England Forum - FIFA World Cup 2026: Other Teams Thread

We all know one of tne reasons for them is adverts and the other is trying to cover themselves from court action from players unions and other health experts. FIFA does seem a bit rattled by the talk of strikes etc.

But also it seems temperatures are cooler than average in some parts of the USA and no where is currently experiencing above average temperatures.

 

Spain to score 8 this evening

 

I hope so. It would be good to put the brakes on further expansion with some stuffings.

 

Only UEFA threatening to quit FIFA and do an Euros every 2 years would do that.

 

I can see a route for sure but Cabo Verde while up and down do get a decent result against a decent team from time to time. While the population of the Island is only 500k the team is actually made up of secondary Portuguese born/raised/trained players.

Their starting 11 is made up of of players in Erdevisse Russia Portugal 1st and 2nd division La Liga Turkish Super Lig MLS and their goalie is from their own league.

 

I think it's fine by the last 16 it will shake out the same. The last 32 is where we will see what would have been group of death match ups but it is actually more difficult now because two quality teams can't go through on a draw one will have to be knocked out to get to the last 16.

The issue to me is that FIFA is clearly trying to grow the game in certain regions for financial reasons that go against what is best for the on field product. For example in 94 we had 24 teams and 13 from UEFA now we have 48 teams and UEFA only got 3 more spots. This is clearly deliberate.

Qatar had a poor qualifying campaign in the AFC and then it was them vs UAE for a spot at the world cup. That is basically freebie. Then again they took a point off the Swiss.

And again if UEFA teams are knocked out in qualifying then by the last 16/8 it all shakes out the same. If qualifying was not done regionally and groups were just mixed up world wide UEFA would likely have 20 teams but is that the point of the World Cup? No one will win the world cup because there are poor sides in the tournament. The money smaller federations receive by participating in world cups over time does tend to raise the quality of those confederations. So while corrupt FIFA can hide behind a logic that presents as fair play.

 

FIFA 2023: We want to increase number of teams to 48. We will have 3 teams pr group so there will not be an increase in matches pr team, so nobody can complain about higher load on players

FIFA 2025: The 3 teams pr group format does not work as there is a big disadvantage to the team not playing in the last match pr group. So we go back to groups of 4 and reintroduce 3rd placed teams qualifying not seen since 1994, and introduce an extra knock out round

FIFA 2027: The third placed team qualifying is just weird, might as well expand to 64.

 

FIFA doesn't care about growing the game. This is vote farming.

 

FIFA are using their tournaments as leverage in their fight with UEFA. They don't care about the quality of the tournament, it has always been a political fight because UEFA has the power to really ruffle their feathers and they do not like it.

 

LOL

for sure and if they do this the group stage will basically replace/act as qualifiers you essentially are dressing up qualifiers as the World Cup and removing the significance of separate confederations. It used to be called the World Cup finals because qualifying was seen as part of the whole thing.

 

For sure I agree but two things can be true at the same time and thats what they hide behind because it has grown the game..... they are putting their thumb on the scale because the AFC in particular growing a lot since 2002 has increased revenue. It is no surprise that in the 21st century including 2034 that only two world cups will have been in Europe.

Basically 21st century hosts have been corrupt countries/federations often with active war crimes (this one included) and a UEFA host thrown in to make it look fair.

 

I mean there are doing them in airconed covered stadiums. Thats all you need to know about the reason they are doing them.

 

All they care about is money. Qatar bought the tournament. Saudi Arabia bought the tournament. The money is used to buy votes. China was going to buy the World Cup but it looks like they have decided they need a decent team first. It would be humiliating for them to get knocked out first round. The Presidents of most of the FAs use the money they get from the FIFA pot to grease palms and to reinforce their domestic powerbase. These FA Chairs will then vote for Infantino next time round because he has done very well for them financially.

Growing the game doesn't come into it. That is just a soundbite. Build a few pitches but give the contract to a connected firm at 10 times the price.

 

There are a bunch of teams in the Top 40 Elo Rankings who haven't qualified for this 48 team WC. And as expected, apart from Nigeria and Venezuela (39th place) they're all from Europe..

FIFA are a racket who's trying corrupt the WC so that all any country outside UEFA have to do in order to qualify, is just be good enough to break into the worlds Top 40. Effectively if you're not from Europe, just don't be dogshit and you'll qualify for every WC...

And as much as it is a big marketing factor, it's not just about 'growing the game' and finances with FIFA. It's also about corrupting the tournament, to block the European teams from winning it.

 

I don't think it stops European teams from winning. Yes many European squads that miss out have squad value and tactical technical ability beyond some of these nations but the teams that come out of UEFA are so strong that by the time they get to the tournament it takes a serious contender to knock them out. If the groups are fixed for big European teams to play each other early in the 32/16 so there is an illusion of parity in the last 8 that would be something if note I think.

It was actually much worse in 1994 where France England Portugal all failed to qualify and Germany were very old but the dominance of Europe really kicked on since then 98 and onwards.
The quality of European sides like Norway Belgium heck even Scotland has increased because of the European game and the post bossman post eurozone world.

2002 was the clearest example of an anti europe bias where it seemed Spain Portugal Italy were all eliminated through politics and England were given the group of death by "chance" leaving France who had their holders curse knock them out.

 

Might be drawing early conclusions here but without Yamal and Williams, Spain are looking a lot more like they did in 2016-2022. Death by 1000 passes etc.

 

Matterface trying his best not to call them quarters

 

Cape Verde are better than I thought and spain don't look as good as I thought

 

Cape Verde look at least somewhat competent and organised which is a good start. Just being able to self organise and minimise space and gaps is 90% of the battle. Curacao increasingly looked like raffle winners as the match went on yesterday (7-0 Spain now incoming).

It would be difficult to imagine Spain's world cup won't live or die depending on the fitness of those two. Perhaps even Yamal being fit alone would be enough, but if they're both Saka tier fitness it's going to be a big struggle for them. Cannot be overstated just how much the entire mentality of Spain changes with them on the pitch.

There was a moment just where the ball got to Torres one on one with his defender, a bit of space had opened up behind the defence and the full back isolated. And he went for a sideways pass. Zero doubts Yamal would have gone at the defender in the same situation.

 

Really like the ref cam

 

Dixon waxing lyrical about a pass that cucerella didn't make

 

The chances of winning a World Cup without elite forwards are tiny. They're the single most important players in the sport.

 

Was just about to say the same lol but I think it would click regardless over the course of the tournament but they wouldn't be top favourites without them.

 

Cape Verde playing some nice stuff.

 

I think Yamal will make a huge difference but Williams has been really poor last season. His stats are very unimpressive