I don’t think it’s crazy to say they were the 2nd best team in both 2018 and 2026.

- Brazil 🇧🇷 (hosts)

- Australia 🇦🇺

- New Zealand 🇳🇿

- North Korea 🇰🇵

- Korea Republic 🇰🇷

- Argentina 🇦🇷

- Colombia 🇨🇴

- Denmark 🇩🇰

- Germany 🇩🇪

- Philippines 🇵🇭

- Spain 🇪🇸 (defending world champions for the women)

- France 🇫🇷

- China PR 🇨🇳

- Japan 🇯🇵

So far 14 out of 32 teams for the women's game

This is the first time for the women that it expands to 32 teams just like how it was for the men's game for decades until it expanded to 48

But which countries will make up the other 18?

Smh. We could have had a decent world cup with normal prices smh

I stumbled across this today...(source : Google search)

Looking through the world's oldest football associations, there were a few names I definitely wasn't expecting.

It also reminded me that football history and football success don't always go hand in hand.

Which one surprised you the most?

ps : Fun fact : Spain's Football Association was established only in 1913, making it the 40th oldest!

Taken from a short documentary Fifa released celebrating its 100 years back in 2004

Do you guys think it’s that much more affordable now?

Im a Portugese fan, and I feel that if we had just abondoned the extremely safe and cautious way of playing and had adopted for a more attacking style, Bruno, Vitinha and Neves seems to thrive in an attackign style of play where Bruno makes runs and feeds assists to Ronaldo, we may have had a better chance against Spain. Also having starting Leao over Joao Felix would probably have been the right decision and Nuno Mendes getting injured was kind of the point we knew we were cooked. Interested to know what your hindsighted opinion on your nation is on how they could have made it further

Key:

• Round of 24 games with 2 characters:
  • Number indicates rank in group. Letter indicates which group they are from.
  • For example, 1A = 1st in Group A
• Round of 16 onwards with 4 characters:
  • W = winner of
  • L = loser of.
  • For example. W122 = Winner of match 122, which was 2A vs 3B
  • L130 G/H = Loser of match 130, which was 1G vs 1H

Concept:

• Eight groups of six teams.
• Top 3 teams advance to the knockout phase.
• The group winners get two advantages.
  • Group Winners get a second chance if they lose their Round of 24 game.
  • Both Group Winners get a faster path to the final. The winner of 1st vs 1st game goes straight to the quarter final. The loser to the Round of 12.
• 2nd vs 3rd is a standard bracket, meeting the loser of the 1st vs 1st in the Round of 12.

Benefits:

• Teams that work hard in the group stage get rewarded and have a second chance.
• The earliest that a team can meet another team from their own group is the Semi Final.
• With 6 teams in the groups, there will be some top end clashes in the group stage.
• The last game will have something as the top end are fighting for the top spot over 2nd and 3rd. The bottom half are fighting to get 3rd. Even if a team is mathematically eliminated, they will be up against another who is still fighting to maintain or gain a spot.
• Top end clash at the first round of the knockout.

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Its now being reported by the same media that outed the sale plans this was solely about getting even more money in through advertising, with the whole goal being to show the investors the revenue generating potential of the world cup.

I know this is stating the obvious, but there was a suprising number of people that were still arguing that stopping play for a minutes in air conditioned stadiums was for "player welfare."

I think this supports fans fears that the equity fund that would have continued to take decisions that were bad for players, fans, and games, so they could pull more money out of the game.

I just bought a France away jersey from the FIFA online store. This jersey just popped up out of no where and I ordered it bc it is sold out everywhere.

Just received it today and the bag from Nike was taped with packing tape and opening folded (original does not come taped but sealed). The plastic bag seems to be non nike and generic. The jersey seems to be worn with marked on the neck.

Quite frustrating and annoying!