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

[8rch7]

But I think this year's World Cup will be completely different compared to every year. These differences are what are happening.

.A poor football fan will not be able to watch the game.
.Some teams will be banned
.Fans from many countries will not be able to go to watch the game. Because the USA does not provide visas to their countries.
.Etc.

All things put together, it seems that this World Cup is going to be completely different compared to the last World Cup. When the matches start taking place, we may hear or see many more comments.

True, United State as the host for World Cup 2026 have banned several countries and the fans not provide visa for travelling to US if their teams, other classic reason about war conflict with several countries such as Iran but FIFA will draw the Iran teams will play at Mexico or Canada and if the team qualify to next round have to play at US stadium get difficult their fans support at stadium directly. Completely problem for the world cup 2026 regarding last world cup edition because Qatar as the host never has any difficult rule for visitor, the Qatar government offering cheapest homestay for the fans and most important the ticket price raise significant for world cup 2026.

[Ale88]

This is another thing that I find unbelievable since we are in 2026: the fact that FIFA give the possibility to transfer/resell tickets giving the possibility to people to make money. The tickets should be non-transferable or, if you can't attend the match, you should get a partial refund and the ticket would become available again for the public. I am so tired of resellers for every single thing, no matter whether it's tickets, cards, toys...

It is a sensitive topic. FIFA can easily prevent reselling by asking for ID while granting entry to the stadiums. But in the United States, people refuse to provide valid ID even while registering to vote. Then how can we expect them to show their ID while attending the world cup matches? So in short, there is no way to prevent the reselling of tickets. Once in a while FIFA identifies tickets that are resold and invalidate them. But resellers are not impacted in this case. Only victims are the fans who purchased the tickets from the resellers, as they lose their money.

I don't see showing the ID as a big problem: if you enter a hospital, a federal building, etc etc, you have to show the ID otherwise you don't enter, as simple as that. The voting situation is different because it's purely political and it's ridiculous being allowed to vote without showing an ID. If someone wouldn't go to a football match because he doesn't want to show an ID maybe there are more serious problems behind this.

The solution anyway would be simple, and I explained it above. Especially these days where everything is digital.

[asriloni]

what happens in US? Sepp Blatter make a statements, fans shouldn't going to US for watching world cup matches there. in the news, mentioned about security concern but I don't know the detail yet. if this statements just because of politics, of course, US must be banned from this event, just like Russia when started invasion to Ukraine. what do you think?

full: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/26/sepp-blatter-suggests-fans-should-not-travel-to-us-for-world-cup

Don't take Blatter's statement seriously. He's just saying it caused by he can no longer involved in WC, and get some money. Ofc he's hating the current WC caused by US was the country that made him lose his job as FIFA president a decade ago. So his hate to US WC is just a normal thing that came from a hater.

Using security concern to provoke others to boycott US is just showing how dumb he was. Many people are still entering and leaving US everyday. So there's nothing to feel worry about.

[Sithara007]

I don't see showing the ID as a big problem: if you enter a hospital, a federal building, etc etc, you have to show the ID otherwise you don't enter, as simple as that. The voting situation is different because it's purely political and it's ridiculous being allowed to vote without showing an ID. If someone wouldn't go to a football match because he doesn't want to show an ID maybe there are more serious problems behind this.

The solution anyway would be simple, and I explained it above. Especially these days where everything is digital.

Some people may view it as an invasion on privacy.

BTW, given the volatile mental state of Trump and his supporters, I would say that rather than ticket prices I am more worried about the visa issues. Citizens from 42 countries can travel to the US without a visa under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). This includes most of the European countries, and a few other developed countries such as Japan, Australia, Chile, Israel, Taiwan and Qatar. Even these travellers need to have a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Everyone else need to apply for a visa. And given the wait time of up to 2 years, I am not sure how many of the fans will get a visa on time.

[retreat]

But I think this year's World Cup will be completely different compared to every year. These differences are what are happening.

.A poor football fan will not be able to watch the game.
.Some teams will be banned
.Fans from many countries will not be able to go to watch the game. Because the USA does not provide visas to their countries.
.Etc.

All things put together, it seems that this World Cup is going to be completely different compared to the last World Cup. When the matches start taking place, we may hear or see many more comments.

Every World Cup celebration inevitably has its share of issues, and this is what makes the current World Cup no longer just a sporting event, but also a platform for various other interests, such as politics and economics. It's no wonder, FIFA officials want American money, and conversely, America wants exposure and prestige through the event. Therefore, it's no surprise that the World Cup is increasingly estranged from the spirit of football, as it becomes increasingly commercialized.

[barbara44]

Every World Cup celebration inevitably has its share of issues, and this is what makes the current World Cup no longer just a sporting event, but also a platform for various other interests, such as politics and economics. It's no wonder, FIFA officials want American money, and conversely, America wants exposure and prestige through the event. Therefore, it's no surprise that the World Cup is increasingly estranged from the spirit of football, as it becomes increasingly commercialized.

Arrival of Donald Trump at this time with his policies are directly threaten for the USA and many other countries, creating chaos even things are looking straight forward for few countries but having policies for sporting event is always controversial because experts feel like these are biased but hosting countries always having their own interest.

Mr. Trump making USA great again which is looking not possible due to his vision which is now directly increasing their enemies instead of having friends even now Europeans are also looking not comfortable because they are also having problems, how things will be going flexible in upcoming few months it's also looking not easy still this will be going and having fair and acceptable end for all.

[JeffBrad12]

what happens in US? Sepp Blatter make a statements, fans shouldn't going to US for watching world cup matches there. in the news, mentioned about security concern but I don't know the detail yet. if this statements just because of politics, of course, US must be banned from this event, just like Russia when started invasion to Ukraine. what do you think?

full: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/26/sepp-blatter-suggests-fans-should-not-travel-to-us-for-world-cup

It's just another hypocrisy by most corrupt FIFA president in the history.  I believe he would be saying otherwise if he has a role in the WC 2026. It seems post mail guy was not deliver the check to him. So let him to boycott it by himself cuz none is gonna follow him. 

[Dump3er]

what happens in US? Sepp Blatter make a statements, fans shouldn't going to US for watching world cup matches there. in the news, mentioned about security concern but I don't know the detail yet. if this statements just because of politics, of course, US must be banned from this event, just like Russia when started invasion to Ukraine. what do you think?

full: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/26/sepp-blatter-suggests-fans-should-not-travel-to-us-for-world-cup

It's just another hypocrisy by most corrupt FIFA president in the history.  I believe he would be saying otherwise if he has a role in the WC 2026. It seems post mail guy was not deliver the check to him. So let him to boycott it by himself cuz none is gonna follow him. 

No I am quite sure that this has to do with the investigations that the FBI and other US authorities conducted against him during the 2015 corruption scandal. I don't know what the exact outcome was from the perspective of US authorities, but from the perspective of Sepp Blatter, the US has behaved hostile towards him and this can be considered some sulky revenge. He may as well be referring to other bad state of affairs politically and that would be understandable I think, but it is highly unlikely that a person like Sepp Blatter, who has been investigated because of corruption, has any impact on the wider audience out there. So far it seems that he is saying this because of security issues. Perhaps he is referring to South Americans primarily.

[masulum]

It's just another hypocrisy by most corrupt FIFA president in the history.  I believe he would be saying otherwise if he has a role in the WC 2026. It seems post mail guy was not deliver the check to him. So let him to boycott it by himself cuz none is gonna follow him. 

lol, i think that statement not because of his personal case, if he asked people to boycott world cup just because he is being investigated, so no one will follow him for sure. People will only laugh for him now, I don't know that case, so i think something happens behind that statements. but if just about his corruptions so no more issue .

thank for your info bro

[$weetne$$]

Every World Cup celebration inevitably has its share of issues, and this is what makes the current World Cup no longer just a sporting event, but also a platform for various other interests, such as politics and economics. It's no wonder, FIFA officials want American money, and conversely, America wants exposure and prestige through the event. Therefore, it's no surprise that the World Cup is increasingly estranged from the spirit of football, as it becomes increasingly commercialized.

This particular world cup tournament will come with even peculiar challenges than the pervious because  the multiple location hosting is one aspect that will definitely challenge organisers in a way, even as they are promising that they taking care of everything and there will be no need to stress much about  that, it is still there that there are still some challenges they would have not experienced before  they will be experiencing now with this particular world cup.

[Publictalk792]

This particular world cup tournament will come with even peculiar challenges than the pervious because  the multiple location hosting is one aspect that will definitely challenge organisers in a way, even as they are promising that they taking care of everything and there will be no need to stress much about  that, it is still there that there are still some challenges they would have not experienced before  they will be experiencing now with this particular world cup.

Yes FIFA 2026 world cup would be hard job since it will be first time the tournament will be held by three countries- USA, Canada and Mexico and will include 48 teams. New setup means that number of matches will reach 104, which will put huge need for training camp and traveling path of high quality over distance more than 3,000 miles. In comparison to past tournaments of single countries, fans and players will feel travel tiredness and weight of going through international borders several times that needs tricky planning of three different systems of immigration. Moreover, organizers will have to build new transit systems to get to stadiums in edge of city locations which do not have good entry through transport. Though FIFA is organizing matches in regional groups called pods to help, the late parts of tournament will stress transportation ability of North America as all of them will cross whole land.

[cande86]

Yes FIFA 2026 world cup would be hard job since it will be first time the tournament will be held by three countries- USA, Canada and Mexico and will include 48 teams. New setup means that number of matches will reach 104, which will put huge need for training camp and traveling path of high quality over distance more than 3,000 miles. In comparison to past tournaments of single countries, fans and players will feel travel tiredness and weight of going through international borders several times that needs tricky planning of three different systems of immigration. Moreover, organizers will have to build new transit systems to get to stadiums in edge of city locations which do not have good entry through transport. Though FIFA is organizing matches in regional groups called pods to help, the late parts of tournament will stress transportation ability of North America as all of them will cross whole land.

I don't understand this traveling tournament, i like it for heaven's sake it was developed and tested in Europe and it worked but certainly in terms of stress for the players it will be very hard, clear that the players must be ready to play very far away but i don't see there are any problems for them.

[dollyamo]

This particular world cup tournament will come with even peculiar challenges than the pervious because  the multiple location hosting is one aspect that will definitely challenge organisers in a way, even as they are promising that they taking care of everything and there will be no need to stress much about  that, it is still there that there are still some challenges they would have not experienced before  they will be experiencing now with this particular world cup.

It will certainly put a strain on the organizers, but let's remember that it is the USA that are par excellence the largest organizers of events in the world, and i don't think they can go wrong with this too, Chiarmanete is not the first Copap in the world that they organize and i am sure that everything will go well.

[$weetne$$]

I don't understand this traveling tournament, i like it for heaven's sake it was developed and tested in Europe and it worked but certainly in terms of stress for the players it will be very hard, clear that the players must be ready to play very far away but i don't see there are any problems for them.

The the players, I think a vast majority of the travel stress has been sorted it is reflected in the fixtures, it was said that not all the games will be played in some of the countries and except for some games, most countries will be playing in one of the host countries probably all through, except they get pass certain stage of the competition before  they will have to travel to the other countries to play but I believe it has been evenly distributed to not stress players and immigration rules of some of these host countries.

[Not your key not your BTC]

what happens in US? Sepp Blatter make a statements, fans shouldn't going to US for watching world cup matches there. in the news, mentioned about security concern but I don't know the detail yet. if this statements just because of politics, of course, US must be banned from this event, just like Russia when started invasion to Ukraine. what do you think?

full: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/26/sepp-blatter-suggests-fans-should-not-travel-to-us-for-world-cup

Don't take Blatter's statement seriously. He's just saying it caused by he can no longer involved in WC, and get some money. Ofc he's hating the current WC caused by US was the country that made him lose his job as FIFA president a decade ago. So his hate to US WC is just a normal thing that came from a hater.

Using security concern to provoke others to boycott US is just showing how dumb he was. Many people are still entering and leaving US everyday. So there's nothing to feel worry about.

I agree with you, Blatter's remarks don't need to be listened to because he's trying to provoke World Cup fans, as his true goal is to regain the FIFA presidency. Therefore, by making such statements, if successful, he will later blame the FIFA president for his perceived incompetence in organizing the World Cup. Never worry about the negative issues out there and rest assured that this World Cup will proceed smoothly and without any security disturbances from any party.

[Slow death]

It is a sensitive topic. FIFA can easily prevent reselling by asking for ID while granting entry to the stadiums. But in the United States, people refuse to provide valid ID even while registering to vote. Then how can we expect them to show their ID while attending the world cup matches? So in short, there is no way to prevent the reselling of tickets. Once in a while FIFA identifies tickets that are resold and invalidate them. But resellers are not impacted in this case. Only victims are the fans who purchased the tickets from the resellers, as they lose their money.

The United States should be a little more loyal to the rules, it seems to me that lately they are making a bit of a mess at the state level, i think that yes the rules are restrictive and the Americans are a bunch of exalted, but let's say that even the people who live in that country always do a bit as they please..

In my opinion, American citizens are not to blame for the actions of their president. Trump has gotten some things right, but he has also gotten many things wrong, such as exaggerating on the immigration issue when he expelled people who have been living in the country for many years. I know they are illegal, but honest, hardworking people who have lived in the country for many years could have different treatment, such as being granted American citizenship. With all this immigration problem, I honestly believe that the World Cup in the US will have tourist deaths and arrests. There are people who will attend the game with all the legal documents, but even so, they will have a cruel fate.

[SuperBitMan]

At the end for me it's all about one pragmatic thing: can I/you afford it? That is the only question that makes sense. You can be passionate as much as you want but if you can't really afford it then I would never jeopardize my/my family's financial stability to go watch a football match (plus trip, hotel, transportation, etc). There is no nice way to put it but this World Cup in the USA is not for the people, it's for whoever can afford it. In my opinion these prices don't make any sense but if people are willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to watch Uzbekistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Cabo Verde etc, then FIFA is right.

World cup tickets are always in short supply and whatever the official rates are, in the end resellers manage to sell them for 10x or 20x the prices. And some of the complains come from those who hoard the tickets. So in the end, it is a choice between FIFA getting more profits and the black market hoarders getting rich. I would definitely chose the first option, as funds are distributed to the member associations and are mostly used to develop grass-roots football. I agree with you. Those who are passionate can travel to the United States and attend the matches in person. Others can watch it on TV.

This is another thing that I find unbelievable since we are in 2026: the fact that FIFA give the possibility to transfer/resell tickets giving the possibility to people to make money. The tickets should be non-transferable or, if you can't attend the match, you should get a partial refund and the ticket would become available again for the public. I am so tired of resellers for every single thing, no matter whether it's tickets, cards, toys...

I heard same too that people are reselling tickets to another there by making more money from the sell and FIFA is allowing that to happen it’s very bad because it will make the ticket very costly and someone can just decide to buy many tickets and then start selling it huge amount of money there by making those that bought it late to pay higher amount for it. I heard all ticket has been sold out and this now make sense now to be honest those that bought all those tickets very fast are the once selling it back to people in bigger amount and because is World Cup people won’t have option but to buy.
FIFA is more concerned in the money they will make and forget that people are coming to watch live because they just want to support their country.

[Dump3er]

At the end for me it's all about one pragmatic thing: can I/you afford it? That is the only question that makes sense. You can be passionate as much as you want but if you can't really afford it then I would never jeopardize my/my family's financial stability to go watch a football match (plus trip, hotel, transportation, etc). There is no nice way to put it but this World Cup in the USA is not for the people, it's for whoever can afford it. In my opinion these prices don't make any sense but if people are willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to watch Uzbekistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Cabo Verde etc, then FIFA is right.

The cheapest ticket was supposed to be $21 initially, but then they changed it to $60 for the cheapest category, but only 10% of the of the volume that each team can sell for a game is supposed to be $60. In other words if both teams can each sell around 10% of the whole volume for a specific match, again 10% of that quantity is at $60. If a stadium has 50,000 people and one team can sell 10% of it, which is 5,000, then 10% of those 5,000 tickets are $60, which is 500.

It becomes obvious quickly that this is a big problem because cheap tickets are not really available. Another problem is that travelers usually go and want to see more than one game. That is especially the case when they travel abroad intercontinentally. They have calculated if a traveler wants to see all games of his team and pays category 3 (third best) tickets for all games, the price will be in the thousands and thousands.

These prices have not been for the people as they claim for a long time, but it is the same in the domestic leagues.

[disbil]

I heard same too that people are reselling tickets to another there by making more money from the sell and FIFA is allowing that to happen it’s very bad because it will make the ticket very costly and someone can just decide to buy many tickets and then start selling it huge amount of money there by making those that bought it late to pay higher amount for it. I heard all ticket has been sold out and this now make sense now to be honest those that bought all those tickets very fast are the once selling it back to people in bigger amount and because is World Cup people won’t have option but to buy.
FIFA is more concerned in the money they will make and forget that people are coming to watch live because they just want to support their country.

In football match I think its normally how many time when I watch my favorite team playing home many people reselling the ticket and increase price more than 10% until 30% from the original price selling by the official teams. I worry for the World Cup 2026 many people make the bad thing buying many ticket and reselling later by increasing up to 30% until 50% of the original and official ticket price selling from FIFA.
I think easily to know about ticket will resell later if already sold out most of the reseller will sell their ticket on internet with expensive price and FIFA must investigate how to make World Cup 2026 can watch by all fans around the world and buy the ticket with normally price.

[Ale88]

I heard same too that people are reselling tickets to another there by making more money from the sell and FIFA is allowing that to happen it’s very bad because it will make the ticket very costly and someone can just decide to buy many tickets and then start selling it huge amount of money there by making those that bought it late to pay higher amount for it. I heard all ticket has been sold out and this now make sense now to be honest those that bought all those tickets very fast are the once selling it back to people in bigger amount and because is World Cup people won’t have option but to buy.
FIFA is more concerned in the money they will make and forget that people are coming to watch live because they just want to support their country.

In football match I think its normally how many time when I watch my favorite team playing home many people reselling the ticket and increase price more than 10% until 30% from the original price selling by the official teams. I worry for the World Cup 2026 many people make the bad thing buying many ticket and reselling later by increasing up to 30% until 50% of the original and official ticket price selling from FIFA.
I think easily to know about ticket will resell later if already sold out most of the reseller will sell their ticket on internet with expensive price and FIFA must investigate how to make World Cup 2026 can watch by all fans around the world and buy the ticket with normally price.

Maybe it's normal for you. Just because people do some things they are not supposed to and other people choose to accept them doesn't mean it's right. I can understand years and years ago when tickets didn't have names on it but now that everything is digital this things shouldn't be happening anymore. I find extremely despising the fact that make a living out of reselling tickets for events they don't even care about it. Even the same artists should take a position regarding this matter.