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

[Alpha Marine]

Seriously? It's the people complaining, not the organizers doing the bullshit? You must be kidding about the Champions League? It's complete crap, the group stage is practically nonexistent – ​​in two seasons, only one big team has failed to qualify (Napoli). So, all these eight games are just a farce and a show-off to get the same group of teams into the playoffs as always. We'll see the same thing at the World Cup, only in the group stage there will be more "standard" football scores like 10-0 

The Champions League is more intersting that it used to be. The fact that you people are still complaining proves my point exactly. All you do is complain. You just hate change. You like things to remain the way they are.
Now you have teams struggling from the first match of the Champions League to be part of the top 8. The goal was not to make big teams not qualify; it was to make it more interesting, and it achieved that goal.

As for the World Cup, it won't be the first time there have been big score lines in the tournament.
There have been 7-1 scorelines. There have been 9-0 score lines when it was even fewer teams in the competition.
I mean, in 2010, Portugal won a team 7-0, and it was not 48 teams in the competition then. Germany won Brazil 7-1 in the freaking semi-finals of the World Cup. So big score lines are not a new thing, and it's definitely not because there are more teams in the tournament. 

Nobody is expecting a small team to win th eworld cup or get to the final. But at least they have a chance to participate in football's biggest tournament. You all need to calm down with this complaining attitude at every turn. I mean, how is 16 more countries going to ruin the World Cup? Funny enough, 9 out of the 16 teams are European teams. Out of the remaining 7, two are from South America. So it's the remaining 5 that will make the tounerment not interesting or ruin the tounerment?

[Pumared]

I don't know if you're aware, but there's a possibility for players to change their nationality to play for another national team. This recently happened in Brazil, where a player changed his nationality to play for the Paraguayan national team. I believe he wouldn't have been called up to the Brazilian national team and chose to go to another team. What do you think of this change? Do you know of similar cases with other national teams?

source: https://noataque.com.br/futebol/noticia/2026/02/11/meia-revelado-pelo-cruzeiro-se-naturaliza-e-pode-jogar-copa-do-mundo-2026/

Its normally nowadays many players change their nationality for playing at World Cup with difference country born, in my national teams Indonesia has many players get naturalization after get difficulty for Netherland national team calling and seeing the opportunity with other national has chance for playing with other country.

During the player not has appearances at FIFA matchday match they can change the nationality depend have full the regulation to be naturalization players, for the world cup 2026 seems interested to see which one players get success with their difference national teams after not getting his own national team calling.

I don't know if it's just my impression, but more and more players are becoming naturalized citizens. I think they'll use the World Cup as a showcase, but it doesn't make sense for them to go to weaker national teams. In the case I mentioned, the guy lost the chance to go to the Brazilian national team forever, in exchange for going to Paraguay. It must be a family thing, since his father was Paraguayan, but for me, it's not worth it if he wants to be a great player. If he were good, he would be called up at some point, but now he's lost all his chances.

[verdinio]

Its normally nowadays many players change their nationality for playing at World Cup with difference country born, in my national teams Indonesia has many players get naturalization after get difficulty for Netherland national team calling and seeing the opportunity with other national has chance for playing with other country.

During the player not has appearances at FIFA matchday match they can change the nationality depend have full the regulation to be naturalization players, for the world cup 2026 seems interested to see which one players get success with their difference national teams after not getting his own national team calling.

I have seen many who have changed their nationality to play the World Cup, it also happened to Italy in many cases, in fact a long time ago it was possible to play with two national teams at the same time now they cannot do so, but you have to make a single choice and decide forever.

[dollyamo]

I don't even care about opening the video but the simple fact that they have the "MLB World Series" which consist of a game between the winners of two American leagues, and yet they use the word "world", says it all. Also football (or soccer) in the USA is a secondary sport compared to basketball, American football and baseball, and since usually the Super Bowl is the most viewed event in the US for many Americans that automatically means it's the most viewed in the world because, for them, there is nothing better than the US. Many times they forget there is whole world outside their borders...

I don't want to offend Americans with what i mean, but often their characteristic is a mania for grandeur, this is also evident in the things they build.
You see Las Vegas, you see the big infrastructure or the skyscrapers or whatever, they live in a world different from everything else, this vision belittles everything else, for them the Super Bowl is the most watched event in the whole world, but where and does the world begin and end for Americans?

[Sithara007]

I believe that one-sided matches are becoming less common because the technical skills of players have improved, even in weaker national teams.
But they still happen! For example, in 2002, the most one-sided match was Germany vs Saudi Arabia 8-0.
In 2010, Portugal vs North Korea 7-0.
In 2014, Germany vs Brazil 7-1. (this victory was incredible).
In 2022, Spain vs Costa Rica 7-0.
Data taken from the World Cup almanac.
As you can see, more teams have not really eliminated one-sided matches, but have only diluted them.

In this list, only North Korea and Costa Rica are minnows. Brazil always rank among top-5 teams and Saudi Arabia is one of the strongest teams in AFC. These two teams will be in World Cup, even if it is a 24-team event. The list further validates my argument. First of all, most of the one-sided matches involved regular teams (not minnows) and secondly the percentage of one-sided matches have remained more or less the same (24-team tournaments will have fewer matches, but the proportion remains the same). Anyway 2026 will be the first time we are experimenting with 48 teams. Fingers crossed at the moment!

[allthebitandbobs]

Seriously? It's the people complaining, not the organizers doing the bullshit? You must be kidding about the Champions League? It's complete crap, the group stage is practically nonexistent – ​​in two seasons, only one big team has failed to qualify (Napoli). So, all these eight games are just a farce and a show-off to get the same group of teams into the playoffs as always. We'll see the same thing at the World Cup, only in the group stage there will be more "standard" football scores like 10-0 

Soccer is now having another level with too much investment needed for having strong and competitive team, this is not possible for all and due to this mostly top same teams are having good control and staying at top level every time still one or two countries making have surprising entry.

In last decade, few big changes have happened where few teams have good development, but they spend huge funds for this while few still failed like China recently, Saudi Arab is doing good job, but it's still needed good work from them with good funds. European and Latin Americans have strong soccer culture which always gives them good advantage, recently African continent is also doing good work but it's also long way for them to have strong and competitive teams at top level.

[Ale88]

im not very convinced that this level is respected, FIFA, as always, thinks about doing well and looking after its own interests. i don't see all these teams participating in such a good way, there are too many of them and they are certainly less strong than other European contenders who are definitely on a much higher level.

You people complain too much. You complain about every single thing. Will the top teams play only lower teams? Has there ever been a World Cup where all the 32 teams were top teams? Why do you people hate change so much? You complained over the slightest bit of change,, even though it doesn't do any damage to the sports.
The same thing happened when the UCL format was changed, football fans complained all day and now, it has turned out to be a very possitve change becasue it has made the competition more intersting, Previouly people didnt care that much about the group stages, but now, from the very first match, eveybody is interated.

48 teams means more countries, more inclusion. The world cup is not for only the top football teams in the world, it should include more people. They have been divided into 12 groups. The only big changes is that after the group stages, there will now be a round of 32 instead of a round of 16.

More inclusion? Are we talking about a competition or a woke Disney movie? A World Cup is not about letting everybody play some games because otherwise somebody may get offended. If I pay $1,000 for a ticket I want to see the best players in the world, not some unknown player from Jordan, Tunisia or Curaçao. If they manage to qualify because they earned it, good, but taking part just because your federation now has double the spots is not an achievement.

[Alpha Marine]

More inclusion? Are we talking about a competition or a woke Disney movie? A World Cup is not about letting everybody play some games because otherwise somebody may get offended. If I pay $1,000 for a ticket I want to see the best players in the world, not some unknown player from Jordan, Tunisia or Curaçao. If they manage to qualify because they earned it, good, but taking part just because your federation now has double the spots is not an achievement.

What exactly are you saying? This is a load of bullshit. The World Cup is not a tournament for big players; it's a tournament of teams that qualify for it, big or small. You feel these countries don't deserve to be in the World Cup, even though they all played qualifiers and qualified?
Curacao played in the qualifiers, and they qualified for the World Cup, but here you are downplaying the work they did to get to this level.
The same can be said about Jordan, who were in the same group as South Korea. Tunisia also played qualifiers to qualify. Aside from the host countries, nobody gets to work into the World Cup for free, not even Brazil, which has the most World Cup trophies, nor Argentina, who are the current holders.

And again, I ask you, what exactly are you saying? What do you mean by "If I pay $1,000 for a ticket I want to see the best players in the world, not some unknown player from Jordan, Tunisia or Curaçao"?
Why not just buy a ticket to the game for the game you want to watch? Has there ever been a World Cup where a big team didn't play a small team? Argentina played against Saudi Arabia in the last World Cup and even lost. Why are you guys acting like it's every game in the World Cup that is a big game? Small teams play against each other in evenr world cup too.
Afterall, most of the small teams will be filtered out after the group stage. If you don't want to watch Tunisia and Jordan, then don't; it's no big deal. You're not being forced to watch it. There is no point being racist about it.
A simple extra 16 teams is what you people are making such a fuss about. Calling it woke and whatever. It's still the same World Cup from the last one, this one just has one more round added to the knck out phrase, which is the round of 32.
The people who will get to the final and the people who will play for 3rd place will now play a total of 8 matches instead of 7. Is that the change that is making you people so riled up? Or because Italy has not qualified, but Caracao has qualified?   If that is the case, then you need to stop being entitled.
 

[Iamgoat]

I have seen many who have changed their nationality to play the World Cup, it also happened to Italy in many cases, in fact a long time ago it was possible to play with two national teams at the same time now they cannot do so, but you have to make a single choice and decide forever.

I’ve also seen the same thing happened with Nigerian players who switched or changed their national allegiance from the countries outside back to their national team at home. Players like Victor Moses who started playing for the England national team back to the Nigerian Super Eagles team. Reuben Agboola also moved from playing at the England national team back to the Nigerian Super Eagle team. Although Peter Osaze Odemwingie was very much eligible to play for Russia and Uzbekistan national teams but also chose to come back home and play for the Nigerian Super Eagle team. Despite being in the German national youth team, Balogun also changed his allegiance to the Nigerian Super Eagle national team to replace Joseph Yobo in his debut appearance. There are so many more to mention include Troost-Ekong who left the Netherlands youth team to play for Nigeria and other significant ones such as Lookman who played for England youth level and even played a key role in their 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup victory before opting to switch his international allegiance from England to Nigeria at the senior level. We also have Alex Iwobi, nephew to Nigerian football legend, Jay Jay Okocha has played at England youth level too, some of his games which I watched and I guess there’ was a game he even played against Nigerian team then but he later switched over to the Nigerian Super Eagle team to play and has been representing ever since. These are just a few of Nigerian players who have done so, I will like you guys to also give us your countries players who have changed their allegiance from the international team back to their national team too.

[Sithara007]

What exactly are you saying? This is a load of bullshit. The World Cup is not a tournament for big players; it's a tournament of teams that qualify for it, big or small. You feel these countries don't deserve to be in the World Cup, even though they all played qualifiers and qualified?
Curacao played in the qualifiers, and they qualified for the World Cup, but here you are downplaying the work they did to get to this level.
The same can be said about Jordan, who were in the same group as South Korea. Tunisia also played qualifiers to qualify. Aside from the host countries, nobody gets to work into the World Cup for free, not even Brazil, which has the most World Cup trophies, nor Argentina, who are the current holders.

And again, I ask you, what exactly are you saying? What do you mean by "If I pay $1,000 for a ticket I want to see the best players in the world, not some unknown player from Jordan, Tunisia or Curaçao"?
Why not just buy a ticket to the game for the game you want to watch? Has there ever been a World Cup where a big team didn't play a small team? Argentina played against Saudi Arabia in the last World Cup and even lost. Why are you guys acting like it's every game in the World Cup that is a big game? Small teams play against each other in evenr world cup too.
Afterall, most of the small teams will be filtered out after the group stage. If you don't want to watch Tunisia and Jordan, then don't; it's no big deal. You're not being forced to watch it. There is no point being racist about it.
A simple extra 16 teams is what you people are making such a fuss about. Calling it woke and whatever. It's still the same World Cup from the last one, this one just has one more round added to the knck out phrase, which is the round of 32.
The people who will get to the final and the people who will play for 3rd place will now play a total of 8 matches instead of 7. Is that the change that is making you people so riled up? Or because Italy has not qualified, but Caracao has qualified?   If that is the case, then you need to stop being entitled.

Completely agreed with each and every point in this post. Wonderfully written.

That said, in case of Curaçao the outcry was not regarding the fact that they qualified for the tournament ahead of biggies like Italy. It was mostly regarding the team composition. Curaçao national team comprises of several players who have dual residencies of Curaçao and the Netherlands (Curaçao is a dependent territory ruled by Netherlands). A majority of the players were born in Netherlands and they play football there. They don't have a lot of connections back to Curaçao. But then, it is an issue with the eligibility criteria. FIFA need to revise the criteria or update it.

[Not your key not your BTC]

Its normally nowadays many players change their nationality for playing at World Cup with difference country born, in my national teams Indonesia has many players get naturalization after get difficulty for Netherland national team calling and seeing the opportunity with other national has chance for playing with other country.

During the player not has appearances at FIFA matchday match they can change the nationality depend have full the regulation to be naturalization players, for the world cup 2026 seems interested to see which one players get success with their difference national teams after not getting his own national team calling.

I have seen many who have changed their nationality to play the World Cup, it also happened to Italy in many cases, in fact a long time ago it was possible to play with two national teams at the same time now they cannot do so, but you have to make a single choice and decide forever.

As long as they haven't played for the senior national team, players can change their nationality to play for their desired senior national team. The most frequent nationality changes are among Brazilians, as it's extremely difficult for Brazilian players to get a chance to play for the senior national team, let alone the World Cup. Therefore, many Brazilian players choose to move to another country to get a chance to play for the national team, and of course, to play in the World Cup.

[8rch7]

As long as they haven't played for the senior national team, players can change their nationality to play for their desired senior national team. The most frequent nationality changes are among Brazilians, as it's extremely difficult for Brazilian players to get a chance to play for the senior national team, let alone the World Cup. Therefore, many Brazilian players choose to move to another country to get a chance to play for the national team, and of course, to play in the World Cup.

Have an exceptional right now, if playing for the senior national team not the FIFA matchday schedule match I think all player can change their nationality team. So far have many top player change their nationality from Diego Costa priority for playing with Spain national team although he has possibility for playing with Brazil and the former of Italy national team Mauro Camoranesi than playing for Argentina team.

I think some player change their nationality because seeing bigger opportunity with new national team for playing more and get national team calling for FIFA World Cup.

[Lillominato89]

More inclusion? Are we talking about a competition or a woke Disney movie? A World Cup is not about letting everybody play some games because otherwise somebody may get offended. If I pay $1,000 for a ticket I want to see the best players in the world, not some unknown player from Jordan, Tunisia or Curaçao. If they manage to qualify because they earned it, good, but taking part just because your federation now has double the spots is not an achievement.

What exactly are you saying? This is a load of bullshit. The World Cup is not a tournament for big players; it's a tournament of teams that qualify for it, big or small. You feel these countries don't deserve to be in the World Cup, even though they all played qualifiers and qualified?
Curacao played in the qualifiers, and they qualified for the World Cup, but here you are downplaying the work they did to get to this level.
The same can be said about Jordan, who were in the same group as South Korea. Tunisia also played qualifiers to qualify. Aside from the host countries, nobody gets to work into the World Cup for free, not even Brazil, which has the most World Cup trophies, nor Argentina, who are the current holders.

And again, I ask you, what exactly are you saying? What do you mean by "If I pay $1,000 for a ticket I want to see the best players in the world, not some unknown player from Jordan, Tunisia or Curaçao"?
Why not just buy a ticket to the game for the game you want to watch? Has there ever been a World Cup where a big team didn't play a small team? Argentina played against Saudi Arabia in the last World Cup and even lost. Why are you guys acting like it's every game in the World Cup that is a big game? Small teams play against each other in evenr world cup too.
Afterall, most of the small teams will be filtered out after the group stage. If you don't want to watch Tunisia and Jordan, then don't; it's no big deal. You're not being forced to watch it. There is no point being racist about it.
A simple extra 16 teams is what you people are making such a fuss about. Calling it woke and whatever. It's still the same World Cup from the last one, this one just has one more round added to the knck out phrase, which is the round of 32.
The people who will get to the final and the people who will play for 3rd place will now play a total of 8 matches instead of 7. Is that the change that is making you people so riled up? Or because Italy has not qualified, but Caracao has qualified?   If that is the case, then you need to stop being entitled.
 

It remains to be seen whether Italy will qualify for the World Cup or not, as we still have the play-offs to play! Of course, it would be embarrassing for us to miss out on the World Cup three times in a row, but I don't think Ale88 wanted to belittle the work done by the minor national teams. On the contrary, I think we should take our hats off to these events.

As for the rest of your argument, I totally agree, in general terms! Those who qualify for the World Cup do so because they have earned it on the pitch and not because it has been given to them as a gift.

[MinMan]

I have seen many who have changed their nationality to play the World Cup, it also happened to Italy in many cases, in fact a long time ago it was possible to play with two national teams at the same time now they cannot do so, but you have to make a single choice and decide forever.

Changing nationality for better future is right of every player, it's happening for decades in many sports, with procedure which is set for relative sports organization, it's never been offended because few countries always lack of players which is filled by those those players who change their nationality.

Few Arab countries are also using this for their own interest because they want good teams which are not working with their domestic talent so they are having players from other countries. Indonesia is having good number of player with Dutch connections, but sadly this also not works for them, but they are also having good chance while FIFA strict with this new format of 48 teams.

[KTChampions]

Seriously? It's the people complaining, not the organizers doing the bullshit? You must be kidding about the Champions League? It's complete crap, the group stage is practically nonexistent – ​​in two seasons, only one big team has failed to qualify (Napoli). So, all these eight games are just a farce and a show-off to get the same group of teams into the playoffs as always. We'll see the same thing at the World Cup, only in the group stage there will be more "standard" football scores like 10-0 

The Champions League is more intersting that it used to be. The fact that you people are still complaining proves my point exactly. All you do is complain. You just hate change. You like things to remain the way they are.
Now you have teams struggling from the first match of the Champions League to be part of the top 8. The goal was not to make big teams not qualify; it was to make it more interesting, and it achieved that goal.

I see that you're an idiot, but I'll still answer.
I write that the Champions League has become even more uninteresting for me (and for many others) in the group stage, and you write back that it's become more interesting. You're a dumb asshole. Granted, you have no arguments, but you can't even comprehend that people have different opinions.
If you tell everyone you talk to that they are whining because their opinion doesn't coincide with yours, then you will continue to be a fool.

As for the World Cup, it won't be the first time there have been big score lines in the tournament.
There have been 7-1 scorelines. There have been 9-0 score lines when it was even fewer teams in the competition.
I mean, in 2010, Portugal won a team 7-0, and it was not 48 teams in the competition then. Germany won Brazil 7-1 in the freaking semi-finals of the World Cup. So big score lines are not a new thing, and it's definitely not because there are more teams in the tournament. 

I didn't say anything about "the first time", you damn fool, why are you disputing an argument that I didn't give?
Just reread what I wrote, don’t engage in demagoguery. Adding weak teams (which is happening) will increase the number of such outcomes and reduce the quality of games in the group stage, this is undeniable.

Nobody is expecting a small team to win th eworld cup or get to the final. But at least they have a chance to participate in football's biggest tournament. You all need to calm down with this complaining attitude at every turn. I mean, how is 16 more countries going to ruin the World Cup? Funny enough, 9 out of the 16 teams are European teams. Out of the remaining 7, two are from South America. So it's the remaining 5 that will make the tounerment not interesting or ruin the tounerment?

Oh, how sweet. Let's make the group stage 200 teams at once. The other teams deserve a chance, too 

[AHOYBRAUSE]

The 2026 World Cup in Canada/Mexico/USA looks really exciting, especially with the new format — more games and more chances for surprises. I’m already keeping an eye on the favorites and a few dark horses. I’ll probably place some live bets on AvaBet during the tournament since it’s easy to follow the odds and the lines there.

I would disagree with pretty much all of that. The new format is total nonsense, FIFA just wants to make more money with it, on the back of the already tired players.
More teams, more bad teams, makes it less exciting games because the gap is too big. I don't expect any major upset in this one, not a single one.
No clue why you had to mention some random sportsbook, but good luck I guess.

[Rikafip]

Seriously? It's the people complaining, not the organizers doing the bullshit? You must be kidding about the Champions League? It's complete crap, the group stage is practically nonexistent – ​​in two seasons, only one big team has failed to qualify (Napoli). So, all these eight games are just a farce and a show-off to get the same group of teams into the playoffs as always.

There is a big difference between the old system and the current one, despite the fact that in both system best teams will usually go to the next round.

In the old system, best teams often qualified for the next round after 3 or 4 games at the most, while in the new one best teams are fighing for the top 8 spots until the last game, which makes it much more interesting to watch.

We'll see the same thing at the World Cup, only in the group stage there will be more "standard" football scores like 10-0 

WC problem is too many weak teams after the expansion, and I don't see the point comparing it with CL.

[giorgione]

Soccer is now having another level with too much investment needed for having strong and competitive team, this is not possible for all and due to this mostly top same teams are having good control and staying at top level every time still one or two countries making have surprising entry.

In last decade, few big changes have happened where few teams have good development, but they spend huge funds for this while few still failed like China recently, Saudi Arab is doing good job, but it's still needed good work from them with good funds. European and Latin Americans have strong soccer culture which always gives them good advantage, recently African continent is also doing good work but it's also long way for them to have strong and competitive teams at top level.

exactly, the problem with modern football is exactly this, football is undergoing an epochal change, teams are investing more and more and there are teams that are strong only thanks to the money of multinationals who buy clubs and fill them with millionaire footballers who only work for money

[Ale88]

More inclusion? Are we talking about a competition or a woke Disney movie? A World Cup is not about letting everybody play some games because otherwise somebody may get offended. If I pay $1,000 for a ticket I want to see the best players in the world, not some unknown player from Jordan, Tunisia or Curaçao. If they manage to qualify because they earned it, good, but taking part just because your federation now has double the spots is not an achievement.

What exactly are you saying? This is a load of bullshit. The World Cup is not a tournament for big players; it's a tournament of teams that qualify for it, big or small. You feel these countries don't deserve to be in the World Cup, even though they all played qualifiers and qualified?

What I'm trying to explain, and you clearly don't get it, is that allowing more and more teams to take part at the competition just brings the overall quality down. Taking part at the World Cup is supposed to be a special event only for a small number of teams, only for those that actually deserved to qualify. Now we have approximately 200 football federations in the world and 48 will take part at the tournament. That means 25% of the national teams. It's just too much.

Curacao played in the qualifiers, and they qualified for the World Cup, but here you are downplaying the work they did to get to this level.

Curaçao played the qualifications without USA, Mexico and Canada since they host the competition. That means all the 3 biggest Central and Northern American teams weren't playing. I'm mentioning Curaçao because they made it but it could have been Jamaica, Guatemala, Belize, it doesn't matter. Some years ago we had countries such as Panama and Trinidad & Tobago that managed to qualify the hard way, kudos to them, they really earned their spot. But when you qualify because FIFA increase the spots and there is no real competition then it's different.

The same can be said about Jordan, who were in the same group as South Korea. Tunisia also played qualifiers to qualify. Aside from the host countries, nobody gets to work into the World Cup for free, not even Brazil, which has the most World Cup trophies, nor Argentina, who are the current holders.

Ehm, in South America now potentially 70% of the teams can qualify; Africa used to have 5 and now it's 10; so for countries part of certain federations now it's extremely easy to qualify. In Europe we still see teams like Italy or the Netherlands (just to mention a few) to miss their qualification while Argentina and Brazil with this new system, no matter how bad they could be, they will never miss a qualification ever again. They will literally qualify for free because they should lose more matches than Paraguay, Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru, which is virtually impossible. It's too much and too unbalanced.

And again, I ask you, what exactly are you saying? What do you mean by "If I pay $1,000 for a ticket I want to see the best players in the world, not some unknown player from Jordan, Tunisia or Curaçao"?
Why not just buy a ticket to the game for the game you want to watch? Has there ever been a World Cup where a big team didn't play a small team? Argentina played against Saudi Arabia in the last World Cup and even lost. Why are you guys acting like it's every game in the World Cup that is a big game? Small teams play against each other in evenr world cup too.

Saudi Arabia earned their spot in a fair way. It's the same I said before about Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. There is no way to compare the teams that qualified until 2022 with these qualified in 2026.

Afterall, most of the small teams will be filtered out after the group stage. If you don't want to watch Tunisia and Jordan, then don't; it's no big deal. You're not being forced to watch it. There is no point being racist about it.

Being racist because I'm complaining there are too many teams? How old are you, 12? Can you actually process and understand what you're reading?

A simple extra 16 teams is what you people are making such a fuss about. Calling it woke and whatever. It's still the same World Cup from the last one, this one just has one more round added to the knck out phrase, which is the round of 32.

"A simple 16 extra teams"? Please tell me you're trolling because you can't be serious. That means 50% increase in participating nations. FIFTY. Do you get it?

The people who will get to the final and the people who will play for 3rd place will now play a total of 8 matches instead of 7. Is that the change that is making you people so riled up? Or because Italy has not qualified, but Caracao has qualified?   If that is the case, then you need to stop being entitled.

I don't recall a single Italian user saying that Italy should qualify just because of the name, actually everyone has been extremely harsh commenting Italy's situation but at this point, reading your posts where you bring in racism and make things up, I'm not surprised.

[cande86]

In this list, only North Korea and Costa Rica are minnows. Brazil always rank among top-5 teams and Saudi Arabia is one of the strongest teams in AFC. These two teams will be in World Cup, even if it is a 24-team event. The list further validates my argument. First of all, most of the one-sided matches involved regular teams (not minnows) and secondly the percentage of one-sided matches have remained more or less the same (24-team tournaments will have fewer matches, but the proportion remains the same). Anyway 2026 will be the first time we are experimenting with 48 teams. Fingers crossed at the moment!

I believe that the conditions are not yet in place to remove stronger teams, which are currently Brazil. That federation is like that, there are teams that are better trained by years and years of experience and others that try because they are new and don't know much about what they are doing, so it is quite a big problem.