TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
I’m genuinely curious what an American run does for anyone?
2026 FIFA World Cup - General Chat
- Thread starter TexanToffee
- Start date
Burns off the burgers?
What a farce, top teams basically getting an easy run.
mmmmsnouts
Player Valuation: £40m
Can just see it now, the stands will be absolutely jammed full of these guys.
Not sure how you can pin this on the Americans. None of the people involved are american.
I dont think it does. In Russia or Korea you would have a massive shift in attendance based upon the home team advancing, but amrruca is so multicultural that it is hardly important which teams go through.
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
Yeah that’s exactly what I mean. If anything I’d think you’d want to rig it for the Latin countries.
barneygumble
Player Valuation: £70m
England Travel Club Members been advised, there wont be lower tier "special" tickets, like normal.
So if they buy cheapest tickets, unlike previous tournaments where they reserved blocks for atmosphere in lower tier, youll be in the corners of each stand at the back.
Have to pay in advance and should your team get eliminated, you are subject to a FIFA Charge (unspecified amount) per ticket.
Farcical.
So if they buy cheapest tickets, unlike previous tournaments where they reserved blocks for atmosphere in lower tier, youll be in the corners of each stand at the back.
Have to pay in advance and should your team get eliminated, you are subject to a FIFA Charge (unspecified amount) per ticket.
Farcical.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
When tickets are placed on the FIFA resale site they take a 15% 'commission' off both the seller of the ticket as well as the buyer. The ticket can be resold to infinity, and beyond. The rationale behind FIFA setting up the site like this was to stop ticket touting.
In previous tournaments tickets were resold at face value. It's one massive, corrupt, grubby, moneymaking scam.
brieverton
Player Valuation: £50m
This is the first world cup for me where my enthusiasm and excitement for it isn't what it was.
That's since Mexico '86. It was slightly waning for Qatar, but with the increased number of games and state of the USA / FIFA, it's sad to see.
Normally the completion of the finals draw would be the trigger to plan my annual leave and I'd make my request at work as soon as possible in January. I've always done this since I started working. Every other year I take vacation in September.
Just don't know what I'll do at all next year but either way with the extended format I'll be at work for some of it. I used to be like a kid with excitement. It was the only event that retained that for me, whilst everything else wained. Perhaps when the draw is done a bit of that might come back but a 48 team tournament is ridiculous.
That's since Mexico '86. It was slightly waning for Qatar, but with the increased number of games and state of the USA / FIFA, it's sad to see.
Normally the completion of the finals draw would be the trigger to plan my annual leave and I'd make my request at work as soon as possible in January. I've always done this since I started working. Every other year I take vacation in September.
Just don't know what I'll do at all next year but either way with the extended format I'll be at work for some of it. I used to be like a kid with excitement. It was the only event that retained that for me, whilst everything else wained. Perhaps when the draw is done a bit of that might come back but a 48 team tournament is ridiculous.
barneygumble
Player Valuation: £70m
When tickets are placed on the FIFA resale site they take a 15% 'commission' off both the seller of the ticket as well as the buyer. The ticket can be resold to infinity, and beyond. The rationale behind FIFA setting up the site like this was to stop ticket touting.
Getting penalised for your side not performing is wild.
People moaned about Qatar in the build up, but those I know who attended said it was the best WC theyd ever done.
But somehow, I cant see that being the case here.
Wishful thinking on my behalf, but I hope the stadiums are empty, like the Club World Cup.
M.Klose (Germany) scored 16 goals across 4 consecutive world cup tournaments. Seems he already holds the record for scoring at 5 world cups.
There it is, wants to go head and shoulders above the rest, there's plenty scored at 4 world cups...
Pele (Played in 4, scored in 4, won it 3 times)
Messi (Played in 5, scored in 4)(1 win)
Seeler (played 4, scored in 4)
Klose (played in 4, scored in 4)(1 win)
Muller (played in 4, scored in 2)(1 win)
Lothar Matthaus (played in 5, scored in 3)(1 win)
suarez (played 4, scored 3)
Wilmots played 4 scored in 2
Cahill played 4, scored in 3
Hierro played in 4 scored in 3
Shaqiri played in 4 scored in 3
Cavani played in 4 scored in 3
maradona played in 4, scored in 3, 1 win.
Interesting area of research this...
Fat Ronaldo, winner twice.
Vava, won twice.
Doing this the hard way. Lets try again.
Only Pele has won the WC 3 times. G.O.A.T.
There are 20 players that've won it twice (not including Pele) of these 20, 15 are Brazilian. So, the 5...
Giovani Ferrari, Italy, 1934 1938
Guido Masetti, Italy, 1934 1938
Giuseppe Meazza, Italy, 34 38
Eraldo Monzeglio, Italy, 34 38
Last but not least...
Daniel Passarella, Argentina, 1978, 1986
So, onto some more trivia. There are 3 world cup winners that have represented two different nations at WC tournaments.
Luis Monti, played for Argentina in 1930, and won it with Italy in 1934.
Attilio Demaria, Argentina 1930, won for Italy 1934.
Jose Altafini, won for Brazil 1958, played for you guessed em, Italy 1962.
There are only 4 players alive now that've won multiple (two) world cups. Cafu, Ronaldo, Pepe, Passarella.
Yeah, erm, go football!
Fat Ronaldo?
Its R9, proper Ronaldo or el phenom.
Get the kings name right
Toffee1235
Player Valuation: Free Transfer
Tank
Drico
Player Valuation: £70m
It gives Trump a propaganda coup.
He loves propaganda...and coups.
His pal "Johnny" will be more than happy to oblige.
Drico
Player Valuation: £70m
No, you're right. I'm like you - measuring my life out in World Cups. A fanatic. I have spent the last 18 months collecting about 200 of the greatest matches of all time - each one AI enhanced for superb picture quality - onto hard drives for posterity. So, the World Cup has always meant a lot to me. Its relative purity compared to the club game, the fact that superstars can come from any country, and that they might be surrounded by bakers, dentists, and handymen in their national sides, only adds to the fascination. Can the star lift his pals above themselves? It's war without guns.
But this tournament has utterly jumped the shark. The draw will only accentuate that feeling. The standard, by definition, must fall. 48 teams is three times as big as the 1978 World Cup and twice as big as the 1994 World Cup. It's another 50% bigger than Qatar 2022. The standard of global football has not developed at that rate - as we will see next summer. It's purely a money-making ruse masquerading as expanding the game into underserved regions. 32 was plenty for where the global game is. 48 isn't even a natural number for easy divisibility of contenders.
I hope there are a lot of absolute hammerings. I want this format shown up. But let's be charitable and wish Curacao and Cape Verde and Jordan well. Even so, there will be so little jeopardy in the group stage that you'd be well advised to stay working for June. With 32 teams qualifying after 72 matches, the tournament only starts at the knockout stage. But even that will be a slow burn due to the new last 32 round. Plenty of these games will be foregone conclusions, too.
The most interesting thing about next week's draw will be the potential pathways to the final for the giants - not their group stage opponents. It's going to be more important to avoid certain sides in the knockouts than it is to worry about whether or not Switzerland will be a team to avoid in your group. A tough draw in the past meant a danger of being knocked out. All it means this time is it might throw you into the other side of the knockout bracket.
I doubt I'll be recording too many matches from this edition. Like pop music and club football, as demonstrated by vintage epiodes of Top of the Pops and The Big Match Revisited, I fear that the World Cup is not what it used to be.
*Old man shakes fist at clouds*
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
In most countries that might be true. In the US I’m really not sure it moves the needle much.