England Forum - FIFA World Cup 2026: Other Teams Thread

I understand why many people need Twitter/X to maximize their careers, businesses, or public profiles. That is especially true in women’s football, where players often use social media to engage with supporters, promote the sport, and build their personal brands.

That said, I also understand why others choose to walk away from it. Many England women’s footballers, among others, have been subjected to relentless racial and sexist abuse online. No amount of professional opportunity is worth constantly exposing yourself to that level of toxicity. Social media can be a valuable tool, but it can also become an exhausting and hostile environment for the very people it is supposed to connect with fans.

 

I think the UK government should ban X indefinitely and up their leverage.

 

Yeah you're right. I've scaled back my use a lot and tend to make sure I only the posts of people I actually follow now.

Football twitter is the only remaining pocket of the app I actually enjoy and it's what stops me from deleting it. I haven't really found a substitute for it. Match comps of players post-game are a big thing too.

Even then though the wider football twitter is a bit of a cesspit. You have to make sure you block a good chunk of it out.

It's a shame because it had value as an app once upon a time but what's it's turned into now is a genuine drain on society. Just a site for radicalisation and division to aid the personal interests of the world's richest man. I certainly won't stick around forever.

 

It's always been a site for radicalisation, it's just that now you hear both sides.

 

Good for Mexico. According to rumors, U.S. Soccer asked the WH not to invite the USMNT to Washington because a certain someone is simply too unpopular.

¡Viva México! pic.twitter.com/GpD7y8FJFC

— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) June 8, 2026

 

Ii think it's mainly due to the monetarization of interactions. Since Twitter is still mainly text-based: the more radical and less nuanced your words are, the more people will agree/disagree and argue with each other in the comments = more money for you. It's really just 'divide et impera' in its own capitalist microcosm and so obvious I don't know whether I should laugh or cry soooo many people are falling for obvious engagement baits (especially since you can easily see who has a blue check). It's the same with politics, feminism, racism, immigration/integration etc. here where you'll only get the most braindead takes of both sides literally thrown at you.

But have to say Twitter has never been that popular in Germany to begin with, it's mainly just people from either extreme of the political spectrum spending time on there (at the beginning it used to be only the hardcore Left, since Musk took over it's shifted more and more with the hardcore Left living out their communist fantasies on Bluesky) or people like me who only use it for some transfer news without ever posting a single word lol. But Twitter's more commonly accepted in the Anglosphere if I'm not mistaken. The funniest thing about it all for me was other European fans (and Mexican, Canadians) siding with the English against the Americans (well except for Scottish and Irish lmao). Oh, and I've actually never heard the term 'Europoors' before, didn't know that's such a thing in the US lol.

 

Yeah I’ve got to the stage in X where I actually can’t believe what I’m reading most of the time and just can’t even be bothered to engage with the knucklehead types who post regularly on there with their political views! Even this morning you have the US Government complaining about the UK restricting U16’s from being drawn into the cesspits like X whilst complaining it’s restricting freedom of speech and then at the same time you’re getting your phone searched when you arrive at an American airport….The amount of mental gymnastics that goes on with that platform is staggering! Anyway, like everyone else I would and should delete my account but I’m drawn in with all the sporting content mainly and other hobbies I like to read about like weather accounts ( yes I bit geeky) which I find interesting to follow.

 

I find Twitter useful as a news stream as long as I stick to the "Following" section and don't go deep into the comments - basically stick to the people I know and using it for links. The "For You" section is a cesspit of rage bait and the far right.

 

"MLS can become the second biggest league in the world. Maybe the biggest"

Didn't we hear exactly the same in 1994?

 

Did you really get real news from Twitter?

 

It's a lost cause is FIFA. We're just gonna get an endless succession of Infantinos. It's so far beyond the point of reform being a viable option.

Feels like the only way it ends is a major UEFA-led rebellion after FIFA eventually push the boat out too far. Who knows how close we even are to that though.

 

Not directly. There's a few accounts that I follow that post some good links, and it saves me trawling through news sites. It's still good for sports news links via the journalists whop post there.

 

Surely we're in an endless succession of Blatters.

Edit: apparently it was João Havelange, FIFA president from 1974-1998, who really started the corruption in earnest. He made a cool $100m from bribes! Naturally he lived to ripe old age of 100.

 

Football News hasn’t really migrated much to BlueSky. There is a Fabrizio Romano repost account and David Ornstein is on it but not a lot of others.

 

Yeah maybe. I think Infantino is worse though. Blatter is corrupt but I think he actually respected the game and it's integrity to a small degree. He was always opposed to World Cup expansion from memory and I don't think he'd have ever expanded the Club World Cup either. I think he's made comments about how oversaturation is a major concern for the sport.

Infantino is everything Blatter was plus more. I'm sceptical he even likes the sport because he certainly doesn't care about its long-term good.

I don't want to romanticise Blatter in any way because he had to go, but I think we're in a far worse position now.

 

Blatter was in a different structure. His downfall was what led to the full one member one vote system that made expansion inevitable.

 

World Cup referees including England's Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor are in line to earn a record-breaking £75,000 each for the tournament - The Times

Zlatko Dalic sees Croatia's World Cup opener against England as pivotal to their summer fortunes, admitting a softer first match may have been preferable for a team struggling with form and fitness issues - The Guardian

 

Anything that avoids politics tends to still be ok on Twitter. It's just you need to know where to look to avoid the awful bits.

 

I mean I don’t disagree but we’re literally linking a puppet of the cartels here who’s the Mexican president as a good story.

I can’t stand the woman and the cartels need to be eradicated.

 

I wouldn’t go as far as you do with the name calling ( thought we had put that to one side now ) but with him being plastered all over social media, I get Jim Bowen vibes constantly of see what you could have won, lol.

 

I've nothing against him. He's made the right choice for his career. The name calling was Im jest. He backed himself and its paid off. I'm just pissed at the English fa for not doing a good enough job at profiling these youngsters

 

It's hard to not unsee somethings. Like myself I have a fear of going to USA and can die happy without entering there because of the treatment of black folks. I am from Kenya and would rather spend my money going to so many other places in the world instead of being pulled over by a cop for harassment and being sent to Guantanamo bay!

 

Olise was jumping round academies as a kid, so I don’t think it’s that surprising he wasn’t in any of the younger age groups, you’d like to think if they’d pushed harder just as he was making his Reading debut they could have got him.

 

I think that sentiment is being agreed by many people. I wouldn’t want to be there right now on holiday plus the costs of anything are an absolute farce.

 

Blatter wanted the WC to go to the US instead of Qatar. Let's not pretend Blatter wouldn't have been as corrupt if he could get away with it.

Before Blatter we had Havelange who was just as corrupt. Before Havelange we had Rous who was a racist.