World Cup 2026

Following from my post in the Trump thread, this is an interesting read.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cdjzknpxlv2o

I know before World Cups and Olympics that there's often some negative stories and statements, but right now I genuinely think that this World Cup could be a complete disaster. Trumps policies and the way he's behaving are stirring up trouble in the US, FIFAs greed in expanding the tournament and the resulting possibilities of unattractive kick off times for key audiences and maximising ticket prices with "dynamic pricing" risk creating a bloated, disorganised mess of a tournament where visiting fans are priced out and made to feel unwelcome and unsafe and fans in other countries aren't able to watch because of matches kicking off in the early hours of the morning.

Could the World Cup be about to eat itself?

 

The World Cup to me is now a poor competition.

FIFA somehow managed to replace a fraud like Blatter with one who is even worse. It is played usually where it shouldn't be played, often with teams who are nowhere near good enough to play in it, has appalling refereeing standards and after the Qatar abomination, we can say that the winner can be........let's say, predictable.

This next one will be played mostly in searing heat and scorching sun. I'll watch it if I'm in, but I'll lose no sleep if I miss games, and I won't lose any sleep to catch one.. They have killed the greatest football tournament in the world.

Not a patch on the EUROS for me.

 

There are a lot of rumours that because of the heat the kick off times will be circa 1:00am GMT - I'm not sure I'll be bothering to stay up that late for many games at all if that's the case.
Also the $500+ potential pricing will likely take away a good chunk of the colour and spectacle as large sold out sections of fans will be missing - this could end up simply being a corporate event and not a very good one at that.

 

Cheapest tickets for the final start at just over $2000. It's been said that an England fan getting a ticket for just the final will spend more on that than they would have attending every game up to getting to the final at the last tournament. England are regarded as one of the more popular teams, along with Spain, Brazil, Argentina etc. because of the number of fans they'll bring and their popularity in the USA, so there's very little chance of any of our games having discounted tickets. A game between, let's say Oman and New Zealand, they'll likely be discounted tickets there, but how many New Zealanders will go and how many from Oman would be let in? It's likely that only the very wealthiest fans will try and attend with the rest of the tickets hoovered up by corporates or celebrities going because it's an event, not for the sport.

Then theres the prospect of ICE raids on games in the US involving central and south American fans or African fans being blocked from getting in to the country. Plus Trumps support for Israel means you hope to God they don't qualify as they'll be enough backlash to begin with, but imagine Iran qualifying with Trump's anti Iran rhetoric but him gushing over Israel? Any issues the Iranian team or fans have would blow up into a diplomatic row in no time, but if Israel wound up having to play Iran???