World Cup 2026

[Audrey Horne]

Hope we see a lot of solidarity and protest throughout to bring some hope back!

[TheRam]

It's a complicated question isn't it, the morality of sportswashing and glossing over horrendous politics for sporting events? I'm not sure there's a right answer really.

Like this World Cup was granted to the US in 2018, and the only other bid was Morocco. Obviously FIFA is wildly corrupt, but nobody could've known the political landscape and how the world would've changed in those 8 years. In theory a joint World Cup between the US, Canada and Mexico could've been a really joyous idea, uniting the North American continent in one giant celebration. From FIFA's POV it was probably viewed as a ''safe pair of hands'' type of WC, after Russia and Qatar and then global geopolitics have take things in a different direction.

Barring some giant war involving lots of countries, or saying the US invading Greenland, they weren't going to take it away from the US at this late stage.

For me, this World Cup now feels grubbier and dirtier than the ones in Russia and Qatar overall. I could be wrong but I don't recall a World Cup taking place where the hosts have launched an illegal military attack against one of the participants in the tournament in the months leading upto it. Not to mention abducting the President of Venezuela or supporting the extermination of Palestinians. World Cup hosts are usually on their best behaviour as part of the propaganda. The US is operating outside of international law consistently. If Russia invaded Ukraine just before the 2018 WC, there's absolutely no way the tournament would've stayed in Russia. Not a chance.

So as with many other things, there's different rules for the US than everybody else, even Putin's Russia.

A Somali referee and the entire Iranian team have been denied entry to the country. An Iraqi player has been interrogated for hours at customs, other teams have been subjected to intense security searches. Who knows what ICE will do during the tournament? The worst could be yet to come. This is all hanging over the tournament, and we're meant to just watch the togger and pretend everything's ok? As problematic as they were for different reasons, at least Russia and Qatar were open and welcoming to all competitors and supporters.

And then clearly the entire thing is going to be used as a pro-Trump, pro-MAGA propaganda exercise, which is nauseating. So yeah, it feels pretty horrible.

Yes, but Graham Potter is wearing a cowboy hat.

[TheRam]

ITV have absolutely nailed that studio.

[Cereal Killer]

Basically the starting line up apart from Saka in for Madueke if he’s fit?

[TheRam]

This looks like it’s going to be a decent game

[Goaljira]

That was actually good from Gordon. Maybe Barca know what theyre doing.

[Audrey Horne]

Mandueke is crap

[Bob Sacamano]

I’ve sacked it off already.

[Goaljira]

Temu Saka.

[Audrey Horne]

Mandueke is crap

[weimaranerblues]

Madueke. Lol

[Goaljira]

The rat was always going down there.

[weimaranerblues]

Dive Vardy style

[Goaljira]

Haha, soft shite called for diving. Love it.

[Cereal Killer]

Well we looked better, but there’s a reason Costa Rica didn’t qualify whilst Haiti and Curaçao did…

Bellingham is a nailed on red card at some point during the competition, he just can’t get enough of jabbing his finger at people and slapping them on the cheek