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

[emrecemsan]

Same here, I don't really like the current World Cup format either. There are some countries that shouldn't have qualified because their teams aren't as good as the other countries that should be there. But that's FIFA, just because they want to reach more countries, the quality of the World Cup has decreased and some matches feel less interesting. Maybe I'll watch the World Cup more when it's in a more competitive stage, where the truly competitive teams face each other. In the beginning, I'll probably only watch a few matches.

So many people think the same seemingly. FIFA loves to try something different but this isn't the kind of a thing most people would like to tell the truth. There was no need to increase the number of participant countries.

Europe wasn't even given more quota. Only 16 out of 48 teams from there is just ridiculous... These are the teams improving the quality of the World Cup. This is why people are more interested in this organization.

[KTChampions]

It is only a matter of time before VAR interpretation will be handled by Artificial intelligence. This will remove the personal bias and error which results from manual interpretation, and also make the process faster and more accurate. My guess is that it may take another 2-3 years to get to that stage. Already AI is being used in scoring in some of the sports disciplines such as boxing and gymnastics. Overall, I would say that Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has been a good addition to the sport of football. Some negatives remain, but in due course of time they will be taken care of.

I highly doubt it. The problem with AI is that it's a black box that receives information and then produces results without explanation. While a live referee can justify his decision, with AI VAR it can become a coin toss, where the result is random and obviously wrong, but you have to go with it. This is roughly how bank compliance works now: they block your account, but support can't tell you why because everything is automated.
I believe that VAR is a tool and the tool should be used by a living person.

[Daniel91]

I agree with you. England already has a lot of very bad experiences with Croatia, which knocked them out of EURO 2008 and in the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and Ghana is one of the best African teams. At the last World Cup, Morocco finished in fourth place, so African teams are very tough opponents. Argentina and Portugal are certainly favorites, but surprises are always possible. The group stage, due to the new rules that even third-placed teams in the group can advance, will certainly be passed by all the favorites, and then the real competition begins, the knockout stage.

Not underestimate with Croatia, after seeing England team performance in qualifier matches without loss yet I don't think difficult for England defeating Croatia, Ghana and Panama at phase group matches. I am optimistic football is coming home for this time and England as top candidate team for winning FIFA World Cup 2026. Thomas Tuchel as England manager has good statistic since appointed head coach and never loss during qualifier matches indeed many fans not favorite England candidate winner team.

For the match system with World Cup new format I am still confusing after England if qualify to next round which one team possibility will face? After phase group matches will play knock out round match or will draw group phase again? I don't know more about match of World Cup 2026

England is certainly a very strong team and one of the favorites to win the World Cup title, but there is still a long way to go. There are also many other strong teams like France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, etc., who are also legitimate contenders for the title. England is always very close, twice finalists at the EURO, but something is always missing for that final step and to win the title, as if they lack confidence and a winning mentality, always losing crucial final and semifinal matches. Croatia and Ghana will be big challenges for England already in the group stage, and according to some projections of the draw, the path to the final could even be easier if they finish second in the group.

[banana33]

If you bet, bookies underestimating team that you think will go far at the World Cup is a good thing.

I think that part of our football team sucess is in fact that our public never had high expectations from our team. No one put them under pressure that they had to reach for  semifinal or else they will be seen as a failure, like it happens with many of so called "big teams". For example, if let's say England was 2nd and 3rd at the last two WCs like we were, everything below that at the next WC would be seen as a disaster, while absolutely nothing will happen if we get kicked out at let's say 1/8 final.

Good thing anyone who should bet on that team.
In any case, i believe the World Cup is changing. Many of the teams that were once favorites aren't as strong as they once were, and many emerging teams are starting to seriously threaten. What do you think?

[Shadiq]

England is certainly a very strong team and one of the favorites to win the World Cup title, but there is still a long way to go. There are also many other strong teams like France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, etc., who are also legitimate contenders for the title. England is always very close, twice finalists at the EURO, but something is always missing for that final step and to win the title, as if they lack confidence and a winning mentality, always losing crucial final and semifinal matches. Croatia and Ghana will be big challenges for England already in the group stage, and according to some projections of the draw, the path to the final could even be easier if they finish second in the group.

England is still far behind in terms of title winning mentality. With teams like France, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Germany, England's chances of winning the title are very low. They are strong as a team, they have high-quality players. But to win the title, only high-quality players are not enough, they also need to have the mentality to win big matches. England is not only behind in terms of mentality, but also a little behind in producing star players.

In England's group, Croatia, Ghana and Panama have the ability to at least draw with them, which should be a big worry for them. The Croatia match is very uncertain, it is not surprising to see England lose this match. So I see a challenge for England in the group stage.

[aipercoin]

Referees in the World Cup are certainly referees who are already competent and have extensive experience at the international and regional competition levels and, of course, are licensed. For example, experience in regional competitions such as the European Cup, African Cup, Asian Cup, and more, and have experience leading many matches. Because the World Cup is a major event, if there are referee errors that harm other countries, it would be very serious and reduce the legitimacy of the competition. For example, in the past World Cup in Korea and Japan, many said the referees were not competent, causing many big European teams to be controversially eliminated in the early rounds due to referee decisions.

World Cup referees are selected, but that doesn't mean they can't make mistakes. They are people and therefore the possibility of making mistakes exists.
Certainly competence is the basis of everything, but if a normal person like me "who is not a referee" says that a referee is incompetent, it's like saying that i would be better.
So who says they're incompetent and don't actually work as a referee, how can they evaluate another's work without having the skills?

[pewboy]

Same here, I don't really like the current World Cup format either. There are some countries that shouldn't have qualified because their teams aren't as good as the other countries that should be there. But that's FIFA, just because they want to reach more countries, the quality of the World Cup has decreased and some matches feel less interesting. Maybe I'll watch the World Cup more when it's in a more competitive stage, where the truly competitive teams face each other. In the beginning, I'll probably only watch a few matches.

Well, this is always for the sake of inclusiveness of some nations that have never participated in the World Cup, all this to give a little extra spectacle to this championship,, i am also very fundamentalist and like you i will only watch the most important matches, the others may not even be broadcast

[Volgastallion]

Same here, I don't really like the current World Cup format either. There are some countries that shouldn't have qualified because their teams aren't as good as the other countries that should be there. But that's FIFA, just because they want to reach more countries, the quality of the World Cup has decreased and some matches feel less interesting. Maybe I'll watch the World Cup more when it's in a more competitive stage, where the truly competitive teams face each other. In the beginning, I'll probably only watch a few matches.

So many people think the same seemingly. FIFA loves to try something different but this isn't the kind of a thing most people would like to tell the truth. There was no need to increase the number of participant countries.

Europe wasn't even given more quota. Only 16 out of 48 teams from there is just ridiculous... These are the teams improving the quality of the World Cup. This is why people are more interested in this organization.

Is not only that, is all about money and politics, more teams more games more money from TV broadcasting, more people following it, and more to give to the politicians of each country, plus more easy for the FIFA to get easy votes in theirs ballotage, you can give little money to a federation like Curazao to vote for you for example.

[verdinio]

It is only a matter of time before VAR interpretation will be handled by Artificial intelligence. This will remove the personal bias and error which results from manual interpretation, and also make the process faster and more accurate. My guess is that it may take another 2-3 years to get to that stage. Already AI is being used in scoring in some of the sports disciplines such as boxing and gymnastics. Overall, I would say that Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has been a good addition to the sport of football. Some negatives remain, but in due course of time they will be taken care of.

mmm i also think that there will be a totally autonomous management of the VAR with artificial intelligence, now it will take a lot of study before this thing is addressed, but i think they can certainly do very well and in the next few years we could already see something at work to perhaps eliminate the guard.

[changaa]

Some other football fans would even argue that VAR has kinda distorted the game of football to some level as goals and fouls are being cancel and also the tempo of the game is been haulted for VAR to confirm if a goal stands or not and all of it for some persons just don't go well, they football is becoming boring with all the added rules and regulations but for me I think it's necessary to make the game as fair as possible and enjoyable.

VAR certainly slows down the game a little, but it actually serves to ensure that the action is completed.

Football isn't boring because of the rules, i think is right that they're there to make it as clean and honest as possible.

We have seen unacceptable things in the past in many even important matches, with VAR the risk of human error is reduced.

[Rikafip]

Many of the teams that were once favorites aren't as strong as they once were, and many emerging teams are starting to seriously threaten. What do you think?

And who are those emerging teams that are starting to seriously threaten standard contenders?

I am asking because I seriously don't see anyone new capable of finishing in top 3, let alone winning the WC.

[Ale88]

England is still far behind in terms of title winning mentality. With teams like France, Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Germany, England's chances of winning the title are very low. They are strong as a team, they have high-quality players. But to win the title, only high-quality players are not enough, they also need to have the mentality to win big matches. England is not only behind in terms of mentality, but also a little behind in producing star players.

So you consider Brazil better than England? England, since 2018, reached 2 Euro finals and 1 WC semi final and 1 WC quarter final, to me there are pretty good results. They qualified to the next WC winning 8/8 matches and they didn't concede a single goal.

Brazil on the other hand obtained very mediocre results. And I really don't see how, on paper, Brazil have better players than Kane, Bellingham, Saka, Foden and Palmer, just to mention a few.

Many of the teams that were once favorites aren't as strong as they once were, and many emerging teams are starting to seriously threaten. What do you think?

And who are those emerging teams that are starting to seriously threaten standard contenders?

I am asking because I seriously don't see anyone new capable of finishing in top 3, let alone winning the WC.

I'm curious too

[cande86]

Same here, I don't really like the current World Cup format either. There are some countries that shouldn't have qualified because their teams aren't as good as the other countries that should be there. But that's FIFA, just because they want to reach more countries, the quality of the World Cup has decreased and some matches feel less interesting. Maybe I'll watch the World Cup more when it's in a more competitive stage, where the truly competitive teams face each other. In the beginning, I'll probably only watch a few matches.

I also think that the World Cup qualifiers must also have some history, the victories achieved in recent years and when the national teams won must also be taken into consideration.
It makes no sense for national teams that have never participated to qualify and who will surely make a fool of themselves

[Sim_card]

So many people think the same seemingly. FIFA loves to try something different but this isn't the kind of a thing most people would like to tell the truth. There was no need to increase the number of participant countries.

Europe wasn't even given more quota. Only 16 out of 48 teams from there is just ridiculous... These are the teams improving the quality of the World Cup. This is why people are more interested in this organization.

FIFA gave the opportunity to other countries to participate in the world cup by increasing the number of countries. It's not only Europe that is in the world so, I don't think that they deserve more slots than other continents. If the best sixteen countries in football represent Europe, I think they should be able to win the world cup next year.

[Fiatless]

FIFA gave the opportunity to other countries to participate in the world cup by increasing the number of countries. It's not only Europe that is in the world so, I don't think that they deserve more slots than other continents. If the best sixteen countries in football represent Europe, I think they should be able to win the world cup next year.

They are arguing that Africa and other continents don't have good teams that will make the competition entertaining. They claim that stadiums will be empty when these lowly placed countries are playing. They think that European teams deserve more slots because they have a developed football system that will give the world cup more publicity and fun.

My prayer is that some of these underrated teams will end up shocking the world. Just as Morrocco took the world by storm in Qater, something similar should happen net year.

[dollyamo]

That?s it, the major problem is not often from the side of the VAR referee but from the physical referee who now has the final say on the officiating of the match, at least we understand VAR is technologically dream and will mostly work based on the commands they have given to him els. It is because of such things, fifa has taken it upon themselves to make the process more seriously this time and chose referees carefully which is another way of mitigating the human factor which will come into the transparency of the process else you will have many teams shifting blames to referees instead of accepting their failures

VAR is an indispensable tool, precisely to correct human error, in fact, as you just said, the main problem in the choices and vision of the game is committed by the physical referee.

When he makes a mistake, the referee is always massacred by the fans of the team that suffers "injustice", always the cause of arguments. Since I've been following football, referees have never been well-regarded; it's an important role and just as bad to play.

[Ale88]

So many people think the same seemingly. FIFA loves to try something different but this isn't the kind of a thing most people would like to tell the truth. There was no need to increase the number of participant countries.

Europe wasn't even given more quota. Only 16 out of 48 teams from there is just ridiculous... These are the teams improving the quality of the World Cup. This is why people are more interested in this organization.

FIFA gave the opportunity to other countries to participate in the world cup by increasing the number of countries. It's not only Europe that is in the world so, I don't think that they deserve more slots than other continents. If the best sixteen countries in football represent Europe, I think they should be able to win the world cup next year.

European teams won 4 of the 5 last World Cups and they managed to qualify 8 teams to the final so, if I were you, I wouldn't be worried about the performances of the European teams. Anyway here the point is not about winning or not, it's about the quality of the competition. You should earn your spot, now FIFA are pretty much giving away spots like this was some kind of friendship tournament at a primary school.

If for someone teams like Jordan, Cabo Verde, Tunisia and Curaçao will improve the quality of the competition then I raise my hands, we probably have a very different opinion of what quality means.

[giorgione]

In as much as it's under human supervision both the referee and the Var referee can be bias in their decisions sometimes, and we used to see it happen often even where both the referee and Var overlooked some serious tackles, or even when it's expected of the referee to take some action when called upon, since he the central referee has the final say, he can act biased sometimes by not considering some tackles a foul, penalty, yellow card or red card offenses.

Yes, in fact, in the end what matters most is the fact of having the decision within human reach, which is the one that makes the biggest mistakes. Obviously, this thing then ultimately proves to be the most fragile at the moment of judgment. Obviously, right now, things cannot change, unless, as is hypothesized, but it is still science fiction, there is the use of AI to automate the thing.

[Slow death]

Many of the teams that were once favorites aren't as strong as they once were, and many emerging teams are starting to seriously threaten. What do you think?

And who are those emerging teams that are starting to seriously threaten standard contenders?

I am asking because I seriously don't see anyone new capable of finishing in top 3, let alone winning the WC.

He's saying that past favorites need to be very careful with the newcomer teams that will be in this World Cup. For example, Brazil, which was feared in the past, could very well lose against Japan or Morocco today. The French national team also can't underestimate their opponents. In the last World Cup, we saw Argentina against Saudi Arabia, and what happened? In this World Cup, there will be more teams, and that's why we might not see Argentina, Brazil, and France as champions, and we might see other teams. It's possible that this will happen.

[Lida93]

Same here, I don't really like the current World Cup format either. There are some countries that shouldn't have qualified because their teams aren't as good as the other countries that should be there. But that's FIFA, just because they want to reach more countries, the quality of the World Cup has decreased and some matches feel less interesting. Maybe I'll watch the World Cup more when it's in a more competitive stage, where the truly competitive teams face each other. In the beginning, I'll probably only watch a few matches.

So many people think the same seemingly. FIFA loves to try something different but this isn't the kind of a thing most people would like to tell the truth. There was no need to increase the number of participant countries.

Europe wasn't even given more quota. Only 16 out of 48 teams from there is just ridiculous... These are the teams improving the quality of the World Cup. This is why people are more interested in this organization.

I think it's quite too early to start talking about the impact of the additional teams in the forth coming World Cup, we really don:t know what FIFA intends to organise the tournament and at such should just assume that the presence of these additional teams might undermine the quality of the competition. I believe it would be rather nice if we give FIFA the benefit of the doubt because in the same vein UEFA also changed the format of the UCL and some people felt it was going to jeopardize the competition but it rather turned out to be a success in its very first edition.