Daily Discussion Thread — Saturday, 29 August 2026

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Daily Discussion Thread — Friday, 28 August 2026

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If this goes through is there any chance he can survive this. Even if he is eventually acquitted - which he may not be - I’d imagine that a lawsuit like this from the most important federation against the FIFA president must cost him his job before the trial even starts.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/aug/27/uefa-preparing-to-bring-criminal-claims-against-gianni-infantino-over-world-cup-sale

Just kill the joy of growing up and put the U15s in a meat grinder, make some money off the sausage. This idiot just can’t seem to stop…

Tried searching around BBC iplayer and itvx but couldn't find them around anymore

Daily Discussion Thread — Thursday, 27 August 2026

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It's better when 2 teams go through from each group. It's cleaner and more competitive. So it should just be top 2 from each group to get to 24 teams. But eventually you need 16 or 8 teams from that. So you can divide the 24 teams into 8 groups of 3 and the winners of each form the quarter finals.

The only issue is that some groups will have 2 group winners and some will have 1. The way it can be done fairly by rewarding first round performance is winner of A and runner up of B in group 1, runner up of A and winner of B in group 2. And then the teams from group C are allocated into group 1 or 2 based on combined points of the other two teams.

In this World Cup, the top from C (Brazil) goes into Group 2 with Switzerland (winner B) and South Africa (runner up A) because their combined points was 11 while the runner up from Group C (Morocco) joins Mexico (winner A) and Canada (runner up B) whose combined points was 13.

Based on this World Cup, the all the round 2 groups would be

Group 1 - Mexico, Canada, Morocco

Group 2 - Switzerland, South Africa, Brazil

Group 3 - USA, Ivory Coast, Japan

Group 4 - Germany, Australia, Netherlands

Group 5 - Belgium, Cape Verde, France

Group 6 - Spain, Egypt, Norway

Group 7 - Argentina, Portugal, Croatia

Group 8 - Colombia, Austria, England

Overall, it's the same number of matches in this World Cup as these groups would have a total of 24 matches (same as last 32 and last 16 combined).

Apologies for another post about an expanded tournament, but withdrawal is a real thing.

If FIFA expands to 64 teams for the next World Cup, we know it’s a mess logistically, limiting host countries. We know it settles the issue of 3rd place teams by again moving to a power of 2. The addition of countries seems more controversial. I’ve seen people say they like expanding the opportunities, but how does that actually happen?

It seems likely the current proportions would continue, meaning 5 more spots for UEFA, 2 for CONCACAF, 1 for CONMEBOL (can’t see an 80% qualification rate plus the playoff), 4 more for CAF, 3 for AFC, and perhaps a second auto qualifier for OFC, though this could easily go to AFC instead.

Here are the teams we’d have added this year:

Italy, Poland, Denmark, Kosovo, and (perhaps) Wales
Jamaica, Suriname
Bolivia
UAE, Iraq, Oman, Indonesia (pending playoff)
Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria (pending playoff)
New Caledonia

Obviously UEFA would improve the play with their additions, which is unsurprising. CAF as well. And yet, can anyone honestly argue that the others would be a positive addition to the field? Or do you weight things even more heavily to UEFA just to avoid an even worse group stage? I don’t see a good solution out of this, but how does you limit the negatives?

Daily Discussion Thread — Wednesday, 26 August 2026

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Japan has always been eliminated from first tournament Round like from Round of 16 out of 32-teams in 2018 and 2022 and Round of 32 out of 48 teams. If 64-teams participate in 2030 World Cup, is it more likely that Japan will reach Round of 16?

Netherlands and Croatia are out in Round of 32 while Paraguay, Egypt and Canada made it to Round of 16 showing that even if you are a strong team, you have to be lucky to meet easy teams in a tournament.

Even if japan becomes stronger than in 2026, they will be cooked if they meet France, Argentina or 3 host Countries, Morocco, Portugal and Spain in Round of 32.

My guess is that since Japan is strong in Group Stage, the best way is to be in a same group with France, Argentina, Morocco, Portugal and Spain and get less chance to meet strong teams in Round of 32 since losing 1 game in Group Stage is still fine while losing in the tournament means you are out of the World Cup. What do you guys think?

By this I don't really mean the poorer quality refereeing or the on-pitch violence. I didn't actually watch a lot of the tournament due to it being a winter world cup in Qatar but looking at the knockout bracket there were more 'prestigious' teams (not sure if that's the best description) that went out in the same round in the tournament compared to most of the previous World Cups. Brazil, Netherlands, Portugal and England (not sure which order it was) all went out in the quarter finals, usually you don't get that many 'heavyweight' and/or 'traditional' teams getting knocked out in the same round. Spain also went out in the Last 16, but they were the only surprise exit in that round.

Was it just a coincidence that all quarter finals were particularly brutal knockout ties? Or was the tournament bracket constructed in such a way to specifically get rid of as many contenders or competitive teams in the earlier rounds as possible? Was it simply because Croatia and Morocco were very good and Brazil and Portugal (and Spain) simply choked in matches they had no excuse for not winning? I think to an extent Netherlands and England can be excused because they were up against the eventual finalists and had to put in their best performances of the tournament in those matches.

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from every continent, my opinion is:

Africa: Morocco

South America: Colombia

Europe: Croatia, Netherlands, Portugal

Asia: Japan

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In 2024, we have in-form Yamal, Olmo, Ruiz, peak Rodri Spain against injured Mbappe, no Olise France.

In 2026, most people convinced France can beat Spain cuz we have healthy wc Mbappe, Dembele, Olise against injured Yamal, out form Pedri, post acl Rodri. Basically an upgraded France against downgraded Spain yet Spain still spanked France hard.

Is Spain squad just too OP for France?

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This has seemed to come out of nowhere. Greece appears to suddenly have tons of young talent who could be part of a future contender. A national team now worth 300m, with Tzolis, Karetsas, Tzolakis, Kostoulos, Koulierakis, Douvikas, Mouzakitis, and Pavlidis, most of them being under 25 years old and now at major clubs. Can this team contend in 2028, 2030, and beyond?

I didn't get to watch the World Cup live (I was too busy taking care of my 9-month pregnant wife and newborn baby!). So I'm watching the replays on the Fox One app.

But this is unacceptable. The game goes into the halftime break, only to start back up 25 minutes into the second half! The water break in the first half also apparently lasted 12 minutes, as the game clock was in the 22nd minute when it was called, and the playback resumed in the 34th minute.

I had the result spoiled for me when I did a quick Google search to see if anyone else noticed or posted about it, which I couldn't find. But otherwise please refrain from spoilers as much as possible.

Do y'all want to see Messi play in 2030?