World Cup 2026

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Hmm, I’ve been talking to people in the tourism industry in Vancouver and the benefits were definitely oversold. Unless you were right on the Granville Strip the bump was slim to nonexistent. And the suburbs apparently didn’t benefit much either.

FIFA fandom fails to translate in Richmond hotels
Soccer-rabid fans aren't necessarily making their way from Vancouver to Richmond.
John Kurucz
Jul 8, 2026

… Tourism Richmond CEO Nancy Small says that at least in the local context, the sheer volume of fandom seen in Vancouver hasn’t materialized in big numbers on the other side of the Fraser River.

“The projections and the goals that we had anticipated a year ago, in terms of budgets and forecasts, have not been met in the hotels,” Small said.…

https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/fifa-fandom-fails-to-translate-in-richmond-hotels-12521339

Logistically, it doesn't work in North America due to the NFL season, but the World Cup should start after Labour Day if played here, to be a benefit to the cities. They can try to sell the tourism aspect all they want, but summer is already travel season, most of these cities don't really need the help of the WC at this time of year. All the WC did was replace one group of tourists with another.

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Pleaseeee don't increase CONCACAF spots anymore. Curaco is in the world cup because of CONCACAF

That's the nature of the game. Italy has won the world cup 4 times, but didn't qualify and instead Bosnia qualified. I'm okay with 64 teams. It makes it more exciting.

[niwell]

England completely fell apart in the second half and unfortunately (for me) deserved the loss. Can't believe I'll be cheering for Spain, but here we are! Been in the "anyone but Argentina" camp from the get-go.

England / France should be an interesting match on Saturday too.

[Denscity]

Vancouver’s official FIFA fan festival at the PNE just surpassed half a million visitors.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Nite

Both Canada and the US also lost by 3 goals, should they not been at the World Cup?

Let's be honest. If this WC was not in Canada or in a 48 team format, Canada might not have qualified.

Originally Posted by Nite

The World Cup is definitely expanding to 64 teams which i think is for the best as it will make the tournament more fair not having to deal with the best 3rd play team and opening up the world cup to teams currently on the bubble.

You know where else you don't deal with 3rd placed teams? In a 32 team WC format !

[Nite]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Let's be honest. If this WC was not in Canada or in a 48 team format, Canada might not have qualified.



You know where else you don't deal with 3rd placed teams? In a 32 team WC format !

yes and the 32 team format (starting in 1998) was an expansion on the 24 team format before it. But no one ever wants to go back after expansion happens.

64 format to me is ideal and will truely make the tournament an ever bigger world affair.

if 2026 had 64 teams these are the teams that would have qualified with my expansion plan based on their 2026 qualifying campaign:

CONCACAF +2 (Jamaica, Honduras)
CONMEBOL +2 (Bolivia, Venezuela)
UEFA +2 (Italy, Denmark)
CAF +5 (Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Nigeria, Niger)
AFC +5 (UAE, Oman, Indonesia, Palestine, China)
OFC +0

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Nite

yes and the 32 team format (starting in 1998) was an expansion on the 24 team format before it. But no one ever wants to go back after expansion happens.

64 format to me is ideal and will truely make the tournament an ever bigger world affair.

if 2026 had 64 teams these are the teams that would have qualified with my expansion plan based on their 2026 qualifying campaign:

CONCACAF +2 (Jamaica, Honduras)
CONMEBOL +2 (Bolivia, Venezuela)
UEFA +2 (Italy, Denmark)
CAF +5 (Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Nigeria, Niger)
AFC +5 (UAE, Oman, Indonesia, Palestine, China)
OFC +0

AFC already has too many teams qualifying over better squads from Europe, Africa, and the Americas.


CAF should be increased by 5 or 6 at least, but CONMEBOL deserves way more than just 2 more slots if the WC is expanded to 64 teams. South America only had 6 slots in the expanded 48 team tournament, and they’re the only region other than Europe to ever actually win the World Cup. . . But Europe gets 16 slots.

I also think it would be better for the future of the game in North America if the Americas merged as a single confederation. When Brazil has floundered this many tournaments in a row, you have to think the South Americans would be open to radical change. A merged confederation of the Américas should get nearly 15-16 slots in an expanded 64 team tournament.

I hope Argentina wins the World Cup for the Américas!

[Nite]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

AFC already has too many teams qualifying over better squads from Europe, Africa, and the Americas.


CAF should be increased by 5 or 6 at least, but CONMEBOL deserves way more than just 2 more slots if the WC is expanded to 64 teams. South America only had 6 slots in the expanded 48 team tournament, and they’re the only region other than Europe to ever actually win the World Cup. . . But Europe gets 16 slots.

I also think it would be better for the future of the game in North America if the Americas merged as a single confederation. When Brazil has floundered this many tournaments in a row, you have to think the South Americans would be open to radical change. A merged confederation of the Américas should get nearly 15-16 slots in an expanded 64 team tournament.

I hope Argentina wins the World Cup for the Américas!

The point of FIFA is to grow the game, currently Africa and Asia are the places where the game needs to grow the most with the largest untapped market.
The majority of the 16 new teams will go to Africa and Asia, just like with the expansion to 48 did.

FIFA gives each qualifying federation for the world cup between $12.5 to $50 million USD depending where they finish, for most federation in the world that is a game charger plus they get more exposure and a desire to not be embarrassed in the world cup which usually gets more government money and more development of the domestic game as well. in total FIFA is giving the qualifying federations $871 million.

The total population of the 16 nation i listed above is 2.2 Billion or 26.2% of the world population.
An expanded world cup means a bigger tv rights deals as more countries will be hyper interested in games, and 70% of the money FIFA generates goes to each of the 211 member federations.

Every federation benefits from expanding the world cup
The CSA for example will get around $30 million USD from from FIFA over the next 4 years from the FIFA baseline country founding that each federation gets and for participating in both the men's and women's world cup. these numbers would go up with more FIFA revenue which comes with an expanded world cup.

The 100 year anniversary of the world cup would be an appropriate date for the expansion to 64 from the 13 who participated in the first world cup.

I used AI to do a draw of 64 teams following FIFA criteria for the 2026 world cup and here are the groups:

GROUP A: Canada (H), Switzerland, Nigeria, China
GROUP B: Mexico (H), Austria, Jordan, New Zealand
GROUP C: United States (H), Norway, DR Congo, Indonesia
GROUP D: Spain, Ecuador, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burkina Faso
GROUP E: Argentina, Morocco, Denmark, Iraq
GROUP F: France, Paraguay, Czechia, Gabon
GROUP G: England, Japan, South Africa, Curaçao
GROUP H: Portugal, Panama, Uzbekistan, Niger
GROUP I: Brazil, Senegal, Scotland, Oman
GROUP J: Netherlands, Iran, Ghana, Haiti
GROUP K: Germany, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Honduras
GROUP L: Belgium, South Korea, Cape Verde, Jamaica
GROUP M: Italy, Tunisia, Qatar, Bolivia
GROUP N: Croatia, Australia, Cameroon, Venezuela
GROUP O: Uruguay, Algeria, Sweden, Palestine
GROUP P: Colombia, Ivory Coast, Türkiye, UAE

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Nite

The point of FIFA is to grow the game, currently Africa and Asia are the places where the game needs to grow the most with the largest untapped market.
The majority of the 16 new teams will go to Africa and Asia, just like with the expansion to 48 did.

FIFA gives each qualifying federation for the world cup between $12.5 to $50 million USD depending where they finish, for most federation in the world that is a game charger plus they get more exposure and a desire to not be embarrassed in the world cup which usually gets more government money and more development of the domestic game as well. in total FIFA is giving the qualifying federations $871 million.

The total population of the 16 nation i listed above is 2.2 Billion or 26.2% of the world population.
An expanded world cup also means much bigger tv rights as more countries will be hyper interested in games, and 70% of the money FIFA generates goes to each of the 211 member federations.

Then it should be +9 to Africa and no more than +3 to Asia (including Australia and getting rid of OFC)

[Nite]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Then it should be +9 to Africa and no more than +3 to Asia (including Australia and getting rid of OFC)

Asia is the biggest potential market of them all.
lots of money and to be made by having more Asian teams qualify.

[Nite]

I would be very surprise if 2030 doesn't have 64 teams.
this video echoes many of the reasons why i feel it will be expanded to 64
• Video Link

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Nite

Asia is the biggest potential market of them all.
lots of money and to be made by having more Asian teams qualify.

Sure, and obviously FIFA cares a lot about making money, but the quality of the football matters a lot too, so only adding 2 more teams from South America isn’t gunna cut it in that regard… Chile should be in the tournament if it’s expanded to 64 games.

Imo, merging CONCACAF and CONMEBOL into a single confederation is the best way to go about increasing the amount of slots for the Américas and also the best way to raise the level of play for North America into the long term.

As a side note… if Israel,Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia can all be in UEFA, Palestine could be too… and should be too, since that could actually motivate the rich, football obsessed gulf Arab states to invest in Gaza and the West Bank, since they could be their “Trojan horses” used to get Arab clubs competing in UEFA Champions League.

[BlackDog204]

I had to miss the World Cup Final, but from the highlights, and everything that has been said, Spain put on a master clinic, deserved to win, and the score complimented Argentina.

OTOH, the Argentineans embarrassed themselves and the sport. They were dirty, outclassed, undisciplined, and poor losers. Cheap shots, and punches were thrown at the Spanish players after the game ended while the Spaniards were celebrating.

Argentina should be sanctioned, and possibly outright banned from International competition for a year. The best team won.

Congrats, Spain. 1-0.

[savevp]

Truly, Argentina have repeatedly discredited and massively embarrassed themselves on the world stage. Though there were certainly good feelings in Toronto and Vancouver, this will go down as the World Cup where a brazenly corrupt Fifa crossed the Rubicon of interfering on the pitch.

Spain's win is a victory for football and for sport, and Argentina followed it up with a vile display that seemed to befit their newfound reputation as a disgrace to the game.

Fifa are terminally corrupt and unworthy of their status as stewards of football. Canada, meanwhile, met the rising expectations placed on them, though they did not exceed that level yet. The future is bright for the game here.

[Nouvellecosse]

I keep hearing people allude to team Argentina behaving poorly. Can someone share what exactly they did?

[savevp]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I keep hearing people allude to team Argentina behaving poorly. Can someone share what exactly they did?

This stems from the widespread feeling that 'VARgentina' have received favourable treatment from officials, which some statistics do seem to bear out. Despite committing the most fouls in the tournament, they are the only team to have no review go against them. They also avoided punishment for the blatantly illegal 'Islas Malvinas' banner after the England match. And they benefitted from an extremely questionable foul call in their favour, which overturned a Spanish goal in extra time. There are more instances.

Behaviourally, they played a very cynical style; in hockey you might equate them to a team hacking and swinging their sticks. The climax was post-loss yesterday, more than one player punching the Spanish and Argentina's Paredes choking/tackling a Spanish substitute.

As BBC said, Spain's win was a victory for football.

[Nouvellecosse]

Fascinating stuff

[savevp]

Yes. And there are dozens of other instances that could be pointed to throughout the tournament. This team will go down as a classless and unlikeable group who had been treated with kid gloves and still lost.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I keep hearing people allude to team Argentina behaving poorly. Can someone share what exactly they did?

Here's an example at the end of the game:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1025097856893055
(Facebook video)

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Here's an example at the end of the game:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1025097856893055
(Facebook video)

They think they hockey. Adorable