Personally being a Canadian...Ghanaian-Canadian to be specific, I love that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is going to be in my backyard of Canada. For Canada, we have not been to a FIFA World Cup since Mexico 1986. Fast forward to 2026 that is 40 years, 4 decades of not being at a FIFA World Cup. This is a long time coming. But then again there is still the issue of FIFA and automatic qualification. I mean even if FIFA doesn't give us Canadians automatic qualification and we have to participate in the 2026 qualifiers, then let's say for sake of argument Canada doesn't even qualify for a tournament in their own backyard. If Canada doesn't qualify then wouldn't they still technically qualify anyway being a tri host? Which is why I hope FIFA gives all 3 of us Canada, USA and Mexico automatic qualification because then that means we all can rest easy and not actually have to take part in the Hex. As hosts, then Canada, USA and Mexico can just prepare through playing friendlies and Gold Cups what have you. For CONCACAF, what I like is that instead of 3.5 teams...2026 we get 6 teams in that of course being us, USA and Mexico plus 3 other countries. Plus CONCACAF could even get a 7th team because of the inter confederation playoff too which is certainly possible. Why I love a 48 team World Cup for 2026: - With 16 more teams joining the World Cup party, feel-good stories should keep flowing in soccer. Just look at Costa Rica’s run to the 2014 World Cup quarterfinals and Wales reaching the European Championship semifinals in 2016. FIFA President Gianni Infantino believes this generates “football fever” far beyond the host nation(s). - With 16 additional games, there’s more soccer for fans to watch in stadiums and on television, generating additional cash for FIFA. For broadcasters, there are 24 extra broadcast slots, not just 16, because there will no longer be final rounds of group games kicking off simultaneously. - FIFA estimates its commercial income will climb 20 percent, and raise profits by $640 million compared to the equivalent rates for the $5.5 billion 2018 World Cup. This would help guarantee the $5 million grants from each World Cup for each of the 211 FIFA member federations, and create extra for development projects. - The 80 games can be squeezed into 32 days, the current length of the 32-team World Cup, according to FIFA. The individual players’ workload won’t increase as the four semifinal teams will still play a maximum of seven matches
My understanding is that all three hosts will automatically qualify with 3 more spots (and two playoff spots) available for the rest of CONCACAF.
Yeah but for those 2 playoff spots every confederation apparently is supposed to compete for those last 2 playoff spots so essentially a CONCACAF, AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL or UEFA team could get those spots But Canada qualifying...this will be only our 2and FIFA World Cup in 40 years so obviously I'm excited about that But for the Canadian cities so far it is Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton that get games But since I live in Toronto...trying to go to games personally
Except UEFA gave up their playoff spot feeling 16 teams is plenty for them.. Oceania gets a playoff spot also.
Yeah Oceania already gets 1 team for the 2026 tournament but as far as the 2026 teams that I think will be in Canada-USA-Mexico representing CONCACAF will be: 1- Canada (hosts) 2- USA (hosts) 3- Mexico (hosts) 4- Costa Rica 5- Jamaica 6- Haiti But CONCACAF could even get 7 teams in because of the playoff so if there should be a 7th team, it will be: Honduras
Canada haven't just made the world cup since 1986, but they haven't even made the Hex since finishing rock-bottom in 1998... yikes! That's 5 successive campaigns ending in the semifinal round robins, an absolutely shocking record to be honest.
Yeah exactly but 2026 that won't matter especially being hosts so that gives us Canadians a lot of time to prepare for 2026 But also being Ghanaian really hoping really really praying my country of Ghana, my Black Stars qualify for Qatar 2022 and Canada-USA-Mexico 2026
Yeah that could also happen which is why I wanna see how the 2026 qualifiers will work especially with it being a 48 team World Cup now so I wanna see how the qualifying formats change
It's called "no having a domestic league" because "context" Australia, South Korea, Japan never missed a World Cup once they started their leagues. The Canadian Premier League launched in 2019
Yeah well it is a league in its infancy but yeah now that we have a domestic league, sure but will that translate into us qualifying for Qatar 2022? I mean 2026 we will be there because of us being hosts but out of this Canadian Premier League how many players out of there do you think can make this Canada side a more competitive one?
M-Tristan Borges (Forge), CB-Amer Didic (FC Edmonton) (1 Goal) and GK-Marco Carducci (Cavalry) were already called up. They will bring reinforcements at defense in the near future as it's our obvious weakness. CB-Joel Waterman who was sold to Montreal is quickly demonstrating that he deserves a spot in the national team. CB-Dominic Zator (Cavalry), LB-Abzi (York9) are big contenders for a spot as well.
And then having to compete with the stars already in the team that are more MLS based and foreign based it should be nice to see the domestic players from CanPL though and seeing if they can even make themselves a case to be in the squad for 2022 qualifiers but also which one of those players as well as other players from CanPL could make the 2026 team
Plus with 48 teams yeah more countries join the party but you will get a lot more soccer games which is a plus
Reading online I saw a hypothetical 48 team World Cup or some of them on Reddit but one that I saw that stuck out: Hosts - USA, Mexico, and Canada. CONCACAF (3) - Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica Asia (8) - Japan, South Korea, Iran, Australia, China, Iraq, Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates Africa (9) - Cameroon, Nigeria, DR Congo, Zambia, Cape Verde Islands, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Egypt Oceania (1) - New Zealand CONMEBOL (6) - Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru UEFA (16) - Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, England, Sweden, Croatia, Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, Turkey, Czech Republic, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina Playoffs Teams from each Confederation - Tahiti, Panama, Venezuela, Syria, South Africa. Hypothetical 2 Teams qualifying from the Playoffs - Venezuela and Syria POT SEEDINGS Pot 1 - USA, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Croatia, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, England, Switzerland Pot 2 - Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Sweden, Bosnia & H., Nigeria, DR Congo, Turkey, Venezuela, Ukraine, Japan, Iran, Tunisia, South Korea, Egypt, Ghana Pot 3 - Norway, Australia, Czech Republic, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iraq, UAE, China, New Zealand, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Cape Verde Islands, Jamaica, Honduras, Cameroon GROUP DRAW A- Canada, Iran, Burkina Faso B - France, Czech Republic, South Korea C - Italy, Ecuador, Jamaica D - Uruguay, Cape Verde Islands, Sweden E - Switzerland, Ghana, United Arab Emirates F - Spain, Venezuela, New Zealand G - Croatia, Uzbekistan, Peru H - Germany, Nigeria, China I - Mexico, Australia, Zambia J - Argentina, Syria, Ukraine K - Belgium, Egypt, Costa Rica L - Portugal, Turkey, Cameroon M - The Netherlands, Iraq, DR Congo N - England, Colombia, Bosnia & Herzegovina O - Brazil, Japan, Honduras P - USA, Tunisia, Norway
You people don’t realize how happy a lot of smaller nations fans are for the tournament to expand to 48 teams. I’ve been obsessed with International football since the 2002 World Cup and I was in HS at the time. The problem since then is that Jamaica has not qualified in the time (last time was 98 in France and I don’t really remember) Reading the post above it’s me so much joy to finally know that with this cup we will almost definitely qualify, even if it’s for only 2 games, at least we will still be in the World Cup. The quarter finals going forward will still be all the top teams like Germany, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, etc but at least the smaller nations get a better chance of qualifying and being in the party even if they won’t be there all the way to the end. I CANT WAIT
your hypothetical thing from reddit is from the 2026 World Cup. That’s what I was talking about. remember 2022 will be 32 teams, while 2026 is 48
Yeah but seeing the hypothetical group draw that they put together on Reddit...imagine if that was the actual Group draw for 2026 for the 48 teams that was presented...just imagine how cool that would be
Only a couple things to correct here: That is what everyone expects...but it's not set in stone. FIFA still has to make that final call (surely after WC2022), and it'll probably have in mind the precedent it will set. No - if FIFA doesn't give Canada an automatic berth and Canada then fail to qualify, they're out. They'd just have to watch the rest of the world have fun in their backyard, a risk FIFA hasn't run since Italy had to qualify for their own World Cup in '34. ...but as Montagliani admitted in his interview with OneSoccer last week, FIFA could call a last-minute audible and choose Vancouver anyways if they feel like it. And he's from Vancouver, so it looks almost certain that he'd be willing to pull strings if needed.
Yeah but I can't see FIFA doing that though. If anything it makes more sense to give us Canadians automatic qualification not only because we are co hosting but look at the money we are spending already on preparations but also on workshops alone but also we have started on promotions here in Canada. Yeah if Vancouver is added as a 4th city to the bid, I wouldn't be opposed or if Vancouver replaced a city on the bid I would want them to replace Edmonton because I'm from Toronto.
My hypothetical starting 11 for Canada (co host) 2026 GK- Alessandro Busti (26 years old) LB- Zorhan Bassong (27 years old) CB- Kamal Miller (29 years old) CB- Thomas Meilleur-Gigere (28 years old) RB- Zachary Brault-Guillard (27 years old) CM- Samuel Piette (31 years old) (captain) LM- Stephen Eustaquio (29 years old) RM- Liam Millar (26 years old) CAM- Alphonso Davies (25 years old) LS- Jonathan David (26 years old) RS- Theo Bair (26 years old)
Great post! I thought I was the only person who did this sort of thing! Your Groups B, H, I, L and N would be especially watchable! Last year when the tournament schedule was published in the bid book I did my own draw to try and predict what the 2026 World Cup could look like. As well as the usual qualifiers I factored in which teams have good performing youth teams at the moment who could potentially go on to help their countries to World Cup qualification (not an exact science I appreciate). If I recall correctly I seeded the pots based on current FIFA World rankings. This is what I came up with: Group A: Canada, South Korea, South Africa Group B: Germany, Venezuela, DR Congo Group C: Colombia, Tunisia, China Group D: Spain, Ukraine, Ecuador Group E: Mexico, Japan, Slovenia Group F: Denmark, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia Group G: Chile, Sweden, Honduras Group H: Brazil, Morocco, Panama Group I: USA, Algeria, Australia Group J: Belgium, Iran, New Zealand Group K: Argentina, Netherlands, Cameroon Group L: Italy, Nigeria, Qatar Group M: England, Serbia, Syria Group N: France, Turkey, UAE Group O: Uruguay, Senegal, Kosovo Group P: Portugal, Romania, Mali