World Cup 2026 What did you think of the 2026 World Cup?

[mummyG]

What are your overall impressions of this World Championship?

 

[Webzcas]

Never EVER heard the World Cup being called World Championship.

 

[2Slots]

Never EVER heard the World Cup being called World Championship.

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Same here until the Flashscore app I use to check scores had it listed as 'World Championship' in the football section so somewhere in the world people are calling it that.

Annoyed me every time I saw it. First time I checked it I looked around for 'World Cup' thinking there must be some other tournament going on!

 

[sufferinsilence]

In Dutch we call it the Wereldbeker (World Cup) or Wereldkampioenschap (World Championship). Mostly Championship tho so must be a language thing.

 

[Webzcas]

I must admit, it is definitely not a British expression. When I hear or read 'World Championship' I think of Athletics

Possibly the OP is an American, I mean after all they call football, soccer.

But my bet he is our friend from Lost in Space

 

[sufferinsilence]

Yeah, I don't doubt the fact they are.

But even in Bri'ish when you won the World Cup in 1966 you were World Champion

 

[Webzcas]

World Champions yes and World Cup Winners, not winners of the Football World Championship

 

[johnnymcc1966]

It was the worst world cup since I recall watching my first one back in 1974. Putting aside the nonsense of 3 separate nations hosting it,the number of extra countries was ridiculous and made for many pointless games. God forbid they are looking at expanding it too! They might as well abolish the qualifiers altogether! And the ongoing corruption from Infantino makes Sepp Blatter look as harmless as Arthur Daley! ( Non UK readers look up a British series named Minder from the 70s and 80s for reference.)

 

[Webzcas]

You are a little bit older than me, the first World Cup I remember was Spain in 82. I agree expanding it to 48 teams was a tad ridiculous and now there is news they want to increase it to 64 WTF!!

But there were some nice surprises, Cape Verde being one!

If I had to stand back and be objective, even though a 16 year old me saw England reach the Semi Finals, I'd have to say Italia 90 is the worst World Cup held in my own lifetime. The football on offer was dirge and the final itself very poor.

Personally I hated the fact that the World Cup was 'Americanised' with Hydration Breaks, complete with Bon Jovi blaring out over the stadium loud speaker system.

Football is not nor never ever will be American Football. We don't need quarters, nor do we need time outs. As for the half time show during the final. What an absolute joke.

Then there is the suspending of the suspension of that USA forward. Terrible!

Definitely agree with you that having 3 hosting nations also a farce.

 

[SCATT3R]

If I had to stand back and be objective, even though a 16 year old me saw England reach the Semi Finals, I'd have to say Italia 90 is the worst World Cup held in my own lifetime. The football on offer was dirge and the final itself very poor.

Can't dislike the WC that gave us Roger Milla

 

[geordiecolin]

The corruption and bias throughout was diabolical. The treatment of some teams,such as Iran was enough to see FIFA top brass fired from their jobs. And the Americanization of the games was nausiating

 

[avfcalex23]

Brilliant World Cup. Easy enough to say it was corrupt watching afar. But being there meant everything. Did it all on a budget and got cheap tickets as I’m in the England supporters travel club. Do all the boring games in the lead up to major tournaments and get points to reap the rewards.

The Americans were friendly, food and drink affordable. Even met a French Canadian girl and she’s heading over to the UK to see me in two weeks

Shame England didn’t win but the memories will last a lifetime.

Did the whole thing on a budget, luckily have friends in every state England played, very fortunate so didn’t spend much more than £3k on all travel, accommodation, match tickets, food, drink and touristy stuff over the course of 3 weeks.

 

[2Slots]

I thought the African nations performed really well and enjoyed the matches I saw with them playing.

Can see them doing really well in future tournaments if they continue their trajectory, especially now they have a lot of quality players in the top leagues that they can grandfather in.

I actually enjoyed watching England too, sad that they flopped in the semis by changing style.

If money hadn't corrupted the game I would say FIFA would be better off restructuring the whole World Cup based on continent tournaments like Euros, Afcon etc. and having two 32 team tournaments instead of exapnding to 64.

Let all the best performing teams from each continent into the World Cup with new qualifying numbers (S America get 5 entries plus a playoff with only 10 countries!) and have a World Plate or something for the next best 32 teams to play in.

I think it would be better as some of the lesser teams could actually win it and develop from there. Won't ever happen though!

 

[geordiecolin]

Brilliant World Cup. Easy enough to say it was corrupt watching afar. But being there meant everything. Did it all on a budget and got cheap tickets as I’m in the England supporters travel club. Do all the boring games in the lead up to major tournaments and get points to reap the rewards.

The Americans were friendly, food and drink affordable. Even met a French Canadian girl and she’s heading over to the UK to see me in two weeks

Shame England didn’t win but the memories will last a lifetime.

Did the whole thing on a budget, luckily have friends in every state England played, very fortunate so didn’t spend much more than £3k on all travel, accommodation, match tickets, food, drink and touristy stuff over the course of 3 weeks.

Great to learn your world cup experience was positive and seems to be continuing on.