2026 World Cup and Qualifiers

There's a friendly on ITV (ITV4) of the Moracco v Norway match.

Low and behold there's no commentary from the stadium only the feed from pitchside.

Hope that this isn't going to happen when we get to the Competition itself.

Might be an improvement in some cases lol

(07-06-2026 20:36 )Charlemagne Wrote:  There's a friendly on ITV (ITV4) of the Moracco v Norway match.

Low and behold there's no commentary from the stadium only the feed from pitchside.

Hope that this isn't going to happen when we get to the Competition itself.

With the state of the ITV commentary team it might actually be preferable!!

ITV didn't send a commentator to the match or any other personnel. They were supposed to get commentary from ESPN (Mark Donaldson) who are also covering the match, but something must have gone wrong.

Christian Erikson collapsed during the game which eventually forced the game to be called off which I believe is only the 2nd time he has collapsed in a international and it has been several years since his last one, so the device has probably served it's purpose in saving him, and apparently the players of both sides got together in a show of solidarity for him.
I hope it isn't the last we have seen of him, but if I wonder if the Denmark team manager will have words with him and weigh up the risks of playing him in the competition.

(07-06-2026 21:41 )William H Bonney Wrote:  ITV didn't send a commentator to the match or any other personnel. They were supposed to get commentary from ESPN (Mark Donaldson)

There are highlights of that match on YouTube complete with commentary, so we can say that the commentary did exist, even if it couldn't be heard on ITV4.

There's another friendly tonight between France and Northern Ireland. It starts at 8.10pm on BBC 3 and BBC2 NI.

With or without a commentary.

Somalian referee Omar Artan has been blocked from entering the USA because he's from a country on their banned list.

FIFA are doing nothing about it.

Some countries teams are being subjected to searches and interrogation on arrival.

FIFA are doing nothing about it. They are not fit for purpose.

And to quote Ian Wright, "This has become the World Cup of Chaos".

^ and Who are right at the centre of it all???
Infantino & Trump, sooner or later they are going find out how hard the fall will be from creating all this fucking chaos and I hope it bites them both on the bum - hard.

The disgusting policies of the Trump administration are ruining the game's pinnacle tournament. FIFA's sycophants are letting it happen.