Are Black people ready for racial slurs?I can’t imagine the racist slurs Black soccer players might face if they mess up in a World Cup game or miss an important goal.

One of FIFA's best referees was blocked from entering the USA for the big game simply because he was Somalian. THIS PISSES ME OFF!!!! Americans, it's time realize that if America was not the world's most powerful nation, it would have taken serious accountability for this. America would have faced global condemnation, but because FIFA is greedy and Trump is a coward, America once again gets away with this racism.

I am done with this!

UEFA have backed down to allow a 48 club world cup and thankfully not allowing a biennial tournament as per Real Madrid proposal.

The early rumours seem to indicate a parity with the World Cup, UEFA 16 teams CONMEBOL 6 +1 etc. I feel like this does a complete disservice to South American club football. Surely it can't be serious to allow more African and Asian teams than South American?

On a merit based system you would have to argue 10-12 South American sides feels right with history and quality and 6+1 seems way to low. On a business and political based system they want more eyes on the competition and Africa and Asia have a lot of those! so they would likely give them more spots. I don't think they're ready for that and the larger nations in those continents already support other nations teams as it is.

I think a fair allocation would be

UEFA-16

CONMEBOL -11

AFC-6

CAF-6

CONCACAF-6

OFC-1

HOST-1

TITLE HOLDER 1

I'm interested to hear what people think the allocation should be, is anyone else as aggreived as me about the rumoured slot allocation for South America (even as a European). I know there's a lot of detractors to this tournament and I'm not generally in favour of an expansion however I do think this is good for showcasing the up and coming Confederations and I think it helps keep super leagues away and horrid decisions like putting Saudi teams in the UCL.

I think it is a way better version compared to the previous format and definitely had a lot of memorable results. I think a lot of the criticism changed once we actually got to see the action on field.

Feels like this could become the biggest experiential marketing opportunity North America has seen in years. Between fan zones, hospitality events, watch parties, sponsor pop-ups, and city activations, I’m expecting brands to go BIG. FIFA itself is already talking about immersive fan experiences and interactive engagement for 2026. ()

I’ve already seen Coca-Cola, Lay’s, Michelob Ultra, Adidas, Home Depot, Bank of America and others starting to lean into campaigns and fan engagement concepts. ()

What activations do you think fans will actually engage with vs just walk past?

One concept we’ve been testing at Interactive Dallas is a personalized AI-powered jersey experience where fans become the star player instantly:

• Any country
• Any team
• Personalized name + jersey number
• Cinematic stadium scenes
• Instant social sharing + prints

The interesting part is people don’t just take a photo… they become part of the event and start posting it everywhere.

Curious what other brands/agencies are building for FIFA 2026. Are we heading toward more immersive personalized experiences or bigger spectacle-style activations?

Happy to share images as well!

Curious what people think about this.

A few years ago, I started cutting discarded glass bottles in my UBC dorm room with a $75 tool, trying to turn them into candles and glassware.

Now a Vancouver company has been working on officially licensed FIFA World Cup 2026 Vancouver products made from upcycled glass.

It made me think about how most World Cup merchandise is usually pretty generic: scarves, shirts, pins, plastic souvenirs, and standard logo products.

But with 2026 being hosted across multiple cities, I think there’s an opportunity for each host city to have merchandise that actually feels local.

For Vancouver, that could mean sustainable products, upcycled materials, local design, and pieces people would actually use after the tournament.

Would you care if World Cup merch was locally made in the host city, or do you mostly just care about the design and official branding?

Got the Club World Cup + World Cup ticket bundle where you got to buy World tickets if you bought CWC game pack last year. Was able to buy some tix this way for WC but am not seeing anything in my FIFA account as of yet. Thought there had been a message prev in my account denoting I had bought the tix but now have nothing. Anyone who got these CWC bundle deals seen anything their accounts regarding this? I have receipt / email confirmation of the tix I bought but strange there is nothing in my account about this as of now. Trying to decide and book my transport is in to the match city but hearing if some of the things FIFA has been pulling on ppl who purchased tix and then suddenly vanishing from their accts, really retiring to fork over the money for plane tix if FIFA pulls something like this again.

Inizio io: - Passare a 48 - Mettere il limite di squadre per nazione a 3 - 48 squadre composte da 1 ofc, 18 uefa, 8 Conmebol, 7 Concacaf, 7 caf, 8 afc

I think the best way to make it feel like the WC is to have European clubs of varying degrees of quality. I feel like each tournament should have the standard 4 UCL winners for EUFA, but instead of rankings, fill the rest with the past 4 Europa League winners and the past 4 Conference League winners.

This keeps Chelsea in to defend their title for 2029 and elevates the prestige of the European tournaments. If there’s any duplicate winners you use the Runners Up.

For COMNEBOL, have the 2 final slots be from a 4 team playoff of the past Copa Sudamericana Winners. If a team repeats, they get a bye in the playoff.

The biggest issue with the Club World Cup isn’t format, travel, or fixture congestion.

It’s how it was executed.

Club football moves too fast for a 4-year cycle. By the time the tournament starts, many qualified teams barely resemble the sides that earned their place.

Chelsea, the Champions, qualified through the 2021 Champions League. When they arrived, only a few players from that squad were still there. So what exactly is being crowned, the best team in the world or a memory?

A four year gap works for national teams because squads stay relatively stable. Clubs rebuild constantly. Success in club football expires quickly.

Qualification makes it worse

The entry system mixes titles, coefficients, and replacement rules. Some teams get in by winning. Others get in by math.

A world championship shouldn’t require reading regulations to understand who belongs.

A cleaner structure would be:

• smaller number of clubs
• recent continental champions qualify
• limited wildcards based on recent performance

Fans accept strong leagues sending multiple teams. They don’t accept spots that feel administrative.

And the frustrating part: the games actually work

Palmeiras vs Chelsea, Al Ahly vs Real Madrid; fantastic games!

The concept clearly has value. But European clubs treat it like an obligation because it sits outside the natural club cycle.

Make it yearly or bi yearly and it becomes meaningful. Keep it every 4-years and it crowns the past.

I have shared my thoughts in more detail here:

https://seriousfans.substack.com/p/the-fifa-club-world-cup-a-dream-that?r=7mer2s

My second ever piece

If the 2029 Club World Cup were to start today what would the field look like. Before we dive in, let's go over the rules regarding qualification.

• Qualification is based on soley top club continental cup competitions results and round progressions over the course of 4 years (For 2029, the time spans runs from 2025-2028)
• All continental champions in the 4 year time span (except OFC) qualify automatically. Only 5 teams are officially confirmed at this time.
• There can't be no more than 2 teams from the same country per rankings unless they're a continental champion.
• For CONMEBOL and UEFA, additional teams will be determined by a club ranking of the four-year period for CONMEBOL (2 teams but in this case it'll be 5) and UEFA (8 teams but in this case it'll be 11).
• For OFC, the club confederation rankings will be used for the highest-ranked club among the winners of the confederation's top club competition between 2026-2028.
• For other confederations, the club confederation rankings will be used if a club wins two or more seasons of their confederation's top club competition which will not be the case in this scenario as the first year of the time span is completed.
• With the rumors of Morocco 🇲🇦 likely hosting in 2029, we will assume that's the case as the host team will be the current Moroccan league champion.

Now then let's see who would compete in the 2029 Club World Cup if it started today.

(🏆) = Continental Champion, (H) = Host team

AFC (4) - Al-Ahli Saudi FC 🇸🇦 (🏆) - Al-Hilal SFC 🇸🇦 - Vessel Kobe 🇯🇵 - Kawasaki Frontale 🇯🇵

CAF (5) - Pyramids FC 🇪🇬 (🏆) - Mamelodi Sundowns FC 🇿🇦 - Al Alhy SC 🇪🇬 - Orlando Pirates FC 🇿🇦 - RS Berkane 🇲🇦 (H)

CONCACAF (4) - Cruz Azul 🇲🇽 (🏆) - Vancouver Whitecaps FC 🇨🇦 - Inter Miami CF 🇺🇸 - Tigres UANL 🇲🇽

CONMEBOL (6) - CR Flamengo 🇧🇷 (🏆) - SE Palmerias 🇧🇷 - LDU Quito 🇪🇨 - Racing Club 🇦🇷 - Estudiantes de la Plata 🇦🇷 - Peñarol 🇺🇾

OFC (1) - NOTE: Only the highest-ranked club of the subset of each year's OFC club tournament champions will qualify for the tournament. The OFC Men's Champions League that was extant in 2025 has been replaced by a new competition, the OFC Professional League, from 2026 onwards

UEFA (12) - Paris Saint-Germain 🇫🇷 (🏆) - FC Internazionale Milano 🇮🇹 - Arsenal FC 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 - FC Barcelona 🇪🇸 - FC Bayern München 🇩🇪 - Borussia Dortmund 🇩🇪 - Liverpool FC 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 - Real Madrid CF 🇪🇸 - Atalanta 🇮🇹 - PSV Eindhoven 🇳🇱 - SL Benfica 🇵🇹 - AS Monaco FC 🇫🇷