2026 FIFA World Cup thread [R]

Came to a bar to watch, but there's almost no one here!

I was expecting a crowd! I’m in a Mexican restaurant/bar. What gives?

Viva México!!

 

Aren't you living in Whitesville, WA?

 

Gooooooooooal!!

Mexico totally outclassing RSA.

 

Hydration break! Everyone drink beer!!

 

Well, yes. But there are Mexicans here. Some of the wait staff are checking in with the game from time to time.

RSA with a speed advantage.

 

Height advantage, RSA.

 

Mexico with the jersey advantage!

 

Mexico need to score another goal or two! GD counts and this is their easiest game!

 

Woo hoo!!

I think my broadcast is a minute or two behind live.

Viva México!!

 

Did Fox break away from the run of play or was there a water break?

 

Hydration break, and Fox went to a commercial because they suck!

And remember to drink beer at every hydration break. Stay hydrated! Hug your kids! Touch grass!

 

Mierda!

El rojo! Ay carumba!

Bad play. Very bad.

 

I wish, but no.

 

Infantino is a lying liar. This is what he actually said about the high cost of WC tickets as quoted in this piece.

“You cannot go to watch in the US a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300,” Infantino said in May. “And this is the World Cup.”

I also heard an interview toady with someone from The Athletic talking about how FIFA scammed ticket buyers by bait and switch on what seats are what category. So say you bought seats early and you saw that Category A was say first 20 rows lower deck. Then sometime later they modified Category A seats to include lesser seats and the seat that you bought expecting the better seats might be in that lesser area. Unbelievable.

 

Hi there, just sent you a PM.

 

Infantino sucks monkey butt!

That MoFo should be in jail. The level of corruption is completely off the charts! We, the USA, refused entry to a Somali referee. He’s the Top ref in all of Africa! But we wouldn’t let him in the country because — insert your favorite reason. And Infantino won’t lift a finger to help him. We (the USA) won’t let the Iranian team stay in the USA, but all of their games are in the US. And of course, FIFA won’t step in to try to fix this shit! We suck! But FIFA could try to ameliorate that. But they won’t. And the ticket prices are scandalous!! And FIFA reserved tons of hotel rooms, and then dumped them on the market, which screws a bunch of our businesses.

I’m pissed! But I’m trying to enjoy the games.

F-word! I’ll try not to post about this again.

Go Humans!!

 

Gonna watch in my hood.

 

Here’s the podcast. The interview is with The Athletic editor-in-chief Laura Williamson who is English I believe. She describes some of the FIFA / Infantino shenanigans but is careful not to be too critical. At one point she said Infantino promised to clean up the corruption and to increase payments to FIFA member partners and “he’s done that.” Really? Cleaned up the corruption?

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fresh-air/id214089682?i=1000771906625

 

I saw a podcast on YouTube (The Athletic? Can’t remember for sure) and they mentioned that Infantino keeps getting voted as FIFA president because he gives money to CAF and AFC - federations and members - and it’s those huge voting blocs that keep Infantino in power. Now, with these two specific incidents (Somali ref not allowed into US and visa issues for Iran delegation), the “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” (my words, NOT the podcast) situation seems pretty one sided. The podcast said that in these two incidents, when CAF and AFC truly needed Infantino, he didn’t have their back. The podcast speculated how AFC and CAF would vote in future elections for FIFA president.

 

Yes, that was mentioned on the podcast I listened to as well. Infantino is "feeding" the people that vote for him, so it seems like he's found an easy way to rig the game. He definitely operates on an "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine" principle - I think we've seen many examples of that. That seems more "mob-bossy" than what you'd want in an international body that is not ripe for corruption. As for those 2 incidents you mentioned, he just said that the federation cannot intervene in government decisions. Well, the federation can choose where it does business on the basis of those policies but it's obviously way too late for that now. In the meantime, try to bribe to limit obstruction!

 

Watching.