These nations could debut at the 2026 World Cup

Africa is absolutely the qualifiers to watch this upcoming round. We will get to see in a lot of groups which team comes out in pole position to win the group. Egypt plays both its biggest threats and could really put a chunky lead on the group. On the flip side, they could also lose both matches and make that group a complete tossup. Will be a fun window.

With these being the only matches this year for Africa qualifying, I think we will see some drama somewhere. Coaches will be fired, teams will freak out... should be fun.

 

Technically Africa is one of the only Confederations to watch this upcoming round. Other than Asia and in my humble opinion always takes priority to watch over them as a neutral.

 

I think the opposite is true: the shorter the competition the less predictable it is.

It is one of the reasons why UEFA has truncated the European Qualifiers.

Longer qualifiers increase predictability and usually reduce the level of fan engagement.

 

Hmm.

I don't know about this.

Look at CONMEBOL qualifying for instance. You can have a team that is old starting out but then a couple years later have guys injured and retired and forced to play a younger, totally different team by the end of qualifying.
That is one of the things I do not like about marathon qualifying. One team could face a totally different team by the end.

That is kind of why I liked the World Cup every two year proposals with qualifiers truncated into a few select windows.

 

Yup. Just look at current Conmebol qualifiers:

With 1/3 of matches completed, you got some shady teams making its top 5.
Even 6th-place BRA has decided to take a nap.

That's why you will never hear a complaint out of Conmebol: with 6.5 WC slots you can afford to have a pretty crappy qualifiers campaign and still beat minnows in the long run.

 

From what I understand, the level of fan engagement has fallen so far for the 2026 Conmebol Qualifiers, for example I heard Bolivia failed to find a media partner for their home games which would pay them satisfactory rights fees. I would imagine similar problems are replicated elsewhere across the continent.

Being the only continent which didn't change its format despite the WC field increasing in size by 50%, we will see whether this will see affect performance at the final competition.

It's significant that Brazil was the country which opposed this format but was eventually forced to accept it by the other nine countries.

 

But surely from a fan perspective, lower-ranked teams have more chance to qualify the fewer games there are and - in any case - the weight of importance on each game increases as the number of games decrease and the jeopardy factor rises.

 

North Korea-Syria is the game I am most looking forward to next month: it's effectively a KO tie!

 

If it is played in North Korea, things will not be easy for Syria.

 

Yes, this is a statistical fact - fewer matches leads to more surprise successes & failures.

But you guys will never agree because you are arguing 4 different things at once.

Regarding the unrelated argument about fan engagement.... well, because of its small size, C'Bol obviously doesn't have a qualifying for its quadrennial regional championship (i.e. Copa America) like all the other regions do. So, if want to shorten WC qualifiers that will simply lead to more friendlies. And knowing C'Bol, that means their NTs will play more games overseas in Europe and elsewhere, and they'll also be meaningless games by definition.

Fan engagement might not be amazing for a long qualifying campaign that eliminates only 3 teams, but the alternative is worse. Gotta work within the parameters that reality presents you.

 

You could always make it something else in addition to a world Cup qualifying group. Call it a nations league with a prize for first place. It's the only proper nations league in existence already. A Championship for teams at the top to fight for, and the equivalent of a relegation battle at the bottom as those teams miss out on world cup qualification. It means more games will have meaning as the league nears its end.

 

yeah, the current Copa America ceases to be a South American championship if a huge portion of the teams competing for it aren't part of South America. So, in a way, that leaves the door open for what you are suggesting here- and for the NL to still have real meaning.

I mean, the Copa America is becoming more like a Tournament of Americas, so let's just call it that. And then have a real South American championship structured like the Nations League. The top 4 from the "league" phase (2 groups of five, 8 matches each) could compete for the South American championship in the summer before a WC, while the bottom six fight for the 2.5 remaining WC spots throughout the calendar year that precedes a WC.

 

It could be made simpler by Conmebol's ten joining the NL up the road in Conacaf and playing it every year to avoid Brazil-USVI type games (even years NL with a title + promotion/relegation and odd years as CA or WC Qualifiers with qualification + promotion/relegation).

 

Do you have any sources on this?

I do not recall BRA ever refusing a TV rights contract for 9 home games, knowing that BRA played few matches, all against lackluster rivals, on prior qualifiers:

- 1998: 0 home games; WC slot as defending WC champ.
- 1994: 4 (vs BOL, ECU, URU, VEN)
- 1978-1994: 2 (vs COL, PAR; BOL, VEN; BOL, PAR; CHI, VEN)
- 1974: 0; WC slot as defending WC champ.

 

Interesting as their WC qualification is the only international competition that fits the definition of a league where every team plays each other home and away over the course of the competition. I suppose they don't need to create what they already have.

 

sorry but what nomsense.

for sure this was not the objective!

if all qualifiers are within few months, there is the risk of great players missing a whole campaign due to an injury

 

I don’t know where to post this, but apparently, Equatorial Guinea is going to have 6 points deducted due to aligning an ineligible player.

This means (barring unexpected results) that Tunisia will qualify for the WC from that group.

The potential debutant Equatorial Guinea will have to play for its spot in the play-offs (if they manage to overcome the 6-point advantage that the other second places will have).

 

They are DONE.

No way will they qualify for a playoff spot minus 6 points, and also -6 goal difference.

Shame because they had a chance, but I am glad because this will help better 2nd placed teams in other groups who have tougher opponents.

 

I'd assume this will be appealed.

FIFA hasn't even said why the player was ineligible. It wasn't because of suspension I assume, and the player had been playing with the national team for years after switching from being a Spanish national. So this seems rather dodgy to be honest.

 

It's a strange situation. FIFA ruled Emilio Nsue ineligible back in 2013 and made them forfeit two WCQ wins. Then he's kept playing for the team and is the all-time leading scorer and just won the Golden Boot at AFCON. And now FIFA is punishing the team and banned the player from football for six months for playing in WCQ again.