Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 208. (Read 57724 times)

While this would be the fairest option this is never going to happen, if I am not misremembering there was a time in which the world cup champion was also given an automatic qualification to the next world cup so they could defend their championship and later this rule was abolished, and in theory it would make sense for the host nation to also be forced to qualify on their own, but this is about money, and if this rule was abolished all host nations on their bid to win the rights to host the world cup will ask for automatic qualification anyway.

We can't really force them if they don't want to watch the remaining games anymore as some avid fans of their own national team will automatically lose interest if their team failed to qualify. I mean, to some, that is their only reason why they are watching the said World Cup and not because they also wanted to see other teams who are also playing in the same event.
But for some avid football fans, any team who will qualify will not matter to them because it's the sport whom they wanted to see and just some selected teams playing against other national teams.

That's the whole point, World Cup is the most important tournament and people will go to the stadiums and buy tickets even if their country if not even qualified for the world cup which can have positive financial effects for the countries hosting the world cup while when they get auto qualification for the world cup they will even have to get more benefits comparing to other teams which can't be fair.

Obviously those who are true football fans will watch all matches no matter what , their teams qualifies or not . But they still want their team to be there in ground,  the increase number if games is a good step for all the football fans whose countries weren't there  in previous fifa .

That is actually a smart thing to do. I wonder why ice hockey tournaments always have only 16 teams, that are formed by having 12 teams that got most points from previous tournaments, and 4 additional team from lower division. I wonder why dont ice hockey tournaments dont increase number of teams to 32 and have selected a method of "4 worst to best teams rotation". I can suppose that this is due to a general level of tournament, that not many teams can compete on same level with top8, even among 16 teams there are those who lose games with 4-6 score difference. Why dont football tournaments have such rotations instead of adding more countries?

I don't think that only money making was in FIFA's mind when they decided to increase the number of participants from 32 to 48. The real reason was to ensure adequate representation from all the confederations. Right now, only 9.5 slots are allotted to AFC and CAF, where almost two-third of the world's population reside. This allocation was justified back in 1990s, when the quality of Asian and African teams were not up to the mark. But now these teams are playing at a level equal to that of the UEFA teams and there is simply no justification to allot 13 slots to UEFA and 4 to AFC.

Because this is a big tournament, there is never a doubt that there will be not fewer fans and that is also one of the reasons for FIFA to increase the number of participants because it means more money will be circulating throughout the World Cup. Conditions like any of the hosts will not reduce the interest of spectators to come directly to the stadium and watch the match even though there is a possibility that the match will be boring.
If regulations appear, the host country will not automatically become a participant because they still pass the qualifications. There may be less interest from the country that organizes it, because apart from economic reasons, one of the reasons why countries are interested in becoming an organizer is because they get the privilege of their national team automatically playing, and the rules of the organizing country automatically playing out like a lucrative deal for FIFA and that country.

I think that even if your country dont fail to quality, you would still dont go to stadium. Because you are not a football fan. For example, I am not a huge football fan, probably I dont like football at all, but if I was in Qatar and had a chance to buy a ticket, I would visit any match. Or you think that if two team play, then the stadium is filled only by two nations? Take recent Qatar cup, think there were many locals on the stadium? I think a lot of Qatar werent able to afford to buy tickets.

All of you need to remember one thing. World Cup matches are never played in empty stadiums. The demand for tickets are 10 times or 20 times the actual supply. During the 2022 World Cup, Qataris reserved a large fraction of tickets to themselves and made massive profits by selling these tickets to fans at exorbitant prices. So the argument that fans from the host nation may not watch the tournament in case their team is not there doesn't stand. If they don't watch, then fans from other countries will be ready to purchase the tickets. IMO, host nations should not be provided with automatic qualification. They need to qualify through the qualifier tournaments, just like the other teams.

That's not right, whenever we are watching the world cup games we just watch the games because we feel we like the games not because our country is playing in the world cup other wise in the final match of any world cup we had only people in two countries watching the games and others will ignore the game just because their country is not playing there which is not right.

This is why the hosts join the games. But it is not the main reason, I mean remember Qatar? They lost every game and was gone, did people not watch the other games? Of course not, there were a lot of people from Qatar that watched other games as well, some people will not watch them of course, but many will want to be there and watch it. Imagine world cup finals and you have a ticket, how could you not go? I mean doesn't matter which team you support, you gotta watch that .

This is the reason why it's both important to have the hosts involved at first, but doesn't mean that they have to win or go somewhere, it would need to be just in there, after that they can lose all their games and it would still have a lot of people who join and watch the games in stadiums anyway.

Actually, I looked it up to know what is the reason behind why does FIFA is giving the host(s) an advantage of having their team to be automatically qualify and honestly, I'm quite surprised to know the reason because FIFA said that it's just a courtesy, simple as that.

Quite unfair, isn't it? But we can't do nothing about it as it turns out that it is already a tradition where the hosts will have that specific advantage apart from having a financial boost to their economy due to the people that will be flocking towards the host's country.

the united states of america and canada are two very rich countries and they also like soccer, they have luxury hotels, they have several good places for tourists to visit, and they have a very large contingent of police capable of guaranteeing the good security of all the people who participate in the world cup, maybe one of the small problems could come from the neighbor of the united states of america, i'm talking about mexico which is a country very tormented by drug traffickers, but even in the usa there are a lot of drugs in circulation, so I think that mexico could not be seen badly in relation to this part because they are not the only ones that have a lot of drugs circulating in the cities and in the smaller neighborhoods and if we look from the other side about the national teams of these countries

we will see that the usa and mexico have much better national teams than qatar, so in my opinion the organization of the world cup in usa + canada + mexico will be a much better cup than the one that was organized in qatar, in qatar people were restricted , they couldn't do much, but in the US, which is a country where people just walk around naked, people will be much freer, many singers will want to sing at the world cup organized in usa + mexico + canada, many famous players who they are playing in the usa of the world cup that will be organized in the usa, without a doubt it will be much better than the one in qatar

Money does not equals quality. Even though Football isnt most popular sport in Canada, but in States the popularity of football (soccer) grows. Mexicans are also crazy about football. You think Americans would miss a chance to earn on football merchandise ? Trust me, these capitalists will make everything top level and sell it for only 99,99 I bet those three would show not worse World Cup than Qatar as minimum.

How magnificent the next World Cup will be will depend entirely on the FIFA authorities. However, the host countries will have great responsibilities. But I think countries may not be able to organize like Qatar. Because Qatar spent a lot of money on the World Cup.

If you think that if locals ignore stadium attendance that will change something, then you have never experienced any hosting a world cup Locals dont go to stadium in general. Foreigners are the one who fill stadium most. Country does not earn much from selling tickets. They earn from selling intellectual rights to air event (plus earn huge from advertising contracts). Locals rent their apartments for sky rocketed prices. Country get a huge recognition and popularity. Country earns from tourists not only during world cup. Business receives new and additional investments. But all those facilities, infrastructures, stadiums in the end are waste of money. Spending money on building them never pays off.

If my country is hosting the World Cup and it failed to qualify for the competition, I will never go to the stadium to watch any game. The majority of people that go to watch these games are from the host country. Apart from the supporters club of most countries, the stadium will be empty without the citizens of the host country. For the competition to be entertaining and profitable, host nations should be given automatic qualification tickets. Don't also forget that these host nations will also spend millions of dollars on football facilities, infrastructures, personnel, and other essential services. We shouldn't assume that it is FIFA that finances all the projects, so they need to be compensated with automatic qualification.

The bad thing about the 2026 world cup and even previous world cups is getting auto qualification when they host the world cup. I mean when they host the world cup they get some advantages, for example, they will have more visitors for their country and it helps the country financially while getting an auto qualification is not necessary and they should get qualified like other teams.

In fact, do you think that the next World Cup Qatar will be able to overcome the historic World Cup and organize a better one. But I think that since three countries will host the World Cup together, we will be able to enjoy something great from Qatar.

Costs may go up, but it is mostly for the fans and not for the organizers. Look at the FIFA World Cup of 2026. A total of 3 countries are hosting it - United States, Canada and Mexico. For the hosting nations, this arrangement is somewhat beneficial, because the matches are spread out across different localities and no new facilities need to be created. But for the fans, it is going to be a nightmare. They need to frequently travel from one country to another, if they want to attend all the matches of their team. Visa issues are there, and then there is a need to travel thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers across different countries.