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World Cup Draw


phantom

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Dummy draw:-

A: Qatar, Denmark, Morocco, Sco/Wal/UKR
B: Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, UAE / Aus / Peru
France, Germany, Iran, C Rica / NZ
Argentina, USA, Serbia, S Arabia
E: Belgium, Croatia, Senegal, Canada
F: England, Uruguay, S. Korea, Ghana
G: Brazil, Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon
H: Portugal, Mexico, Poland, Ecuador

Group A is the worst group since Bronski Beat! I’d certainly take that group for England, although the key is also how the knockouts pan out - draw’s been pretty favourable to us in that regard in recent years.

Say toodlepip to the wonderfully symmetrical 32-team tournament that has worked so well since France ‘98 after this year… ?

From 2026 it will be a positively elephantine 48-team affair with 16 groups of three and an additional knockout round. The quality will be seriously diluted with nine teams qualifying from CAF (African Federation, not City as **** ;)) and eight from AFC. That will presumably include Australia who somehow get to compete in the Asian confederation, and with OFC guaranteed a qualifier from 2026 that means New Zealand will likely be assured WC qualification in perpetuity - unless someone like the Cook Islands or New Caledonia can spring a surprise (unlikely, they’re almost as **** as Old Caledonia…)

Will be interesting to see how that enforces change to the qualifying system - the CONMEBOL league of nine system is already ludicrous, but with 60% of its members qualifying in future it would be pointless.

No guarantee yet that all three hosts (USA, Canada, Mexico) will automatically qualify, but I anticipate they will be. They’d probably have no problem qualifying anyway as CONCACAF gets six slots total.

UEFA only gets a couple more slots so you could feasibly still have a big name miss out while the likes of Cape Verde, Bahamas or Oman make it. That might be “inclusive” but it isn’t conducive to a top-quality tournament.

Plus with the three-team groups obviously not all teams will be playing their final group games simultaneously, massively increasing the potential for skullduggery, e.g. a repeat of the Disgrace of Gijon.

This is a very bad development IMO - still, quantity over quality eh!

 

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11 minutes ago, WessexPest said:

Dummy draw:-

A: Qatar, Denmark, Morocco, Sco/Wal/UKR
B: Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, UAE / Aus / Peru
France, Germany, Iran, C Rica / NZ
Argentina, USA, Serbia, S Arabia
E: Belgium, Croatia, Senegal, Canada
F: England, Uruguay, S. Korea, Ghana
G: Brazil, Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon
H: Portugal, Mexico, Poland, Ecuador

Group A is the worst group since Bronski Beat! I’d certainly take that group for England, although the key is also how the knockouts pan out - draw’s been pretty favourable to us in that regard in recent years.

Say toodlepip to the wonderfully symmetrical 32-team tournament that has worked so well since France ‘98 after this year… ?

From 2026 it will be a positively elephantine 48-team affair with 16 groups of three and an additional knockout round. The quality will be seriously diluted with nine teams qualifying from CAF (African Federation, not City as **** ;)) and eight from AFC. That will presumably include Australia who somehow get to compete in the Asian confederation, and with OFC guaranteed a qualifier from 2026 that means New Zealand will likely be assured WC qualification in perpetuity - unless someone like the Cook Islands or New Caledonia can spring a surprise (unlikely, they’re almost as **** as Old Caledonia…)

Will be interesting to see how that enforces change to the qualifying system - the CONMEBOL league of nine system is already ludicrous, but with 60% of its members qualifying in future it would be pointless.

No guarantee yet that all three hosts (USA, Canada, Mexico) will automatically qualify, but I anticipate they will be. They’d probably have no problem qualifying anyway as CONCACAF gets six slots total.

UEFA only gets a couple more slots so you could feasibly still have a big name miss out while the likes of Cape Verde, Bahamas or Oman make it. That might be “inclusive” but it isn’t conducive to a top-quality tournament.

Plus with the three-team groups obviously not all teams will be playing their final group games simultaneously, massively increasing the potential for skullduggery, e.g. a repeat of the Disgrace of Gijon.

This is a very bad development IMO - still, quantity over quality eh!

 

It's a really horrendous format like they are doing with the Champions League from 2024. The World Cup won't be the same in my opinion by adding these 16 extra teams. The qualification will near enough be a process of if you're at least remotely average in Africa or Asia, you'll qualify which will dilute the quality of the actual tournament.

I know people go on about times change and we have to continuously evolve (Corporate speak) but this isn't the way. It's very much like rewarding every child a medal but in this rewarding every average side a place at the World Cup basically. I hope to see some more push back from UEFA and the major European nations, but it won't be to any avail because AFC, CAF and OFC will be the ones who will benefit (where all the tinpot football nations are from) and will be lining the pockets of the FIFA big wigs.

The sooner England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy say enough is enough and we're taking our ball and leaving FIFA the less likely silly plans like this will be in place, but they're too scared to because they'll also lose money.

The loser at the end of this is football, less will be interested in the Sport because of the amount of pointless World Cup games there will be and the quality will go downhill. It's not supposed to be easy to just qualify for a World Cup

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18 hours ago, 2015 said:

It's a really horrendous format like they are doing with the Champions League from 2024. The World Cup won't be the same in my opinion by adding these 16 extra teams. The qualification will near enough be a process of if you're at least remotely average in Africa or Asia, you'll qualify which will dilute the quality of the actual tournament.

I know people go on about times change and we have to continuously evolve (Corporate speak) but this isn't the way. It's very much like rewarding every child a medal but in this rewarding every average side a place at the World Cup basically. I hope to see some more push back from UEFA and the major European nations, but it won't be to any avail because AFC, CAF and OFC will be the ones who will benefit (where all the tinpot football nations are from) and will be lining the pockets of the FIFA big wigs.

The sooner England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy say enough is enough and we're taking our ball and leaving FIFA the less likely silly plans like this will be in place, but they're too scared to because they'll also lose money.

The loser at the end of this is football, less will be interested in the Sport because of the amount of pointless World Cup games there will be and the quality will go downhill. It's not supposed to be easy to just qualify for a World Cup

The group stage for the next world cup sounds really poor, 16 groups of 3 teams and 2 sides go through (so not only will the quality be completely diluted but lesser teams will be encouraged to play defensive football because of the format). 

As for todays draw I hope England get exciting games and avoid the likes of Germany and Netherlands. Mexico, Senegal and the winners of Wales/Scotland/Ukraine would be an ideal group I think.

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On 28/03/2022 at 17:48, phantom said:

I never realised that all the grounds are so close together. 

Just listening to talk sport they were saying you could in theory go to three games in a day as they are so close together 

Can imagine that will be a nightmare for all the supporters to stay nearby 

Screenshot_20220328-174203_Samsung Internet.jpg

Qatar is tiny, and it only really has two cities. Well, Doha and a town.

The rest...is dust.

On 28/03/2022 at 18:11, ralphindevon said:

When you look at a map of Qatar as a whole you can see why they’re close. Qatar is made up of Doha and a bit of desert and that’s it.

Tho whole thing is madness. I’m all for spreading the word but the population is smaller than Wales and a bit bigger than Northern Ireland, it’s hardly going to change the face of football if 10% of Qataris decide they like football.

The many other, more valid reasons why it shouldn’t be there have been covered elsewhere.

...and the vast majority (85%) aren't even from Qatar.

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On 31/03/2022 at 00:16, Ska Junkie said:

Is there such a thing as a cold night there?

BTW, what is lively to happen with the final UEFA place? I can't see Ukraine playing a football match, or being that bothered, for some time, god bless her.

Yes, relatively, in winter it can get chilly at night.

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For the UEFA qualification process in 2026, given there are 16 places available to European teams there’s a chance to streamline the process.
 

There are 54 member associations (assuming those Russian butchers aren’t brought back into the fold by then) so I would propose a preliminary round where the weakest 12 countries according to their FIFA rankings play off in three groups of four. Top two in each group advance to the qualification tournament proper.

Those 48 countries are divided into eight groups of six - top two in each group advance to the finals, no playoff nonsense and no pointless matches against San Marino and Gibraltar.

Won’t hold my breath though.

Edited by WessexPest
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21 hours ago, WessexPest said:

Dummy draw:-

A: Qatar, Denmark, Morocco, Sco/Wal/UKR
B: Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, UAE / Aus / Peru
France, Germany, Iran, C Rica / NZ
Argentina, USA, Serbia, S Arabia
E: Belgium, Croatia, Senegal, Canada
F: England, Uruguay, S. Korea, Ghana
G: Brazil, Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon
H: Portugal, Mexico, Poland, Ecuador

Group A is the worst group since Bronski Beat! I’d certainly take that group for England, although the key is also how the knockouts pan out - draw’s been pretty favourable to us in that regard in recent years.

Say toodlepip to the wonderfully symmetrical 32-team tournament that has worked so well since France ‘98 after this year… ?

From 2026 it will be a positively elephantine 48-team affair with 16 groups of three and an additional knockout round. The quality will be seriously diluted with nine teams qualifying from CAF (African Federation, not City as **** ;)) and eight from AFC. That will presumably include Australia who somehow get to compete in the Asian confederation, and with OFC guaranteed a qualifier from 2026 that means New Zealand will likely be assured WC qualification in perpetuity - unless someone like the Cook Islands or New Caledonia can spring a surprise (unlikely, they’re almost as **** as Old Caledonia…)

Will be interesting to see how that enforces change to the qualifying system - the CONMEBOL league of nine system is already ludicrous, but with 60% of its members qualifying in future it would be pointless.

No guarantee yet that all three hosts (USA, Canada, Mexico) will automatically qualify, but I anticipate they will be. They’d probably have no problem qualifying anyway as CONCACAF gets six slots total.

UEFA only gets a couple more slots so you could feasibly still have a big name miss out while the likes of Cape Verde, Bahamas or Oman make it. That might be “inclusive” but it isn’t conducive to a top-quality tournament.

Plus with the three-team groups obviously not all teams will be playing their final group games simultaneously, massively increasing the potential for skullduggery, e.g. a repeat of the Disgrace of Gijon.

This is a very bad development IMO - still, quantity over quality eh!

 

The big issue for me - unnecessary dissing of Bronski Beat aside - is the fact that half the teams will get to the tournament, play one game, and then go home again. It feels a bit pointless. If I were a team around the cusp of qualification - i.e. someone like Canada, Jamaica or UAE who sometimes qualify and sometimes don't - I'd prefer the smaller chance of a guaranteed 3 games than the bigger chance of a single game in a preliminary round. 

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On 30/03/2022 at 15:43, Super said:

I'm guessing the games will be played at a reasonable time for us to watch? They 5 hours in front?

2 at the moment but will be 3 in Winter

On 30/03/2022 at 22:51, The Bard said:

It's more to allow all the commercial stuff to be sorted out.  corporate tickets and schedule for TV.  Expect the 7pm group games (our time) to be England, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil etc.  Likes of Japan and South Korea will play earlier. Kind of makes sense if you want to maximise TV audiences. No point we play at 10 am our time on a Tuesday in November whilst Japan play at 2am the next day is there?  

I'd like us to play at whatever time best suits the players. That's probably either 7pm (local time) as that's a "normal" time to play or 10pm for the cooler climate I guess

10am games will be a bit shit, personally I love an all dayer but with the football being the main event - not play the game then out on the lash, I'd probably not even bother taken the time off and just watch it at work!

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2 hours ago, WessexPest said:

For the UEFA qualification process in 2026, given there are 16 places available to European teams there’s a chance to streamline the process.

There are 54 member associations (assuming those Russian butchers aren’t brought back into the fold by then) so I would propose a preliminary round where the weakest 12 countries according to their FIFA rankings play off in three groups of four. Top two in each group advance to the qualification tournament proper.

Those 48 countries are divided into eight groups of six - top two in each group advance to the finals, no playoff nonsense and no pointless matches against San Marino and Gibraltar.

Won’t hold my breath though.

No no no, this is far too sensible. You seem to be suggesting that there should be fewer games. Don't you realise that means fewer opportunities to flog advertising? Fewer opportunities to hand out free hospitality seats to the 'football family'? You're clearly a madman.

I think come 2026 I will be watching England's group games, and then the knockouts. I really cannot imagine watching 6 solid weeks of football.

Honestly, take me back to a 16 team Euros and keep the 32 team world cup. They work, they're of good enough quality but still with some opportunity for a bit of change every 4 years.

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17 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

Spain, Netherlands, Japan, Wales/ Sweaties/ Ukraine.

OUCH if you're Welsh or a Jock.

 

11 minutes ago, WessexPest said:

I don’t think that group is possible because there can’t be more than two UEFA teams to a group. 

Yeh the nightmare for one of the provinces is surely Brazil, Germany, and Famara Diedhiou's mighty Senegal.

Personally I always hope for variety in England's group. I'd quite like England, Mexico, South Korea and Ghana. Four continents, the possibility of seeing Semenyo play against England, and 3 teams that England very rarely play. Plus I'd still be confident of us topping that group.

Edited by ExiledAjax
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9 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

 

Yeh the nightmare for one of the provinces is surely Brazil, Germany, and Famara Diedhiou's mighty Senegal.

Personally I always hope for variety in England's group. I'd quite like England, Mexico, South Korea and Ghana. Four continents, the possibility of seeing Semenyo play against England, and 3 teams that England very rarely play. Plus I'd still be confident of us topping that group.

Agree, although by the time they get around to actually making the draw we’ll all be part of the same smegging continent again…

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