World Cup 2026

[Pedestrian]

It's because IRGC is an evil repulsive regime. That doesn't mean I support what Trump is doing, especially now, at all. To be clear.

Log off you muppet.

 

[TheBeautifulGame]

Log off you muppet.

No thanks, and calling me a muppet is whack. What i stated was factual and reasoned. If you have a problem with anything I said, feel free to disagree, but that's your issue.

 

[Pedestrian]

No thanks, and calling me a muppet is whack. What i stated was factual and reasoned. If you have a problem with anything I said, feel free to disagree, but that's your issue.

Calling me whack is totally rude. Log off you idiot.

 

[Monkfish]

Oh no! Poor them, they were in a tough group! That's so unfair. No other team has ever been in a tough group before. They played an exciting game! Oh well that changes everything.

If you're going by world ranking there's at least TWELVE countries higher.

You're right though, Israel is currently waging an illegal war they started, so they should be banned from global sporting events like Russia was. Ideally the US too, but as they're hosting that's unlikely.

Like I said, there's absolutely fuck all reason Israel would ever be the team invited to the world cup unless you start with wanting to find any way possible to force them into a competition they didn't qualify for.


@Moderating Team someone ban this blatant WUM. There's no chance anyone believes something this stupid.

I am pretty certain Trump is actually going to suggest Israel replace Iran in the WC before the end of March

Wouldn't even rule out Infantino making it happen

 

[TheBeautifulGame]

Calling me whack is totally rude. Log off you idiot.

To be clear, I didn't call you whack. I said "you calling me a muppet" is whack.

I consider myself the furthest thing possible from a muppet. So I was mildly offended by that. But no big deal, just don't let it happen again.

 

[domalino]

Meanwhile,





If Iran is truly ready for a long war, if that's the case then their ability to compete in this WC might be doomed. IRGC's "never say die" attitude could mean a prolonged war, or not. But with every devastating bomb that drops on Iran (which I don't condone by the way, prayers to the innocent people of Iran to keep them safe) it's hard to imagine how this regime could be allowed to represent itself in a WC in a nation warring against them.

I really cannot stress enough how little the fucking World Cup matters right now to Iran, or its people.

Watch the video you just posted and ask yourself if any of the people in those buildings are thinking about the World Cup.

 

[Ban-jani]

I really cannot stress enough how little the fucking World Cup matters right now to Iran, or its people.

Watch the video you just posted and ask yourself if any of the people in those buildings are thinking about the World Cup.

It’s been boggling my mind how much bandwidth has been wasted on the World Cup these last few pages.

 

[TheBeautifulGame]

I really cannot stress enough how little the fucking World Cup matters right now to Iran, or its people.

Watch the video you just posted and ask yourself if any of the people in those buildings are thinking about the World Cup.

I couldn't agree more, and that's precisely why the situation is so aggravating. So you join me in praying for the safety of innocent Iranians. We can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. Two things can be true at once - being outraged by the war hawking Israel and America, but also understanding why this is happening, knowing how dangerous to world stability IRGC is and why it is so important to end the regime.

To your point about the people of Iran in those buildings, they'd prefer to be looking forward to seeing their country prepare for a WC but they can't be doing that because of the actions of their leadership over nearly a half century.

We have two things going on at once, and we can talk about them both. The war and hoping for it to end quickly, and also, as a direct consequence of all this, whether or not Iran will be participating in the WC all of which seems to be very unclear right about now.

 

[give it to gordon]

I am pretty certain Trump is actually going to suggest Israel replace Iran in the WC before the end of March

Wouldn't even rule out Infantino making it happen

Im putting a tenner on a USA V ISRAEL world Cup final

 

[Xhavenjoe]

I am pretty certain Trump is actually going to suggest Israel replace Iran in the WC before the end of March

Wouldn't even rule out Infantino making it happen

Probably suggest they go straight into the semi finals at the expense of Spain or Argentina.

 

[Earlyriser]

Probably suggest they go straight into the semi finals at the expense of Spain or Argentina.

It will go to Israel as a peace reward dividend

 

[I'm With Stupid]

I would argue Italy this time was particularly desperate to qualify this time around, and more difficult to beat due to their previous struggles to qualify. it was also excruciating for Israel to have to play road matches in Europe in the midst of the hugely divisive Gaza war. When they played Norway for example, it felt like Norway was playing on behalf of the Palestinians. I don't think you can understate how difficult this dynamic was for Israel players and fans to have to endure this level of hardship during a WCQ campaign. Israeli football fans hve been treated horrible in Europe in my view, their club fans were banned from attending away games in England and in Netherlands. They were not allowed to host home WCQ games, put in a brutal group of Italy and Norway, and still performed well giving Italy a very tough game. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just spelling this out for you because you're clearly not getting it.


Because it is fully understood that European football is played at a higher level, by and large, than other qualifcation regions. And therefore, due to the high level of talent and difficulty qualifying here, it would make sense for any replacement to be from the most competitive, most talented region (Europe).

Further, this expanded WC field has been very good at giving more AFC, Americas, and Oceanic squads (who don't typically qualify for the WC) a better chance to make the WC. This greater opportunity to qualify for middle of the road nations hasn't been seen in Europe to the extent it has been realized elsewhere, providing even greater justification for a replacement team being from UEFA.


Because, as you well know, European football is considered the best football in the world, with the higher ranked national teams. Is it the hardest place to qualify in the world, and I doubt you would disagree with this.


But each of those squads has an opportunity to qualify through the normal playoff. Why would you give a squad that loses a playoff yet another chance to qualify? It would make more sense to give the next best team who didn't get an opportunity to be in a playoff, but who may have been in a more difficult group, an opportunity. In the Rugby WC for example, historically not only the Top 2 teams from each Group qualify to the knockout stages, but also the best 3rd place team. Similar logic could apply here in a replacement scenario.

i don't like the idea of giving a playoff loser a "3rd" chance to qualify any more than I like a nation being randomly "chosen" by a corrupt FIFA or Trump with a pro-Israel agenda. I propose a 3-team playoff for the last spot, perhaps 1 UEFA squad, and 2 others. But I believe that UEFA Nations have been massively underrepresented in this new idiotic 48 team field in which we have way too many non-European teams and not enough European teams. Israel is a special case as a regional/traditional AFC nation who competes in Europe.

The argument for Israel here is that they went through a much more difficult WCQ campaign than arguably anyone else. It's not to play the world's smallest violin for them though, it's to do an unbiased reasoned comparison between the best nations who failed to qualify and to make sound arguments as to who would be most deserving, given all facts.

The most deserving are the teams that actually qualified, not the teams that you think, on balance, had the hardest group. They're 77th in the current FIFA world rankings, 57 places below the team you want them to replace. Their group contained the 13th team in the world and the 32nd team in the world. Iceland were in a group with the 3rd and 30th ranked teams, so even on paper, that's a harder group. Georgia and Bulgaria had to face the 1st and 25th ranked teams. And before you blame the current situation for Israel's miserable ranking, they're actually higher than they were in 2017, when they were down in 99th place. Their ranking has basically not moved since 2022.

But go on. Name a single one of the players you're desperate to go to the World Cup without using Google. They're shite and have been shite for a long time, and that's why they're not going. You've literally got no argument for them qualifying other than your own feeling (supposedly) that they looked good in qualifying (definitely not just a load of bollocks to try and wind people up by arguing that a genocidal regime should get preferential treatment).

 

[Xhavenjoe]

It will go to Israel as a peace reward dividend

Doesn't really matter who actually wins the world Cup as Trump will probably take it for his own personal trophy cabinet to match the CWC trophy.

 

[Blue and true]

I really cannot stress enough how little the fucking World Cup matters right now to Iran, or its people.

Watch the video you just posted and ask yourself if any of the people in those buildings are thinking about the World Cup.

Exactly. Also, what do you reckon the size of the blast area is in that video? About 60,000m²? What're the odds any civilian lives haven't been taken once again?

 

[Vic]

Here's what I propose. A 3-team playoff between Israel and the best two other nations who failed to qualify and failed to make the playoff. Each squad plays the other two squads once, so each play two matches. The squad who finishes with the highest points over their 2 matches replaces Iran. I think it's important that if Iran is replaced, that they stage a 3-team playoff over 2 matches, so that the team that replaces them has to "earn it" on the pitch.

To your point, if Israel were just "chosen" to replace Iran, well that wouldn't go over too well. But if Israel were forced to earn their way by playing in a 3-team playoff for the last spot, then if they emerged it would be more acceptable.

My question to you is which 3 nations in your view should be in this hypothetical 3-team playoff?

Give it a rest. People are dying.

 

[NZBlue]

Trump is now kicking off with Spain and the UK. It won't be long before he throws his toys out of the pram and bans Spain and England from US soil during the World Cup. It's a systematic attempt to get the US to win it.
Lump a nifty fifty on the US now before their odds drop!

 

[TheBeautifulGame]

The most deserving are the teams that actually qualified, not the teams that you think, on balance, had the hardest group. They're 77th in the current FIFA world rankings, 57 places below the team you want them to replace.

Now we're choosing WC spots based on World Rankings? How about prioritizing results and performance of WCQ? Logistically you can't stage a separate playoff between teams already in the normal playoff. You can only stage another playoff between 3rd place teams who didn't make the playoff as an emergency replacement. The nations that qualified for the playoff already have their opportunity to qualify in front of them this month. The question is, should a playoff loser then get a 3rd chance, or should the best 3rd place teams have a chance?

If your idea is to give the replacement spot to the loser of a playoff this month, in the same Fed as the team being replacement, OK, but that goes against your own FIFA World Ranking argument. Iraq and UAE are lower ranked than other non-Israel UEFA nations who didn't qualify. In that case, what's the point of playing in a AFC playoff if you'll get in even if you lose? As you can see, no matter what they do, they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. But they gotta do something, and I'm saying that putting Israel into a 3-team playoff so they have to earn it is better than just handing them the spot. (or anyone else for that matter) They know how selecting Israel to replace Iran out of the blue would be received. On the other hand, it is also problematic to give another AFC nation a spot who already lost their playoff, and had an easier qualifcation to begin with than any UEFA nation.

While there are higher ranked squads than Israel who didn't qualify, I don't know how many of them historically have been ranked as high as Israel has (#15 in the World in 2008). But if we compare stictly WCQ performance, Israel has what would seem to be the best case. Scoring 4 goals on Italy, scoring more goals in WCQ than any other 3rd place nation.

It's also important to point out that Israel has more Asian Cup Titles than UAE and they have the same number as Iraq (1) despite not playing in the AFC for over half a century.. Israel was a founding member of AFC and Israel reached the podium in every one of their Asian Cup appearance.

Their group contained the 13th team in the world and the 32nd team in the world. Iceland were in a group with the 3rd and 30th ranked teams, so even on paper, that's a harder group. Georgia and Bulgaria had to face the 1st and 25th ranked teams. And before you blame the current situation for Israel's miserable ranking, they're actually higher than they were in 2017, when they were down in 99th place. Their ranking has basically not moved since 2022.

But go on. Name a single one of the players you're desperate to go to the World Cup without using Google. They're shite and have been shite for a long time, and that's why they're not going. You've literally got no argument for them qualifying other than your own feeling (supposedly) that they looked good in qualifying (definitely not just a load of bollocks to try and wind people up by arguing that a genocidal regime should get preferential treatment).

I find it humorous that you're basing your arguments based on FIFA World Rankings. If it were about FIfa Rankings, then there would be no point in WCQ. They would just choose who made the WC based on rankings.

We need to evaluate who did the best in WCQ. Who had the tougher group, who scored more goals, who came closest to beating top teams, etc.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Now we're choosing WC spots based on World Rankings?

No, we're basing it on who actually qualified on merit. You're the one coming up with ludicrous bullshit schemes to try and get your favourite team into a competition they are too shit to qualify for.

You'll be wanting the rags in the Champions League on historical merit next.

 

[TheBeautifulGame]

No, we're basing it on who actually qualified on merit. You're the one coming up with ludicrous bullshit schemes to try and get your favourite team into a competition they are too shit to qualify for.

You'll be wanting the rags in the Champions League on historical merit next.

Lets compare the highest (3rd place) finishers in UEFA who didn't qualify, on the merits. You seem to be arguing that World Ranking matters more than evaluating each nation's WCQ campaign. That sounds like a corrupt scheme to use FIFA's corrupt rankings to exclude Israel from the conversation. WCQ isn't about what your ranking is. It's about how you perform on the pitch throughout the campaign.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Lets compare the highest (3rd place) finishers in UEFA who didn't qualify, on the merits. You seem to be arguing that World Ranking matters more than evaluating each nation's WCQ campaign. That sounds like a corrupt scheme to use FIFA's corrupt rankings to exclude Israel from the conversation.

I'm not. I'm saying it would make more sense than the bullshit you're spouting. You can't just make up new rules at the end of a competition to suit what's happened during it. There are already rules about who gets a spot and it's not and never would be Israel (or any UEFA team). It goes to the next best team from the same qualifying route (yes, even the playoff losers, as happened when Russia were expelled). Israel have already been excluded by their own performance, I don't need to exclude them using rankings.