2026 World Cup Discussion

[aguero93:20]

Do all three host countries qualify automatically?

Yep. 48 teams for this one as well.

 

[Stephen230]

Have they decided / announced the location for the semis and final yet?

They haven’t even decided how they’re going to organise the groups yet.

 

[aguero93:20]

They haven’t even decided how they’re going to organise the groups yet.

Looks like it'll be 16 groups of 3, hopefully not though, something like the euros with so many best 3rd place teams going through would be better.

 

[Pedestrian]

I be happy if international football was cancelled. Hopefully someone will have the bottle to expose the corruption that will have been rife at the latest one and they close the whole thing down. The corruption in football will have to come to a head at some point.

 

[chesterbells]

They haven’t even decided how they’re going to organise the groups yet.

Yeah, I’d heard that was an issue, but you’d think with a split between 3 countries they’d at least have agreed on a division of the big 3 games before putting their bid in wouldn’t you? - I was assuming those 3 games would be shared between the 3 countries- I hope so anyway, and that it’s not, for example, all the big games in USA & a token gesture to the other two …

 

[Stephen230]

Looks like it'll be 16 groups of 3, hopefully not though, something like the euros with so many best 3rd place teams going through would be better.

I think they’d more or less settled on that originally, until it was pointed out the potential for a West Germany, Austria type situation where the final group game ending in a draw might suit both teams.

The talk then seemed to be they were favouring 12x4 groups with 8 third placed teams making up the last 32. That would incidentally mean a 104 game tournament. Which is double the number of matches played in the last World Cup over there in ‘94.

Find out soon enough I suppose.

 

[Stephen230]

Yeah, I’d heard that was an issue, but you’d think with a split between 3 countries they’d at least have agreed on a division of the big 3 games before putting their bid in wouldn’t you? - I was assuming those 3 games would be shared between the 3 countries- I hope so anyway, and that it’s not, for example, all the big games in USA & a token gesture to the other two …

Under the original plan of 16X3 groups that would involve a total of 80 games in the tournament, which was being split 60 USA, 10 Canada, 10 Mexico.

That’ll obviously change if they switch to 12X4 groups, meaning a total of 104 games, as discussed above.

Although it’s worth noting that all matches from the Quarter Finals onwards in the 80 game plan, were earmarked for USA, so I guess that’s unlikely to change.

 

[chesterbells]

Under the original plan of 16X3 groups that would involve a total of 80 games in the tournament, which was being split 60 USA, 10 Canada, 10 Mexico.

That’ll obviously change if they switch to 12X4 groups, meaning a total of 104 games, as discussed above.

Although it’s worth noting that all matches from the Quarter Finals onwards in the 80 game plan, were earmarked for USA, so I guess that’s unlikely to change.

Hmm, understood, thanks. That’s the answer I was looking for (but not hoping for). Disappointing that. Canada or Mexico not even warranting the mighty 3rd place match.

 

[kun]

I am looking forward to the outcry over the USA human rights.

Guantanamo Bay detention centre

Gun laws

Racism

Invading over countries

None of that is actually relevant to a World Cup. Every country has some level of human rights issues. Pretending the US and Qatar are even remotely comparable is a joke. The US have an actual workforce, infrastructure, sporting culture, culture in general, and (comparable to Qatar) humane labour laws. None of which Qatar has. Qatar is also inhospitable during the traditional summer months in which it it normally played. Also, Qatar will be completely uninhabitable in less than 100 years so the idea of a lasting legacy in the Middle East is a myth.

People aren’t dying for the 2026 World Cup to happen.

No one is not welcome to be themselves. Being gay is not criminalised. They aren’t killing political dissidents.

Of course there are lots of major issues with the USA (state-murder/extraordinary rendition/13th Amendment/systematic racism/foreign intervention) but they don’t directly link to the World Cup like in Qatar - where 6500 died as a direct consequence of the World Cup happening. The Qatar World Cup was the single highest carbon emitting event in human history, outside of war. All while claiming it’s “carbon-neutral”.

Conflating the crimes of Qatar and the US is wilfully obtuse and classic whataboutism bollocks.

 

[aguero93:20]

The Qatar World Cup was the single highest carbon emitting event in human history. All while claiming it’s “carbon-neutral”.

WW2 wants a word.