By forgiving I assume you mean they have a pretty fair system that allows the best teams to qualify without significantly punishing them for one off day in 18 matches.
Wasn't it 10 times more difficult to qualify back then? The FIFA rankings also used a totally different formula in 2014. One which punished a bad year or two much more. Under the current formula, you have to be poor for a long time to really drop in the rankings. Belgium says "hi".
Haiti qualified in 1974 (on home soil), Honduras and El Salvador in 1982. In the World Cup Haiti lost 4-1 to Argentina, 7-0 to a great Polish team and 3-1 to Italy.
Ok. Yeah, I don't have the history of this region to be able to assess Mexico pre-1994. But I do feel this is the lowest Mexico has been since 1990. Yeah, Canada is stronger compared to 10-15 years ago, but they are about the same compared to 20-30 years ago. They go up and down, much like Costa Rica, T&T, El Salvador and others in the region. Overall, these fluctuations balance each other out, imo. I don't buy the "Mexico only looks weaker right now because CONCACAF is stronger" argument.
I'm suggesting they've never been that great. Except in a few years when they had a couple of world-class players.
The main problem for Uruguay is Nuñez 5-game suspension since they only have Suarez as a tested option for striker. The other guys aren't that big of a problem, they have good alternatives for them. I predict Uruguay still gets 7-9/15 points. Paraguay, Venezuela and Peru are all beatable regardless, with Ecuador and Colombia they will have their suspended defenders back so that should help.
it is going to be very interesting to see construction works in all those stadiums whenever these start. we still do not know what exactly is supposed to be done in which stadium, but apart from miami, guadalajara and monterey all stadiums will need adjustmens, most of them significant ones. two I'm looking forward to find out are SoFi and especially Atlanta ... not sure if they really can overcome viewing obstructions there or will settle down with some sort of compromise
The only thing I know (I think) is that the corners are too tight to the stands so you can't see them from the main camera angle.
Oasis Ticketmaster fiasco prompts UK probe into ‘dynamic pricing’ https://www.politico.eu/article/oasis-ticketmaster-f-uk-probe-dynamic-pricing/ On the subject of dynamic pricing, in case FIFA are flirting with the idea for 2026.
nope, they claim they designed it that way, but they didn't. whoever did it simply had no clue what is needed, not even 1%. the pitch is too narrow and at least half of the seats do not have full pitch view. sitting behind the goals you do not see the goalline etc. it is desaster in terms of FIFA criterias. people who go there for united games do not care, probably because they know no better but it is highly incompatible with any modern international standards and criterias. basically lifting the pitch for 3-4m and removing some seats could fix it but I do not believe they are going to go that far as I said, it is going to be very very interesting what FIFA is going to require there here how it looks like now:
I wouldn't be surprised if they do so. I'd expect them to keep the prices low for fan sectors of pariticipating teams ald blow everything else out of proportion including dynamic pricing in FCFS plus whole "premium ticket" crap we'll see who will be selected as their ticketing partner, but actually anyone could do that.
FIFA have their own ticketing system. The question is whether they (FIFA) are tempted given the US market's acceptance of this practice. Hopefully not.
Looks like it has better view than a lot of older stadiums in Europe. And the pitch measurements meet the World Cup minimum.
between 2010 and 2018 they used their proprietary system and their own servers, but that was in the era of printed tickets. in qatar they switched to new provider offering mobile tickets who had serious issues during the tournament. tickting partner for 2026 hasn't been appointed yet, so anything is possible. only hospitality is clear (on locaton)
nope, both claims are totally wrong. arthur blank and his ignorants love to claim the stadium was build with both sports in mind ... which is nothing but a terrible lie. unfortunately americans tend to believe what they are told, especially if the subject is something like football, where they are in principle clueless. it is definitely more than great stadium for american football, one of the best, but it is huge compromise for fottball. let's wait and see what FIFA is going to do, might be revealing for most of you
situation is simmilar to SoFi.... when he realized how much must be done kroenke was pretty unhappy and initially refused required adaptation. soon or a later we're going to find out the whole story with LA. maybe he was only bluffing in order to get as many games as possible ... who knows
Those pictures from ATL stadium are crazy. Corners being obscured is no surprise... a stupid design but maybe not a deal breaker. But I didn't know that fans behind the goal can't even see the 2-3 yards in front of goal/endline... that's ridiculous, sheer stupidity unless they never really planned for footy at this place Will be interesting to see what FIFA does about that. As for the LA stadium, I thought their sightlines situation was better, but the fact that they might have an issue when KSE owns a few "soccer franchises" including a rather major one, is a little laughable. I guess their defense would be, that the LA stadium was planned mainly for NFL. But in this day in age, with major summer tours by world famous footy teams, that would be rather naive.