World Cup 2026 to switch back to four-team groups Looks like they are keeping the 4 team group format. It also adds an extra KO round, so winning it just became that bit harder again. I think this is a positive move, as qualifying to only play 2 games seemed a bit pointless.
Well if they must increase the number of teams then this is a necessary evil. I love the WC so more games is not a problem to me. Just means I have to try to explain to my wife why I am watching Uzbekistan v Guinea Bissau... And where both countries are.
After you looked it up before where both countries are Tbh I'd have problems showing them on the globe right now, I have a guess where both could be but maybe would point to the wrong country Anyway, for me it's way too much countries participating, such an increase is insane, imo. But hey, at least the World Cup is now again at European summertime.
Yeah, true. I have a rough idea where countries are located, but couldn't be sure exactly. Will be good to have new fans at WC at least.
European qualifying format announced: UEFA has set the recommended qualifying format for the 2026 World Cup. 12 groups 12 group winners qualify for the World Cup 12 runners-up go into the playoffs The 4 best UEFA Nations League group *winners* not to be 1st or 2nd in qualifying join the playoff paths. Bit old school then ? Might mean more competitive games if teams know they have to top the group to be certain of a place
New Jersey to host the World Cup final . First game in Mexico . New Jersey to host 2026 World Cup final
Infantino has the balls to say that fans and players were at the forefront of the planning and they took consideration of the distances between host cities! The more I see him, the more he is starting to looking like the Bond villain Blofeld or Dr Evil from Austin Powers... I didn't think it was possible to get a more dislikable head of FIFA than Sepp Blatter but I was mistaken. Pisses me off that Mexico will have hosted three World Cups since we hosted one. Canada is just there as a makeweight (only 2 stadiums).
The US hosting 75% of the games tells the whole story. The other two nations have a very low 13 games to host between themselves and most of those will be group stage ones. Was to be expected I suppose but those games will be very hard to get to (especially the Mexican ones). We do not know which grounds will be allocated to which groups yet but I did notice that the US play their 3 group games on the West Coast (2 in Los Angeles & 1 in Seattle). Now those places are not next to each other by any stretch of the imagination BUT it's not on the other side of the country either meaning that it is possible that FIFA organize the groups by region (East, West, Central). Something like the Mexican & Texas grounds being in the same group or something like that (good luck to fans of sides that'll be playing in Miami & Atlanta though!). We can only hope and what I just wrote is 100% speculation but it could happen.
agree, and whilst the organisers/FIFA and probably all else are rubbing their hands at the thought of extra $$$$ the quality won't improve just more matches and more mismatches some may argue more teams gives more smaller nations in eg Africa and Asia a chance to improve, but they don't in their own region with that hierarchy and World Cup is another step or six up... and getting beat 2-3 times won't help them improve - if they qualify once in every fifth blue moon they'll just get beaten, nice for them and their fans to be there but might as well on that basis scrap qualifying and have all teams at the final four teams in a group is the right number, makes sure all are playing last round at same time and if you have to fiddle who qualifies then do it, with 24 teams they worked it down to 16 so why not 48, 96, 192 etc.... doesn't matter how many teams and rounds you play, no cup competition gets to the nitty gritty until the QFs... before that is the banana skin for big guns, the chance to get close, sniff success, and maybe upset applecarts in the QFs for a few others
