World Cup 2026 - USA/Canada/Mexico

golfaddick said:

PrincessFiona said:

Am sure I'm not the only one to see/comment on this - just seen a Charlton flag behing the Costa Rica goal

Not really news. What will be news is when you see a Costa Rica flag behind a Charlton goal  😀

carly burn said:

Dare I say we've looked a lot better since Bellingham went off

fenaddick said:

Fantastically well taken penalty

golfaddick said:

Laddick01 said:

Good performance. 

Feels like Tuchel wants us to play pretty direct and through Gordon/Saka which is nice.

Midfield looks class. Very excited for the first game.

I'm shitting my pants at the first game. Croatia are not walk overs & I can see us losing that one.....and then we face Semenyo !

Remember the "Golden Generation" of 20 years ago. Beckham, Owen, Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Ferdinand........

We should get through our group but then when it comes to knockout football we often play poorly & get knocked out on pens.

iaitch said:

PragueAddick said:

The case of the Somali referee is not the only one. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned what I think is an even worse case regarding the Iraqi player, who of course we've never heard of, but is apparently their star striker. He's been allowed in eventually, but only after a seven-hour grilling. Then we have the case of the Swiss player who had his ESTA placed under review at the last minute and couldn't travel (although is expected to, eventually)

WTF?

Would anyone like to imagine for me what kind of questions these clowns had to ask Aymen Hussein that could not have been asked before the Iraqi squad, whose names would have been listed in advance, left the country? The team photographer was not so lucky. They refused him entry. 

Let's not grace this bollocks with the term "policy", please. If you are privileged enough (according to FIFA) to be selected to hold this tournament, then the very least you can do is show a normal level of hospitality towards their players and their senior officials. You get their details in advance, so review them and, if you have any questions, be good enough to promptly flag them up quickly to the country concerned and get them sorted before they set off. If that isn't your normal system, make a special exemption for these players. It's not going to be difficult, is it? 

There are also now reports of some fans running into problems with last-minute reviews of their visa waivers. 

Let's be absolutely clear: all of this is on Trump. As discussed above, none of this happened in Russia. That's because Putin is smarter than Trump. He realised what he had to do in order to get the best possible publicity from staging the event. Trump on the other hand wants to be the bully who chucks his weight around. 

I am sure the vast majority of fans will have a great time, and hope to hear about them from Lifers who are there. But personally I wouldn't spend a dollar of my own money on this, or going to the States for any reason while he is running it. There's no way I'd be  deleting this post and all my other social media posts which mention him in order not to have hassle at the border just because it might offend that world class ****.

Agree with all that Prague.

No doubt after the tournament Infantino and his PR team will be gushing about how Trump arranged a brilliant World Cup and brought harmony, friendship and togetherness throughout the world!!

Probably give him another FIFA peace prize. 

bobmunro said:

killerandflash said:

fenaddick said:

Karim_myBagheri said:

fenaddick said:

bobmunro said:

The Red Robin said:

Meanwhile England deemed not good enough to host a World Cup. What a farce. 

FIFA despise England - probably more jealousy than anything else. 

We are one of the few countries, maybe the only one, that could host a World Cup at 6 months notice. I firmly believe that, like The Open is played at the home of golf every 5 years or so, the World Cup should be played at the global home of football every 20 years or so. To have only hosted it once in nearly 100 years is a disgrace.

We couldn’t host it within Fifa’s silly requirements. We simply don’t have the grounds big enough because some (like Anfield) don’t fit regulation and you can only have one city that has two stadiums. Four of the stadiums you’d want to use are in London. Outside of that you’re left with Old Trafford, Villa Park and St James Park. That isn’t enough infrastructure for Fifa’s rules 

Is that true about 2 grounds per city? How many cities does Qatar have? 

I assume they found a loophole/bribed their way out. And I believe it isn’t 2 per city, only 1 city can have 2. So you couldn’t use both Manchester grounds AND two London ones 

Just classify them as difference cities. City fans are always saying United aren't in Manchester, as they are in Trafford not Manchester...

Wouldn't need both - and OT is a shithole anyway.

London - Wembley and Spurs

Manchester - Ehtihad 

Newcastle - St James

Leeds - Elland Road

Liverpool - Hill Dickinson

Birmingham - Villa Park

Throw in these for the lesser games:

Nottingham - City Ground

Derby - Pride Park

Southampton - St Marys

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

ValleyGary said:

Mexico have hosted 3 times. Fucking Mexico!!!

in fairness 1986 wasn't supposed to be them, they stepped in after Colombia withdrew from hosting it.

I also don't really class this tournament as them hosting. They have a few group games and then just 3 knockout games (with only 1 game after the round of 32). To me this is basically a USA world cup, with Canada and Mexico just tagging along.

There are 104 games and Mexico have 13, (Canada also have 13). The USA have 78.

If France were hosting the World cup and we had a handful of games, would people class that us hosting it?

iaitch said:

iaitch said:

PragueAddick said:

The case of the Somali referee is not the only one. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned what I think is an even worse case regarding the Iraqi player, who of course we've never heard of, but is apparently their star striker. He's been allowed in eventually, but only after a seven-hour grilling. Then we have the case of the Swiss player who had his ESTA placed under review at the last minute and couldn't travel (although is expected to, eventually)

WTF?

Would anyone like to imagine for me what kind of questions these clowns had to ask Aymen Hussein that could not have been asked before the Iraqi squad, whose names would have been listed in advance, left the country? The team photographer was not so lucky. They refused him entry. 

Let's not grace this bollocks with the term "policy", please. If you are privileged enough (according to FIFA) to be selected to hold this tournament, then the very least you can do is show a normal level of hospitality towards their players and their senior officials. You get their details in advance, so review them and, if you have any questions, be good enough to promptly flag them up quickly to the country concerned and get them sorted before they set off. If that isn't your normal system, make a special exemption for these players. It's not going to be difficult, is it? 

There are also now reports of some fans running into problems with last-minute reviews of their visa waivers. 

Let's be absolutely clear: all of this is on Trump. As discussed above, none of this happened in Russia. That's because Putin is smarter than Trump. He realised what he had to do in order to get the best possible publicity from staging the event. Trump on the other hand wants to be the bully who chucks his weight around. 

I am sure the vast majority of fans will have a great time, and hope to hear about them from Lifers who are there. But personally I wouldn't spend a dollar of my own money on this, or going to the States for any reason while he is running it. There's no way I'd be  deleting this post and all my other social media posts which mention him in order not to have hassle at the border just because it might offend that world class ****.

Agree with all that Prague.

No doubt after the tournament Infantino and his PR team will be gushing about how Trump arranged a brilliant World Cup and brought harmony, friendship and togetherness throughout the world!!

Probably give him another FIFA peace prize. 

I got that bit wrong, tournament not started yet and read this on BBC Sport website.

 'And there was a robust defence of US President Donald Trump, with Infantino claiming a World Cup that will be largely played in the United States would have been "impossible" without the 79-year-old'.

Chris_from_Sidcup said:

bobmunro said:

killerandflash said:

fenaddick said:

Karim_myBagheri said:

fenaddick said:

bobmunro said:

The Red Robin said:

Meanwhile England deemed not good enough to host a World Cup. What a farce. 

FIFA despise England - probably more jealousy than anything else. 

We are one of the few countries, maybe the only one, that could host a World Cup at 6 months notice. I firmly believe that, like The Open is played at the home of golf every 5 years or so, the World Cup should be played at the global home of football every 20 years or so. To have only hosted it once in nearly 100 years is a disgrace.

We couldn’t host it within Fifa’s silly requirements. We simply don’t have the grounds big enough because some (like Anfield) don’t fit regulation and you can only have one city that has two stadiums. Four of the stadiums you’d want to use are in London. Outside of that you’re left with Old Trafford, Villa Park and St James Park. That isn’t enough infrastructure for Fifa’s rules 

Is that true about 2 grounds per city? How many cities does Qatar have? 

I assume they found a loophole/bribed their way out. And I believe it isn’t 2 per city, only 1 city can have 2. So you couldn’t use both Manchester grounds AND two London ones 

Just classify them as difference cities. City fans are always saying United aren't in Manchester, as they are in Trafford not Manchester...

Wouldn't need both - and OT is a shithole anyway.

London - Wembley and Spurs

Manchester - Ehtihad 

Newcastle - St James

Leeds - Elland Road

Liverpool - Hill Dickinson

Birmingham - Villa Park

Throw in these for the lesser games:

Nottingham - City Ground

Derby - Pride Park

Southampton - St Marys

This wouldn't work because FIFA's requirements for stadiums are:

All stadiums hosting quarters/semi must be minimum 60k.
Final has to be above 80k capacity.

These are obviously fine but the issue is all stadiums used must be minimum 40k which we don't have. With 48 teams at the WC now, the requirement is 16 stadiums. 

We have 12 stadiums that are 40k+ and 5 are in London. You could add in Cardiff and Glasgow but unless they relax the rules on stadiums per city then it currently won't work.