Men's Football FIFA World Cup 2026

[Monzanator 4,787]

27 minutes ago, hoversaBR said:

It makes no sense that Argentina has to face Italy while Germany faces, let's say, Curaçao, for example. Every seeded team should face at least one weak opponent in their group. 

 

Italy is clearly in a down period. If not for the 2020 Euro dead cat bounce it's their worst decade since 1950s? 

[hoversaBR 633]

25 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

 

Italy is clearly in a down period. If not for the 2020 Euro dead cat bounce it's their worst decade since 1950s? 

I agree, but I would still rather face Qatar, Uzbekistan, or South Africa than them.

[avlar 466]

1 hour ago, Monzanator said:

The thing is Denmark was non-existent in World Cup or Euros before 1986.

I can`t agree with the first statement ))

Denmark played Euro semifinal in 1984. Just one step from the final.

 

1 hour ago, Monzanator said:

So would you give UEFA a free wild card because it's UEFA and one assume Europe is the strongest continent in football numbers-wise? (CONMEBOL is obviously the other 'strong' federation if only they have 5-6 contending teams whereas Europe can claim ca, 15-20). I'm OK with the UEFA playoff teams being relegated to the Haiti & Curacao pot level.

No, I would not give free wild card... but if teams are assigned to pots accoring to their rankings FIFA it would be just enough to use rankings of the play-off teams to assign the winner of the respective play-off path to the proper pot (highest, lowest, average ranking for example).
It would be better decison.
 

[avlar 466]

2 hours ago, Siddhartha Talukdar said:

Till 2014, draws used to be based on continental zones. Since 2018 pots are based on rankings so groups could be more balanced. But rankings can never be accurate unless nations from inter-continents play more competitive matches. Also, suddenly if a lower ranked team nation gets decent players like Norway or a higher ranked team have lesser quality players like Italy who are ranked 10th right now

Yes, eralier they did it manually.

For example, in 1978 FIFA assigned to pot 1    
But  beeing vice-champions from 1974 asked: why???
And FIFA said Ok. You will be in pot 1.
So we need to move someone to pot 2. And they moved 
Then  asked: ?&(^&*???
And FIFA said: you will be in pot 2 but you will be allowed to chose you group without any draw.

And  used this bonus to get place in the same group as .

There were a lot of stories with these draws - something like that happened before WC 1990 when.

[Siddhartha Talukdar 244]

16 minutes ago, avlar said:

Yes, eralier they did it manually.

For example, in 1978 FIFA assigned to pot 1    
But  beeing vice-champions from 1974 asked: why???
And FIFA said Ok. You will be in pot 1.
So we need to move someone to pot 2. And they moved 
Then  asked: ?&(^&*???
And FIFA said: you will be in pot 2 but you will be allowed to chose you group without any draw.

And  used this bonus to get place in the same group as .

There were a lot of stories with these draws - something like that happened before WC 1990 when.

In 1954, quarter finals were played where group winners played each other and runners up played each other

[Monzanator 4,787]

19 minutes ago, avlar said:

I can`t agree with the first statement ))

Denmark played Euro semifinal in 1984. Just one step from the final.

 

No, I would not give free wild card... but if teams are assigned to pots accoring to their rankings FIFA it would be just enough to use rankings of the play-off teams to assign the winner of the respective play-off path to the proper pot (highest, lowest, average ranking for example).
It would be better decison.

Ah yes, I forgot Denmark had 1984 too, Doesn't matter since it comes to the same thing, an upgrade to Europe seeding since it's Europe, lol. Back in 1994  Europe had the full pot 3 just because it's Europe (Spain and Pays Bas hardly outsiders aka minnows were in Pot 3 too). It all comes down to if let's say peak Switzerland is tougher than let's say peak Paraguay. And nobody considers let's say peak Japan to be tougher than peak Switzerland or other European nation in their "better" period. 35 years on and the same "dilemma".

[JoshMartini007 2,769]

Thinking about it, the inter-continental play-off 2 spot basically forces their group to contain two European teams and one African team this is because they cannot be drawn against Asia, South America and CONCACAF teams and New Zealand is in the same pot.

 

While it is likely we will have such a group, there is also a good chance (~10% by my quick and not-accurate math) that we won't. I wonder if FIFA has taken special precautions or just hope it won't come to that.

[Monzanator 4,787]

Seeding for 1994. Can you see a pattern? Sverige had zero presence since 1974 but for 1992 euro hosting.

 

 

[Monzanator 4,787]

So yeah, a group of Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Sweden was very much probable for 1994 WCup. It just so happened "weaker" Russia and Cameroon dropped in. And   was considered a dangerous floater even if  was the team on the rise.

[avlar 466]

8 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Seeding for 1994. Can you see a pattern? Sverige had zero presence since 1974 but for 1992 euro hosting.

 

 

One little remark on Sweden - they had UEFA president at that moment, as far as I remember )))
(their last WC was in 1978 by that moment).

Bu there were the times when rankings were much less important.
For example before Italy 1990 there were a lot of talks about  in pot 1.

 supposed that the system was designed to move  for sure to the islands.