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

[shogun47]

All 211 FIFA Member Associations convened virtually at an Extraordinary FIFA Congress where Saudi Arabia was selected to stage the FIFA World Cup 2034™.

It may worth mentioning that 2030 world cup will be hosted by Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.

It could be added that South America will also be involved as they are hosting the three opening matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay and because of this, it was quite likely that Saudi Arabia would get the go for 2034 as they are following this rotation principle that no continent can host world cup games for two world cups in a row. I think this was all politically staged beforehand as they claim that human rights would play an important role in the host selection process, but when Qatar and Saudi Arabia host two world cups within a time span of 12 years, well...

It has not been decided yet whether it will be a Winter world cup and the fact that this conference was held online is a farce given that they claimed it was done to keep the carbon footprint low. As if any of these FIFA representatives give anything about that. Infantino is probably going to the supermarket and the gym by private jet...

Link with lots of interesting info.

[ILuckyGuyI]

The World Cup 2026 European qualifiers groups have been announced:



QF1 to QF4 clubs refers to the winners of the Nations League quarter final matchups. It is in order as below.



What do you think about this draw?

Turkey's group is the most important one for me of course and I think we have a quite decent draw.    The winner of the Spain - Netherlands matchup will surely make big difficulties for us. However we should be able to be victorious against Georgia and Bulgaria both. I believe we will finish our group in 2nd place and take a big step for the main competition.  

[Jody.Drummer]

Saudi Arabian aims for high and they want to be much better than this. Maybe this team can't have the good performance they want to see and maybe Saudi Arabia is not a good team to shine in the World Cups and even in the Asian games but they will want to invest money in their country and football to build the future for their people.
The last news about Saudi Arabia is about the 2030 World Cup. They are not officially the host of the next World Cup and in the picture below you can see the stadiums they will use to host this tournament.

To straighten things out a bit, it's for 2034.
I'm starting to guess their direction, one of which is the breakthrough they've made lately which is bringing in a lot of star players to play in their league, I think it has something to do with this.
With them officially being appointed as the host of the 2034 World Cup, it makes me even more convinced that what they've been doing so far is their first step to being able to get host status.
I can only hope they can be good hosts and that they can successfully host the World Cup.

[lixer]

I also want to congratulate Saudi Arabia for confirming as the host of the 2034 World Cup. It's 10 years from now but it's not a long time for a country to prepare various facilities to host the World Cup. After Qatar in 2022 I think Saudi Arabia will also make the 2034 World Cup very grand and luxurious. We know that many Middle Eastern countries emphasize the aspect of luxury. And I also hope that there will be no much drama and controversy during the World Cup. As I recall, apart from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar which was full of controversy, when the 2002 World Cup was in South Korea and Japan we also saw a lot of controversy, especially South Korea which was the host at that time. And both were World Cups held in Asia.

Do not be surprised that there will always be controversies and we all have to swallow it like that because there is nothing that can be done about that. This is an opportunity of hosting the biggest sport in the world and  many countries of the world are looking for such opportunity so they can showcase there culture and what they are made up off. There will always be complaints whatsoever. We ought to enjoy the fun and forget about the stress we might have undergone especially for those people that left their countries for the world venue. Now is Saudi Arabia turn to show the world there culture and what they are made up of in a grand style.

In last three decades, we have too many controversies and problems, but all is still going on as we have nothing to bring changes powerful peoples are playing as they wanted to play, and we are here just for giving our views about these things as we have Qatar take hosting rights there were too much noise but at the end nothing happen, and they have done this all same going to happen against while we will be having three countries which are not going to host 48 countries in 2034 this could be one of the best events in recent time because we all know how Saudis are crazy about this.

But, we still need some transparency which helps things done on better level and all stakeholders able to do their work fairly Saudi culture is going to open and things could be surely interesting as world will be having first mega event in this country.

[Palakka]

Saudi Arabian aims for high and they want to be much better than this. Maybe this team can't have the good performance they want to see and maybe Saudi Arabia is not a good team to shine in the World Cups and even in the Asian games but they will want to invest money in their country and football to build the future for their people.
The last news about Saudi Arabia is about the 2030 World Cup. They are not officially the host of the next World Cup and in the picture below you can see the stadiums they will use to host this tournament.

It seems that it is still too early for us to discuss about the world cup that will be held in Saudi Arabia later, because it is still too far away and even we will pass the 2030 world cup to discuss it , but it doesn't hurt for Saudi Arabia to show their current ambitions to host, After all, they already have enough infrastructure to hold the biggest football event, but apart from that, I think like the Qatar World Cup, the Saudi Arabian World Cup will also cause a lot of polemics and speculation from the western world, considering the Islamic law that might also be enforced later for those who attend and violate in the country.

[Rruchi man]

Thomas Tuchel has no excuse for me; he is in a group where England should dominate and be able to build up enough momentum to push through the qualifications to the World Cup. They have the team that can do it; now hopefully Thomas Tuchel is the coach for them. England has not won the World Cup in a very long time, and Thomas Tuchel is fairly inexperienced with national team football, so there is a lot of hope he adjusts quickly and performs better than Lee Carsley and Southgate.

[Docnaster]

Thomas Tuchel has no excuse for me; he is in a group where England should dominate and be able to build up enough momentum to push through the qualifications to the World Cup. They have the team that can do it; now hopefully Thomas Tuchel is the coach for them. England has not won the World Cup in a very long time, and Thomas Tuchel is fairly inexperienced with national team football, so there is a lot of hope he adjusts quickly and performs better than Lee Carsley and Southgate.

In the group K of the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers, England will play against Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra and considering the footballing strength of the above listed teams, I don't think Thomas Tuchel will have any difficulties in helping the Three Lions qualify. 2026 FIFA World Cup is less than 2 years from now and England already have an intimidating squad as well as talented lads that'll continue to grow and develop till then. However, I think it's too early to expect Thomas Tuchel to help England win the next edition of the FIFA World Cup when he's yet to oversee his first game as England manager.

[Agbe]

Thomas Tuchel has no excuse for me; he is in a group where England should dominate and be able to build up enough momentum to push through the qualifications to the World Cup. They have the team that can do it; now hopefully Thomas Tuchel is the coach for them. England has not won the World Cup in a very long time, and Thomas Tuchel is fairly inexperienced with national team football, so there is a lot of hope he adjusts quickly and performs better than Lee Carsley and Southgate.

In the group K of the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers, England will play against Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra and considering the footballing strength of the above listed teams, I don't think Thomas Tuchel will have any difficulties in helping the Three Lions qualify. 2026 FIFA World Cup is less than 2 years from now and England already have an intimidating squad as well as talented lads that'll continue to grow and develop till then. However, I think it's too early to expect Thomas Tuchel to help England win the next edition of the FIFA World Cup when he's yet to oversee his first game as England manager.

There is no doubt, England will top that group. The World Cup Qualifiers will resume soon. I think they're on break for sometimes now. And many countries are not performing to the satisfaction of their country National Team fans and my country is the number one of them all. Because of the Cup Qualifiers, we have changed the previous coach of the team. And since then the new coach has not play the World Cup Qualifiers game for us to know if he is also good in the World Cup. But I don't think England will win this Cup but they will go far in the tournament. In Africa Morocco will be the best team to support.

[KTChampions]

The World Cup 2026 European qualifiers groups have been announced:



QF1 to QF4 clubs refers to the winners of the Nations League quarter final matchups. It is in order as below.



What do you think about this draw?

Turkey's group is the most important one for me of course and I think we have a quite decent draw.    The winner of the Spain - Netherlands matchup will surely make big difficulties for us. However we should be able to be victorious against Georgia and Bulgaria both. I believe we will finish our group in 2nd place and take a big step for the main competition.  

QF1 - QF4 is for winners and losers of National league quarter finals. Thus, for each pair, two groups are selected into which the winner and the loser will be distributed. I looked at the groups and they look easy for all the favourites, but even if some of them were difficult, it’s unlikely that the teams in the Nations League would focus on this in their games.
Behind all this murky scheme it is difficult to hide the fact that the selection is easy (plus there is a second chance for losers). This is the modern format - the final part is not such at all, since almost everyone ends up there.

[baeva]

Saudi Arabian aims for high and they want to be much better than this. Maybe this team can't have the good performance they want to see and maybe Saudi Arabia is not a good team to shine in the World Cups and even in the Asian games but they will want to invest money in their country and football to build the future for their people.
The last news about Saudi Arabia is about the 2030 World Cup. They are not officially the host of the next World Cup and in the picture below you can see the stadiums they will use to host this tournament.

To straighten things out a bit, it's for 2034.
I'm starting to guess their direction, one of which is the breakthrough they've made lately which is bringing in a lot of star players to play in their league, I think it has something to do with this.
With them officially being appointed as the host of the 2034 World Cup, it makes me even more convinced that what they've been doing so far is their first step to being able to get host status.
I can only hope they can be good hosts and that they can successfully host the World Cup.

Given their resources, they can easily organise a good championship, of that I have no doubt, because it goes beyond the internal football organisation, when they were buying players to draw attention to their league. Now it's on a national level, because the World Cup brings tourism and investment. If they prepare well, tourism will blossom even more.

[Webetcoins]

Thomas Tuchel has no excuse for me; he is in a group where England should dominate and be able to build up enough momentum to push through the qualifications to the World Cup. They have the team that can do it; now hopefully Thomas Tuchel is the coach for them. England has not won the World Cup in a very long time, and Thomas Tuchel is fairly inexperienced with national team football, so there is a lot of hope he adjusts quickly and performs better than Lee Carsley and Southgate.

Thomas Tuchel surely going to have an ideal start of his new job as England coach as things are going most chances he will be ended without losing any point and have good chance of going through even no guaranteed about long term but as things are going we can expect England could be at his peak under this management because he is well reputable coach with creative mind and England needed coach like him for having their first mega trophy in decades.

No doubt Southgate also give his best, but sadly he was not able to win anything big for England, but now time is changing, and we can expect changes in approach of teams and their style hopefully Thomas Tuchel could be a new way for England as they are heading for having good results at the top level.

[stompix]

Nice, in 2018 we had 9 groups, in 2022 there were 10 and now we're reaching L with 12 groups!
I'm starting to think what we are going to run out of first, letters in the alphabet or teams!

This whole thing is ridiculous, we haven't had the same kind of qualifications for two consecutive years in two decades, every single time there must be a change, even the groups, the payoffs, now this whole Nation League, why don't they understand it makes things nauseating rather than entertaining?
Were they afraid nobody is going to watch San Marino vs Liechtenstein, now you have Feroe, Gibraltar, and Macedonia in groups L, they for sure will break records in viewership /s

Not to mention the genius who allowed Serbia to play against Albania!

[Sithara007]

Nice, in 2018 we had 9 groups, in 2022 there were 10 and now we're reaching L with 12 groups!
I'm starting to think what we are going to run out of first, letters in the alphabet or teams!

This whole thing is ridiculous, we haven't had the same kind of qualifications for two consecutive years in two decades, every single time there must be a change, even the groups, the payoffs, now this whole Nation League, why don't they understand it makes things nauseating rather than entertaining?
Were they afraid nobody is going to watch San Marino vs Liechtenstein, now you have Feroe, Gibraltar, and Macedonia in groups L, they for sure will break records in viewership /s

Not to mention the genius who allowed Serbia to play against Albania!

Matches such as San Marino vs Liechtenstein and Faroe Islands vs Gibraltar will be there, because this is a qualifier tournament. BTW why you are grouping Macedonia with these teams? As per the rules, FIFA is obliged to allow all the member associations in the qualifier tournament. And this is not only for UEFA, but for every other association such as CONMEBOL and AFC as well. Now I don't understand your problem here. Are you saying that the weaker teams should not be allowed to compete in the qualifier tournaments?

[armanda90]

There is no doubt, England will too that group. The World Cup Qualifiers will resume soon. I think they're on break for sometimes now. And many countries are not performing to the satisfaction of their country National Team fans and my country is the number one of them all. Because of the Cup Qualifiers, we have changed the previous coach of the team. And since then the new coach has not play the World Cup Qualifiers game for us to know if he is also good in the World Cup. But I don't think England will win this Cup but they will go far in the tournament. In Africa Morocco will be the best team to support.

Looks not big problem for England national teams reach the first standings spot at Group K to directly qualify FIFA World Cup 2026, Europe continent have 16 teams participants and each group winner will automatically get one spot for participating at World Cup. England teams have easily group and looks not difficult for defeating Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra. Should be easily for England teams finish as the first standings position team although their manager Thomas Tuchel just few months become manager.

I am waiting for Italia teams will put which one group, have been failed two consecutives time for participating at World Cup should be their motivation this time qualifying must finish on the first place without eliminate at playoff round. Europe teams have many spot for World Cup qualifying and looks disappointed if Italy miss next World Cup.

[Agbe]

There is no doubt, England will too that group. The World Cup Qualifiers will resume soon. I think they're on break for sometimes now. And many countries are not performing to the satisfaction of their country National Team fans and my country is the number one of them all. Because of the Cup Qualifiers, we have changed the previous coach of the team. And since then the new coach has not play the World Cup Qualifiers game for us to know if he is also good in the World Cup. But I don't think England will win this Cup but they will go far in the tournament. In Africa Morocco will be the best team to support.

Looks not big problem for England national teams reach the first standings spot at Group K to directly qualify FIFA World Cup 2026, Europe continent have 16 teams participants and each group winner will automatically get one spot for participating at World Cup. England teams have easily group and looks not difficult for defeating Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra. Should be easily for England teams finish as the first standings position team although their manager Thomas Tuchel just few months become manager.

I am waiting for Italia teams will put which one group, have been failed two consecutives time for participating at World Cup should be their motivation this time qualifying must finish on the first place without eliminate at playoff round. Europe teams have many spot for World Cup qualifying and looks disappointed if Italy miss next World Cup.

2026 World Cup will have a new narrative and that is what I am seen it. There are new teams rising up. Those teams that were minors but they did well in the previous World Cup of 2022/2023 will perform well more than last time but we all know that England is a strong team and they can maintain that standard in this forthcoming World Cup but we should not underrate those teams yet  but the main game or the tournament will speak for itself. Though England will definitely top the group stage and will go far in the knockout stage but I will not guaranteed their victory but they will strive.

[Sithara007]

2026 World Cup will have a new narrative and that is what I am seen it. There are new teams rising up. Those teams that were minors but they did well in the previous World Cup of 2022/2023 will perform well more than last time but we all know that England is a strong team and they can maintain that standard in this forthcoming World Cup but we should not underrate those teams yet  but the main game or the tournament will speak for itself. Though England will definitely top the group stage and will go far in the knockout stage but I will not guaranteed their victory but they will strive.

What we saw in 2022 is a clear indication. The gap between well established teams and relatively new teams is getting narrower. Morocco, Senegal, Australia and Cameroon are now capable of defeating superpowers such as Brazil and Portugal. And this actually justifies the expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 32 teams in 1998, and further to 48 teams in 2026. Football continues to expand and remains the most popular sport in the globe, and that too by a huge margin. And the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams reflect this reality.

[Akbarkoe]

.......................

Given their resources, they can easily organise a good championship, of that I have no doubt, because it goes beyond the internal football organisation, when they were buying players to draw attention to their league. Now it's on a national level, because the World Cup brings tourism and investment. If they prepare well, tourism will blossom even more.

This oil-producing country is indeed accustomed to holding international events, from sports tournaments to global meetings. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia's domestic league is also the best league in Asia. So, it is not difficult for Saudi Arabia to host the World Cup, with the support of abundant resources and continuously improving infrastructure development. They have the capacity to host the championship, and even if there are still shortcomings, the time for holding it is still long, Saudi Arabia will host the World Cup in 2034, so Saudi Arabia has enough time to prepare everything.

In addition, on several occasions the Saudi Arabian government has stated that they do not want their country's income to be too dependent on oil, they want to invest in other sectors such as tourism, and perhaps this is what makes Saudi Arabia so eager to host the World Cup. Because the status as host will also have a positive impact on the tourism and investment sectors, which of course will further boost the country's economic growth.

[Agbe]

2026 World Cup will have a new narrative and that is what I am seen it. There are new teams rising up. Those teams that were minors but they did well in the previous World Cup of 2022/2023 will perform well more than last time but we all know that England is a strong team and they can maintain that standard in this forthcoming World Cup but we should not underrate those teams yet  but the main game or the tournament will speak for itself. Though England will definitely top the group stage and will go far in the knockout stage but I will not guaranteed their victory but they will strive.

What we saw in 2022 is a clear indication. The gap between well established teams and relatively new teams is getting narrower. Morocco, Senegal, Australia and Cameroon are now capable of defeating superpowers such as Brazil and Portugal. And this actually justifies the expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 32 teams in 1998, and further to 48 teams in 2026. Football continues to expand and remains the most popular sport in the globe, and that too by a huge margin. And the expansion of the tournament to 48 teams reflect this reality.

Exactly and mostly teams like Morocco were doing great job in the World Cup and I strongly believed they are going to do wonderful team work in the 2026 World Cup. And there are some team we know will not do well in the group stages. If I am not mistaken Portugal was defeated by Morocco though I can't really recall every game again. But the World Cup was awesome and this coming one will be super awesome. In the World Cup, the strong teams thought they would beat the others like other Yes but things turn around. This World Cup we are going to see another dimension of games. Because more skillful players have been added to various teams.

[stompix]

Now I don't understand your problem here. Are you saying that the weaker teams should not be allowed to compete in the qualifier tournaments?

Oh what a surprise, you not understanding something!

It's pretty simple, the games in which those teams are involved are meaningless, they are the practice dummies of all major teams so they don't matter at all, and since we have a play-off with teams that go straight to the top spots we should simply use the same Nations League standings so that the last 8 teams in Europe by the coefficient simple don't qualify for the group's stage or make the last 16 of them play for the last 8 spots.

Because nobody is going to watch those games, the end of it, even when Germany played against Liechtenstein at home the stadium was 1/3 full, so make them eliminate each other from earlier on and trim the group stage so there are actual matches being played there1

[Lidger]

Saudi Arabian aims for high and they want to be much better than this. Maybe this team can't have the good performance they want to see and maybe Saudi Arabia is not a good team to shine in the World Cups and even in the Asian games but they will want to invest money in their country and football to build the future for their people.
The last news about Saudi Arabia is about the 2030 World Cup. They are not officially the host of the next World Cup and in the picture below you can see the stadiums they will use to host this tournament.

It seems that it is still too early for us to discuss about the world cup that will be held in Saudi Arabia later, because it is still too far away and even we will pass the 2030 world cup to discuss it , but it doesn't hurt for Saudi Arabia to show their current ambitions to host, After all, they already have enough infrastructure to hold the biggest football event, but apart from that, I think like the Qatar World Cup, the Saudi Arabian World Cup will also cause a lot of polemics and speculation from the western world, considering the Islamic law that might also be enforced later for those who attend and violate in the country.

We are at the end of 2024 and in a few days we will enter 2025. Saudi Arabia is still nine years away from hosting the World Cup in their country in 2034, and that's a long time. Before the 2034 World Cup there is also the 2026 World Cup and the 2030 World Cup. I think 2026 World Cup should be discussed first and 2030 World Cup should be discussed when the 2026 World Cup madness is over. However, the discussion on some issues comes to mind like Saudi Arabia's preparations for the 2034 World Cup are undoubtedly admirable. If they can prepare as planned in 2034 then I believe Saudi Arabia will surprise all the other host countries and host the best World Cup in World Cup history.