World Cup 2026 host cities allowed to sell their own corporate sponsorships https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.c...3/Upfront/world-cup-2026.aspx?ana=top_stories
that‘s really very surprising because such a thing is zero FIFA as we know it. FIFA gives their own sponsors big stage, that‘s why they all sign in. giving space to some local limited sponsors just doesn‘t fit into their policy, therefore this news should be taken with big reserve, it just doesn‘t fit into anything FIFA did in the past!
Don't know about surprising. But it does help to answer the burning question around here of... ...will USA American sports fans know that the World Cup is being played in their own Country? Well, there's going to be local advertisers shoving products and services down peoples throats so yes Virginia, people will know about the tournament. At least when pertaining to the cities that host. There's going to be local affiliated pizza joints, burger places, car dealerships, grocery stores etc. that make sure that everyone knows. Every match will be like a Bowl Game or Super Bowl.
Fifa probably has a list of protected sponsor categories, and so does the Fifa World Cup. Therefore, cities would be allowed to get sponsors from other categories.
No, they won't: in a deliberate attempt to mimic World Cup conditions, both leagues are on pause during the Leagues Cup, so idle teams will be idle unless they go out of their way to schedule friendlies.
I feel there'll be some record which will be set during the FIFA World Cup, especially in term of public attendance in the stadia. PS: If you have a Twitter account, beware of this Twitter user. He uses to give some negative advices for future visiters of the 3 countries, the USA specially.
I presume this calendar year, FIFA will announce the qualification formats and schedules for each Federation? I know UEFA won't start theirs until after EURO 2024 but the rest will probably start their initial rounds this year.
AFC announced their format last year. The schedule hasn't been formally announced but to fit it all in it needs to start with the windows later this year. Asia’s pathway to the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup™ 2027 confirmed (the-afc.com)
They really tried hard to drag out the qualifying process for as long as possible. The last 2 rounds seem pretty unnecessary. Goups of 3 and single-elimination playoff rounds? Ugh!
That's their "we have Nations League at home" I just really hope that this time, they bring back the single preliminary draw event, giving it the feel of all belonging to the same championship, rather than FIFA conducting separate ones for each Confed.
Wouldn't that mean having the UEFA qualifying draw ~18 months prior to their qualifying actually starting? The rankings/seedings of UEFA teams would be more appropriate if the draw was done after Euro 2024.
UEFA preliminary draw will be held in December 2024 in order to accommodate the NL quarterfinalists. While I loved following the plenary preliminary draws, the absurdly long-winded competitions in some confederations makes it impracticable nowadays.
After the poorly organised current Afcon qualifiers, I hope CAF bases its qualifiers on 9 groups of 6 teams each playing on all 10 MDs in 2025, with the 9 group winners qualifying automatically and the highest ranked runner-up qualifying for the intercontinental playoff if it is held in March 2026.
No, no, and no: haven't we had enough of CAF cutthroat formats? Play it in multiple stages like in Asia or Concacaf, with a final round of 20 teams in 5 groups of 4 - group winners and 4 best runners-up qualify, last runner-up to playoffs - so that the better teams get 1) more chances to play each other, and 2) more of a chance to actually rise to the top, rather than getting undone by one bad away outing.
I would have done that with a single round. Best 3rd place team qualifies automatically and other two playoff for the 8th spot with the loser going to the IC playoffs.
But each team would play 10 qualifying games: good for the African NT ecosystem and enables shock results to be corrected in subsequent games.
They could stick with the 1st and 2nd round from last time and have top 2 from each group go to round 3 where they have the same format you suggested. Adds an extra 2 FIFA windows (4 matches) to the process. They could also use a modified Asian process with no playoffs and 2 group stages. Round 1 9 groups of 6 teams (10 matches) with top 2 in each group going on. 3 groups of 6 teams with top 3 qualifying, best 4th to playoffs (10 matches). If they wanted to reduce it a bit (by 1 window) then have a playoff round to reduce the 1st group stage to 4 team groups.
would be great but with current qualification formats it is just impossible. some confederations start a year ahead of the others ... you just can't fit it in
Yeah, and I would make that playoff 2 legs. I could see a benefit of AFC adding those final two rounds of qualifying. It removes the luck factor that could send a team to a more difficult group in the first group stage, and that could be the difference between finishing second or third. BUT ... instead of using those last 2 rounds to cancel out this luck factor, they introduce more luck into the equation by having 3-team groups and single-elimination playoffs where one team has home advantage. Also, the 3-team groups might be quite unbalanced because one group will contain two 4th-place teams from the first group stage. Another issue with the format is that teams that qualify directly after the second round will not play any mre competitive matches in the 9-12 months leading up to the World Cup. Good luck trying to arrange friendlies when every other top 75 team in the world is heavily engaged in WCQing at that time. Whoever brought 3-team groups back into soccer must be a great used-car salesman. And also, a complete arsehole.
I would be fine if it stayed with soccer. the moment they brought it into football was total desaster!
Not much of a surprise to this news but FIFA officially has announced that all three hosts will automatically qualify.