The World Cup

[FriethBlade]

Anyone put any bets on for the tournament?

I had a tenner on Julian Alvares for top scorer, Argentina have a piss easy group in Algeria, Jordan and Austria so I can see them scoring a few.

Equador to make the quarter finals at 5/1 and top scorer Dembele at 33/1 and Ramos at 250/1 ( forlorn hope he starts ahead of Ronaldo in an easy group)

Good shout on Alvares, hes 21/1 on betfair and as well as an easy group they should go a long way in the tournament.

 

[Torrix1889]

Equador to make the quarter finals at 5/1 and top scorer Dembele at 33/1 and Ramos at 250/1 ( forlorn hope he starts ahead of Ronaldo in an easy group)

Good shout on Alvares, hes 21/1 on betfair and as well as an easy group they should go a long way in the tournament.

Got 25's on Bet 365 for Alvares...

 

[Torrix1889]

Equador to make the quarter finals at 5/1 and top scorer Dembele at 33/1 and Ramos at 250/1 ( forlorn hope he starts ahead of Ronaldo in an easy group)

Good shout on Alvares, hes 21/1 on betfair and as well as an easy group they should go a long way in the tournament.

Can get 1000/1 for a certain Tahith Chong.......

 

[HighfieldBlade]

What has happened at the 2026 World Cup over the last 48 hours:

• Swiss footballer Embolo's visa was put under review and he was only able to join his team days later.

• Iraqi national team player Aymen Hussein was held for questioning for nearly 7 hours upon entering the United States.

• The Iranian national team spent days dealing with visa procedures at the U.S. Consulate in Türkiye. The U.S. only allowed them entry on match days. Fifteen members of the delegation were denied visas.

• Omar Abdulkadir Artan, named CAF's Best African Referee of 2025, was denied a visa. Despite travelling to the U.S. with a diplomatic passport, he was refused entry and sent back. FIFA announced that he will not be able to officiate at the tournament.

• The South African national team arrived in the United States much later than planned because part of the delegation was not granted visas.

• Members of the Senegal national team staff were forced to remove their shoes and subjected to lengthy searches, sparking accusations of racism.

• The Uzbekistan national team was searched with bomb-sniffing dogs and the footage went viral in international media.

• Some Scottish supporters, despite being eligible to enter the U.S. visa-free under the ESTA programme, had their travel authorisations revoked just days before departure.

• Many supporters who had already bought tickets and booked accommodation had their visa applications rejected, resulting in financial losses.

@ultras_antifaa

Hmm, I get the feeling the yanks don't like Muslims and 'brown people' in general.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Hmm, I get the feeling the yanks don't like Muslims and 'brown people' in general.

Can understand the issue about the Scots though.

 

[SwissBlade]

Hmm, I get the feeling the yanks don't like Muslims and 'brown people' in general.

They don't like foreigners in general. The Scottish fans with ESTA's being revoked is very familiar to me as i had the same in 2023.

 

[metalblade]

I don't have much enthusiasm or interest in the World cup. I'll most likely watch the games involving the home nations, are the Irish still in it? I certainly don't want to watch the pundits waffling on for an hour before and after every game. To me this tournament shows up everything that is wrong about modern day football from VAR to dynamic pricing for games, travel costs on top of rip off ticket prices it is just a complete rip-off for the fans, $1000 for the opening game, really?

 

[Torrix1889]

Hmm, I get the feeling the yanks don't like Muslims and 'brown people' in general.

Or the Sweaty Socks!

Went to Vegas, LA and San Francisco last year and everything was fine but on getting into the first airport they do make you sweat, despite having everything in order, ESTA's etc. Swear half of the immigration Cops in the US get off on intimidating visitors, the guy who inspected our documents was a right cockwomble, even leaving us standing for 20 minutes whilst he "checked something with a colleague" which probably meant he went for his break or needed a shit as me and the missus haven't got so much as a parking ticket between us.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

They don't like foreigners in general. The Scottish fans with ESTA's being revoked is very familiar to me as i had the same in 2023.

That's not good. What reason did they give for your visa revocation?
Travel history? Did you visit any countries they don't like the look of?

 

[247Blade]

Listening to Mcoist last night on Mexico game im sure he called the South African player sent off 'Shitole' .... just saying

 

[SwissBlade]

That's not good. What reason did they give for your visa revocation?
Travel history? Did you visit any countries they don't like the look of?

New clean passport, didn’t give all social media, didn’t say I’d been to any of the countries on their naughty list.
LinkedIn still had iraq listed though.
That’s the only thing I can think of

Turned out great as it meant I couldn’t transit through the USA to Guyana and I had to go via Barbados instead

 

[Torrix1889]

Understand if you have ever visited Cuba you won't get in...

 

[SwissBlade]

Understand if you have ever visited Cuba you won't get in...

I think I’ll go there and to Iran just to make sure.

The USA have single handedly made themselves more and more hated since 11th September 2001…

 

[CrookesBlade]

Estadio Azeteca looked amazing on the TV last night - still recognisable from the 1970 World Cup.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

New clean passport, didn’t give all social media, didn’t say I’d been to any of the countries on their naughty list.
LinkedIn still had iraq listed though.
That’s the only thing I can think of

Turned out great as it meant I couldn’t transit through the USA to Guyana and I had to go via Barbados instead

They must've got you on the old LinkedIn.
Still, good news about Barbados. Every cloud...

 

[HighfieldBlade]

Listening to Mcoist last night on Mexico game im sure he called the South African player sent off 'Shitole' .... just saying

Must admit, I had to do a double-take when I saw the name on the player's shirt!

 

[Shadota]

Watched part of the Mexico game last night (most of the 1st half). Thought they looked okay, but that was probably down to South Africa being so poor. Missed the red card fiasco in the 2nd half, only put the game back on in 2nd half stoppage time. Heard discussions on commentary about red cards in the World Cup, and immediately my mind went to the Graham Poll, triple-booking disaster in 2006. How that bloke became an internationally-recognised referee is utterly beyond me.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Watched part of the Mexico game last night (most of the 1st half). Thought they looked okay, but that was probably down to South Africa being so poor. Missed the red card fiasco in the 2nd half, only put the game back on in 2nd half stoppage time. Heard discussions on commentary about red cards in the World Cup, and immediately my mind went to the Graham Poll, triple-booking disaster in 2006. How that bloke became an internationally-recognised referee is utterly beyond me.

I watched the who game and was bored once it was 2-0.

Thought Mexico were average/ OK…..this isn’t meant as an insult….they were decent but nothing more.
However it was hard to judge because I thought South Africa were really poor.

I watched some of the world club cup last Summer and the South African champions Mamalodi Sundowns were surprisingly good and very attacking.
The South Africa national side is most the Sundowns team so I had fairly high expectations but South Africa never looked like scoring at any point.

It was a bit of a non contest really, give the match 4 out of 10 for entertainment.

 

[Aston max]

Just for my perspective on this world cup, I've told my missus to watch emmerdale and street tonight, I'm either diving into the new Bernard Cornwell book or my new favourite online game " Viking rise "
I've got no excitement for a competition that is a vanity project for 2 of the world's biggest narcissists in trump and infantino .
Friday grumble done

 

[metalblade]

Hard to believe no Anel in tonight's Bosnia line up.

 

[skyjam]

I've lived here in USA for 33 years and been a citizen for 25 but still get pulled every time I travel back here. I put it down to when I had duel passports and tried to leave on one and come back on an other[thought I was like James Bond] getting ta front either way but they're mekin me av it now every fukin time.Just applied for me 3rd passport but haven't heard owt yet ,but I can imagine its a shitshow.No intention of going to a live game anywhere.

 

[LBA_Blade]

Hard to believe no Anel in tonight's Bosnia line up.

He “retired” in 2024 and not in the squad following a dispute with the national body, he withdrew because of injury and the Bosnian FA said he was faking it and he hasn’t played for them since

 

[Ukkonen]

It's the time of the day that puts me off, I'm 2 hours infront of the UK (EEST time), so an 8pm kick off is actual 10pm for me.

What would be very early morning starts for the uk are a bit more doable for me, I'll be up on the tractor very early anyway.

I also really dislike the hydration (ad) breaks, if it was used for hydration (ad's) only I'd be fine with this, but let's be fair we all know what they are being used for - player welfare (voice goes up an octave)?

 

[LBA_Blade]

It's the time of the day that puts me off, I'm 2 hours infront of the UK (EEST time), so an 8pm kick off is actual 10pm for me.

What would be very early morning starts for the uk are a bit more doable for me, I'll be up on the tractor very early anyway.

I also really dislike the hydration (ad) breaks, if it was used for hydration (ad's) only I'd be fine with this, but let's be fair we all know what they are being used for - player welfare (voice goes up an octave)?

These definitely need to go one of either 2 ways either stop completely or reduced down to 30 seconds max, realistically how long does it take to get a drink and some of the temperatures (I get not all) are being played at heat where it was colder than the playoff final weekend and there wasn’t any drink breaks scheduled for that.

 

[Sportbilly /Detroit Blade]

Hmm, I get the feeling the yanks don't like Muslims and 'brown people' in general.

You can't say that when the President is mahogany coloured!

 

[1973Blade]

Lol

 

[CrookesBlade]

These definitely need to go one of either 2 ways either stop completely or reduced down to 30 seconds max, realistically how long does it take to get a drink and some of the temperatures (I get not all) are being played at heat where it was colder than the playoff final weekend and there wasn’t any drink breaks scheduled for that.

There have been unofficial “drinks breaks” going back a few tournaments that are necessary for player welfare but this is really starting to great on me.

Done to placate the American obsession to advertise shite at every possible opportunity. The music playing in the stadium while it’s happening also adds nothing to the atmosphere.

On a more positive note I think “ref cam” is great.

 

[LBA_Blade]

There have been unofficial “drinks breaks” going back a few tournaments that are necessary for player welfare but this is really starting to great on me.

Done to placate the American obsession to advertise shite at every possible opportunity. The music playing in the stadium while it’s happening also adds nothing to the atmosphere.

On a more positive note I think “ref cam” is great.

Totally agreed there, it would be interesting to see if the ref can gets rolled out into the Premier League. The great thing about it is you can see the speed of the game and viewing angle of the referee, I can see the benefits but also if a decision goes against a team and ref cam picks it up, could cause a backlash which is probably why they haven’t done it yet as the tech has been available for years.

 

[diode_blade]

I like that ITV don't put the result on their thumbnail. I woke up and watched the highlights without knowing the score

At least they get t

Lol

Sorry wrong post
See below

 

[diode_blade]

Lol