World Cup 2026

I don't know about others, but no access code received from NZF as yet.
I have, however, been on the FIFA website to check out tickets in the "random selection draw". The prices are eye-watering.
The greed shown by FIFA in setting prices (and running a process that promotes FOMO and/or real fans being squeezed out) could be a significant own goal.
It wouldn't be the worst thing that they screw up big time and get shown up for the charlatans they are! 

Would love to go but Trump and his Gestapo wouldnt like my 5 year social media history. 
Wonder how many wont get to go due to his BS even before you need to win Lotto to pay for tickets.
So much for the world game that only the rich can afford to attend. FIFA and Trump make perfect corrupt partners. 

My close friend in Vancouver tells me even with his good Canadian salary he can't afford a regular ticket to see the AWs on my behalf -  tickets for the locals are through the roof apparently, even to see Canada play.  He is thinking of going away for that time and watching the WC on a big screen somewhere else, LOL.

Marto

reubee

peteremcc

Marto

peteremcc

I signed up for updates on ticket info on the All Whites Hub thing a few months ago.

Seeing the draw today, I realized I'd never heard from them - no emails or anything.

Go to the website now to see what's going on, and apparently, the window for tickets has already closed!

What a shambles - was Ticketek involved?

NZF sent out emails yesterday to the WC Whanau telling us that big things are afoot.

 I seem to be getting all their emails except the ones about the world cup.

It says online that a very short second registration window will open soon, but I haven't received any emails about that either.

Looking back through my mails, there was on email on 29th Nov subject "Football Whānau Priority Pass - New Zealand Football Important Update" which said there was an extra registration step that you needed to do by 1pm the 3rd December.  I missed that email, and it doesn't look like there were any "Hey, you haven't done this step, please do this" type follow ups.  Grrrrr  

I missed it too but sent a polite email to NZF asking to be added. Flying Kiwis also trying to get something sorted (I think). Having been on many Flying Kiwi gigs, it will be a lot of fun, especially for the younger (at heart) fans here.

Personally I'm trying to get as many AW and Iran games as I can. I see Seattle is going to do a pride game on the day Iran beats Egypt. That may not go down well with certain quarters of either team.

For those thinking Egypt is better then Iran and us, Mo is going to be owned by Boxy.

The irony is not lost. A Pride support match featuring Egypt v Iran - Two of the countries where homosexuality can lead to a death sentence. You couldn't make this up. I'm picking this to be FIFA's blunder of the tournament.

Who do the crowd cheer for or are they going to continuously boo both sides?

Maybe they'll self-flagellate like I saw a marching crowd doing in Tehran when I was last there.  Was very bloody, very impressive.

img_1_1765482071278.jpg 110.62 KB

This is for England games

LG

Marto

reubee

peteremcc

Marto

peteremcc

I signed up for updates on ticket info on the All Whites Hub thing a few months ago.

Seeing the draw today, I realized I'd never heard from them - no emails or anything.

Go to the website now to see what's going on, and apparently, the window for tickets has already closed!

What a shambles - was Ticketek involved?

NZF sent out emails yesterday to the WC Whanau telling us that big things are afoot.

 I seem to be getting all their emails except the ones about the world cup.

It says online that a very short second registration window will open soon, but I haven't received any emails about that either.

Looking back through my mails, there was on email on 29th Nov subject "Football Whānau Priority Pass - New Zealand Football Important Update" which said there was an extra registration step that you needed to do by 1pm the 3rd December.  I missed that email, and it doesn't look like there were any "Hey, you haven't done this step, please do this" type follow ups.  Grrrrr  

I missed it too but sent a polite email to NZF asking to be added. Flying Kiwis also trying to get something sorted (I think). Having been on many Flying Kiwi gigs, it will be a lot of fun, especially for the younger (at heart) fans here.

Personally I'm trying to get as many AW and Iran games as I can. I see Seattle is going to do a pride game on the day Iran beats Egypt. That may not go down well with certain quarters of either team.

For those thinking Egypt is better then Iran and us, Mo is going to be owned by Boxy.

The irony is not lost. A Pride support match featuring Egypt v Iran - Two of the countries where homosexuality can lead to a death sentence. You couldn't make this up. I'm picking this to be FIFA's blunder of the tournament.

Who do the crowd cheer for or are they going to continuously boo both sides?

No to defend FIFA, but the Pride match is an initiative of the Seattle local organizers and not FIFA. And I think 'themed' matches (like this and the Juneteenth match) are sort of odd for a multi-national event, but on the other hand... Pride celebrations are huge in several North American cities. Last year in Seattle, 300,000 people went to the Pride parade. I can only imagine how many more went to various other events around the city that week. There's going to be rainbow flags everywhere in the city, no matter what they call the match.

So, it doesn't much matter what Egypt and Iran want or feel. There is going to be a massive LGBTQ2S+ celebration the weekend of their match with many more people visiting and celebrating that event than there are attendees for the match. From a Seattle Pride perspective, it does sort of makes sense to try to include the World Cup match in with the weekend.

FIFA could have avoided all of this obviously, but it's also obvious that they don't care. They decided they could make more money by having Iran and Egypt in Seattle and New Zealand-Belgium in Vancouver, so that's what they're going to do. 

Once Trump extends his new visa entry requirements to include players will any games be worth watching as a heap of players get banned due to their posts. 😁

The smart thing to do is to just go to group games 2 & 3 and avoid the USA entirely 

Yes, it would be easier to just stay in Vancouver. It will be quite a party. The city will host Canada vs Quatar then NZ vs Egypt then Canada vs Switzerland in a six day period. 
You can imagine what it will be like for accommodation and transport. But the fan zones will be going off. Lovely city, lovely people.
Major complaints worldwide over the ticket pricing. Its just extortion of the worst kind. A WC just for the rich. FIFA = Mafia

Flights aren't too bad but accommodation is brutal, you're looking at a minimum of $4k or $5k for a one bedroom shared bathroom in a dorm.  Outside of that its thousands of dollars a night.  This tournament is only for the wealthy

Just re-asking an earlier question.
Has anyone on here, who registered with NZ Football, received an access code as yet? They were supposed to be sent out by 12 December. I've heard nothing.
Edit: Or have registered and have had no response yet.

Turfmoore

Just re-asking an earlier question.
Has anyone on here, who registered with NZ Football, received an access code as yet? They were supposed to be sent out from (or by?) 11 December. I've heard nothing.
Edit: Or have registered and have had no response yet.

No, No one has. 
I contact NZF about this as the email a week or so ago said by 12th at the latest. 
Apparently this was reset as they had to extend the registration to sunday (I think a some above posted they had dropped off somehow). 
Its coming this week they advised. 

RoriM6

Turfmoore

Just re-asking an earlier question.
Has anyone on here, who registered with NZ Football, received an access code as yet? They were supposed to be sent out from (or by?) 11 December. I've heard nothing.
Edit: Or have registered and have had no response yet.

No, No one has. 
I contact NZF about this as the email a week or so ago said by 12th at the latest. 
Apparently this was reset as they had to extend the registration to sunday (I think a some above posted they had dropped off somehow). 
Its coming this week they advised. 

Thanks - just listened to the Jason Pine discussion with Matt from Flying Kiwis, which confirms later this week. Cheers

Turfmoore

RoriM6

Turfmoore

Just re-asking an earlier question.
Has anyone on here, who registered with NZ Football, received an access code as yet? They were supposed to be sent out from (or by?) 11 December. I've heard nothing.
Edit: Or have registered and have had no response yet.

No, No one has. 
I contact NZF about this as the email a week or so ago said by 12th at the latest. 
Apparently this was reset as they had to extend the registration to sunday (I think a some above posted they had dropped off somehow). 
Its coming this week they advised. 

Thanks - just listened to the Jason Pine discussion with Matt from Flying Kiwis, which confirms later this week. Cheers

No worries at all. 
I really feel for the NZF staff, I know its their job but I know they are working late hours and weekend's in the lead up to Christmas to try get this right so fingers crossed they can get the codes out and try and enjoy a bit of family time before the ballot closes

10,000.    Wow.  Awesome 👍 

10000 is amazing. A lot of people are going to miss out unfortunately. There will a scramble for flights and accommodation once tickers have been confirmed.
Eye watering prices in Vancouver. As an example someone is charging $60,000 for a two bedroom place 6km from the centre for the week starting June 21.
Same thing happened in Paris for last years Olympics. Everyone jumped on the gouging bandwaggon and it seriously back fired. Prices tumbled dramatically just before the games.
I went on line in the middle of the Games and hundreds of hotels were discounting tickets. Occupancy was less than 80%. Same thing is going to happen in Vancouver. Lets be honest NZ vs Egypt is not exactly prime box office

FIFA listened

https://www.friendsoffootballnz.com/2025/12/17/more-affordable-ticket-prices-released-for-fifa-mens-world-cup-after-backlash/

New ticket pricing tier introduced for fans of qualified teams at FIFA World Cup 2026™

🎟️ Supporter Entry Tier tickets set at USD 60 each and available for all 104 matches

🎟️ Initiative designed to further support travelling fans following their national teams across the… pic.twitter.com/QGfzdLgSR2

— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) December 16, 2025

austin111

10000 is amazing. A lot of people are going to miss out unfortunately. There will a scramble for flights and accommodation once tickers have been confirmed.
Eye watering prices in Vancouver. As an example someone is charging $60,000 for a two bedroom place 6km from the centre for the week starting June 21.
Same thing happened in Paris for last years Olympics. Everyone jumped on the gouging bandwaggon and it seriously back fired. Prices tumbled dramatically just before the games.
I went on line in the middle of the Games and hundreds of hotels were discounting tickets. Occupancy was less than 80%. Same thing is going to happen in Vancouver. Lets be honest NZ vs Egypt is not exactly prime box office

10,000 is a big number - however that is a measure of registrations on interest, not confirmed ticket ballot entries. 
There will be some disappointed, but I suspect a lot more are probably going to go yeah-nah when they work out costs and logistics (and review their 5-year social media profile). We shall see.

As someone who will definitely go, my gut instinct is that only 1-10% of that will make any serious moves to go when flights, tickets, hotels, food and drink come in to it. That’s ignoring the USA situation.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360915965/fifa-world-cup-prize-money-confirmed-what-place-all-whites-squad-worth

A place in the All Whites' squad for next year's FIFA World Cup is set be worth at least $250,000.

The global governing body confirmed on Thursday (NZ time) that the prize money for the tournament in North America would amount to US$655m [NZ$1134m].

Each team is guaranteed US$9.5m [NZ$16.4m] – the amount paid out for failing to make it past the 48-team group stage.

Each nation also receives US$1.5m [NZ$2.6m] to help with their preparations, making for a total of US$11m [NZ$19m] coming NZ Football’s way.

Teams that make it as far as the round of 32 – as the All Whites are hoping to do – will receive US$11m [NZ$19m], while those that make it to the round of 16 will receive US$15m [NZ$26m].

The four semifinalists will be guaranteed US$29m [US$50m] with the runner-up receiving US$33m [NZ$57m] and the winner receiving US$50m [NZ$87m].

The All Whites' qualification will be a financial boon not only for NZ Football, but for the players selected, who receive about 40% of any prize money.

A 40% share of the $14.7m prize for a group stage exit would be $6.6m. Divide that by the 26 players coach Darren Bazeley is set to select in his squad next year and it works to $250,000 each.

Banzai!...AIEEE!!!

10,000.    Wow.  Awesome 👍 

 is this includes "early indications of interest" post qualification the figure would be now only 9,999 at most. I have no interest following through on my initial interest with the prices and the way the sickly, mentally deteriorating, old president is acting like a coq womble.

Sounds more and more like it will be 26 man squads for the WC.

The Scotland coach publicly said this week the squads would be 26. Wish FIFA would go ahead and confirm it though

“They have to be committed, they have to want to play for Scotland,” Clarke said on Monday. “It is 26 [in a squad] again so there are some spaces there, but not too many.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/dec/15/steve-clarke-harvey-barnes-scotland-friendly-games-world-cup-2026

imanixsupporter

The Scotland coach publicly said this week the squads would be 26. Wish FIFA would go ahead and confirm it though

“They have to be committed, they have to want to play for Scotland,” Clarke said on Monday. “It is 26 [in a squad] again so there are some spaces there, but not too many.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/dec/15/steve-clarke-harvey-barnes-scotland-friendly-games-world-cup-2026

FIFA has confirmed it. Squads will be between 23 and 26 players, with the final call left to coaches.

andrewvoerman

imanixsupporter

The Scotland coach publicly said this week the squads would be 26. Wish FIFA would go ahead and confirm it though

“They have to be committed, they have to want to play for Scotland,” Clarke said on Monday. “It is 26 [in a squad] again so there are some spaces there, but not too many.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/dec/15/steve-clarke-harvey-barnes-scotland-friendly-games-world-cup-2026

FIFA has confirmed it. Squads will be between 23 and 26 players, with the final call left to coaches.

They might as well have come out and just said 26. But that's just FIFA for you isn't it?

Manager's would be a bit daft not to take the full compliment available to them wouldn't they? It would also mean FIFA will have to fork out more money to clubs for the extra 144 players taken as well - win/win.

Watch Bazeley name a 23 man squad now. 🤦‍♂️

YoungHeartHM

andrewvoerman

imanixsupporter

The Scotland coach publicly said this week the squads would be 26. Wish FIFA would go ahead and confirm it though

“They have to be committed, they have to want to play for Scotland,” Clarke said on Monday. “It is 26 [in a squad] again so there are some spaces there, but not too many.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/dec/15/steve-clarke-harvey-barnes-scotland-friendly-games-world-cup-2026

FIFA has confirmed it. Squads will be between 23 and 26 players, with the final call left to coaches.

They might as well have come out and just said 26. But that's just FIFA for you isn't it?

Manager's would be a bit daft not to take the full compliment available to them wouldn't they? It would also mean FIFA will have to fork out more money to clubs for the extra 144 players taken as well - win/win.

Watch Bazeley name a 23 man squad now. 🤦‍♂️

Bazeley has said he will take 26. Not everyone took 26 in 2022. The main reason being that they didn't want three extra players around who were unlikely to play but therefore might have a negative impact on squad cohesion and the environment.

andrewvoerman

YoungHeartHM

andrewvoerman

imanixsupporter

The Scotland coach publicly said this week the squads would be 26. Wish FIFA would go ahead and confirm it though

“They have to be committed, they have to want to play for Scotland,” Clarke said on Monday. “It is 26 [in a squad] again so there are some spaces there, but not too many.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/dec/15/steve-clarke-harvey-barnes-scotland-friendly-games-world-cup-2026

FIFA has confirmed it. Squads will be between 23 and 26 players, with the final call left to coaches.

They might as well have come out and just said 26. But that's just FIFA for you isn't it?

Manager's would be a bit daft not to take the full compliment available to them wouldn't they? It would also mean FIFA will have to fork out more money to clubs for the extra 144 players taken as well - win/win.

Watch Bazeley name a 23 man squad now. 🤦‍♂️

Bazeley has said he will take 26. Not everyone took 26 in 2022. The main reason being that they didn't want three extra players around who were unlikely to play but therefore might have a negative impact on squad cohesion and the environment.

Does mean you can take that older veteran (Tommy Smith) for their wisdom and positive impact, and/or that young prospect (Luke Brooke-Smith) so they are not overawed in four years time, and/or super versatile (Matt Sheridan) for opposed training without hindering your ability to carry 2 in every outfield position plus your 3 goalkeepers

AFCON In Morocco. Egypt play Zimbabwe tomorrow.
South Africa and Angola the 2 other teams in the group.

The NZF email has arrived. Decision time!

coochiee

AFCON In Morocco. Egypt play Zimbabwe tomorrow.
South Africa and Angola the 2 other teams in the group.

Egypt down 0-1 to Zimbabwe at half time 

Egypt snatch a late 2-1 win.

Zim's early goal apparently against the run of play, but then they so nearly get a 2nd one not long after.

First Man City's Marmoush equalises (64 mins) and then Liverpool's Salah gets the winner in stoppage time.

5 min highlights
https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/1ptcncv/egypt_21_zimbabwe_highlights_mo_salah_scores/

Won't be easy but we can get a result against the Egyptians.

Zimbabwe's team mostly Zimbabwe league and PSL (South Africa). 
Then a few based in Europe (FCK, Luton, Bundesliga 3) plus one in the MLS and one in Libya. A team mate of Eli Just at Motherwell came on as a sub. Another sub was from Maldon & Tiptree (English 7th tier)

With squads of 26 being ok I can see Smith getting a ticket, he wont get any minutes unless several injuries occur but he can be there to support and mentor the younger lads. 26 also means you could see a bolter like LBS making the trip.

theprof

With squads of 26 being ok I can see Smith getting a ticket, he wont get any minutes unless several injuries occur but he can be there to support and mentor the younger lads. 26 also means you could see a bolter like LBS making the trip.

Dont get why they wouldnt just put him on the management if they want him there that badly. Surely it would be better to use that spot for either someone who may get game time or to develop for the future.

ballane

theprof

With squads of 26 being ok I can see Smith getting a ticket, he wont get any minutes unless several injuries occur but he can be there to support and mentor the younger lads. 26 also means you could see a bolter like LBS making the trip.

Dont get why they wouldnt just put him on the management if they want him there that badly. Surely it would be better to use that spot for either someone who may get game time or to develop for the future.

I agree with you. I just think Baze is adman hat Smith is useful in both capacities and now he wont be knocking a bench player out of the squad.

South Africa beat Angola 2-1, and play Egypt next.

South Africans with 7 starters from the PSL. Including 3 from ADJ's new club PSL club Orlando Pirates.
https://us.soccerway.com/game/angola-rTRqsooo/south-africa-W2ijYvlr/summary/lineups/?mid=zskmcDrI

The Saffas have drawn Mexico, Sth Korea and a TBC UEFA qualifier for the World Cup.

What are peoples thoughts on the Premier v Standard v Supporter Tickets?  I remember for the Womens World Cup getting the cheapest tickets and then not enjoying the view but is it worth 2x, 2.5x the price to get better view but potentially less atmosphere.

What is the fine print if you get some tickets in the draw and then decide that it all fits into the too hard basket, and decide not to use the tickets.

I watched most of the Egypt vs Zimbabwe match.
Egypt dominated possesion but a limited Zimbabwe side more than held there own. The Egyption defense looked shakey at times and Zimbabwe could have got a second goal.
From an AW point of view I think we could cause them plenty of problems at the back especially if Wood is fit. The ref could also be important The Egyptians did a Cosgrove i.e dived, at every contact. The ref ignored most if it and even booked the Egyptian winger Trezeguet for an obvious dive in the box.
Marmoush and Salah saved the day for Egypt. They are so dangerous and can score with a half chance.
IMO the AWs are in with a chance. If we get in their face, defend and focus for full 90 we could rattle them. I also think we could score as they will give us chances.