

~snip~
From the moment children are born in Brazil, soccer becomes an important part of their lives. All the footballers in Brazil so far have come from very poor families. A child born into a poor family in Brazil has the goal of becoming a footballer and ending his poverty. I saw a video of children in Brazil playing soccer with bare feet, and they used a bunch of paper to tie it into a ball with a string and use it as a soccer ball. I would not have realized how much interest in football children can play football like this if I had not seen videos of children playing football in Brazil. They love football and they consider football a part of their lives, that's why every year so many talented footballers from their country perform brilliantly for various clubs in Europe.

Yes, you can see that in pretty much all the 3rd world, developing countries, etc.

Many of the best players in the world, specially from Brazil, were born and grew up in incredibly poor areas. Rivaldo for example was growing up in Brazil with malnutrition and vitamin D deficiency, etc.

Here's an article about this: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/59696614

[marcous]

...
I think FIFA is intentionally doing it with 48 teams instead of 32 in order to promote football even more,even in countries which had never a possibility to be in such a huge event like the World Cup and I agree with this policy they are taking for this upcoming World Cup.
...

If countries that are less interested in football get a chance to participate in this tournament, interest in football will increase in those countries. I think this is a very correct point of view. I support this approach. In addition, the world cup organization held in Qatar showed us the success of the Asian and African teams. I look forward to seeing more teams from these continents. If the name of this organization is the World Cup, we should make it a real world game. If that happens, we will enjoy this tournament more.

That's clear, I saw it at the hosting of the World Cup in Qatar. Maybe the Saudis will be interested and have the opportunity to volunteer for other opportunities after seeing Qatar's success in organizing this event. Currently they are building the Domestic League by bringing in star players from Europe. I think the addition of participants to the 2026 World Cup, in addition to providing greater opportunities, of course this will motivate any country to strive to be able to appear at the World Cup.

By hosting countries that are less advanced in terms of soccer, it will be a very effective campaign to generate interest and promote football throughout. In the future it could be that the African region has a very high chance of becoming the host.

[Leviathan.007]

...
I think FIFA is intentionally doing it with 48 teams instead of 32 in order to promote football even more,even in countries which had never a possibility to be in such a huge event like the World Cup and I agree with this policy they are taking for this upcoming World Cup.
...

If countries that are less interested in football get a chance to participate in this tournament, interest in football will increase in those countries. I think this is a very correct point of view. I support this approach. In addition, the world cup organization held in Qatar showed us the success of the Asian and African teams. I look forward to seeing more teams from these continents. If the name of this organization is the World Cup, we should make it a real world game. If that happens, we will enjoy this tournament more.

That's clear, I saw it at the hosting of the World Cup in Qatar. Maybe the Saudis will be interested and have the opportunity to volunteer for other opportunities after seeing Qatar's success in organizing this event. Currently they are building the Domestic League by bringing in star players from Europe. I think the addition of participants to the 2026 World Cup, in addition to providing greater opportunities, of course this will motivate any country to strive to be able to appear at the World Cup.

By hosting countries that are less advanced in terms of soccer, it will be a very effective campaign to generate interest and promote football throughout. In the future it could be that the African region has a very high chance of becoming the host.

Maybe the Saudis host the world cup better than Qatar or maybe they will do it worst than Qatar but we all know letting a Muslim country with some Islamic country lose the world cup is very wrong because in the end people from other countries and other religions will have problems and they won't have freedom which is not good and that's why I think FIFA will not let these countries host the world cup again.