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

[retreat]

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.

Even if it is a problem, Italy should still have enough young players who can be developed to play at the national level. After all, Japan faces demographic challenges even worse than Italy, yet their football achievements in recent years have actually surpassed Italy. They have qualified for the round of 16 several times and even beaten major European teams. This is because Japan has a strategic, long-term vision for the development of its football; a well-established system, a young population that is consistently nurtured, and more. That is why Japanese football remains in excellent condition, even though it is not the most popular sport in the country.

[tsaroz]

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.

Even if it is a problem, Italy should still have enough young players who can be developed to play at the national level. After all, Japan faces demographic challenges even worse than Italy, yet their football achievements in recent years have actually surpassed Italy. They have qualified for the round of 16 several times and even beaten major European teams. This is because Japan has a strategic, long-term vision for the development of its football; a well-established system, a young population that is consistently nurtured, and more. That is why Japanese football remains in excellent condition, even though it is not the most popular sport in the country.

This is an interesting take. Demographics surely would have impact on many things specially the economy but the population doesn't directly corresponds to the success of a team. European countries never had a large population compared to Asia, South American or African countries. Yet they are one of the most successful in football.

Another plus point Italy and other European countries is immigration and dual citizenship. They may get more manpower and potentially more players through immigration while they may offer dual citizenship for people that don't want to surrender their passport.

The current problem of Italian football are other managerial matter rather than demographics. If it were have been, the football of other European nations too would have gone in a downtrend performance but that isn't happening.

[Fiatless]

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.

If you just open your borders because of a drop in population, the country might face bigger problems. There might increase in criminal activities since most of these illegal immigrants don't go through security checks. A handful of European countries are going through insecurity because they were liberal. But letting people who need protection shouldn't stop, even if they are poor.

But the problem with the Italian National team is not a lack of players. Italy produces some of the best players in the world. Immigrants could just be an addition and not the main source for national team players.       

[Ale88]

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.

Even if it is a problem, Italy should still have enough young players who can be developed to play at the national level. After all, Japan faces demographic challenges even worse than Italy, yet their football achievements in recent years have actually surpassed Italy. They have qualified for the round of 16 several times and even beaten major European teams. This is because Japan has a strategic, long-term vision for the development of its football; a well-established system, a young population that is consistently nurtured, and more. That is why Japanese football remains in excellent condition, even though it is not the most popular sport in the country.

I don't think it's fair to compare any European national team to the others: qualifying to the World Cup it's becoming tougher and tougher every year because the level keeps going up and the spots are always the same. For countries like Japan and South Korea is easy to qualify; when Italy didn't qualify back in 2018 it was because Spain was first in the group. The fact that only one team between Italy and Spain would qualify directly to the World Cup says a lot. The World Cup keeps getting bigger and bigger but they just give new spots to the smaller federations. In South America there are 10 teams and the first 6 qualify directly and the 7th goes to the play offs: can we really call it "qualification" if, potentially, 70% of the teams pass? Try to think yourself at school passing an exam with only 4 correct answers out of 10...

Another plus point Italy and other European countries is immigration and dual citizenship. They may get more manpower and potentially more players through immigration while they may offer dual citizenship for people that don't want to surrender their passport.

In the majority of Europe you can still keep your citizenship and acquire a second one, I'm not even sure if there is a single European country that doesn't accept double citizenship in 2025.

[Spaceman1000$]

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.

If you just open your borders because of a drop in population, the country might face bigger problems. There might increase in criminal activities since most of these illegal immigrants don't go through security checks. A handful of European countries are going through insecurity because they were liberal. But letting people who need protection shouldn't stop, even if they are poor.

But the problem with the Italian National team is not a lack of players. Italy produces some of the best players in the world. Immigrants could just be an addition and not the main source for national team players.       

If they open their borders, they are not opening for criminals alone, most of this immigrants go through profiling and are well documented, there is no doubt that there are some of them that might have some criminal elements among them but the majority of them are most time genuine people that actually seeking for good reasons as to why they are migrating. I agree with you that Italy produces some of the best footballers for their national team and the issue of immigration might just be a surface problem.

[Sithara007]

If you just open your borders because of a drop in population, the country might face bigger problems. There might increase in criminal activities since most of these illegal immigrants don't go through security checks. A handful of European countries are going through insecurity because they were liberal. But letting people who need protection shouldn't stop, even if they are poor.

But the problem with the Italian National team is not a lack of players. Italy produces some of the best players in the world. Immigrants could just be an addition and not the main source for national team players.       

That is a different topic altogether. Currently 90% of the immigration to Europe consists of military age men, mostly Muslim, either from sub-Saharan Africa or Arab speaking countries. Given their age group, one would expect them to be extremely productive, and major contributors for sports. But that is not always the case. In case of Italy, there was some attempt to bring members of the Italian diaspora back to the country. The diaspora now numbers around 80 million people, which is around 2x the population of Italy.

[Ale88]

If you just open your borders because of a drop in population, the country might face bigger problems. There might increase in criminal activities since most of these illegal immigrants don't go through security checks. A handful of European countries are going through insecurity because they were liberal. But letting people who need protection shouldn't stop, even if they are poor.

But the problem with the Italian National team is not a lack of players. Italy produces some of the best players in the world. Immigrants could just be an addition and not the main source for national team players.       

That is a different topic altogether. Currently 90% of the immigration to Europe consists of military age men, mostly Muslim, either from sub-Saharan Africa or Arab speaking countries. Given their age group, one would expect them to be extremely productive, and major contributors for sports. But that is not always the case. In case of Italy, there was some attempt to bring members of the Italian diaspora back to the country. The diaspora now numbers around 80 million people, which is around 2x the population of Italy.

Actually the Italian population is 59 millions, not 40, there is a big difference. Anyway immigration just to have more available football players is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. You get good football players having a clear project, having infrastructures, training facilities, good coaches, etc etc. Based on what I read here it simply looks like that a country needs more people, then explain why China and India are so bad that they can't even find 11 good players with more than 1 billion people each...

[Sithara007]

Actually the Italian population is 59 millions, not 40, there is a big difference. Anyway immigration just to have more available football players is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. You get good football players having a clear project, having infrastructures, training facilities, good coaches, etc etc. Based on what I read here it simply looks like that a country needs more people, then explain why China and India are so bad that they can't even find 11 good players with more than 1 billion people each...

I will give you a very simple statistic.

In 1990, the population of 15-25 age group in Italy was close to 10 million. According to the census, as of 2025 this has declined to around 4-5 million. Total population keeps on growing. But the player pool is getting reduced.

Now compare the situation with Uzbekistan, who recently qualified to the world cup. In 1990, they had 2 million people in the 15-25 age group. As of 2025, this has increased to 6 million.

What I am trying to say is that demographics will have an impact. The argument with China/India is not suitable, because in these countries football is not very popular.

[Ale88]

Actually the Italian population is 59 millions, not 40, there is a big difference. Anyway immigration just to have more available football players is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. You get good football players having a clear project, having infrastructures, training facilities, good coaches, etc etc. Based on what I read here it simply looks like that a country needs more people, then explain why China and India are so bad that they can't even find 11 good players with more than 1 billion people each...

I will give you a very simple statistic.

In 1990, the population of 15-25 age group in Italy was close to 10 million. According to the census, as of 2025 this has declined to around 4-5 million. Total population keeps on growing. But the player pool is getting reduced.

Now compare the situation with Uzbekistan, who recently qualified to the world cup. In 1990, they had 2 million people in the 15-25 age group. As of 2025, this has increased to 6 million.

What I am trying to say is that demographics will have an impact. The argument with China/India is not suitable, because in these countries football is not very popular.

Of course demographics have an impact because it reduces the amount of youngster that may eventually choose to pursuit a football career but that can't be a reason (or excuse) to open the border to more immigrants. Otherwise how come small countries with very little immigration like Croatia and Uruguay are so good and they only have a few million citizens?

[Fuso.hp]

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.

Even if it is a problem, Italy should still have enough young players who can be developed to play at the national level. After all, Japan faces demographic challenges even worse than Italy, yet their football achievements in recent years have actually surpassed Italy. They have qualified for the round of 16 several times and even beaten major European teams. This is because Japan has a strategic, long-term vision for the development of its football; a well-established system, a young population that is consistently nurtured, and more. That is why Japanese football remains in excellent condition, even though it is not the most popular sport in the country.

The various officials and employees in charge of the Italian football association are responsible for the player crisis in the Italian team. Maybe Italy was not very attentive to their football, which is why now they are not able to find good quality players on whom good expectations can be expected. In this case, you have given a good example of Japan, Japan is not as popular a country in football as Italy, but Japan has been performing quite well in the World Cup tournaments recently, but most of the Japanese players do not get the opportunity to play many matches like that outside the World Cup and Japanese players also do not get the opportunity to play in any big club in Europe. Maybe the situation in the Italian team is very bad now, but if Italy tries from now on, then in the next few years their team will be full of good players again and they will return to good performance again.

[Bitcoin Smith]

Of course demographics have an impact because it reduces the amount of youngster that may eventually choose to pursuit a football career but that can't be a reason (or excuse) to open the border to more immigrants. Otherwise how come small countries with very little immigration like Croatia and Uruguay are so good and they only have a few million citizens?

Let me share my perspective about this matter, where football is considered as best sport and gives the opportunity to make money for a player then where more people will be interested in doing it. You said why India and China can't able to find 11 good players is because in India cricket is where money rains so every youngster from their childhood dream of becoming a cricketer than a football or javelin throw player but ofcourse India is also now focusing on improving their football participation by replicating something called ISL after the success of IPL (for cricket).

[masulum]

Let me share my perspective about this matter, where football is considered as best sport and gives the opportunity to make money for a player then where more people will be interested in doing it. You said why India and China can't able to find 11 good players is because in India cricket is where money rains so every youngster from their childhood dream of becoming a cricketer than a football or javelin throw player but ofcourse India is also now focusing on improving their football participation by replicating something called ISL after the success of IPL (for cricket).

Every country has programs to improve its sport. Even though China failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, it doesn't mean they don't care about their football. It's just that Indonesia might have been luckier in the previous round, managing to beat China. As far as I know, at the Asian level, China's sport (in general, nit just football) was impoved, which means there are programs to improve football as well. However, Japan and Australia aren't weak teams that China can easily defeat, so that might be another reason why China failed to qualify.

[Sithara007]

Let me share my perspective about this matter, where football is considered as best sport and gives the opportunity to make money for a player then where more people will be interested in doing it. You said why India and China can't able to find 11 good players is because in India cricket is where money rains so every youngster from their childhood dream of becoming a cricketer than a football or javelin throw player but ofcourse India is also now focusing on improving their football participation by replicating something called ISL after the success of IPL (for cricket).

LOL.. I am from India and I have a fair idea about the situation here. Until very recently, there used to be provinces where football surpassed cricket in terms of popularity, such as Bengal, Kerala and Goa. But despite the large player pool and healthy demographics, India was never successful in football (unlike the case with cricket). Football needs good fitness levels and stamina, which is generally lacking with Indian players. Team bonding and co-ordination can also be important in football, and Indians are poor in that aspect as well.

[Ale88]

Of course demographics have an impact because it reduces the amount of youngster that may eventually choose to pursuit a football career but that can't be a reason (or excuse) to open the border to more immigrants. Otherwise how come small countries with very little immigration like Croatia and Uruguay are so good and they only have a few million citizens?

Let me share my perspective about this matter, where football is considered as best sport and gives the opportunity to make money for a player then where more people will be interested in doing it. You said why India and China can't able to find 11 good players is because in India cricket is where money rains so every youngster from their childhood dream of becoming a cricketer than a football or javelin throw player but ofcourse India is also now focusing on improving their football participation by replicating something called ISL after the success of IPL (for cricket).

India has almost 1.5 billion people, even if not everyone is interested in football, just based on numbers, they should have at least some decent players and yet they even lost against countries like Afghanistan that have been in war for years. Even North Korea managed to qualify for a World Cup before India. Of course they can't compete with Australia, Japan or South Korea, the problem is that they should be able to compete at least with countries like Afghanistan, Kuwait, Syria, etc.

Let me share my perspective about this matter, where football is considered as best sport and gives the opportunity to make money for a player then where more people will be interested in doing it. You said why India and China can't able to find 11 good players is because in India cricket is where money rains so every youngster from their childhood dream of becoming a cricketer than a football or javelin throw player but ofcourse India is also now focusing on improving their football participation by replicating something called ISL after the success of IPL (for cricket).

Every country has programs to improve its sport. Even though China failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, it doesn't mean they don't care about their football. It's just that Indonesia might have been luckier in the previous round, managing to beat China. As far as I know, at the Asian level, China's sport (in general, nit just football) was impoved, which means there are programs to improve football as well. However, Japan and Australia aren't weak teams that China can easily defeat, so that might be another reason why China failed to qualify.

China constantly failed to qualify to the World Cup since 2002, the news would be if they can qualify, not qualifying is the norm at this point. The problem with China is that they are very good with individual sports but the suck with team sports.

[retreat]

Every country has programs to improve its sport. Even though China failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, it doesn't mean they don't care about their football. It's just that Indonesia might have been luckier in the previous round, managing to beat China. As far as I know, at the Asian level, China's sport (in general, nit just football) was impoved, which means there are programs to improve football as well. However, Japan and Australia aren't weak teams that China can easily defeat, so that might be another reason why China failed to qualify.

However, the reason the Chinese national team’s performance has declined so drastically is due to several systemic issues. These include an underdeveloped football academy system, a lack of youth participation in pursuing football as a career, a domestic league recently shaken by scandals and the bankruptcy of many clubs, and the strong influence of politics, which makes players and coaches play too cautiously out of fear of being punished by their president. All of these factors combined are causing serious problems for the Chinese national team at the moment.

If they had been able to better maintain their football ecosystem from the start, perhaps these problems could have been avoided. Chinese football once enjoyed a golden age, with massive club investment and government support, which even attracted world-class players. However, corruption, dependence on investors, and various scandals have damaged their football ecosystem, and the impact continues to this day.

[Fiatless]

However, the reason the Chinese national team’s performance has declined so drastically is due to several systemic issues. These include an underdeveloped football academy system, a lack of youth participation in pursuing football as a career, a domestic league recently shaken by scandals and the bankruptcy of many clubs, and the strong influence of politics, which makes players and coaches play too cautiously out of fear of being punished by their president. All of these factors combined are causing serious problems for the Chinese national team at the moment.

If they had been able to better maintain their football ecosystem from the start, perhaps these problems could have been avoided. Chinese football once enjoyed a golden age, with massive club investment and government support, which even attracted world-class players. However, corruption, dependence on investors, and various scandals have damaged their football ecosystem, and the impact continues to this day.

One would have thought that with the population of China, they would be able to discover good footballers who would perform well in global competition. But this is not the case because of government interference in sports administration.  The sports governing body is under the influence of the Communist Party.  And lack of autonomy will not allow them to do their work effectively.  Sports like table tennis and badminton have been able to bring awards to China, but football is just struggling.

[masulum]

China constantly failed to qualify to the World Cup since 2002, the news would be if they can qualify, not qualifying is the norm at this point. The problem with China is that they are very good with individual sports but the suck with team sports.

Chinese President Xi Jinping already has a program for the national team. As I remember, the program attempted to revamp the league to make it more prestigious by bringing several European players into the Chinese Super League. However, that hasn't improved the national team either. Xi also has a goal of hosting the World Cup.

However, the reason the Chinese national team’s performance has declined so drastically is due to several systemic issues. These include an underdeveloped football academy system, a lack of youth participation in pursuing football as a career, a domestic league recently shaken by scandals and the bankruptcy of many clubs, and the strong influence of politics, which makes players and coaches play too cautiously out of fear of being punished by their president. All of these factors combined are causing serious problems for the Chinese national team at the moment.

This still makes sense. If they don't have a good football academy to develop players, this could be the main reason why China failed to qualify for the World Cup. Indeed, of all Asian teams, Japan, and South Korea have better leagues and Saudi Arabia, most leagues in Asia like unprofessional league, especially in Indonesia, even PSSI looking for "import players" to go to World Cup so far  .

[emrecemsan]

Next qualifier matches aren't far away from us anymore. Only a week left for them to be underway...

As for CONMEBOL... All top 5 teams in the standings have already kind of guaranteed their qualification for the WC. Colombia are still under a little threat mathematically.

Interestingly their remaining matches are also against Venezuela and Bolivia.    Only one point is enough for Colombia to secure their direct qualification too. I think they'll do it easily.

[$weetne$$]

If they open their borders, they are not opening for criminals alone, most of this immigrants go through profiling and are well documented, there is no doubt that there are some of them that might have some criminal elements among them but the majority of them are most time genuine people that actually seeking for good reasons as to why they are migrating. I agree with you that Italy produces some of the best footballers for their national team and the issue of immigration might just be a surface problem.

This idealogy of when borders are opened people's minds first races to the influx of criminals is one that should be put to consideration because in the actual sense to start with, no place is void of criminality and you cannot be too careful, moreover the fear of the influx of criminals should not overshadowed the migrational benefits that could come to the country in actual sense because that is actually the situation but many will want to push it away because  they believe they should be safe first meanwhile too much safety could be danger.

[GigaBit]

Of course demographics have an impact because it reduces the amount of youngster that may eventually choose to pursuit a football career but that can't be a reason (or excuse) to open the border to more immigrants. Otherwise how come small countries with very little immigration like Croatia and Uruguay are so good and they only have a few million citizens?

Let me share my perspective about this matter, where football is considered as best sport and gives the opportunity to make money for a player then where more people will be interested in doing it. You said why India and China can't able to find 11 good players is because in India cricket is where money rains so every youngster from their childhood dream of becoming a cricketer than a football or javelin throw player but ofcourse India is also now focusing on improving their football participation by replicating something called ISL after the success of IPL (for cricket).

It is true that people are more attracted to money in the present times. Where more money is spent, people will gather. But not everything can be solved with money. To produce good players, systematic development is needed, as even small countries like Uruguay and Croatia have been able to do. If good quality coaching and training along with all the facilities are provided in any sport, then good players will definitely be produced.