World Cup 2026

[Sutekh]

come on the 'çao!

Go Leandro!

[South Coast Royal]

I don't think they will do any good next Summer because of their defence but credit to Steve Clarke and his players for getting there.

Our defence has been shocking.

Can't imagine someone like Grant Hanley will be playing internationally after the World Cup (probably shouldn't've been featuring in this qualifying campaign tbh); I think Jack Hendry and Ryan Porteous are better than him (notwithstanding the latter's 'recklessness' issues), but neither are getting any game time (internationally).

I was thrilled when Hanley got dropped on Tuesday, it was so Scotlandy for Souter to then get injured in the warmup and him getting back in. Having said that he was pretty good, much better than Saturday, although that's not saying a great deal

Yeah, Hanley is hardly normally up to Championship level IMHO but he did nothing much wrong on Tuesday.
With regular game time at Brentford I can see Hickey improving over the next 7 months and the same goes for Andy Irving at West Ham who also needs game time.

Scottish mates of mine lament the lack of a Golden vision Young, McKay, ,St John ,Yeats, McGrain, Johnstone, Gray, Souness, Bremner, Gemmill, McQueen, Hansen, Law, Jordan, Cooke, Dalgliesh, Ferguson(s),John Robertson, McCoist etc., etc.
Different times eh?

[Sanguine]

So the pots are taking shape for the World Cup Group Stages themselves - albeit one impact of the larger tournament is there are unlikely to be any 'Group of Death' situations, with 12 groups of four.

Pot 1 is fixed - being hosts USA, Canada and Mexico, alongside Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Pots 2, 3 and 4 will be determined by November ranking of the final list of qualified teams, i.e. if Italy qualify they will be in pot 2.

Closest I can get to a really tough group is Argentina, Italy, Norway, Ivory Coast. But lots of moving parts for now. Depending on qualifiers, England could draw South Korea, Paraguay and Haiti. Which would be lovely.

Fwiw, Italy (12th) are the highest ranked nation not yet qualified for the tournament, followed by Denmark (21st). Serbia are the only team ranked in the top 40 who are already out of the competition.

12 Italy
21 Denmark
25 Turkey
28 Ukraine
31 Poland
32 Wales
37 Serbia
38 Nigeria

[Whore Jackie]

SF1: Italy v Northern Ireland
SF2: Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina
SF3: Ukraine v Sweden
SF4: Poland v Albania
SF5: Turkey v Romania
SF6: Slovakia v Kosovo
SF7: Denmark v North Macedonia
SF8: Czech Republic v Republic of Ireland

Winner of SF2 (Wales Bosnia-Herzegovina) at home v winner of SF1 (Italy v Northern Ireland).
Winner of SF3: (Ukraine and Sweden) at home v winner of SF4 (Poland v Albania).
Winner of SF6 (Slovakia v Kosovo v winner of SF5 (Turkey v Romania)
Winner of SF8 (Czech Republic v Republic of Ireland) at home v winner of SF7 (Denmark v North Macedonia).

[RG30]

Interesting to see what happens if it's Ukraine vs Poland in the pathway B final. Ukraine currently plays it's home matches in Poland but would effectively be a home match for the Poles. Wouldn't be shocked if they played it in Germany.

[Sanguine]

IN for Wales beating Italy in Cardiff to make the Finals.

[Double C]

Mental that the smallest nation to qualify was cape Verde, until curacao got in

You can fit 9.5 curacaos into 1 cape Verde

[Sutekh]

Mental that the smallest nation to qualify was cape Verde, until curacao got in

You can fit 9.5 curacaos into 1 cape Verde

Looking forward to the usual Scotland World Cup embarrassment against one of these two.

[Silver Fox]

FIFA have discovered that 3 match suspensions for violent conduct red cards don't actually apply if you're Ronaldo, which must be nice for him

[Winston Biscuit]

FIFA have discovered that 3 match suspensions for violent conduct red cards don't actually apply if you're Ronaldo, which must be nice for him

Least surprising news ever

[Winston Biscuit]

The top four seeded countries will not be able to meet each other until the semi-finals of next year's World Cup for the first time in the tournament's history.

Fifa has announced that Spain (1st seed) and Argentina (2) will be 'paired' and placed into groups in opposite halves of the draw.

France (3) and England (4) will also be paired, which means England will not be able to come up against Spain or Argentina until the semi-finals, and France until the final.

[BRO_BOT]

FIFA have discovered that 3 match suspensions for violent conduct red cards don't actually apply if you're Ronaldo, which must be nice for him

Only just found out about this. Two other players are serving bans (Caicedo etc). Lump on Portugal to win the WC

Corrupt AF!

[Sutekh]

FIFA have discovered that 3 match suspensions for violent conduct red cards don't actually apply if you're Ronaldo, which must be nice for him

Only just found out about this. Two other players are serving bans (Caicedo etc). Lump on Portugal to win the WC

Corrupt AF!

Yes. Since when is this even a thing

FIFA has postponed the remaining two matches of his [Ronaldo’s] suspension for a period of one year on probation. This means that if Ronaldo does not commit another similar infraction during this probationary period, he will be eligible to play in Portugal's upcoming games, including their matches in the 2026 World Cup.
If he does commit another offense of similar gravity during this year, the suspension would be activated, and he would miss the next two official matches for Portugal. This decision allows him to participate in the World Cup, further extending his already illustrious career at this level.

Is this going to happen to every player who is dismissed for violent conduct? When can we expect to see the FA doing this for domestic incidents?

[Sutekh]

FIFA have discovered that 3 match suspensions for violent conduct red cards don't actually apply if you're Ronaldo, which must be nice for him

Only just found out about this. Two other players are serving bans (Caicedo etc). Lump on Portugal to win the WC

Corrupt AF!

Yes. Since when is this even a thing

FIFA has postponed the remaining two matches of his [Ronaldo’s] suspension for a period of one year on probation. This means that if Ronaldo does not commit another similar infraction during this probationary period, he will be eligible to play in Portugal's upcoming games, including their matches in the 2026 World Cup.
If he does commit another offense of similar gravity during this year, the suspension would be activated, and he would miss the next two official matches for Portugal. This decision allows him to participate in the World Cup, further extending his already illustrious career at this level.

Is this now going to happen to every player who is dismissed for violent conduct? When can we expect to see the FA doing this for domestic incidents?

File under the same rock as Inter Miami for some reason being allowed to compete in the club World Cup

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Shock at FIFA being dodgy.

Similar shock at the prices of WC tickets and people losing their mind about it,who’d have thought WC tickets would be expensive

[Winston Biscuit]

draw being done today

[Sanguine]

draw being done today

Bigger tournament, and eight third-placed teams from the groups making the knockout stages, has reduced interest in the draw and jeopardy of the group stages.

Possible, depending on playoff results, that we could see a group of Argentina, Morocco, Norway and Italy. But broadly it's going to be tough for England not to get an 'easy' looking draw. Everyone will want to avoid Croatia in pot 2 - albeit with only two UEFA sides in the same group, at least any team would then avoid Norway or (potentially) Italy.

[Sutekh]

draw being done today

Live on BBC2 @ 5pm GMT

Expect it to be played out for as long as possible by FIFA and for there to be lots of confusing and/or pointless rules and shenanigans & pot messing about

Hoping for the ultimate foul up of getting the draw nearly complete before someone spots a cockup and they have to re-draw

[Winston Biscuit]

These are just my ramblings, based on the FIFA rules of only having 1 regions teams in each pot apart from UEFA which can have 2.

easiest draw - England, Iran, South Africa, New Caledonia

hardest draw - England, Croatia, Egypt, Iraq

dream draw - England, Australia, Scotland, New Zealand



Choosing the hardest draw is the trickiest, as Italy are in the pot 4 play off spot, but you could easily have them in instead of the best UEFA team in pot B. Also choosing the best African team is hard, as the traditionally good ones don't seem as strong as usual, and I have no idea how good Cape Verde are (and I have heard pundits really talk up DR Congo as a team that are going to surprise people)

[Winston Biscuit]

Hoping for the ultimate foul up of getting the draw nearly complete before someone spots a cockup and they have to re-draw

I think it gets messy when a nation is drawn in a group they can't go into due to not having the same regions in the same group, so I get they will then just go to the next group to see if it can go there, then the next one etc, but how are they doing that with the play off games yet to happen? that's where it will just go silly I guess