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Competition World Cup 2026

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dudu said:
The format, the qualification, the values behind it - it's just another cash cow in an industry bloated with money and a reflection of everything wrong with society.

Maybe it's because I'm older but I remember being a kid and the int competitions being just incredible - football in the park with mates every day, playing out the games - even 94 when England weren't in it we were engrossed. Not seeing the same vibe for kids nowadays.

I guess with streaming services, internet etc - there is plenty to keep people entertained now.
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I have the same feeling. For me, and my friends as kids it was the world cups of 98 and 2002. The goals, celebrations and the whole feeling of daily seeing the best players in the world.

But i think the biggest issue is how we are overexposed to football these days. With longer seasons and more and larger competitions there are periods where there is a match every day. There is little, if nothing, special about the world cups these days.
 
dudu said:
Maybe it's because I'm older but I remember being a kid and the int competitions being just incredible - football in the park with mates every day, playing out the games - even 94 when England weren't in it we were engrossed. Not seeing the same vibe for kids nowadays.
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I am younger than most here and I think the first final I clearly remember was Zidane being sent off in extra time. I am sure I was watching in 2002 or before but I remember being absorbed in the whole tournament in Germany / 2006.

William Burroughs said:
I have the same feeling. For me, and my friends as kids it was the world cups of 98 and 2002. The goals, celebrations and the whole feeling of daily seeing the best players in the world.

But i think the biggest issue is how we are overexposed to football these days. With longer seasons and more and larger competitions there are periods where there is a match every day. There is little, if nothing, special about the world cups these days.
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I think this touches on the real issue which is that now we can see so much football, and the level of competition in the Champion's League being higher than that of the World Cup makes the latter less interesting.

Even the World Cup itself is overexposed in my opinion, with the expansion adding a lot of really unserious games.

Everything related to football has been diluted to extract the maximum amount of cash and force you to pay attention longer and more intensely and there's only so much excitement a person can muster
 
JackJones’Locker said:
Most of the homicides reported in Kansas City happen in an area representing about 10% of the city’s area.

None of the England team will get close to this area and a supporter would have to go out of their way to find themselves there.

The same is true of just about all US cities — violent crimes occur in very small areas. MOST of us urban-dwellers / suburbanites are completely unaffected by gun violence but I would encourage tourists like Spaniel Spaniel who obviously live in fear to wear bullet-proof vests.
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America has had 170 mass shootings ( 4 or more people shot ) so far this year . They don’t really keep records for individual shootings but it’s around 100 per day 😱

I’ve been over there plenty of times & love it but those stats are fucking insane
 
William Burroughs said:
I have the same feeling. For me, and my friends as kids it was the world cups of 98 and 2002. The goals, celebrations and the whole feeling of daily seeing the best players in the world.

But i think the biggest issue is how we are overexposed to football these days. With longer seasons and more and larger competitions there are periods where there is a match every day. There is little, if nothing, special about the world cups these days.
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There is some of that to a degree -

But I have gotten older the spectacle has become so sanitised and lost its special flavour too -

World Cups in Russia, Qatar and US are simply events to sportswash and all the vibes and carnival atmosphere has been completely stripped of the whole event for me -

Now with the actual football likely to be much more boring in the group stages due to the format change - I truly believe this event is no longer for the fans - or at least any attempt to try and make us believe it is, has gone out
 
dudu said:
There is some of that to a degree -

But I have gotten older the spectacle has become so sanitised and lost its special flavour too -

World Cups in Russia, Qatar and US are simply events to sportswash and all the vibes and carnival atmosphere has been completely stripped of the whole event for me -

Now with the actual football likely to be much more boring in the group stages due to the format change - I truly believe this event is no longer for the fans - or at least any attempt to try and make us believe it is, has gone out
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That documentary I posted a few pages back . There’s that England fan , can’t remember his name but he’s been to 9 world cups . He said for these World Cup games , official England supporters were given 4,000 tickets!! 4000 tickets for stadia that have 80k seats
 
PatagoniaPhil said:
I've noticed a trend where every world cup is attacked in the press. South Africa, Russia, Qatar and now the US.

The ticket prices are crazy. But there is so much negativity.
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There’s a lot to be negative about , the tickets are just the tip of the shitberg , how fans are being turned away , how some teams and staff are being treated , the infrastructure and logistics of actually getting to some of the stadia .

It’s a fucking mess
 
PatagoniaPhil said:
I've noticed a trend where every world cup is attacked in the press. South Africa, Russia, Qatar and now the US.

The ticket prices are crazy. But there is so much negativity.
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To be fair, none of those countries can really be considered “normal” — each has its own serious issues.

Ideally, we’d all prefer World Cups not to be hosted in controversial countries, but that isn’t realistic. For example, Saudi Arabia has already been selected to host in 2034, and it’s another nation that sparks debate.
 
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