2026 World Cup and Qualifiers

(02-06-2026 12:43 )Charlemagne Wrote:  Medical Treatment Rules: Any player who stops play to receive on-field medical treatment must leave the field and wait for one full minute before re-entering (unless the injury was caused by a foul resulting in a card).

This might not be popular with fans, if many goals are scored when teams are down to 10 men. We'll have to see how it works out. At least goalkeepers are exempt from it.

The Iran players have finally had their visa applications approved - only 10 days before their first World Cup fixture. However, some members of their staff have been refused.

^ Like the team manager.

"The United States has denied a visa for Iran's national team manager Mehdi Mohammadnabi."

If this is true then they are expecting him to manage the team from Mexico. FIFA need to get a grip.

On what grounds was he refused?

FIFA probably has lost it's grip on this World Cup, It's pretty much the Trump World Cup for me. Also, I have seen many posts on Socials from many people suggesting associations should consider breaking away from FIFA and forming their own organisation, but that wouldn't even cause a dent. I think if Infantino was sacked or pushed out of his role, I doubt there would be many credible candidates for the role, but certainly I wonder if there needs to be far more transparency with fans on how the elections work and they should have a say.

Any truth to this water bottle ban for fans and the stadiums charging $15 for a bottle of water? While I agree with the ban on fans bringing their own water bottles in for safety reasons (and I'm led to believe they are not allowed at festivals here either, and I have seen someone say most people have been known to sneak in Bacardi or vodka in bottles into festivals as it is a clear liquid, and I'm wondering why security on the gate isn't checking what's in the bottles), $15 dollars is to me a little excessive

Portugal and Chile both had a player sent off in their match tonight. It ended 2-1 to Portugal.

Good job that it was a friendly

Two idiots are in charge, remember? Neither of them give a shit. This World Cup is getting worse all the time.

Edit: this post was a comment about the World Cup and it's ridiculous and extortionate policies, not about any team. Apologies that probably didn't seem immediately clear.

Scotland have gone berserk in their warm up match against Bolivia.
4-0 up at half time .

In a very dull warm up game Rio Ngumoha performance shone out. It was a delight to see someone taking on a defender instead of just passing backward.

The average age of an outfield player in the World Cup squads is 27.1, with goalkeepers averaging 29.8, making an overall average age of 27.45.

The number of players representing the country of their birth is 959 out of 1,248 (76.8%). Only 8 countries out of the 48 participants have a squad entirely born at home - Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Czechia, Panama, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Sweden.

Italy isn't at the World Cup, but they do have 3 managers there, managing Brazil, Turkey, and Uzbekistan (only France and Argentina have more managers managing other countries). The only English managers at the tournament manage New Zealand and Sweden.

When you think about the kick off times for some teams I suspect a lot of this is planned by the USA to win this without being affected by the conditions too much - If they make it through the group stages