All Whites, Ferns, and other international teams

World Cup 2026

509 replies · 26,098 views
05 Oct 22:18
martinb
whatever
I see that Trump will not allow officials from Iran to attend the draw in December. Fifa needs to get tough with the prick and state that if he interferes then they will take the tournament elsewhere.

It's clear that Trump plans to make this all about himself.  

It’s a tough one for FIFA and the federations. 

The reason they want it in the US is the high population of Latin American fans with disposable income who are football crazy. 

They have had a couple of special Conmenbol Copa Americas in the USA. That’s the equivalent of the Euros being held outside the confederation in China or something! 

The Copa America has had a tough recent history, with teams unable to afford to host it and instability making it difficult to guarantee safety.
Holding it in the US seemed like a way to make cash. Which I believe they did. 

So I assume they thought they’d go back to the well with the World Cup! And Infantino got close to Trump as he seems to with every particular host. 

Will it be a bit of point scoring now and be fine closer to the tournament? 
Have to wait and see I guess. 

Trump is a bully who loves it when he is sucked up to and then is happy to shark on those that do. The only way is to stand up to the bully then he will fold like has done with China over Tariffs.
I bet if Trump is asked who his Football administrator is, he would say Chuck Blazer
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06 Oct 18:52

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has repeatedly insisted that "the world will be welcome" during next summer's men's World Cup, which will be held mostly by the USA, with some matches in Canada and Mexico.

"We'll bring the world to the United States of America," the Swiss said earlier this year. "The world loves America, whatever some might say."

But the nearer the start of the tournament draws, the more scrutiny is being placed on whether the USA will be quite as welcoming as Infantino insists.

With political violence on the rise, state troops deployed to major cities by President Donald Trump, and a more hardline stance taken on immigration, the tournament's main host nation is in a state of division and disruption.

As ticket sales begin and fans make travel plans, BBC Sport explores some of the issues causing concern.
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06 Oct 19:49
Will these millions of fans turn up to games with the threat of ICE over their heads? I know football is a great aphrodisiac but will people be prepared to risk their freedom to attend matches? I know of a Kiwi with a drug conviction that has been living in the US for around 20 years that won’t even go on a cruise through fear of not being let back into the country. Also, not a coincidence that the home of another great aphrodisiac - Las Vegas has a huge drop of visitors too. I really hope the WC goes tits up.
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06 Oct 20:32
I'm not usually a doom monger, but I see a non-zero chance that in 2026 the US is in a full "Northern Ireland Troubles"-style situation

Ramming liberal dribble down your throat since 2009
This forum needs less angst and more Kate Bush threads



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06 Oct 22:07
Doloras
I'm not usually a doom monger, but I see a non-zero chance that in 2026 the US is in a full "Northern Ireland Troubles"-style situation

With way worse beer.

Actually, getting outplayed quite a bit these days

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08 Oct 05:24
dick le roc returns
Procrastinixing
 no doubt a % of the ticket price will find its way into trumps pocket, happens when you have a corrupt little man who uses preaidency to line his pocket

FFS, that has nothing to do with Trump, stop looking for conspiracies where there are none.
FIFA just got greedier and with more teams attending that they have to fork out more money. A cash grab by FIFA.
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!

The Ruf, The Ruf, The Ruf is on Fire!!

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08 Oct 06:36
LG
dick le roc returns
Procrastinixing
 no doubt a % of the ticket price will find its way into trumps pocket, happens when you have a corrupt little man who uses preaidency to line his pocket

FFS, that has nothing to do with Trump, stop looking for conspiracies where there are none.
FIFA just got greedier and with more teams attending that they have to fork out more money. A cash grab by FIFA.

Yes mine wasn't a serious comment, aside from the trump being a corrupt little man bit
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08 Oct 07:20
dick le roc returns
LG
dick le roc returns
Procrastinixing
 no doubt a % of the ticket price will find its way into trumps pocket, happens when you have a corrupt little man who uses preaidency to line his pocket

FFS, that has nothing to do with Trump, stop looking for conspiracies where there are none.
FIFA just got greedier and with more teams attending that they have to fork out more money. A cash grab by FIFA.

Yes mine wasn't a serious comment, aside from the trump being a corrupt little man bit

Sorry, I just get fed up with too many people blaming Trump for the smallest things when personal responsibilities are ignored. That he has questionable activities is for the political thread and not without some questions that need answers. I do stand by my comment of FIFA Greed and their past of financial affairs is well documented. 
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!

The Ruf, The Ruf, The Ruf is on Fire!!

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08 Oct 08:36
The thing with dynamic pricing is that its supply and demand. For example in the AWs are playing Azerbijan in a 50,000 seat open stadium in Dallas at midday in blazing heat then they will be practically giving away the tickets. Im picking that this enlarged WC will be marked by lots of games with not many spectators.
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08 Oct 11:14 · edited 08 Oct 11:14 · History
LG, they go together like…gold and toilet seats.

Trump is a small time crook on a big scale, and FIFA is his UN!


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08 Oct 18:35
LG
dick le roc returns
LG
dick le roc returns
Procrastinixing
 no doubt a % of the ticket price will find its way into trumps pocket, happens when you have a corrupt little man who uses preaidency to line his pocket

FFS, that has nothing to do with Trump, stop looking for conspiracies where there are none.
FIFA just got greedier and with more teams attending that they have to fork out more money. A cash grab by FIFA.

Yes mine wasn't a serious comment, aside from the trump being a corrupt little man bit

Sorry, I just get fed up with too many people blaming Trump for the smallest things when personal responsibilities are ignored. That he has questionable activities is for the political thread and not without some questions that need answers. I do stand by my comment of FIFA Greed and their past of financial affairs is well documented. 
 agreed. There have been some football trumps in fifa
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08 Oct 19:34
I think with FIFA's history, that they would make Trump appear the golden boy of innocence so much so that even the Left Wing would vote for him. Blatter makes Trump look like a saint when he (Blatter) was running FIFA.
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!

The Ruf, The Ruf, The Ruf is on Fire!!

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08 Oct 20:32 · edited 08 Oct 20:43 · History
Blatter never disappeared his own citizens, diverted billions of spending to enable a genocide or actively worked towards establishing a fascist government as Trump is doing right now, so I struggle to believe that one.

Valley FC til I die?

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08 Oct 20:53
Yep, Seth "personally" investigated corruption within FIFA and found no evidence that there was any. The biggest crook investigating himself, family and friends. Yeah right Seth.
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!

The Ruf, The Ruf, The Ruf is on Fire!!

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08 Oct 20:57
Jesus wept, it's not a competition, Trump and Blatter can BOTH be evil crooks

Ramming liberal dribble down your throat since 2009
This forum needs less angst and more Kate Bush threads



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09 Oct 03:54
LG
Yep, Seth "personally" investigated corruption within FIFA and found no evidence that there was any. The biggest crook investigating himself, family and friends. Yeah right Seth.
 would be like trump investigating the Epstein files, attempts to corrupt the 2020 us elections or tax fraud.
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10 Oct 00:33
Heard about this website on a podcast - 2026 World Cup draw simulator - some teams speculative as qualifying not finished, but gives some idea of the level of teams we could shape up against. 

eg I randomised to get a group of Pot 1 Netherlands, Pot 2 Australia (would be crazy) and Pot 3 Paraguay.
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10 Oct 00:42
carlind
Heard about this website on a podcast - 2026 World Cup draw simulator - some teams speculative as qualifying not finished, but gives some idea of the level of teams we could shape up against. 

eg I randomised to get a group of Pot 1 Netherlands, Pot 2 Australia (would be crazy) and Pot 3 Paraguay.

Watch them draw two UEFA teams and one CONMEBOL team for the third World Cup in a row.
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10 Oct 00:52
Fox Sports Australia rang an early WC draw simulator, a few months back. 
They had the AWs drawn with Mexico, Denmark & Nigeria. 

12 teams in Pot 1, including the 3 host nations. So 25% chance can get a favourable team (not in the world's top 10 nations) from Pot 1.

Note the Socceroos are currently ranked 25th, so on the cusp of Pot 2. But could fall into Pot 3 due to one of the hosts Canada (26th) being outside the top 24 teams. Mexico & USA are both ranked inside the top 24.

Then you have a team like Italy (10th) in danger of missing a 3rd consecutive WC. They have a huge game against Israel in this window.

Note any nations that have to qualify via a playofff automatically go into Pot 4, regardless of their FIFA ranking.

https://inside.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men
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10 Oct 01:40
You'd think our best chance of a win is drawing one of the non-hosting CONCACAF teams. 
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10 Oct 01:52 · edited 10 Oct 01:53 · History
2ndBest
You'd think our best chance of a win is drawing one of the non-hosting CONCACAF teams. 

If Panama (ranked 29th) qualify they will highly likely be in Pot 3.
But all the other CONCACAF teams would be in Pot 4 with us, so we can't be drawn with them??

https://inside.fifa.com/associations/CONCACAF
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10 Oct 06:14
Yeah. I did that simulator about 20 times and I reckon Panama was in our group 7/8 times. Obviously still need to qualifying. 

South Africa came up a bunch too and they seem beatable.
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10 Oct 06:40 · edited 10 Oct 06:42 · History
South African football seems on the up at the moment.

Only 2 of their 6 pool games played, so still time but at the moment Panama (2 pts) are struggling being 3rd in their 4 team pool.

In this window Panama have a tough away trip to El Salvador and then hosting dark horses Suriname, who currently lead the pool on 4 points.

I imagine like Curacao & Indonesia, Suriname will be full of players either born or raised in Holland.

Unfortunately as above Panama is the only non host CONCACAF team we can be realistically drawn with, on current FIFA rankings.

https://www.concacaf.com/en/world-cup-qualifying-men/standings/

With this final round of CONCACAF qualifying is three pools of 4 teams each -

The three group winners will qualify directly for the FIFA World Cup 2026
The two best second-place finishers will advance to the FIFA Play-Off Tournament
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10 Oct 06:58 · edited 10 Oct 07:00 · History
Given that UEFA (20) & CONMEBOL (5) currently make up 25 of the 36 top ranked sides is a some chance like AV posted that the AWs do draw UEFA x2 & CONMEBOL x1. 

That's based on the rough maths that the top 36 FIFA ranked teams fill up pots 1, 2 & 3. Paraguay are ranked 37th as well.
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11 Oct 08:41
Scathing article in todays Guardian on progressive ticket pricing for the WC.
A big jump in ticket prices already for many games.
FiFa are now controlling the resale market.....they take a 15% cut from the seller and another 15% from the buyer.
$2000 finals tickets now trading at $25,000
The reality is local fans who can wait get a huge advantage. Overseas fans who have to commit early get screwed.

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11 Oct 08:55
Thought I would mess around with ChatGPT for a bit of fun

Group A
  • Canada (Host) ✅
  • Japan ✅
  • Germany (simulated qualifier)
  • CAF Qualification TBD → Senegal
Group B
  • Mexico (Host) ✅
  • Australia ✅
  • Spain (simulated qualifier)
  • CAF Qualification TBD → Nigeria
Group C
  • USA (Host) ✅
  • Korea Republic ✅
  • France (simulated qualifier)
  • CAF Qualification TBD → Ghana
Group D
  • Argentina ✅
  • Jordan ✅
  • Italy (simulated qualifier)
  • CAF Qualification TBD → Cameroon
Group E
  • Brazil ✅
  • IR Iran ✅
  • Netherlands (simulated qualifier)
  • CONCACAF Qualification TBD → Costa Rica
Group F
  • Colombia ✅
  • Uzbekistan ✅
  • Portugal (simulated qualifier)
  • CONCACAF Qualification TBD → Honduras
Group G
  • Ecuador ✅
  • New Zealand ✅
  • Belgium (simulated qualifier)
  • CONCACAF Qualification TBD → Panama
Group H
  • Paraguay ✅
  • Algeria ✅
  • England (simulated qualifier)
  • CONMEBOL Play-off TBD → Venezuela
Group I
  • Uruguay ✅
  • Tunisia ✅
  • Croatia (simulated qualifier)
  • AFC Qualification TBD → Saudi Arabia
Group J
  • Morocco ✅
  • Egypt ✅
  • UEFA Qualification TBD → Switzerland
  • AFC Qualification TBD → Thailand
Group K
  • CONCACAF Play-off TBD → Mexico B team placeholder
  • CAF Play-off TBD → DR Congo
  • UEFA Qualification TBD → Denmark
  • CONMEBOL Play-off TBD → Chile
Group L 
  • AFC Play-off TBD → Oman
  • OFC Play-off → New Caledonia 
  • UEFA Qualification TBD → Sweden
  • UEFA Qualification TBD → Serbia


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12 Oct 06:28 · edited 12 Oct 06:29 · History
As someone who would normally be quite likely to go, there are so many red flags for this WC that I'm seriously looking at avoiding it:

- Lots of travel, more so then Russia
- The world's most inept boarder force
- Dynamic pricing
- Trump
- Crazy expensive accommodation
- Bat shark crazy police
- Expensive flights
- Family members unable to go due to being born in Iran. This for me is the worst point. Russia let everyone in with a valid ticket which became your visa, even Ukrainians and Americans.
Supporter world's best and worst football teams: Waikato/WaiBop, Kingz, Knights, Phoenix, The Argyle, The Whites & the All Whites

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12 Oct 08:34
Hate to say it Marto if it was me with your last comment i wouldnt be going anywhere near an American border. Have seen some horrible storys of honest peoples treatment at the border.

GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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12 Oct 15:18
Just pray all the AW games are in Canada......lovely place, nice people. Mexico would be ok as well. A real football country. USA ....forget it
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12 Oct 21:42
I really hope not. What does bad weather have to do with the AWs?
Supporter world's best and worst football teams: Waikato/WaiBop, Kingz, Knights, Phoenix, The Argyle, The Whites & the All Whites

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12 Oct 21:44
austin111
Just pray all the AW games are in Canada......lovely place, nice people. Mexico would be ok as well. A real football country. USA ....forget it

I am but that then brings in very expensive flights for us all. I think Qatar and even Russia will look idyllic compared to the next two plus WCs travel wise.
Supporter world's best and worst football teams: Waikato/WaiBop, Kingz, Knights, Phoenix, The Argyle, The Whites & the All Whites

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12 Oct 21:46 · edited 12 Oct 21:46 · History
Marto
I really hope not. What does bad weather have to do with the AWs?
May not be intended as a cloudy weather/storm motif, but if so, maybe a 'land of the long white cloud/Aotearoa' thing?
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13 Oct 11:48
Not sure if anyone has had any success with the VISA ticket draw, but I've heard some people have been confused. You can get TST3s which get you a ticket to the three group stage matches of your choice. Most of the tickets (in this small first round of sales) are gone but for most countries there are still lots of TSTs left.

That said I think dynamic pricing might work in your favour. There are going to be some matches where the interest will be very modest I am sure. So it de ends on the draw. The Spanish-speaking Western Hemisphere teams will all have a massive following (outside of maybe Paraguay and Panama) understandably.

Interestingly (to me anyway), the later knockout state matches sold out their individual tickets first and then every match in Canada sold out next. Tickets for the US's opening match in LA were still available but there was nothing for group stage matches in Toronto and Vancouver where neither team was known. 
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14 Oct 23:40

"You can never get a bloody tradesman at Easter, it's a wonder Jesus got crucified" - Karl Pilkington

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15 Oct 04:45 · edited 15 Oct 04:52 · History
Doloras
 
It’s ok, FIFA won’t tolerate any political interference. Oh wait…


US President Donald Trump says that FIFA chief Gianni Infantino would support moving 2026 World Cup games from US cities for security reasons if necessary.

In September, Trump raised the possibility of moving games amid his crackdown on Democratic-run cities, but at the time FIFA said that it was up to football's governing body to decide where games are held.

"If somebody is doing a bad job and if I feel there's unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni, the head of FIFA, who's phenomenal, and I would say, let's move it to another location. And he would do that," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if games could be moved from Boston, one of the host cities.

"Very easily he would do it."

Trump's comments came a day after he met close friend Infantino in Egypt at a summit on a Gaza ceasefire, where the FIFA boss joined more than two dozen world leaders who were discussing peace in the Middle East.
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