Men's Football FIFA World Cup 2026

[avlar 453]

19 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

A lot of Polish footballers were "allowed" to emigrate to Belgium in 1980s (second only to France since Polish communist party chairman Gierek actually worked in French mines in 1950s and spoke French fluently). Andrzej Szarmach to Auxerre was the primary example. Back then Polish players were only allowed to travel abroads when they turned 28 yo.

 

Boniek to Juventus after 1982 WCup was the ultimate dispension alas he was the biggest star we had so he was given the "ultimate" permission from the top ranks.

Now it is clear - why Zmuda moved to Italy only in 1982. 28 yo.

By the way what WC game of the national team is considered to be the best of all time in Poland?

[AmericanHero40 238]

So let me see if I understand this.  By the time FIFA getting to pot 4.  They need: 4 groups without 2 european teams, one group without a team from asia/north america/south america.  And one group without a team from Oceania/north America/Africa.   

 

There could be a situation where it wont happen.    They should pull Pot 4 out second so at least they know who cant go where due to this stupid playoff system.   They are really backing themselves into a corner here

[LDOG 2,464]

1 hour ago, AmericanHero40 said:

So let me see if I understand this.  By the time FIFA getting to pot 4.  They need: 4 groups without 2 european teams, one group without a team from asia/north america/south america.  And one group without a team from Oceania/north America/Africa.   

 

There could be a situation where it wont happen.    They should pull Pot 4 out second so at least they know who cant go where due to this stupid playoff system.   They are really backing themselves into a corner here

UEFA draws have many many more restrictions and they always conduct them succesfully. I trust FIFA has taken all the variables into account too.

[Monzanator 4,768]

5 hours ago, avlar said:

Now it is clear - why Zmuda moved to Italy only in 1982. 28 yo.

By the way what WC game of the national team is considered to be the best of all time in Poland?

Probably 1974 3rd place match vs  After that 3-0 vs  in 1982 World Cup. Outside of WC it's Euro 1976 qualifer 4-1 vs  

[Siddhartha Talukdar 242]

Why is no one talking about the draw for the inter-continental playoffs? IC-2 includes teams from South America, North America, and Asia, which means its winner will end up in a group alongside two European teams and an African team.

The main issue is that the draw takes place before the playoffs, so we don’t know the identities of those teams—or which pots they actually deserve to be in.

Another problem is the FIFA rankings themselves. Intra-continental comparisons are usually fine: Iran is clearly stronger than Qatar, Costa Rica is stronger than Haiti, Colombia is stronger than Bolivia, and so on. But globally the rankings don’t always reflect reality. Is Iran really the 20th-best team in the world when most of its players are in the domestic league, whose clubs rarely go past the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League? Or look at Ivory Coast: ranked 42nd, yet they’re African champions with players across major European leagues.

A third issue is that FIFA doesn’t do much to ensure a balanced knockout stage. In most sports, the top four seeds are placed so they can’t meet before the semifinals. FIFA’s system doesn’t guarantee that kind of structure.

[LDOG 2,464]

50 minutes ago, Siddhartha Talukdar said:

In most sports, the top four seeds are placed so they can’t meet before the semifinals. FIFA’s system doesn’t guarantee that kind of structure.

Ehh they are doing exactly that for this draw, for the first time. It's been on the news for the past two days.

[Siddhartha Talukdar 242]

4 minutes ago, LDOG said:

Ehh they are doing exactly that for this draw, for the first time. It's been on the news for the past two days.

Yeah, I am aware of this.

Host Nation generally gets top seed. But if the host is weak then the host's group winner gets it easy in the knockouts.

Eg Uruguay in 2010, Netherlands in 2022

[avlar 453]

9 hours ago, Monzanator said:

Probably 1974 3rd place match vs  After that 3-0 vs  in 1982 World Cup. Outside of WC it's Euro 1976 qualifer 4-1 vs  

I have not seen Euro 1976 qualifer 4-1 vs  
So I will add it to my watch list )) Thank you!

[bestmen 2,898]

Puting the 3 hosts in pot 1 because they host is the problem , but you cant be fair at 100% impossible 

[Monzanator 4,768]

11 hours ago, Siddhartha Talukdar said:

Yeah, I am aware of this.

Host Nation generally gets top seed. But if the host is weak then the host's group winner gets it easy in the knockouts.

Eg Uruguay in 2010, Netherlands in 2022

The host group is always weaker by design and basically everyone wants to be in that group to have a better chance of qualifying. That's a trend that goes on for decades.