2026 FIFA World Cup thread

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World Cup champions?

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If the current incident involved England we would be hearing about it from now until the end of our lives.

Iran gets screwed over, with its team harassed and forced on endless plane trips, but everyone forgets about it instantly.

Little Belgium gets screwed over by the postponed red card, but they fight back so everyone comes to terms with it.

Egypt gets controversial referee decisions that indicate, at the very least, that the VAR is working badly and inconsistently.

That's just sour grapes!

And we already know something is rotten in the state of Denmark because it was on the front pages that Trump rigged it once.

Sudacafan said:
I think the most famous one (apart from the Hand of God) is the phantom goal in the 1966 World Cup final between England and West Germany.

Coincidentally, both incidents involved England.
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Arsene Wenger has spoken

''''''''France will win the World Cup,’ Wenger told Sky Sports. ‘I know you will say, “of course you say that, you’re French”. But when you analyse the World Cup, the train goes at a certain pace and you have to be capable of getting on the train.

For example, the Asian teams have gone out because they could not cope with the intensity and the pace of the games. They did not have enough to compete technically.

The real question for me is Spain. If one team is capable now of beating France, I would say it is Spain because their technical level is better than France.

‘They have quality and a culture of collective football that nobody else in the world has at that level. That could be the decider between these two but of course France is stronger physically.’'''''
 
Poisoned Slice said:
Arsene Wenger has spoken

''''''''France will win the World Cup,’ Wenger told Sky Sports. ‘I know you will say, “of course you say that, you’re French”. But when you analyse the World Cup, the train goes at a certain pace and you have to be capable of getting on the train.

For example, the Asian teams have gone out because they could not cope with the intensity and the pace of the games. They did not have enough to compete technically.

The real question for me is Spain. If one team is capable now of beating France, I would say it is Spain because their technical level is better than France.

‘They have quality and a culture of collective football that nobody else in the world has at that level. That could be the decider between these two but of course France is stronger physically.’'''''
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Wenger knows ball
 
Poisoned Slice said:
It was funny. I was discussing the page with my ChatGPT friend, and they're like, "The Anthony Gordon mug must stay on his desk." I'm like, hell yeah, it does. haha Yes, it's definitely become a vital part ot the universe.

My favourite thing on the page is the USA 1994 media pass. That was one of the things ChatGPT put in on its own, and it fit.
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Oh really? I thought he was a character with a specific back story that you’d invented yourself :-D You could’ve claimed the credit, but I’m a fan of the 1994 media pass. It’s crazy what AI will come up with on it’s own.

I’m looking forward to it’s pre match breakdown for Norway v England. There’s a lot going on in that one. Probably the two teams you’d least expect to handle 35 degree heat in Miami in July :-D its the closest matched game of the QF’s. Two best number 9’s in the game.

Box office stuff.
 
Feña14 said:
Oh really? I thought he was a character with a specific back story that you’d invented yourself :-D You could’ve claimed the credit, but I’m a fan of the 1994 media pass. It’s crazy what AI will come up with on it’s own.

I’m looking forward to it’s pre match breakdown for Norway v England. There’s a lot going on in that one. Probably the two teams you’d least expect to handle 35 degree heat in Miami in July :-D its the closest matched game of the QF’s. Two best number 9’s in the game.

Box office stuff.
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Dave Meltzer is like a football pundit that rambles and rambles without saying anything. But even more rambling than that. lol
 
Feña14 said:
Oh really? I thought he was a character with a specific back story that you’d invented yourself :-D You could’ve claimed the credit, but I’m a fan of the 1994 media pass. It’s crazy what AI will come up with on it’s own.

I’m looking forward to it’s pre match breakdown for Norway v England. There’s a lot going on in that one. Probably the two teams you’d least expect to handle 35 degree heat in Miami in July :-D its the closest matched game of the QF’s. Two best number 9’s in the game.

Box office stuff.
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Oh yeah, I have plans for our 2 9's.

That guy is Dave Meltzer; he's pretty much the voice of wrestling for a lot of people. He rambles on a bit, loses track of what he's saying, then takes several detours (through Mid South, probably) before getting back to his original point. So I figured, let's make him report on the World Cup. :D All done out of love.
 
Alan Shearer thinks the disallowed Egyptian goal was completely wrong.

And Zoran Mamdani agrees with Shearer that Egypt was robbed.

FIFA is so corrupt it is even planning to build a football ground on Gazan land!
 
Bartelby said:
Alan Shearer thinks the disallowed Egyptian goal was completely wrong.

And Zoran Mamdani agrees with Shearer that Egypt was robbed.

FIFA is so corrupt it is even planning to build a football ground on Gazan land!
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I think it was fair enough. Not a big fan of them bringing it back when something happened 30 seconds before and up the other end. Too much meddling by VAR. But that’s more a philosophical point. If they are refereeing like that? It’s fair enough to rule it out imo.

How they didn’t keep that consistency when Salah got his foot trod on and Mac Allister pulled Fathi back as he was about to run onto the loose ball and win it for Egypt.. only for the other Fatty (love you really Enzo) to go up the other end and score? :-D

Yeah, that’s dodgier than a Goochi handbag bought at a yard sale.

Another thing I found interesting. England are awarded a yellow card for every 7 fouls they commit. Argentina? They’re the least penalised by some margin. Every 23 fouls for them.

Interesting to note that most of the key England players enter the QF 1 yellow card away from missing the semi final.. with Argentina.

But hey, probably just a conspiracy theory. Maybe..
 
I did see that that someone had produced a yellow card to foul ratio. It seems hard to assume it's random and even harder to see how it's engineered.

Feña14 said:
I think it was fair enough. Not a big fan of them bringing it back when something happened 30 seconds before and up the other end. Too much meddling by VAR. But that’s more a philosophical point. If they are refereeing like that? It’s fair enough to rule it out imo.

How they didn’t keep that consistency when Salah got his foot trod on and Mac Allister pulled Fathi back as he was about to run onto the loose ball and win it for Egypt.. only for the other Fatty (love you really Enzo) to go up the other end and score? :-D

Yeah, that’s dodgier than a Goochi handbag bought at a yard sale.

Another thing I found interesting. England are awarded a yellow card for every 7 fouls they commit. Argentina? They’re the least penalised by some margin. Every 23 fouls for them.

Interesting to note that most of the key England players enter the QF 1 yellow card away from missing the semi final.. with Argentina.

But hey, probably just a conspiracy theory. Maybe..
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Bisquick said:
Anyone else hear that there’s some sort of flu bug going through the Norway side?
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I heard that a few days ago. Media in Norway are playing it down from what I can see. Seems it’s just a lot of travel, air conditioning etc.. they’re ok now by the sound of things.
 
Feña14 said:
I think it was fair enough. Not a big fan of them bringing it back when something happened 30 seconds before and up the other end. Too much meddling by VAR. But that’s more a philosophical point. If they are refereeing like that? It’s fair enough to rule it out imo.

How they didn’t keep that consistency when Salah got his foot trod on and Mac Allister pulled Fathi back as he was about to run onto the loose ball and win it for Egypt.. only for the other Fatty (love you really Enzo) to go up the other end and score? :-D

Yeah, that’s dodgier than a Goochi handbag bought at a yard sale.

Another thing I found interesting. England are awarded a yellow card for every 7 fouls they commit. Argentina? They’re the least penalised by some margin. Every 23 fouls for them.

Interesting to note that most of the key England players enter the QF 1 yellow card away from missing the semi final.. with Argentina.

But hey, probably just a conspiracy theory. Maybe..
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I can say beyond doubt that the whistle Cristian Romero gets in the PL compared to in a Tina shirt is possibly the widest gap in all of sports.
 
The only thing that proves is that they had a "precedent" that they should have acted upon immediately.

But there are no fixed precedents in football. There are only referees with their various interpretations.

As we see from post #5968, the referees are extraordinarily lenient toward Argentinian players in 2026.

GabeT said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2074869313845043303

A Messi goal during World Cup qualifiers disallowed for the exact same reason the Egyptian goal was disallowed
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NachoGPT said:
Interesting study 8-B
www.ntu.edu.sg

Messi or Ronaldo? Your political ideology may play a part

Self-esteem and short-form video news consumption were also associated with player preference
www.ntu.edu.sg www.ntu.edu.sg
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giphy.gif
 
We already know that the USA v Belgium match was fixed, but Belgium had other ideas.

Are you seriously suggesting that Trump and Infantino didn't try to fix that match?

GabeT said:
Sorry, I thought you debating seriously. Are you suggesting that either the match or the WC itself are fixed?
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It was on the front page of every newspaper that Trump and Infantino tried to fix the match, so the actual news bores you?

The Chief Umpire of the World Cup 2026 reserved his right of review, except he has no official right of review:


images



GabeT said:
Ok, let’s stop here. Conspiracy theories bore me
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GabeT said:
As you can see here that didn’t happen

https://twitter.com/x/status/2074887454499196977
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That’s a great angle! I’ve not seen that before, thanks for sharing.

Yeah, something dodgy going on there. Definite contact, enough for a foul? Not sure, potentially. Obviously the referee would need to go to the monitor to check something that decisive. I’m sure he had a look at the shirt pull on Fathi too.. two big incidents, seconds apart, in a high pressure situation.

But he didn’t even look.

There was a potential trip on Martinez in the build up to the Egypt goal that got ruled out. Was it a trip? At the time it was unclear, so he did the right thing and went to the monitor. On second viewing he deemed it to be enough contact. Solid process, fair enough.

Egypt weren’t afforded that level of decency (regardless of what he would’ve decided on second viewing). And that’s a big problem. You can say it’s a dereliction of duty, failure of due process etc.. doesn’t need to be a conspiracy. But it’s not great.
 
Kralingen said:
I can say beyond doubt that the whistle Cristian Romero gets in the PL compared to in a Tina shirt is possibly the widest gap in all of sports.
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:-D Can’t believe he’s never been sent off for Argentina. Maybe you’ve got it all wrong and his true passion is actually Spurs? Naturally, it boils over from time to time.
 
Bartelby said:
It was on the front page of every newspaper that Trump and Infantino tried to fix the match, so the actual news bores you?

The Chief Umpire of the World Cup 2026 reserved his right of review, except he has no official right of review:


images
Click to expand...
No, that was an abuse of power but is not match fixing. Something similar happened with Ronaldo last year (and utilizing the same Article 27 authority) as well as back in 1962 with Garrincha. It’s ok to be a novice as you wrote earlier but instead of relying on conspiracy theories it’s best to understand the game
 
Feña14 said:
That’s a great angle! I’ve not seen that before, thanks for sharing.

Yeah, something dodgy going on there. Definite contact, enough for a foul? Not sure, potentially. Obviously the referee would need to go to the monitor to check something that decisive. I’m sure he had a look at the shirt pull on Fathi too.. two big incidents, seconds apart, in a high pressure situation.

But he didn’t even look.
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I don’t think that’s how the VAR works. From what I read the VAR team automatically checks any relevant plays that could be penalties and informs the referee if they think he missed something
 
Nope. there is no precedent for what Trump did. He has dementia so if he wants something he either steals it or cheats. It's a key symptom of FTD.

GabeT said:
No, that was an abuse of power but is not match fixing. Something similar happened with Ronaldo last year (and utilizing the same Article 27 authority) as well as back in 1962 with Garrincha. It’s ok to be a novice as you wrote earlier but instead of relying on conspiracy theories it’s best to understand the game
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So why did they not inform the referee immediately? Were they on a tea break or did they go off to relieve themselves?

GabeT said:
I don’t think that’s how the VAR works. From what I read the VAR team automatically checks any relevant plays that could be penalties and informs the referee if they think he missed something
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GabeT said:
I don’t think that’s how the VAR works. From what I read the VAR team automatically checks any relevant plays that could be penalties and informs the referee if they think he missed something
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This is true. They thought there might’ve been a potential foul on Martinez so asked him to have another look, maybe he missed something. You’d think they would do the same for a bang bang incident with the outcome determining who would go through.

As I say, I don’t believe in all the nonsense of Infantino being in the ear piece or Trump in a referee kit in the VAR room and all that :-D

It’s a funny game really, there aren’t many sports where one of the first things you check is who the referee is for the game. Is it a referee who always gives everything for the favourite? Is it one who’s card happy? I can only really think of Boxing, some are known to stop fights early, others more lenient on low blows etc.. and judges of course, they seem to be a law unto themselves :-D

Refereeing is a tough job, that’s for sure. But I don’t think they do themselves many favours. Consistency is all fans ask for.
 
Feña14 said:
This is true. They thought there might’ve been a potential foul on Martinez so asked him to have another look, maybe he missed something. You’d think they would do the same for a bang bang incident with the outcome determining who would go through.

As I say, I don’t believe in all the nonsense of Infantino being in the ear piece or Trump in a referee kit in the VAR room and all that :-D

It’s a funny game really, there aren’t many sports where one of the first things you check is who the referee is for the game. Is it a referee who always gives everything for the favourite? Is it one who’s card happy? I can only really think of Boxing, some are known to stop fights early, others more lenient on low blows etc.. and judges of course, they seem to be a law unto themselves :-D

Refereeing is a tough job, that’s for sure. But I don’t think they do themselves many favours.
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The Martinez case is different. There what probably triggered the review was the goal itself. VAR reviews all goals
 
Bartelby said:
Nope. there is no precedent for what Trump did. He has dementia so if he wants something he either steals it or cheats. It's a key symptom of FTD.
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Again, you don’t know what you are talking about. The exact same thing happened with Ronaldo last year. He received a red card that would have kept him out of a WC game and FIFA suspended that using Article 27 authority
 
Trump rang up about Ronaldo too?

GabeT said:
Again, you don’t know what you are talking about. The exact same thing happened with Ronaldo last year. He received a red card that would have kept him out of a WC game and FIFA suspended that using Article 27 authority
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There is a concept in law called "breaks in the chain of causation". If someone stomps on an opponent's foot and scores then there is no break.

In the Egyptian case there were numerous breaks.

GabeT said:
The Martinez case is different. There what probably triggered the review was the goal itself. VAR reviews all goals
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GabeT said:
VAR reviews all goals
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Reviewing is one thing but acting on the review is another. This is why VAR opens doors to the abuse. It's like having all the evidence but using the more convenient ones only. Should we believe an unbiased person is the one who's the judge and executioner?
 
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