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

[Sithara007]

Interesting map. That being said, most countries seem to have a 1.0 fertility rate if I'm reading that map correctly, so I don't think that's a negative growth rate? Unless the number of deaths is higher than that. I can't imagine what will happen in 2100, but there's a chance most players will be dual citizens if the government can't find a solution for their population issue. I'm not sure if my country will have the opportunity to play in the World Cup consistently even if that happens.

The population growth is negative in almost 50 countries at the moment (including China). And in the next 10-15 years, a majority of the world's nations will have declining population:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_growth_rate

How this is going to impact football? Take a look at the list first. You may notice that the ones having negative growth rates are mostly declining in terms of football ranking, and those such as Uzbekistan, Iraq and Egypt are actually doing quite good.

[Volgastallion]

The population growth is negative in almost 50 countries at the moment (including China). And in the next 10-15 years, a majority of the world's nations will have declining population:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_growth_rate

How this is going to impact football? Take a look at the list first. You may notice that the ones having negative growth rates are mostly declining in terms of football ranking, and those such as Uzbekistan, Iraq and Egypt are actually doing quite good.

I really dont like what i see, i see all the poor countries having more and more population when they cant provide this new people with good resources or a good life, this is gonna be a mess, not only for that people but for the whole world.

About the football side.... i dont know all is evolving super fast and maybe in 50 years football is replaced by digital sports, we dont know.

[Lida93]

<Snip out>.

In short, the team should also make sure to upgrade their techniques to get a hold of the changing environment. Sure, their old tactics were working before, but should assess its applicability in today's generation so as not to be left behind. Just like any other game or sports, everyone should also check the current performance of their team and how to be competitive with others. The old one is not the absolute path to be taken but they can always gain insights on how to proceed their succeeding plans.

....

Borrowing from the saying that you can't keep doing same thing and expect a different result... For now there seem to be no one with such a high level of technicalities and a different style of coaching away from the normal Italian style in Italy, so I agree with you on the idea of looking out for an outsider, maybe from Brazil, Spain, Germany or England, this might go a long way in helping the team improve on their game.

[pewboy]

I thought most part of the first world countries wants population decline or is it only applicable to Africans alone? Because the last time I checked, they wanted Africa to reduce in population, so I just wondering why you guys so much care about their demographic level. I have read some articles back then on why they feel that people shouldn't give birth again because it's going to over populate the world sooner or later. I just saying this in general note though and not to anyone in the process.

well we also think that those who live in Africa in some parts of the world are not always born in a situation where both they and the child who will be born can be well, overpopulation is a problem and it is tangible, I only feel sorry for those who will have to suffer from hunger or other

[LUCKMCFLY]

I'll be honest, I've never heard about him. He's still very young and I saw that he played a few times for the various youth Italian team, it's interesting that he chose Venezuela being so young. Good luck to him anyway, playing in a national team at 19 is a great achievement!

Thank you very much. The thing is, h chose Venezuela more than anything because of the affection he has from his grandparents, who are Venezuelan, Now there are some tough qualifiers coming up They have to play against Argentina and Colombia, Those are finals of finals for their early qualification, If they qualify, it would be a first for Venezuela.

[Sithara007]

I really dont like what i see, i see all the poor countries having more and more population when they cant provide this new people with good resources or a good life, this is gonna be a mess, not only for that people but for the whole world.

About the football side.... i dont know all is evolving super fast and maybe in 50 years football is replaced by digital sports, we dont know.

No..it would be wrong to say that poorer people are having more children. Countries such as Venezuela and Paraguay are very poor, but they have sub-replacement fertility. On the other hand, Egypt and Algeria are countries which are relatively well-off, but they have above average birth rates. Anyway, birth rates are declining everywhere but the trend is not very uniform. By the end of this century, more than half of the world population will be comprised of Africans. So what will be the repercussions of that in football?

[Ale88]

Donnarumma is undoubtedly the best goalkeeper and if the list of the five best goalkeepers in the world is made now, then Donnarumma will definitely make his place in that list. However, the bad news for Italy is that this goalkeeper may not be able to provide good service for much longer because he is already old enough. In the selection of goalkeepers, different clubs or different teams always give more importance to young footballers, in that case, in two to three years, this goalkeeper may not be in the same form as before. I wonder what will happen to the Italian team when most of the players who are currently playing for the Italian national team retire. Italy may continue to play football, but we may not see good performances from them.

What do you mean that Donnarumma is already old enough? He is 26 years old, he was born in 1999, the other teams still play with players like Courtois (1992), Oblak (1993), Neuer (1986), Maignan (1995), Pickford (1994), Alisson (1992), just to mention a few, so I really have no idea how you can say that a 26 years old goalkeeper is old. Buffon played until he was 40+ years old.

There is no guarantee that Donnarumma will be able to maintain his fitness like the goalkeepers you mentioned. If he passes 30, we will definitely not get the same performance from him as he is now. Teams usually prefer young goalkeepers like Donnarumma is getting now. If you let this goalkeeper pass 30, then you will see that the demand for this goalkeeper is not very high and it may be that this goalkeeper has to leave for a club outside Europe. I did not say he is old, I only said that considering his age, he may have another three to four years of great performance but after that his performance may become more stable. We want him to play for the Italian national team for a long time but it completely depends on Donnarumma's fitness and his performance.

I'm sorry but what you're saying makes little sense to me: we have strikers who keep playing and scoring while they're 35 years old, how can you be so certain that Donnarumma's performances will drop after he turns 30? He is a professional, he's been training in top-tier facilities since he was 16 years old, he's not injury prone. Buffon was still one of the best in the world even when he was 37 years old so, again, I'm sorry but saying that Donnarumma may have just another 3 or 4 years at high level makes no sense, you are just making a lot of hypothetical thinking for nothing.

[pewboy]

No..it would be wrong to say that poorer people are having more children. Countries such as Venezuela and Paraguay are very poor, but they have sub-replacement fertility. On the other hand, Egypt and Algeria are countries which are relatively well-off, but they have above average birth rates. Anyway, birth rates are declining everywhere but the trend is not very uniform. By the end of this century, more than half of the world population will be comprised of Africans. So what will be the repercussions of that in football?

In my opinion, it depends on the number of yung people but also on the number of young people who want and love to play.
China certainly has many more young people than the rest of us given its population, yet young Chinese don't like soccer and the Chinese national soccer team is nonexistent. Do you know what i mean?

[Zigabel]

In my opinion, it depends on the number of yung people but also on the number of young people who want and love to play.
China certainly has many more young people than the rest of us given its population, yet young Chinese don't like soccer and the Chinese national soccer team is nonexistent. Do you know what i mean?

Every country has a sport with which they can relate with very well and with such they putting their all because that is the game they can actually relate with well enough and the Chinese has little to no relativity with football especially at their national level so if you don't find them participating in football games its just one of those things they actually cannot really relate with as a country . We have other countries who sees opportunities in football and they have one of the best leagues in football and also makes a good revenue generation from the sport.

[Ale88]

In my opinion, it depends on the number of yung people but also on the number of young people who want and love to play.
China certainly has many more young people than the rest of us given its population, yet young Chinese don't like soccer and the Chinese national soccer team is nonexistent. Do you know what i mean?

Every country has a sport with which they can relate with very well and with such they putting their all because that is the game they can actually relate with well enough and the Chinese has little to no relativity with football especially at their national level so if you don't find them participating in football games its just one of those things they actually cannot really relate with as a country . We have other countries who sees opportunities in football and they have one of the best leagues in football and also makes a good revenue generation from the sport.

What you are saying makes sense until a certain point: for some reason, here, for many users the quality of a national team is directly proportional of the number of citizens and we know that it's never been like that, there is no relation between the population and the quality of a team otherwise how do they explain that Uruguay (3.4 mln) and Croatia (3.87 mln) are way better than other national teams?

Let's take Nigeria for example: back in the '90s they had a great team, many strong players, and now, despite their 232 mln people, their team has been bad for, I don't know, 20 years? So what are young Nigerians doing? Playing over the phone?

[Alpha Marine]

The population growth is negative in almost 50 countries at the moment (including China). And in the next 10-15 years, a majority of the world's nations will have declining population:

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but this is something I feel is overstated. I understand that underpopulation can be a problem, but just telling people to give birth to more children will not fix anything. There is a reason the fertility rate is reducing, and unless that is fixed, it will continue to decline. Underpopulation is not the problem of the world and I doubt it will be a problem in future.

How this is going to impact football? Take a look at the list first. You may notice that the ones having negative growth rates are mostly declining in terms of football ranking, and those such as Uzbekistan, Iraq and Egypt are actually doing quite good.

Another thing I feel is overstated. I don't think population has anything to do with the decline of any nation's football. Most of Europe has a fertility rate of less than 3, and they haven't declined in football. Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, and England all have a declining fertility rate from the map, but they are not declining in football. A country will decline in football because of a lack of proper planning and system; it has nothing to do with its fertility rate.

[m4r1o]

What you are saying makes sense until a certain point: for some reason, here, for many users the quality of a national team is directly proportional of the number of citizens and we know that it's never been like that, there is no relation between the population and the quality of a team otherwise how do they explain that Uruguay (3.4 mln) and Croatia (3.87 mln) are way better than other national teams?

Let's take Nigeria for example: back in the '90s they had a great team, many strong players, and now, despite their 232 mln people, their team has been bad for, I don't know, 20 years? So what are young Nigerians doing? Playing over the phone?

Yes, it's true, it's not said that the more people there are, the more strong footballers are born. It's simply that in Italy and other countries other sports are played. We're not only the best at playing football but also in many other sports, so I wouldn't underestimate the fact that they could return to playing football. It was simply a popular sport, now there are also other strong athletes in other disciplines.

[retreat]

Donnarumma is undoubtedly the best goalkeeper and if the list of the five best goalkeepers in the world is made now, then Donnarumma will definitely make his place in that list. However, the bad news for Italy is that this goalkeeper may not be able to provide good service for much longer because he is already old enough. In the selection of goalkeepers, different clubs or different teams always give more importance to young footballers, in that case, in two to three years, this goalkeeper may not be in the same form as before. I wonder what will happen to the Italian team when most of the players who are currently playing for the Italian national team retire. Italy may continue to play football, but we may not see good performances from them.

I don’t really agree with your statement that Donnarumma only has a few years left at his peak. Goalkeepers, unlike strikers or midfielders, usually enjoy a longer peak, often performing well even at 38–40 years old, because their game relies more on experience and decision-making. While it’s possible Donnarumma’s performance may decline, I don’t think it will happen anytime soon. And considering he’s only 26, the Italian national team still has plenty of time before they even need to worry about finding his replacement.

[Ale88]

Donnarumma is undoubtedly the best goalkeeper and if the list of the five best goalkeepers in the world is made now, then Donnarumma will definitely make his place in that list. However, the bad news for Italy is that this goalkeeper may not be able to provide good service for much longer because he is already old enough. In the selection of goalkeepers, different clubs or different teams always give more importance to young footballers, in that case, in two to three years, this goalkeeper may not be in the same form as before. I wonder what will happen to the Italian team when most of the players who are currently playing for the Italian national team retire. Italy may continue to play football, but we may not see good performances from them.

I was reading your message again: you are saying that Donnarumma for sure is in the list on the 5 best goalkeepers in the world, and we all agree with that, but who are the other 4? Because if on your opinion Donnarumma has only a few years left as a world-class goalkeeper I expect to see other goalkeepers around the same age of Donnarumma, correct? Could you please name the other 4 goalkeepers?

[LUCKMCFLY]

As you can see, the most populous group is those between 50 and 60 years old. The generation of those in 0-9 age group is less than half in number when compared to the largest group. In England, France and Germany, this is being offset by massive immigration from the Maghreb and the Sub-Saharan Africa. But in case of Italy, there is no large scale immigration. And this means that the player pool gets smaller with each passing year.

This is alarming, because the young population should dominate over the older population , which is why it is also due to fewer players, it is a shame because when we look at the Italian technique it is exquisite and I like their football, in addition now young people have the idea of not having children due to the level of commitment they have, they only want to do activities for themselves, this could become much more complicated in the near future, especially for football.

[$weetne$$]

Borrowing from the saying that you can't keep doing same thing and expect a different result... For now there seem to be no one with such a high level of technicalities and a different style of coaching away from the normal Italian style in Italy, so I agree with you on the idea of looking out for an outsider, maybe from Brazil, Spain, Germany or England, this might go a long way in helping the team improve on their game.

Sometimes an outsider may be the solution and may at same time not be the solution, before they will move in the direction of getting an outsider from any of these countries, they should have several things factored into this, one of which will have to be how realistic their expectations will be with the outsider because I know football at national level is different from what we see at club level and even local domestic levels, it is always totally a different game and even the coaching style is dynamic and that is why you see it is easier for coaches to switch from club to country than from country to clubs.

[m4r1o]

I was reading your message again: you are saying that Donnarumma for sure is in the list on the 5 best goalkeepers in the world, and we all agree with that, but who are the other 4? Because if on your opinion Donnarumma has only a few years left as a world-class goalkeeper I expect to see other goalkeepers around the same age of Donnarumma, correct? Could you please name the other 4 goalkeepers?

Thibaut Courtois could be one of those even if the age is not exactly in the same range. I also really like Ederson who is a high level player and also Mike Maignan should not be underestimated, he is an excellent goalkeeper and not because he plays for Milan is he less strong than the others.

[banana33]

This is alarming, because the young population should dominate over the older population , which is why it is also due to fewer players, it is a shame because when we look at the Italian technique it is exquisite and I like their football, in addition now young people have the idea of not having children due to the level of commitment they have, they only want to do activities for themselves, this could become much more complicated in the near future, especially for football.

but it's not just a demographic issue, children aren't made for other reasons but that's not the problem, especially in Italy players don't come because it's difficult, you need knowledge and it's a rotten system that doesn't want to change because it's convenient for certain people who are there

[LUCKMCFLY]

As Italian I am extremely pissed off with the current situation but every big team had its bad periods in history, there is not a single team that has been getting results for 50-60 years in a row, it's simply not possible, things change, just like there are golden generations there also are bad generations, it's like a wheel. National teams, clubs, it doesn't matter, it's like that for everyone.

I think something, that European countries including Italy are rapidly needing a Young population, that they should give more opportunities to people from other countries to be able to settle , only those immigrants who do contribute to a country and that they are given facilities to have a Family and make a life there, I think that would help a lot, but Italy's problem is escalating very quickly to worse.

[Ale88]

As Italian I am extremely pissed off with the current situation but every big team had its bad periods in history, there is not a single team that has been getting results for 50-60 years in a row, it's simply not possible, things change, just like there are golden generations there also are bad generations, it's like a wheel. National teams, clubs, it doesn't matter, it's like that for everyone.

I think something, that European countries including Italy are rapidly needing a Young population, that they should give more opportunities to people from other countries to be able to settle , only those immigrants who do contribute to a country and that they are given facilities to have a Family and make a life there, I think that would help a lot, but Italy's problem is escalating very quickly to worse.

There is a process in order to become a legal resident in Italy, in Europe, and in any other country of the world. Proposing to let people in from other countries just because there is a demographic downtrend makes little sense. If you want to move to another country you must bring something with you: money, skills, etc. Letting poor people in is just going to create more and more problems because many illegal immigrants just ask for money and shelter, they have no intention of working, no intention of integrate, no intention of paying taxes, they just want to exploit the system. It doesn't work like that.