World Cup 2026

Soldi

Soldi

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Line-up COMPLETE.

Starts 11th June.

Group A​
Group B​
Group C​
Group D​
🇲🇽 Mexico​
🇨🇦 Canada​
🇧🇷 Brazil​
🇺🇸 United States​
🇿🇦 South Africa​
🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina​
🇲🇦 Morocco​
🇵🇾 Paraguay​
🇰🇷 South Korea​
🇶🇦 Qatar​
🇭🇹 Haiti​
🇦🇺 Australia​
🇨🇿 Czech Republic​
🇨🇭 Switzerland​
:scotlandflag: Scotland​
🇹🇷 Turkey​

Group E​
Group F​
Group G​
Group H​
🇩🇪 Germany​
🇳🇱 Netherlands​
🇧🇪 Belgium​
🇪🇸 Spain​
🇨🇼 Curaçao​
🇯🇵 Japan​
🇪🇬 Egypt​
🇨🇻 Cape Verde​
🇨🇮 Ivory Coast​
🇸🇪 Sweden​
🇮🇷 Iran​
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia​
🇪🇨 Ecuador​
🇹🇳 Tunisia​
🇳🇿 New Zealand​
🇺🇾 Uruguay​

Group I​
Group J​
Group K​
Group L​
🇫🇷 France​
🇦🇷 Argentina​
🇵🇹 Portugal​
:EnglandFlag: England​
🇸🇳 Senegal​
🇩🇿 Algeria​
🇨🇩 DR Congo​
🇭🇷 Croatia​
🇮🇶 Iraq​
🇦🇹 Austria​
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan​
🇬🇭 Ghana​
🇳🇴 Norway​
🇯🇴 Jordan​
🇨🇴 Colombia​
🇵🇦 Panama​
 
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Annoyed Scotland got in over Denmark...for no other reason than I was hoping for a new language to deal with at work! :D
 
Though it remains to be seen how the 48-team tournament will turn out, I'm really enjoying the stories behind the smaller countries getting through.
 
I am quite enjoying the (remote) possibility of Italy failing to qualify for even an expanded tournament, and having to watch heavyweights New Caledonia and Suriname compete next year :disco:

MAKE IT HAPPEN LORD
 
My ideal scenario is that the draw allows for both Irelands, Wales and Bosnia to qualify :disco:
 
www.bbc.co.uk

World Cup 2026: Fifa to keep top seeds apart in draw

The top four seeded countries will not be able to meet each other until the semi-finals of next year's World Cup for the first time in the tournament's history.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

England can’t meet Argentina or Spain until the semis and France till the final (providing all four win their groups/go that far)
 
Soldi said:
www.bbc.co.uk

World Cup 2026: Fifa to keep top seeds apart in draw

The top four seeded countries will not be able to meet each other until the semi-finals of next year's World Cup for the first time in the tournament's history.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

England can’t meet Argentina or Spain until the semis and France till the final (providing all four win their groups/go that far)
Click to expand...
I always thought seeds were kept apart? How does this differ from before? NO I HAVEN'T READ THE ARTICLE
 
Tisch said:
I always thought seeds were kept apart? How does this differ from before? NO I HAVEN'T READ THE ARTICLE
Click to expand...
They still are, but the top four seeds will be on separate sides of the knockout draw should they all win their groups. Essentially it means you couldn’t have an Argentina v Spain Round of 16/Quarter-final.
 
Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for violent conduct in Portugal’s penultimate qualifying game and got a three match ban. Only one of those has been served and so he was due to miss the first two group games of the World Cup. It has now been decided, completely without precedent and for no reason whatsoever, that the other two games are to be suspended and he can play the whole tournament. I am sure that this is in no way because he is now good friends with Trump or that FIFA have always been astonishingly corrupt.
 
Organisation of known cunts bending rules to favour known cunt friend of known cunt SHOCKER
 
It’s way more about a tournament seen as a dealbreaker in “breaking” football in the US opening without one of its biggest stars would be seen as a disaster.
 
That is absolutely not a good enough reason to do this. It’s meant to be a sporting competition where the same rules apply to everyone. If they really feel that they can’t have their tournament without him, and football is more than robust enough to survive the temporary absence of a has been who has been playing for third tier teams since 2021, then they should have cancelled all pre-tournament suspensions.
 
dmlaw said:
That is absolutely not a good enough reason to do this. It’s meant to be a sporting competition where the same rules apply to everyone. If they really feel that they can’t have their tournament without him, and football is more than robust enough to survive the temporary absence of a has been who has been playing for third tier teams since 2021, then they should have cancelled all pre-tournament suspensions.
Click to expand...

I never said anything to the contrary.

I just didn't believe it was because of Trump.
 
I agree it's not about Trump per se. It's not as if Infantino needs persuading to do something hella corrupt.

I also... don't care? Portugal aren't gonna win. and their best recent performances have been without Ronaldo so he may not start every game anyway.
 
It’s not necessarily about starting, though. At the risk of being ageist, using a 40- year old strategically in matches still gives a useful advantage…

I don’t understand why they don’t make a blanket decision? Even if they claimed it was a trial.
 
Almost everything FIFA do is to make the product more appealing, and sod the sporting consequences. Seeding teams for semi finals, yellow/red cards wiped at semi final stage, etc. Lest we forget the ridiculous European qualifier playoff draws of a few years ago which couldn't have been more rigged.

(Not that i'm against team ranking, tbf - works fine in most other sports)
 
Indie said:
Almost everything FIFA do is to make the product more appealing, and sod the sporting consequences.
Click to expand...

But in some arguments, that's actually not a bad thing, right?

Athletics has been working hard to create a ranking system to get their star athletes in champs without issue and changed the entire rules to give defending World Champions a wild card back when Michael Johnson was ill and didn't make it through the US trials one year. But that was a blanket decision.

You WANT a better product. You WANT your best players. You WANT to give the best teams a chance at meeting in the showpiece- that's entirely ok. The issue for me is when it favours indviduals. That I can't understand.
 
(Well, actually, I can understand...I just don't agree)
 
Sheena said:
But in some arguments, that's actually not a bad thing, right?

Athletics has been working hard to create a ranking system to get their star athletes in champs without issue and changed the entire rules to give defending World Champions a wild card back when Michael Johnson was ill and didn't make it through the US trials one year. But that was a blanket decision.

You WANT a better product. You WANT your best players. You WANT to give the best teams a chance at meeting in the showpiece- that's entirely ok. The issue for me is when it favours indviduals. That I can't understand.
Click to expand...

In some argument, it's not a bad thing. As long as it doesn't lead to France vs Brazil in the final every four years.

But the "best of the best" argument is exactly what nearly lead to a closed-shop European Super League, and that would have been fucking awful.
 
There's a difference between closing off opportunity and giving the best separate sides of a draw.

Seed sorting doesn't exactly hurt tennis, for example...
 
Sheena said:
There's a difference between closing off opportunity and giving the best separate sides of a draw.

Seed sorting doesn't exactly hurt tennis, for example...
Click to expand...

Agree, but the other thing here is we're talking about countries that play on the world stage every 4 years, and in the meantime go around beating Albania and Georgia. The ELO ranking basis means a team can win a world cup, go around playing minnows for a few years and still remain high in the rankings, regardless of if the team are really as good as they were or not. Basically historical privilege, which is not the same as a tennis or athletics tournament where the athletes are assessed more frequently (yes, a recent grand slam win would help them out for a bit, but not as long as it would in football...)
 
Indie said:
Agree, but the other thing here is we're talking about countries that play on the world stage every 4 years, and in the meantime go around beating Albania and Georgia. The ELO ranking basis means a team can win a world cup, go around playing minnows for a few years and still remain high in the rankings, regardless of if the team are really as good as they were or not. Basically historical privilege, which is not the same as a tennis or athletics tournament where the athletes are assessed more frequently (yes, a recent grand slam win would help them out for a bit, but not as long as it would in football...)
Click to expand...

But that's an issue with the mechanism of the ranking, rather than how they use it...which is on debate here.

Again, same issue in athletics- the opportunities for an athlete lower down the rankings to get into bigger meets and score big points to then qualify for championships are limited, so they end up chasing lower ranking points, over-competing and often being knackered by the time they come to the champs and unable to compete at their best.
 
Sheena said:
But that's an issue with the mechanism of the ranking, rather than how they use it...which is on debate here.
Click to expand...

Eh, they're entirely linked though. A rank-based tournament isn't ideal where a ranking system is flawed. It will always be flawed in international football because they don't play matches at a high level very often.

I actually think ELO is a great method of ranking and it's probably the best they could use. I don't mind the ranking system itself.

I'm not all that bothered though. It is what it is. Go curacao.
 
Indie said:
Almost everything FIFA do is to make the product more appealing, and sod the sporting consequences. Seeding teams for semi finals, yellow/red cards wiped at semi final stage, etc. Lest we forget the ridiculous European qualifier playoff draws of a few years ago which couldn't have been more rigged.

(Not that i'm against team ranking, tbf - works fine in most other sports)
Click to expand...
What was this?
 
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Oh, you've bolded it.

In UEFA world cup qualifying of around 1998-2002, the play off teams would contain a few stronger countries who would magically never get drawn against each other. It seemed ridiculous at the time. They introduced seeding in playoffs some time later.

Not necessarily related to this: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-competition-draw-was-rigged-by-cooling-balls but it wouldn't surprise me.
 
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