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

[hyudien]

This will make some countries not have good players if it happens that FIFA actually makes it a rule that players can playing any country of their choice, it will be like club football and no more like a country international competition. It will be better FIFA reconsider this because it may take some countries out of the world cup permanently for lack of players to even get pass the qualification stage.

It's clear in the rules, only players who have blood descendants of the country or who have lived for a long time and become citizens of the country who can really defend the country, and have never played for the senior national team in official events, FIFA is not doing the wrong step at all, just look at the case of Malaysia who entered players who had no blood descendants from them, what happened? FIFA took a firm step, and actually I am not supporting FIFA because my own country does rely on such players, but sometimes there are players who do not get opportunities in that country and choose other countries that are a shame not to be utilized. The highest achievement of footballers is usually playing for the national team, if they cannot enter the country's national team then choose to defend other countries as long as they comply with FIFA statutes, there is nothing wrong at all.

[slapper]

To be fair they don't really change citizenship, they simply acquire a second one. In Europe there are several laws to follow if you're not a EU citizen so for sure those Dutch players are not renouncing to their Dutch citizenship, they are getting another one but they still remain Dutch too. Otherwise it would potentially become complicate for them to play (and live) in Europe. At this point there are very few countries in the world that don't accept double (or even more) citizenship, the first ones I remember are Japan and China for example.

This was the loophole that was used by teams such as Indonesia and Curaçao. There are a lot of players with Curacoan or Indonesian descent in Dutch league. But these players are not good enough to get selected to the Dutch national team. So they get an additional passport from their parent's or grandparent's country and then play for them. Here we have a scenario where players who have never been to Indonesia before representing that country. As per the FIFA eligibility criteria, this is perfectly fine. As long as they have citizenship, FIFA allows them to play for the new (adopted) country.

I wouldn't call it a loophole, at the end they could legally get the second citizenship because of their family's roots. We can question the morality of such move because many times, like you said, we are talking about players who have never been to that country, and sometimes they don't even speak the local language. But it's not different from a regular person from South America (for example) who gets an Italian or Spanish passport because his grandfather was from Europe: if you can do it, it's a smart move because you can move and legally live and work in Europe in that case.

Anyway now FIFA's rules are quite strict so players usually only go for the second option when they know they'll never be called for the main national team.

Agents are gaming the system. Like actively. They're instructing Dutch kids with Indonesian roots to reject Netherlands U21 call ups on purpose. You know - too many youth caps has locked you out to be able to switch later. Career planning literally occurred at the age of 19. Keep the door open, find out what happens.

And the timing is not random either. There's this window around 22-24 where you have guys that have been playing regularly in the Eredivisie, but haven't broken into the senior Dutch team.

For a guy who's realistically never playing Champions League Football anyway? That actually might be more than waiting for a Dutch cap that's probably never coming.

Where it gets weird is that Indonesia is now targeting 15-16 year olds in Ajax academies. Not scouting them as player. Scouting them for their birth place for their grandparents.

[Ale88]

I wouldn't call it a loophole, at the end they could legally get the second citizenship because of their family's roots. We can question the morality of such move because many times, like you said, we are talking about players who have never been to that country, and sometimes they don't even speak the local language. But it's not different from a regular person from South America (for example) who gets an Italian or Spanish passport because his grandfather was from Europe: if you can do it, it's a smart move because you can move and legally live and work in Europe in that case.

Anyway now FIFA's rules are quite strict so players usually only go for the second option when they know they'll never be called for the main national team.

As far as I know, FIFA only allows a change in nationality once. If a Dutch player opts for Curaçao or Indonesia, then there is no chance that he can reverse this and go back to represent the Dutch team. I am also somewhat OK with this option. In most cases, the players have some degree of ancestry from the country which they are representing. On the other hand, I have seen foreign citizens with no known ancestry representing "national" teams in cricket. The laws in football regarding eligibility are a lot better. But then, what to do with teams who still fake eligibility? such as this one:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdx4pdg9w2wo

Yes, FIFA allow only one nationality change but that is not the only rule: a player can switch only in case he played in no more than three official games with the main team and these games must have been played before the player turned 21. And I think there also is a 3-year waiting period, they can't switch immediately. Friendly matches do not count.

[SuperBitMan]

https://x.com/touchlinex/status/2023321456671850963?s=46

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world. When there’s another option to watch the World Cup people will not bother to stress themselves in buying the ticket with that high amount, and the option is sitting at the comfort of your home and watching the World Cup matches on TV.
If FIFA wants the World Cup to be more hyped and for them to sell out all the tickets, they should reduce the price of the ticket and immediately they do that  they will sell them all, and people will start talking about the World Cup.
When you make the World Cup look like something for the rich the hype we surely reduce.

[JeffBrad12]

https://x.com/touchlinex/status/2023321456671850963?s=46

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world. When there’s another option to watch the World Cup people will not bother to stress themselves in buying the ticket with that high amount, and the option is sitting at the comfort of your home and watching the World Cup matches on TV.
If FIFA wants the World Cup to be more hyped and for them to sell out all the tickets, they should reduce the price of the ticket and immediately they do that  they will sell them all, and people will start talking about the World Cup.
When you make the World Cup look like something for the rich the hype we surely reduce.

So true!!!! Look at how big the gap of ticket price between US world cup compared to the Qatar world cup. I don't see any sense in the current ticket price. Just because it's happening at US, does it make sense to bubble it that much? Even i've heard a news said that a ticket in the final can cost more than 140k USD like what?
So it makes sense to assume if FIFA itself who killed the hype. They have to accept the consequence if there will be so many unsold ticket.

They were killing the hype ever since they were introducing the ticket price. Even if they reduce it, it won't help much caused by people already disappointed with it.

[Pumared]

https://x.com/touchlinex/status/2023321456671850963?s=46

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world. When there’s another option to watch the World Cup people will not bother to stress themselves in buying the ticket with that high amount, and the option is sitting at the comfort of your home and watching the World Cup matches on TV.
If FIFA wants the World Cup to be more hyped and for them to sell out all the tickets, they should reduce the price of the ticket and immediately they do that  they will sell them all, and people will start talking about the World Cup.
When you make the World Cup look like something for the rich the hype we surely reduce.

But of course they won't care about that. It's predictable, it's not their first World Cup. What they do is pass this "loss" on to TV and internet broadcasters. That's why the broadcast packages are so absurdly expensive. The flow is basically the fan looking at the tickets, seeing that everything will be expensive, and deciding to stay home to watch. So, in this way, they will charge the broadcasters more.

[Dump3er]

So true!!!! Look at how big the gap of ticket price between US world cup compared to the Qatar world cup. I don't see any sense in the current ticket price. Just because it's happening at US, does it make sense to bubble it that much? Even i've heard a news said that a ticket in the final can cost more than 140k USD like what?
So it makes sense to assume if FIFA itself who killed the hype. They have to accept the consequence if there will be so many unsold ticket.

They were killing the hype ever since they were introducing the ticket price. Even if they reduce it, it won't help much caused by people already disappointed with it.

Are these official prices announced by the FIFA or is that an image that someone on the Internet put together?

I can't recall where I saw this, but there have been documentaries about all this ticketing hoax. Normal people can barely buy them, first of all because of the high prices, and secondly because the volume of tickets for normal sales is almost nonexistent. The vast majority of the tickets is for corruption purposes. Politicians, businessmen, high profile elites.

A few of those tickets go to public sale and if you see these prices, it is ridiculous. Infantino is talking about how football is suppose to connect people, lol.

If this image is real, the cheapest prizes before resale on the black market is more than $2,000? I can't believe that.

[Woodie]

https://x.com/touchlinex/status/2023321456671850963?s=46

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world.

Besides the high prices of the tickets.. probably the US wanted to brag of it being the biggest success by inflated revenue.. but before this.. these guys have managed to make this tournament unpopular thanks to Trump being the centre of this , the venting process and all the VISA requirements, honestly with all this we all know this will certainly have less fans watching in the stadiums 🏟️.. maybe high price was also a recommendation from Trump because that's his nature!!

Any updates on the world cup boycotts...

[Felicity_Tide]

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world. When there’s another option to watch the World Cup people will not bother to stress themselves in buying the ticket with that high amount, and the option is sitting at the comfort of your home and watching the World Cup matches on TV.
If FIFA wants the World Cup to be more hyped and for them to sell out all the tickets, they should reduce the price of the ticket and immediately they do that  they will sell them all, and people will start talking about the World Cup.
When you make the World Cup look like something for the rich the hype we surely reduce.

I honestly doubt if the increments of ticket price is up to 30% of why there isn't any hype in this coming world cup. Before now, I have heard rumors of people canceling their hotel reservations ahead of the world cup. When you decide to shift the tournament to a country that doesn't gets itself out of drama at all times, what do you expect?. The other day, I heard rumors of how international policies might likely affect those from specific countries, that are also coming to watch the game, isn't that ridiculous?. In a world cup that was supposed to some players last ever career world cup, don't you think there are people who are readily available to buy those tickets?, but for the fact that it's going to take place in the United States, seems to be a very big turn off for them. Like someone said, even if they drop the price, it stil doesn't guarantee the hype.

[Sithara007]

I honestly doubt if the increments of ticket price is up to 30% of why there isn't any hype in this coming world cup. Before now, I have heard rumors of people canceling their hotel reservations ahead of the world cup. When you decide to shift the tournament to a country that doesn't gets itself out of drama at all times, what do you expect?. The other day, I heard rumors of how international policies might likely affect those from specific countries, that are also coming to watch the game, isn't that ridiculous?. In a world cup that was supposed to some players last ever career world cup, don't you think there are people who are readily available to buy those tickets?, but for the fact that it's going to take place in the United States, seems to be a very big turn off for them. Like someone said, even if they drop the price, it stil doesn't guarantee the hype.

Legal migration was always difficult in the United States (it is much more easier to jump the fence across Mexican border), but FIFA officials probably thought that situation will improve during the world cup. But the actual situation has got worse. As a result of the ICE raids and tougher screening, even tourists who have previously travelled to the United States are finding it tough to get a visa. There is a good chance that we will witness partially filled or even empty stadiums during most of the matches (especially if they doesn't involve one of the three co-hosts).

[Ale88]

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world. When there’s another option to watch the World Cup people will not bother to stress themselves in buying the ticket with that high amount, and the option is sitting at the comfort of your home and watching the World Cup matches on TV.
If FIFA wants the World Cup to be more hyped and for them to sell out all the tickets, they should reduce the price of the ticket and immediately they do that  they will sell them all, and people will start talking about the World Cup.
When you make the World Cup look like something for the rich the hype we surely reduce.

That's weird because based on the opinions of several users of this thread people will buy tickets anyway, no matter, the price, and everybody is very hyped up to pay hundreds of dollars to go watch big teams like Curaçao, Cabo Verde, Jordan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan... And now you're telling me people are not doing what these users said it would happen? That's very weird!

[JeffBrad12]

So true!!!! Look at how big the gap of ticket price between US world cup compared to the Qatar world cup. I don't see any sense in the current ticket price. Just because it's happening at US, does it make sense to bubble it that much? Even i've heard a news said that a ticket in the final can cost more than 140k USD like what?
So it makes sense to assume if FIFA itself who killed the hype. They have to accept the consequence if there will be so many unsold ticket.

They were killing the hype ever since they were introducing the ticket price. Even if they reduce it, it won't help much caused by people already disappointed with it.

Are these official prices announced by the FIFA or is that an image that someone on the Internet put together?

I can't recall where I saw this, but there have been documentaries about all this ticketing hoax. Normal people can barely buy them, first of all because of the high prices, and secondly because the volume of tickets for normal sales is almost nonexistent. The vast majority of the tickets is for corruption purposes. Politicians, businessmen, high profile elites.

A few of those tickets go to public sale and if you see these prices, it is ridiculous. Infantino is talking about how football is suppose to connect people, lol.

If this image is real, the cheapest prizes before resale on the black market is more than $2,000? I can't believe that.

The picture was before FIFA added a low tier ticket. Even after they added a low tier ticket, it changes nothing. a ticket for a non hyped game can still cost like 200 bucks ++ for the lowest cat. For me, it's still very expensive.
Yet some game like US vs Paraguy costed at 1k bucks for the cheapest set. The gap is so crazy. it grows up like 3 times ++ than Qatar WC.

This is also the reason there have been many unsold tickets. Spending like more than 200 bucks for the non hyped game at lowest cat is absolutely non sense in this economy.

[Not your key not your BTC]

https://x.com/touchlinex/status/2023321456671850963?s=46

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world. When there’s another option to watch the World Cup people will not bother to stress themselves in buying the ticket with that high amount, and the option is sitting at the comfort of your home and watching the World Cup matches on TV.
If FIFA wants the World Cup to be more hyped and for them to sell out all the tickets, they should reduce the price of the ticket and immediately they do that  they will sell them all, and people will start talking about the World Cup.
When you make the World Cup look like something for the rich the hype we surely reduce.

In my opinion, it's not just ticket prices; security concerns in the US are also influence to fans' lack of interest in purchasing tickets. Fans and tourists are worried about coming to watch the World Cup matches because they feel unsafe. In addition, the cost of international transportation and accommodation is also a major consideration for fans to attend the stadium to watch the World Cup.

[Rabata]

https://x.com/touchlinex/status/2023321456671850963?s=46

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world. When there’s another option to watch the World Cup people will not bother to stress themselves in buying the ticket with that high amount, and the option is sitting at the comfort of your home and watching the World Cup matches on TV.
If FIFA wants the World Cup to be more hyped and for them to sell out all the tickets, they should reduce the price of the ticket and immediately they do that  they will sell them all, and people will start talking about the World Cup.
When you make the World Cup look like something for the rich the hype we surely reduce.

In my opinion, it's not just ticket prices; security concerns in the US are also influence to fans' lack of interest in purchasing tickets. Fans and tourists are worried about coming to watch the World Cup matches because they feel unsafe. In addition, the cost of international transportation and accommodation is also a major consideration for fans to attend the stadium to watch the World Cup.

The World Cup should not be considered only as a business. Arrangements should be made here for everyone, starting from the common people to the richest. If the game can bring joy to everyone, then that game is in the interest of the rich. The ticket prices may be slightly different from what they were in other tournaments, but if it is not within the range of the common people, then the common audience will never go to the gallery to enjoy that game. I think it is important to reduce the ticket prices and fill all the seats. It is not acceptable for the World Cup gallery to have empty seats for money. The more fans on the gallery, the organizers will be successful. The host countries of the World Cup should consider the benefits of spectators and create a positive environment for them.

[Sithara007]

Agents are gaming the system. Like actively. They're instructing Dutch kids with Indonesian roots to reject Netherlands U21 call ups on purpose. You know - too many youth caps has locked you out to be able to switch later. Career planning literally occurred at the age of 19. Keep the door open, find out what happens.

And the timing is not random either. There's this window around 22-24 where you have guys that have been playing regularly in the Eredivisie, but haven't broken into the senior Dutch team.

For a guy who's realistically never playing Champions League Football anyway? That actually might be more than waiting for a Dutch cap that's probably never coming.

Where it gets weird is that Indonesia is now targeting 15-16 year olds in Ajax academies. Not scouting them as player. Scouting them for their birth place for their grandparents.

It was bound to happen. Netherlands is ranked 7th by FIFA team rankings while Indonesia is ranked 122nd. See the massive difference between these two teams. Also, nowadays there is nothing much to gain by playing for a stronger national team, as players get the vast majority of their salary from the clubs. If a player opts for Indonesia and continues to be employed by the clubs in Netherlands, then it doesn't make any difference at least in monetary terms. Similarly, a lot of players have moved to Kazakhstan from Germany as well (examples are Heinrich Schmidtgal, Sergei Karimov, Juri Judt, Konstantin Engel and Alexander Merkel).

[programmer3666]

So CR7 will play this World Cup at the age of 41!! That's cr*zy. I just hope he goes far in the tournament, even if at the end he doesn't win it, but it will be a great deal to retire with a very good memory, because this will obviously be his last push for his country on international satge with such a tough competetion. Portugal have a very good squad depth so I believe they will do their best to go far in the tournament.

[Sithara007]

So CR7 will play this World Cup at the age of 41!! That's cr*zy. I just hope he goes far in the tournament, even if at the end he doesn't win it, but it will be a great deal to retire with a very good memory, because this will obviously be his last push for his country on international satge with such a tough competetion. Portugal have a very good squad depth so I believe they will do their best to go far in the tournament.

Portugal is essentially a one-man army which is completely dependent on Ronaldo. Back in 2022, during the FIFA World Cup, the great coach Fernando Santos decided to drop Ronaldo from the playing XI. What happened next is history. During the quarter-finals, Morocco mopped the floor with them and kicked them out of the tournament. Ronaldo is one of the all time greats. While he is playing, Portugal should make use of his services. I don't know what will happen to them once he retires. They have some good younger players such as Rafael Leão, Francisco Conceição, João Félix and João Neves. But none of them can really fill the vacuum.

[pewboy]

But of course they won't care about that. It's predictable, it's not their first World Cup. What they do is pass this "loss" on to TV and internet broadcasters. That's why the broadcast packages are so absurdly expensive. The flow is basically the fan looking at the tickets, seeing that everything will be expensive, and deciding to stay home to watch. So, in this way, they will charge the broadcasters more.

They know very well that this is a huge amount of money, now they also know how to manage it because this is not the first time, as you say, that there will be a very big event like the World Cup and i think it is easy to organize given that they know a thing or two about very big events, i don't think there will be these types of problems.

[SuperBitMan]

https://x.com/touchlinex/status/2023321456671850963?s=46

I already knew something like this will happen. How can FIFA be complaining that there’s still many seats remaining unsold, they forgot that by increasing the amount for tickets many people won’t be able to go to the world. When there’s another option to watch the World Cup people will not bother to stress themselves in buying the ticket with that high amount, and the option is sitting at the comfort of your home and watching the World Cup matches on TV.
If FIFA wants the World Cup to be more hyped and for them to sell out all the tickets, they should reduce the price of the ticket and immediately they do that  they will sell them all, and people will start talking about the World Cup.
When you make the World Cup look like something for the rich the hype we surely reduce.

In my opinion, it's not just ticket prices; security concerns in the US are also influence to fans' lack of interest in purchasing tickets. Fans and tourists are worried about coming to watch the World Cup matches because they feel unsafe. In addition, the cost of international transportation and accommodation is also a major consideration for fans to attend the stadium to watch the World Cup.

You actually make me laugh, hope you have not forgotten that US is one of the most powerful nations if not the most powerful nations on earth and you think a nation like that, people will fear to go their to watch the World Cup because of insecurity, this is a world event and the security will be very high, I’m sure not only US will plan for the security other nations will also assist. World Cup has been happening and insecurity has never been an issue not to talk about a very powerful nation like US now hosting the World Cup.
For me the major reason why they have not sold out all their tickets is because of the high price, like I said before when there’s an option of watching all the World Cup games on the comfort of your home, you won’t bother to break your bank to watch a World Cup match.

[BlackBaron]

So CR7 will play this World Cup at the age of 41!! That's cr*zy. I just hope he goes far in the tournament, even if at the end he doesn't win it, but it will be a great deal to retire with a very good memory, because this will obviously be his last push for his country on international satge with such a tough competetion. Portugal have a very good squad depth so I believe they will do their best to go far in the tournament.

Portugal is essentially a one-man army which is completely dependent on Ronaldo. Back in 2022, during the FIFA World Cup, the great coach Fernando Santos decided to drop Ronaldo from the playing XI. What happened next is history. During the quarter-finals, Morocco mopped the floor with them and kicked them out of the tournament. Ronaldo is one of the all time greats. While he is playing, Portugal should make use of his services. I don't know what will happen to them once he retires. They have some good younger players such as Rafael Leão, Francisco Conceição, João Félix and João Neves. But none of them can really fill the vacuum.

Yes, it's undeniable that Ronaldo is a hugely influential player for Portugal, but now is different from when he was younger. Being in the squad now is a great way to motivate his teammates. Whether he plays or not will be entirely up to the coach.

At his current age, it's difficult to expect much from him in terms of performance, but mentally, he will be invaluable to the team. While he's still very fit for his age, his speed has slowed down. The coach will certainly choose players based on the needs of the team he's managing.