World Cup 2026

[RedHand88]

Thats Var a real mess to games, it should be your main body mass,u torso area to be the deciding factor, not a f**king toe.Pure piss!

Wtf is a main body mass and how does it be legislated into the rules?

[Baile Brigín 2]

Thats Var a real mess to games, it should be your main body mass,u torso area to be the deciding factor, not a f**king toe.Pure piss!

Nothing to do with VAR though. That's the rule, on or over.

[RedHand88]

Thats Var a real mess to games, it should be your main body mass,u torso area to be the deciding factor, not a f**king toe.Pure piss!

Nothing to do with VAR though. That's the rule, on or over.

Offside rule has existed since 1863. So I don't think VAR can be blamed for it.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

So we are at the last 32.
Let's have a look at the state of play.
32 out of 48 teams still in so 67% are through.

13 out of 16 UEFA teams made it - 81%

5 out of 6 South American teams - 83%

9 out of 10 African teams -90%. This is a great stat, I wasnt expecting it at all, yes Egypt and Morocco and the likes can play but teams like Congo and Algeria also played well to get thru and even crappy South Africa found a way into the last 32.

Now to the messy bit

Concacaf 3 out of 6 thru -50%. You need to remember that 3 hosts are seeded so get a handy draw which probably helped improve that stat. Usa and Mexico you would expect to go thru. Canada give things a go but aren't great but good luck to them. The rest are poor

Oceania

0 out of 1 - 0%
New Zealand pretty much guaranteed qualification forever, should only qualify through an intercontinental playoff to make it fair

Asia 2 out of 9 - 22%

This is the elephant in the room. The Asian teams are crap and this is surprising to noone. Japan are good. Korea are usually good but missed out this time but the rest are junk. Australia are not even Asian joined the federation because they kept failing to win the intercontinental play off and realised that joining Asia against joke teams was the way forward. The head of this federation is doing a great job, how he scammed 9 teams into the world cup is incredible. UEFA with all its power and money only got 3 extra places when things expanded and the result is Italy are not there among a number of other decent teams.

The way forward to even things up is to have all the playoff teams from across the world to be in a draw, that would get rid of the crap before the actual tournament proper kicks off

[Baile Brigín 2]

I thought it was the opposite with Australia. They were winning Oceania with ease and were going into tournaments after facing Guam and American Samoa. Asia is far tougher so they decided to risk an occasional non qualifying cycle to play half decent opposition.

Remember they beat American Samoa 31 - 0 with an entirely domestic team before it was professional? Archie Thompson got 13 and was dropped from the next squad when the European based players returned.

[gallsman]

Italy are not there because they're crap. No other reason. They're not missed either

Infantino and FIFA are an utter joke but "let's have more crap European teams" in it  is a solution to nothing. The WC has always had shite teams. An enlarged WC will have more shite teams.

Of the Asian teams that went out, Iran were utterly f**king screwed over by the US and still only went out because a toenail was offside and a 96th minute equaliser. Saudi Arabia pulled off one of the greatest WC upsets of all time against Australia in 2022.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

I thought it was the opposite with Australia. They were winning Oceania with ease and were going into tournaments after facing Guam and American Samoa. Asia is far tougher so they decided to risk an occasional non qualifying cycle to play half decent opposition.

Remember they beat American Samoa 31 - 0 with an entirely domestic team before it was professional? Archie Thompson got 13 and was dropped from the next squad when the European based players returned.

No before Oceania got a slot the winner(Australia) would have a play off against a team from South America which they kept losing they also had a play off once against Iran and lost. The automatic spots in Asia were a tempting alternate pathway for them

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Italy are not there because they're crap. No other reason. They're not missed either

Infantino and FIFA are an utter joke but "let's have more crap European teams" in it  is a solution to nothing. The WC has always had shite teams. An enlarged WC will have more shite teams.

Of the Asian teams that went out, Iran were utterly f**king screwed over by the US and still only went out because a toenail was offside and a 96th minute equaliser. Saudi Arabia pulled off one of the greatest WC upsets of all time against Australia in 2022.

Italy are crap but they would be better than about 20 teams there. I would rather have crap European teams there than even worse teams from Asia or wherever. Why should geographical location give you a massive unfair advantage in qualifying

[Wildweasel74]

Here Brazil won 8 times outta 18 games in qualifying, in the European set up u not qualify if u lose 2/3 games

[gallsman]

Italy are not there because they're crap. No other reason. They're not missed either

Infantino and FIFA are an utter joke but "let's have more crap European teams" in it  is a solution to nothing. The WC has always had shite teams. An enlarged WC will have more shite teams.

Of the Asian teams that went out, Iran were utterly f**king screwed over by the US and still only went out because a toenail was offside and a 96th minute equaliser. Saudi Arabia pulled off one of the greatest WC upsets of all time against Australia in 2022.

Italy are crap but they would be better than about 20 teams there. I would rather have crap European teams there than even worse teams from Asia or wherever. Why should geographical location give you a massive unfair advantage in qualifying

Because that's where all the people live?

[weareros]

In addition to being a corrupt political organisation, FIFA are also in the business of making money in every corner of the globe without any ethical standards, and that's where they'll expand to more crap teams. Decades ago Dunphy called it the Snickers World Cup, an innocent enough quip. Now it's the Aramco World Cup, football brought to you by the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter.

[Captain Obvious]

Sunday 28th June:

20:00 - Round of 32

When I might start watching or paying much attention.

The majority of shadow boxing over time for me to start watching now.

[imtommygunn]

I would hold off until tomorrow...

[Baile Brigín 2]

Italy are not there because they're crap. No other reason. They're not missed either

Infantino and FIFA are an utter joke but "let's have more crap European teams" in it  is a solution to nothing. The WC has always had shite teams. An enlarged WC will have more shite teams.

Of the Asian teams that went out, Iran were utterly f**king screwed over by the US and still only went out because a toenail was offside and a 96th minute equaliser. Saudi Arabia pulled off one of the greatest WC upsets of all time against Australia in 2022.

Italy are crap but they would be better than about 20 teams there. I would rather have crap European teams there than even worse teams from Asia or wherever. Why should geographical location give you a massive unfair advantage in qualifying

Because it's the World Cup.

And nothing unfair about Italy failing to qualify three times in a row.

Look at Cape Verde. Only there because of an expansion, story of the tournament. Would Bulgaria have added more to the tournament?

[Baile Brigín 2]

In addition to being a corrupt political organisation, FIFA are also in the business of making money in every corner of the globe without any ethical standards, and that's where they'll expand to more crap teams. Decades ago Dunphy called it the Snickers World Cup, an innocent enough quip. Now it's the Aramco World Cup, football brought to you by the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter.

How do FIFA make more money off Curacao being there than Italy?

Keep it on the road