FIFA World Cup 2026

[_Arabia_]

To the American audience here.

I saw earlier that most of the stadiums are also used for American football (NFL). They supposedly have air condition and state of the art facilities. However many of the games I have watched - the pitches seem to be in an appealing condition. Not all games but too many of them from what I have seen.

I saw the KSA-Uruguay game that was played in Miami for instance (where it poured in the second half I believe), and it looked like there was a ton of water on the pitch and the ball moved very slowly and every shot from distance was dangerous because the ball bounced. A lot of basic technical mistakes that did not occur in the first half due to the condition of the pitch as well.

The extreme humidity and high temperatures were also felt. Many games are played in a very low tempo. How is that possible when there is supposedly air condition? I looked at some of the temperatures during the games and it is not as hot and humid as it could be. At least for some of the games.

People complained about playing a World Cup in Qatar in the middle of June and July (I agree) but the same thing could be said about most of the US during this time of the year and Mexico. Even Canada (Toronto).

Not sure If there is technology available (sufficient cooling in stadiums) to remove the negative impact of the weather completely.

Could be a problem in KSA in 2034 as well if held in the middle of the summer (more so dry heat which is generally more tolerable for the body rather than high humidity outside of Jeddah (which has very tolerable summer temperatures - and other coastal cities) so a solution should be found. Either that or playing all the games after at least 21:00.

It really "destroys" much of the product/potential to watch those type of matches played at such a slow speed and on such pitches IMO. Far cry from the top CL games in Europe.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

@_Arabia_ , the majority of the NFL stadiums are NOT domed. The only domed ones used for the World Cup are in:

- ATL (Atlanta)
- DFW (Dallas-Ft. Worth)
- IAH (Houston)

The remaining 8 US stadiums are not including MIA. And, this time of the year, you can expect rain in MIA on a near-daily basis.

Additionally, the stadium in Vancouver, CA, is domed whereas the stadium in Toronto is not.

None of the Mexican stadiums are domed.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

@_Arabia_ , you posed an excellent question with me wondering why FIFA did not seek to hold the US-based games indoors. Here is the full list of domed NFL stadiums:



Five of these stadiums have been used for soccer matches. Would have to check but I've a feeling the other 5 could host soccer matches as well based on the standard dimensions of 105x68 meters.

Updated: I was able to answer my own question. FIFA rules regarding the playing surface.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

And just like that, it is raining in SEA.

Welcome to the PNW.

 

[313Ghazi]

Golden generation was - in fairness - the best group of footballers England have ever fielded at the same time, better than this lot. They failed because of their individual egos and rivalries in the dressing room. They still take digs at each other even today when they're all in their 50s.

Also shit tactics. Always trying 442, that team in a 433 or a 4231 would have been fantastic. They also lacked a natural left sided attacker.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Was it just me or could the refs make it any more obvious? Some of the fouls against Ghana where atrocious.

 

[_Arabia_]

Happy for Ghana. Remember how close they were to reaching the semifinals back in 2010 as the first African team in history. Until Morocco did it back in 2018 as the first Arab and African country in history.

Panama not doing bad though. Impressive from such a small country.

In general international football, which this World Cup has so far confirmed, is becoming more and more even. It is rare to see a huge gap in quality as once was the case.

The outliner so far has been the Germany-Curacao match but that was hardly a surprise. Curacao has a population less than 150.000 and I read that all of their players, except for one of them, were born in the Netherlands.

The only thing, having a cousin attending the World Cup in the US, that I think is unnecessary for a country like the US, is the pricing of not only the tickets (FIFA probably have a say here) but everything from transportation, hotels, food etc.

It is opportunistic, cheap and quite frankly desperate to have to pay 100 dollars for transportation from Manhattan to Metlife Stadium. Public transportation (subway) no less.

Which is a shame as the US is not an overly expensive country to travel within and dine in etc.

A lot of football fans from across the world have been prevented from attending for those reasons. Other reasons is the US denying them visas etc.

I don't recall (even though this was before my time) this being the case in 1994 from those who experienced that tournament.

vious? Some of the fouls against Ghana where atrocious.

Did you see the final seconds of the Uruguay-KSA game? The referee (European referee - Slovenian if I recall), allowed the play to continue for 1.5 more minutes than the added time showed (all during Uruguay possessions and attacks) while he blew the whistle in the middle of a counterattack where KSA had the ball and we had numerical advantage (3 against 1). Potentially a goalscoring opportunity. There were never any stops in play before this action - meaning no fouls whistled, no throw ins, corner kicks etc. to be taken. He could easily have allowed play to continue until we finished our attack either by losing possession or potentially scoring. Instead he blew the whistle beforehand. Not sure this would have occurred the other way around, I am to be honest.

It was worse than I recall. Some American made a Youtube video about it already with quite a lot of views.

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As you can see he all alone and could have potentially had an 1 against 1 goalscoring opportunity. And this is an attacking (traditional number 9 - Al-Hamdan) so high likelihood of a goal.

Not sure if this would have occurred for France, the US, England etc.

Sometimes referring bias is clear and obvious and more often than not the lesser ranked/underdog team is at the receiving end. Seen it across many sports.

On the other hand if you are a host country you can rob yourself into a semifinals like South Korea did back in 2002 after cheating/bribing the referees against Italy and Spain. Look up those scandalous/blatantly corrupt decisions for South Korea.

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BTW there was a lot talk about Qatari bribes etc. The reality is that even Germany did bribes in order to ensure that they would host the FIFA 2006 World Cup. I don't recall the media frenzy in this regard.

German football bosses fined over 2006 World Cup scandal

A German court has fined the country's football association over a scandal connected to the hosting of the 2006 World Cup. The trial had been going on for more than a decade.

www.dw.com

The media only tells you what they want to. Same goes for the general agendas.

Take Israel as an example. If any country in the world, not named Israel, was doing what they have been doing for decades, they would long ago have become completely sanctioned and become a pariah. Instead they have never been banned from even FIFA, once. Let alone Eurovision and other nonsense that does not really matter at all. So you can imagine about the rest.

 

[PK781]

Referree bias is very obvious and clear in most matches, they're favoring the europeans and going against all the africans/arabs teams.......it looks deliberate, almost like contempt. Seems the referees are up in the butts of the whites.

noticed it against KSA, Egypt, Morocco, Iran, Congo, Ghana, IvoryCoast, Cabo Verde, and etc.......

 

[_Arabia_]

Referree bias is very obvious and clear in most matches, they're favoring the europeans and going against all the africans/arabs teams.......it looks deliberate, almost like contempt. Seems the referees are up in the butts of the whites.

noticed it against KSA, Egypt, Morocco, Iran, Congo, Ghana, IvoryCoast, Cabo Verde, and etc.......

I have to be fair, we did not deserve to win against Uruguay (a draw was a largely fair result although Uruguay had more shots as they were chasing a draw for much of the match until they equalized) but most 50/50 decisions went their way and the last opportunity (Al-Hamdan through on goal alone) with the referee blowing the whistle, I doubt would have occurred the other way around.

We have to remember that sports is pure business. Money is the deciding factor at the end of the day. Broadcasters, most fans (neutral in particular) and most likely FIFA want the best teams (on paper) and largest and most powerful footballing countries to do better than smaller/lesser ranked nations. Host nations are usually also favored in order to have as many locals actively participating for as long as possible. Which is normal and understandable in a way.

Pretty sure that we will see a decrease in attendance if the host nations are eliminated. Which is bad for business.

 

[SolarWarden]

To the American audience here.

I saw earlier that most of the stadiums are also used for American football (NFL). They supposedly have air condition and state of the art facilities. However many of the games I have watched - the pitches seem to be in an appealing condition. Not all games but too many of them from what I have seen.

I saw the KSA-Uruguay game that was played in Miami for instance (where it poured in the second half I believe), and it looked like there was a ton of water on the pitch and the ball moved very slowly and every shot from distance was dangerous because the ball bounced. A lot of basic technical mistakes that did not occur in the first half due to the condition of the pitch as well.

The extreme humidity and high temperatures were also felt. Many games are played in a very low tempo. How is that possible when there is supposedly air condition? I looked at some of the temperatures during the games and it is not as hot and humid as it could be. At least for some of the games.

People complained about playing a World Cup in Qatar in the middle of June and July (I agree) but the same thing could be said about most of the US during this time of the year and Mexico. Even Canada (Toronto).

Not sure If there is technology available (sufficient cooling in stadiums) to remove the negative impact of the weather completely.

Could be a problem in KSA in 2034 as well if held in the middle of the summer (more so dry heat which is generally more tolerable for the body rather than high humidity outside of Jeddah (which has very tolerable summer temperatures - and other coastal cities) so a solution should be found. Either that or playing all the games after at least 21:00.

It really "destroys" much of the product/potential to watch those type of matches played at such a slow speed and on such pitches IMO. Far cry from the top CL games in Europe.

So NFL stadiums with natural grass/turf were told they needed to use FIFA certified natural grass/turf which is totally different from NFL. When US host Copa America they use NFL grass/turf and it looks great natural NFL grass is really good and fast but for some reason wasn't good enough for WC which is why you are seeing dry spots.

 

[SolarWarden]

Did anyone see Ronaldo play today?

Look I get he's old now but he's never really been a factor in WC unlike Messi even though it took a while for Messi to finally win it.

Both Messi and Ronaldo played for teams loaded with star players Ronaldo with Man-U won 3 PL tittles and with Real Madrid 2 La Liga tittles. Messi with Barcelona won 10 La Liga tittles.... There really shouldn't be any debate who is better it is clearly Messi.

Even if Portugal somehow wins the WC Ronaldo can't touch Messi.