Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 219. (Read 62776 times)

There are no other options but to do riskiest one that doesn't even guarantee an approval even after the fact of having to purchase the game tickets, hotel and transfers, even the airline ticket back and forth, the outcome might be still the same. But that is the price and risk that they should pay if they are that willing to watch the games live as this kind of event is only happening once every four years and it might be the first and last World Cup they'll ever see considering the hefty cost needed to enjoy this event.

I think special rules will be made to make it easier for football fans to watch live games in the US, and they usually are. The number of football lovers who come from every country is inconceivable and it will be such a loss if they don't relax every rule regarding tourists visiting their country for the purpose of watching a World Cup match. Surely the government will see this as a kind of business.
When comparing one country to another, I think it will be endless because each country has its own regulations, and they cannot be contested unless the government of the country concerned issues a new policy.

Honestly, I dont understand what is lottery you are talking about. Maybe this is football finals feature, but in ice hockey, you just go online and buy ticket. Or buy tickets from resellers at the stadium. Right now you can freely go to https://www.lippu.fi/en/artist/2023-jaakiekon-mm-kisat/2023-jaeaekiekon-mm-kisat-3218460/?pnum=2 and buy a ticket for gold medal game. 150 EUR and you will see which ice hockey team is the best in 2023.

Lets take Frankfurt, Germany airport (one of the biggest and busiest airports in Europe) as a centre. Google say that cheapest one way airplane ticket is about 400 EUR. Same google say that Tampa hostels starting price is 40 EUR, taking into consideration, this is IIHF finals, everything will be booked, so I would double the price.

Total: 1000 EUR to see IIHF World Cup final + the amount you spend to get to Frankfurt + beer

The problems you might get - all the cheap tokens for prelims are already sold out now, but if you are alone and dont need 5-10 seats in a row, you still can get a ticket with a little effort.

P.S. Prelim tickets were starting from 12.50 EUR for a weak teams games, or from 22 EUR for games such as Canada vs Finland during prelims (but such tickets were sold out immediately). If you are from Europe, a bus from most of countries to Tampa would cost 20-50 EUR max, take some junk food with you and it will cost around 100 EUR to watch your favourite team play. 100 EUR can afford to spend most of average fans.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, USA is one of those countries which favor illegal immigrants over legal immigrants. If you apply for a legal visa, you need to wait for 3-4 years to get a hearing. An easier route is to travel to Mexico and then jump the fence over Mexico-US border. Every year millions of illegal immigrants take this step. Now I don't know whether the Americans will ease visa rules for the FIFA World Cup of 2026. If they don't do so, then I don't expect a large attendance from third world nations such as India and Indonesia.

I do not agree with you about the factors and comparing Qatar with America, we know getting a visa to enter the USA is more complicated, especially for people from some countries with a bad reputation and bad relations with the USA but I think America will make an exception and some special rules for the people who come to visit this country for watching the worth cup games. That's why I don't think if there will be a problem with getting a visa.

Qatar is the best World Cup host in the history of the World Cup, so it is only natural that it has an advantage over several other countries that have hosted or will recently host the World Cup.

You need to know that a big fan of football, especially fans of their own country's team, will always follow to watch the match even though they have to spend some money, especially since this is a World Cup event that can be watched only once every 4 years so money is not a problem for those who are already big fans football.

The US visa is indeed more complicated compared to Qatar but there will always be a way and I'm sure FIFA will have prepared everything for the smooth running of the prestigious World Cup football event, so there will definitely be conveniences later for every football fan who will come to watch there in person .

The country's culture will not affect anything because this is a prestigious international sporting event so that no one will consider everything just because of the country's culture.
We cannot mix up the country's cultural issues with sporting activities such as the World Cup soccer event.

I think a militant football not fan would ever think of anything other than watching and cheering for their proud team.

Qatar 2022 was very expensive for most of the fans. The Qataris were exploiting the fans, by overpricing the hotel rooms and services. The only positive point was that all the world cup venues were located in close proximity, and therefore it was possible to easily move from one venue to the other. And the biggest advantage with Qatar is obviously the visa process. It is very easy to get a Qatari tourist visa, which will enable you to reside in Qatar for a period of up to 90 days. I don't know whether the Americans are going to relax the visa requirements, but it is extremely tedious to get a US tourist visa.

BTW, the third point is illogical. US is much better than Qatar, in terms of respecting different cultures and customs. 

I dont know why missing 4 years for the world cup to take place are you talking.

Think this, between Rusia 2018 and Qatar 2022 we had a global pandemic and a war in the edge to become WW3, so i dont make so many plans.... long ride ahead cowboys.


All you say its true but i think they are gonna soften the VISA thing or maybe they make some special VISA for WC. But i repeat we are gonna wait to see how its the global world.

In fact, despite all the problems, I believe that in terms of security, Qatar is much better than the United States, Canada and Mexico.
But even so, I believe that this is the least of the problems that could prevent tourists from going to watch the 2026 World Cup games in person.

The main factors that could make this difficult, I still believe are:

• The money: Even believing that it will be cheaper than the Qatar Cup, this is still a privilege for few people in the world;
• The visa: Unlike Qatar, it is much more complicated to get a visa to enter the USA, which will host most of the games, not to mention that citizens of certain countries are prohibited from entering there... they cannot even apply of the process.
• The culture of the country: The United States has a bad reputation in many countries or religions, something that will certainly prevent much of the world from visiting them.

In reality I reckon most people will just watch games in a single country, the US, because they will be hosting the vast majority of the matches.


But then again, not sure if a lot of people would actually go to the US, as many governments are warning against it:


It's really out of control to be honest:

The difficulty will be experienced by the third world country people. Maybe the country will make arrangements to issue Visa in a faster way. Right now it is really hard to reach the council to get an appointment for Visa process. Each and every requirement need to be fulfilled and it have utmost security. Maybe there'll be arrangement to issue Visa specific to watch football with the combined contribution from the other two host nations. In that way this can be made easier and cost effective.

Thanks for the informative reply, but there is one thing that is still not clear to me. I know that when you want to visit the big games like the semifinals and finals in the Champions League or any games at the World Cup or European Cup, you have to take part in a lottery and see whether you are among the few who are entitled to purchase a ticket. Now when somebody decides to go to a World Cup, they first have to wait for the lottery to conclude in order to know when and where they can go. But you now said that some average guys will visit a few games, but what is the chance that someone wins the lottery for a few games? Perhaps they want to go with friends and they depend on all of them being selected for the same games. I would think that the average fan is going to visit one game. Am I wrong here? Has anybody been to a World Cup and visited several games? Has there been a lottery for every game? As far as I know, when I looked into that the last time there actually was a lottery for all of those games. You could buy tickets on the black market, but now that the tickets are mostly digital I don't know whether you could get stopped at the entrance.

If I were to go to a game, I would choose some favorite locations, apply for the games and then if I got selected, I would go to my favorite place, plan some holiday there and visit one game.

That is probably the only major problem people will face during the next world cup, the US is very strict with its policies and getting a visa will probably get harder as they will probably receive millions of applications to watch the games live, I suppose that for soccer fans one of the basic requirements to get a visa to watch the games will be to have bought a ticket already and have a place to stay, still it would not surprise me if under those conditions many people were still denied entry and they will fail to make it to the world cup.

Quite unfair, isn't it?
Anyway, it is what it is because America's closest allied countries are really granted with an almost easy access since then. That said, they will have the most advantage in this event because they will not be having any troubles in entering towards US soil compared to other people especially if they came from a 3rd world country, but there should be no problems at all to watch this event as long as they have the correct requirements and completed every check that they placed before you will be granted an access.

I do agree that it will be easier but when we are talking about Canada or USA, there will be a bit more questions asked. Lets be honest and realize that not many people will want to run out of their nation and be an illegal immigrant at Qatar, when you compare how many would be willing to do that for USA, the majority of the illegal immigrants in the USA didn't come from borders or anything like that, they are people who came there with their visa and overstayed their visa by a lot, that's the majority.

So some people may just buy a world cup ticket and a hotel booked, get in thanks to that, and never leave. That's why they will keep it very tight and will note down every single person who came there and who left after the world cup and check if anyone overstayed their visit.

It's not that easy mate because it will be too dangerous for the host countries if they will just give an easy access to all the spectators just because they are holding World Cup games, especially America as this country is probably #1 on the enemy's hitlist because this country has done so much unreasonable damage during the times of war.

And let's not rule out that there will be some attempt by the enemies in the guise of being a spectator of the games, hence, it will be the opposite thing of what you're thinking as these countries will not hold back on their country's security to ensure a safe environment for all the players, organizers, spectators and of course, their own citizens. It is safe to assume that everybody else will be thoroughly searched including their soul if it's possible before they can step on these hosts land.

There should be no problem getting Canada's visa if the holder is already holding a US visa as that will be a clear sign that the person holding it is not on anybody else's blocklist. While Mexico is somewhat a free country where you can visit without having any visa for a good 6 months or 180 days to be exact. Moreover, if you're someone who's living in a first world country, you wouldn't have to think of these problems as almost everything can be achievable with just a passport.

I don't care if alcohol is something good or bad I'm talking about freedom and freedom is what we need in a country when they host the world cup otherwise the people who come to that country to watch the games won't be happy stay that country, in Qatar is was the main problem but I think in the 2026 world cup we won't have any problem about it.

It is very difficult to tell people that they regulate themselves with alcohol, there are some who do not even stop what they are told, they simply continue drinking alcohol until they lose control, in addition to the adrenaline of soccer, of each game, of supporting your team, all these things make some people believe that they are invincible with alcohol and unfortunately problems begin to form, and if there is a lot of rivalry then things are quite different because when emotions are mixed and if both sides of people are very Taken many ugly things can occur, that's why I say that it is much better without alcohol, not everyone controls themselves.

If this is not a crazy national team fan, than this guy visits few games, probably stay in a city abroad for few days and fly away. Each tournament - this is +2 weeks non-stop games routine. I doubt that an average man can afford to go for a +2 weeks holiday just to watch favourite team play, plus buy tickets, that often cost 50+ bucks for shitty seats during prelims. I think such expenses are unacceptable for an average fan, that is why few games/few days is enough for him.

I have travelled from Europe to US and have visited Mexico via cruise about 5 years ago. I dont remember visa being a problem and cost a lot. Plane tickets wasnt expensive either, as I have bought them months before the flight. Hotels ate most of the budget, but it was a high season in Miami.