GENERAL World Cup Thread

There will be three opening ceremonies!

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cpvpr90vn01o

Shakira is to World Cups what Buble is to Christmas always pops up this time of year.

Guess who will be popping up in the Canadian ceremony? Maybe it has Christmas theme…

I forsee the opening rounds being low scoring dull affairs. Qatar was high scoring but it was mid season. Most of the european lads will have played at least 60 games+ . Heat will be stifling in a lot of venues.

Will be plenty of cards too at this world cup.

The 3 host nations are shite. Americans and Canadians offer a bit going forward but are poor at the back. Mexico will do alright at homebut won't go further than quarters.

Hard to predict winner, France the only really standout team that cover all bases.

Good on him, fantastic city is Chicago. People there don't put up with bullshit.

Apparently up until they had a few injuries Japan were tipped to go really deep. Just heard Jonathan Wilson call them the best team Asia ever sent to a World Cup.

Their 21:00 Sunday game vs The Netherlands is the first game I'm actually excited to see.

Reading online that Ruud Gullit calling for Infantino to consider his position…

A World Cup should unite people. Instead, this tournament is becoming a symbol of division, political disputes, travel restrictions, and administrative failures. We are hearing reports that Iranian supporters have had their ticket allocations withdrawn. We have seen the case of Somali referee Omar Artan, selected by FIFA on merit to officiate at the highest level, yet reportedly denied entry into the host country. These are not minor issues. They strike at the heart of what the World Cup is supposed to represent…
Leadership is not about appearing in photographs with politicians or celebrating commercial success. Leadership is about taking responsibility when things go wrong. That is why I believe Mr Infantino must ask himself whether he is still the right person to lead world football.

Remember, this is what all previous hosts had to do eg

https://x.com/Rahul_AJ_1990/status/2064173001017331730

"When South Africa hosted the World Cup in 2010 passed special legislation specifically to meet FIFA's hosting requirements for the 2010 World Cup. The most important were the '2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Special Measures Act, 2006 (Act 11 of 2006)' and the 'Second 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Special Measures Act, 2006 (Act 12 of 2006)'. These laws were enacted to give legal effect to the guarantees we had made to FIFA during the bidding process. The special laws effected temporary special provisions & exceptions in certain areas, including: Special visa, work permit, & accreditation arrangements for players, officials, media & visitors. These requirements were not exclusive to South Africa, as Korea & Japan (2002), Germany (2006), Brazil (2014), Russia (2018), Qatar (2022), had to enact the same."

The USA played Germany there over the weekend.

Bet at work, who will be golden glove in this WC and how many goals they'll concede. Not sure who to go with.

All you need to do is look at the most likely teams to reach the semis as all four teams will be gaurenteed a further game.

I'd leave Spain alone as they could easily use two keepers. So Allison, Maignan are the safest bets imo, maybe that other muppet from Argentina too

At that point FIFA don't have much leverage… dock points of the host team maybe, either in this tournament or next qualifying?

But Trump hasn't just been elected, all of these should have been ironed out 12 months ago and if there was no concrete action by the Americans in terms of the type of legislation South Africa had to pass - pull it then.
The US then walking away from such legislation would be a different matter, but it's a moot point here as they never did anything concrete.

And a massive embarassment for FIFA though, with huge financial cost. At the last minute, how are the games intended for US cities to be accommodated elsewhere.

Huge caveat being it's also being held in Mexico and Canada. It wouldn't be feasible to whip it from the US and expect the two other nations accomodate every other game

Every game is on RTE2 free to air.
Every game is either on ITV or BBC also free to air.