2026 FIFA World Cup

citytillidie

CONCACAF Second Round
Match Day 1
June 5th
Group A
Antigua and Barbuda V Bermuda

Group B
Trinidad and Tobago V Grenada

Group C
Curaçao V Barbados

Group D
Nicaragua V Montserrat

Group E
Guatemala V Dominica

Group F
Suriname V Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

June 6th
Group A
Honduras V Cuba

Group B
Costa Rica V Saint Kitts and Nevis

Group C
Haiti V Saint Lucia

Group D
Panama V Guyana

Group E
Jamaica V Dominican Republic

Group F
El Salvador V Puerto Rico

Match Day 2
June 8th
Group A
Cayman Islands V Antigua and Barbuda

Group B
Bahamas V Trinidad and Tobago

Group C
Aruba V Curaçao

Group D
Belize V Nicaragua

Group E
British Virgin Islands V Guatemala

Group F
Anguilla V Suriname

June 9th
Group A
Bermuda V Honduras

Group B
Grenada V Costa Rica

Group C
Barbados V Haiti

Group D
Montserrat V Panama

Group E
Dominica V Jamaica

Group F
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines V El Salvador

Match Day 3
June 11th
Group A
Cuba V Cayman Islands

Group B
Saint Kitts and Nevis V Bahamas

Group C
Saint Lucia V Aruba

Group D
Guyana V Belize

Group E
Dominican Republic V British Virgin Islands

Group F
Puerto Rico V Anguilla

citytillidie

Match Day 5 & 6 Results
Group A
Afghanistan 0 V 0 Qatar
India 0 V 0 Kuwait
Kuwait 1 V 0 Afghanistan
Qatar 2 V 1 India

Group B
Myanmar 0 V 5 Japan
North Korea 1 V 0 Syria
Japan 5 V 0 Syria
North Korea 4 V 1 Myanmar

Group C
China 1 V 1 Thailand
Singapore 0 V 7 South Korea
South Korea 1 V 0 China
Thailand 3 V 1 Singapore

Group D
Chinese Taipei 0 V 3 Oman
Kyrgyzstan 1 V 1 Malaysia
Malaysia 3 V 1 Chinese Taipei
Oman 1 V 1 Kyrgyzstan

Group E
Hong Kong 2 V 4 Iran
Uzbekistan 3 V 1 Turkmenistan
Iran 0 V 0 Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan 0 V 0 Hong Kong

Group F
Indonesia 0 V 2 Iraq
Vietnam 3 V 2 Philippines
Indonesia 2 V 0 Philippines
Iraq 3 V 1 Vietnam

Group G
Jordan 3 V 0 Tajikistan
Pakistan 0 V 3 Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia 1 V 2 Jordan
Tajikistan 3 V 0 Pakistan

Group H
Bahrain 0 V 0 Yemen
Nepal 0 V 4 United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates 1 V 1 Bahrain
Yemen 2 V 2 Nepal

Group I
Bangladesh 0 V 2 Australia
Palestine 0 V 0 Lebanon
Australia 5 V 0 Palestine
Lebanon 4 V 0 Bangladesh

Qualified for Round 3 (3 Groups of 6 Teams)
Pots to be confirmed
Qatar, Japan, South Korea, Oman, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, United Arab Emirates & Australia
Kuwait, North Korea, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain & Palestine

citytillidie

Match Day 3 & 4 Results
Group A
Egypt 2 V 1 Burkina Faso
Guinea-Bissau 0 V 0 Ethiopia
Sierra Leone 2 V 1 Djibouti
Djibouti 1 V 1 Ethiopia
Burkina Faso 2 V 2 Sierra Leone
Guinea-Bissau 1 V 1 Egypt

Group B
Mauritania 0 V 2 Sudan
Senegal 1 V 1 DR Congo
Togo 1 V 1 South Sudan
DR Congo 1 V 0 Togo
Mauritania 0 V 1 Senegal
South Sudan 0 V 3 Sudan

Group C
Benin 1 V 0 Rwanda
Nigeria 1 V 1 South Africa
Zimbabwe 0 V 2 Lesotho
Benin 2 V 1 Nigeria
South Africa 3 V 1 Zimbabwe
Lesotho 0 V 1 Rwanda

Group D
Angola 1 V 0 Eswatini
Cameroon 4 V 1 Cabo Verde
Libya 2 V 1 Mauritius
Cabo Verde 1 V 0 Libya
Angola 1 V 1 Cameroon
Mauritius 2 V 1 Eswatini

Group E
Congo P V P Niger
Morocco 2 V 1 Zambia
Zambia 0 V 1 Tanzania
Congo 0 V 6 Morocco

Group F
Côte d'Ivoire 1 V 0 Gabon
Gambia 5 V 1 Seychelles
Kenya 1 V 1 Burundi
Gabon 3 V 2 Gambia
Kenya 0 V 0 Côte d'Ivoire
Seychelles 1 V 3 Burundi

Group G
Algeria 1 V 2 Guinea
Mozambique 2 V 1 Somalia
Uganda 1 V 0 Botswana
Guinea 0 V 1 Mozambique
Uganda 1 V 2 Algeria
Somalia 1 V 3 Botswana

Group H
Malawi 3 V 1 São Tomé and Príncipe
Namibia 1 V 1 Liberia
Tunisia 1 V 0 Equatorial Guinea
Namibia 0 V 0 Tunisia
São Tomé and Príncipe 0 V 1 Liberia
Equatorial Guinea 1 V 0 Malawi

Group I
Central African Republic 1 V 0 Chad
Madagascar 2 V 1 Comoros
Mali 1 V 2 Ghana
Madagascar 0 V 0 Mali
Ghana 4 V 3 Central African Republic
Chad 0 V 2 Comoros

citytillidie

CONCACAF Second Round
Match Day 1, 2 and 3 Results
Group A
Antigua and Barbuda 1 V 1 Bermuda
Honduras 3 V 1 Cuba
Cayman Islands 1 V 0 Antigua and Barbuda
Bermuda 1 V 6 Honduras
Cuba 3 V 0 Cayman Islands - Game awarded to Cuba

Group B
Trinidad and Tobago 2 V 2 Grenada
Costa Rica 4 V 0 Saint Kitts and Nevis
Bahamas 1 V 7 Trinidad and Tobago
Grenada 0 V 3 Costa Rica
Saint Kitts and Nevis 1 V 0 Bahamas

Group C
Curaçao 4 V 1 Barbados
Haiti 2 V 1 Saint Lucia
Aruba 0 V 2 Curaçao
Barbados 1 V 3 Haiti
Saint Lucia 2 V 2 Aruba

Group D
Nicaragua 4 V 1 Montserrat
Panama 2 V 0 Guyana
Belize 0 V 4 Nicaragua
Montserrat 1 V 3 Panama
Guyana 3 V 1 Belize

Group E
Guatemala 6 V 0 Dominica
Jamaica 1 V 0 Dominican Republic
British Virgin Islands 0 V 3 Guatemala
Dominica 2 V 3 Jamaica
Dominican Republic 4 V 0 British Virgin Islands

Group F
Suriname 4 V 1 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
El Salvador 0 V 0 Puerto Rico
Anguilla 0 V 4 Suriname
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1 V 3 El Salvador
Puerto Rico 8 V 0 Anguilla

jacool

I was on FIFA+ over the last few days. There are some chronic teams out there, playing on horrendous pitches! I think Ireland should re-locate to CONCACAF. The away trips would be great craic, and we could qualify a lot easier than where we are currently!!

citytillidie

AFC Third Round Draw
Group A: Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan & North Korea
Group B: South Korea, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine & Kuwait
Group C: Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China & Indonesia

Top 2 in each group Qualify for the World Cup
3rd and 4th go to the 4th Round

ebbsy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122309751#Comment_122309751

May I ask what happens in the 4th round ?

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122309945#Comment_122309945

The teams finishing third and fourth will advance to the fourth round where they will be split into two groups of three with group winners both claiming a direct qualifying spot. The two second-placed teams will then face each other in November 2025, with the winner progressing to the FIFA intercontinental play-off tournament to decide the final berth.

and before you ask about the FIFA intercontinental play-off tournament.

The six teams in the play-offs will comprise one team from each confederation excluding UEFA, and one additional team from the confederation of the host countries (CONCACAF). Two of the teams will be seeded based on the World Rankings, and they will play-off against the winners of two knockout games between the four unseeded teams for the two FIFA World Cup berths. The four-game tournament is to be played in one or more of the host countries, and will also be used as a test event for the FIFA World Cup.

The ratification of slot allocation also gives the OFC a guaranteed berth in the final tournament for the first time: the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the first tournament in which all six confederations have at least one guaranteed berth. This will also be the first time since the 2010 edition in which all continents have a team qualified for the World Cup finals.

jacool

I wish I hadn't started googling now, because I see the dreaded "best 3rd place team" is active in this tournament, with their being 48 teams!

I know they had the stupid idea of 16 groups of 3 initially (fix central), but now its 12 groups of 4, top two from each being 24 teams, and then its the next 8 best 3rd placed teams to complete it to a round of 32!

Potentially only people with honours degrees in Maths (Math in the US) can compute the combos!

This is one tie, showing the potential for not knowing which one of 5 teams you'll be facing.

Only 714 days to go, until Mexico get the show on the road! Only 4 kits changes or so !!

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122309751#Comment_122309751

Iran and South Korea were always going to qualify but it's been made exceedingly easier for them after that draw.

I see that the seedings were based on FIFA rankings and Iraq made the second pot in 55th against Saudi Arabia's 56th!

Some air miles for that South Korean team that are based at home!

ebbsy

I see the UEFA qualifying for 2026 will be very tough…..top team in each group + playoffs between Nations League and 2nd place teams……….

What happens if we draw 2 very good teams in our group ?

Deeper Blue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122309751#Comment_122309751

Group C looks far more difficult than the other two. Although you'd expect Australia/Japan/Saudi to qualify comfortably even if they miss out directly here.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122310699#Comment_122310699

The tough qualifying shows why its important to have a good NL campaign that improves our co-efficient enough to put us into the Top 24 (Pot 2 which will be teams 13-24) for the actual direct qualifiers. Though obviously you can still get a bad draw with a hot Pot 3 team, but give yourself the best chance of avoiding a France/Neds or Spain/Italy combo. So take the NL seriously this time, have the new manager in place 6 months before it starts or at the very latest for the June friendlies before the Euros…. oh wait.

ebbsy

I dont understand why we are not in a lower NL section.

citytillidie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122311863#Comment_122311863

Because Ireland got lucky with the restructure after the 1st one when finishing bottom of the group and avoiding being relegated to League C, might not be so lucky for the next run with the group of England, Finland and Greece along with relegation play-offs being added to those who finish 3rd

ebbsy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122312008#Comment_122312008

But do we not have a better chance of finishing top of a C group and getting to the playoffs ???

citytillidie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122313345#Comment_122313345

The way Ireland have been playing there could be a chance they would end up going to League D

ArmaniJeanss

Interesting chart (being a nerd who loves charts) from FIFA with the schedule for the 2026 World Cup (days only, no times as yet).

https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/1be9ce37eb98fcc5/original/FWC26-Match-Schedule_English.pdf

Can see how they have tried to address a few concerns. Especially on travel - so for example 3 groups (B,D,G) will be in Vancouver/California region, 4/5 groups will be mainly in the centre region and 4/5 groups on the East coast. Some small exceptions (whoever plays Canada in Toronto on Day 2 will then have to move to the West Coast for their remaining two games).

Looks to be minimum 3 rest days between every game including for 3rd place finishers which is great.

And actual overall rest days are at a minimum, the first dreaded blank day will be Day 28 before the first quarter final.

Most group stage days will have 4 games a day, so unless they have overlapping ko times someone is going to get stuck with hot-weather lunchtime games (use indoor stadiums here maybe?). There will be 6 games a day for the final set of group games (though only 3 unique slots because of simultaneous kick-offs).

jacool

Just to note that Ray Houghton, with "that goal" against Italy makes the FIFA poster for the 30th anniversary of 1994.

citytillidie

Oceania Qualification Draw

Round 1
Samoa, Cook Islands, American Samoa, Tonga

Will be a semi-final / final but not drawn yet

Round 2
Group A: Solomon Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea
Group B: Aotearoa New Zealand, Tahiti, Vanuatu, Round 1 Winner

This just leaves Europe last to do its draw

jacool

This is the last tournament where the "Autumn" schedule will be split between September and October.

For these qualifiers the 2025 dates are

Groups of 5: (groups of 4 won't have games in March or June)

Mar 17-25: Matchday 1 + 2 Jun 2-10: Matchday 3 + 4

Sep 1-9: Matchday 5 + 6        Oct 6-14: Matchday 7 + 8 Nov 10-18: Matchday 9 + 10

In 2026 it looks like this (and its similar windows until 2030)

23-31 Mar max. 2 games 1-9 Jun max. 2 games 21 Sep– 6 Oct max. 4 games 9-17 Nov max. 2 games

citytillidie

AFC Third Round
Match Day 1
September 5th
Group A
IR Iran V Kyrgyz Republic
Qatar V United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan V Korea DPR

Group B
Korea Republic V Palestine
Iraq V Oman
Jordan V Kuwait

Group C
Japan V China PR
Australia V Bahrain
Saudi Arabia V Indonesia

Match Day 2
September 10th
Group A
United Arab Emirates V IR Iran
Kyrgyz Republic V Uzbekistan
Korea DPR V Qatar

Group B
Oman V Korea Republic
Palestine V Jordan
Kuwait V Iraq

Group C
Bahrain V Japan
China PR V Saudi Arabia
Indonesia V Australia

—-

CONMEBOL

Match Day 7
Thursday 5th September
Bolivia V Venezuela - (21:00)

Friday 6th September
Argentina V Chile - (01:00) - Live on Premier Sports 1

Saturday 7th September
Uruguay V Paraguay - (00:30)
Brazil V Ecuador - (02:00) - Live on Premier Sports 1
Peru V Colombia - (02:30)

Match Day 8
Tuesday 10th September
Colombia V Argentina - (21:30)
Chile V Bolivia - (22:00)
Ecuador V Peru - (22:00) - Live on Premier Sports
Venezuela V Uruguay - (23:00)

Wednesday 11th September
Paraguay V Brazil - (01:30)

—-

OFC

Round One
Semi-Finals
Friday 6th September
Cook Islands V Tonga
American Samoa V Samoa

citytillidie

FIFA and UEFA have set the seeding for pot one for the World Cup qualification draw

Pot one will consist of the 8 teams in the quarter finals of the NL League A and the remaining 4 by World Ranking but the Draw will have winners of QF and Losers of QF as UEFA want the Semi-Finalists in the groups of 4 teams. Talk about making things more complicated than they need to be

ebbsy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122583273#Comment_122583273

And what pot would we be in ?

citytillidie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122583311#Comment_122583311

Will depend on Irelands ranking at the end of the NL

ebbsy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122583317#Comment_122583317

I will get my coat then....

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122583311#Comment_122583311

If we're lucky we might just get one to p**s in.

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122583273#Comment_122583273

With 16 places on offer, the extra 3 places meant more qualifying groups in UEFA (12 instead of 10) but also smaller ones. Europe will now be evenly split between groups of five and four teams. The smaller groups were created for UEFA to allow for the knockout and playoffs rounds mentioned by @citytillidie

The NL games finish in November and on 22Nov2024 UEFA will draw the quarterfinal pairings in the top tier. The winners of those two-leg quarterfinals played March 20-23 advance to a Final Four mini-tournament in June.

"Final Four" teams will not be free to play World Cup qualifying games in June. They must be drawn by FIFA into four-team World Cup qualifying groups and begin playing games in September next year!!

This is because the Nations league finals are scheduled for next June.

ebbsy

The introduction of the seeded single semi final and final playoffs, linked to the Nations League, has really hurt our future qualification prospects.

jacool

Imagine playing on a continent, where 60% of the teams get through directly, and another team gets a play-off place!

ArmaniJeanss

I'm not sure what the CONMEBOL solution is though. They clearly deserve their allocation on historic merit, and the 3 or 4 teams that don't make it would probably be competitive against many of the qualifiers from other confederations.

It's a pity that North/Sth America weren't one confederation from the start, but probably too late and entrenched now for such a merger to happen.

citytillidie

OFC Round One
Semi-Final Results

Cook Islands 1 V 3 Tonga
American Samoa 0 V 2 Samoa

Final
Monday 9th September
Tonga V Samoa

ebbsy

Aussies 0 Bahrain 1……….

Brussels Sprout

Indonesia have taken the Jack Charlton recruitment strategy to a whole new level. It seems like they've called up everyone in the Dutch league with any Indonesian grandparents that they could find and it's paying dividends. They qualified for the Asian cup earlier this year (and made it to the last 16) and now they've begun the third round of qualifiers with draws against both Saudi Arabia and Australia.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122392206#Comment_122392206

Some great memories depicted there:

• Letchkov's diving header to knock the Germans out
• Rashidi Yekini's (RIP) celebration in the net in that match where they unexpectedly hammered the Bulgarians
• Saeed Al-Owairan's wonder goal against Belgium
• Roger Milla scoring at 42 years of age (allegedly)
• The 3 Brazilians with the original baby celebration
• Oleg Salenko scoring 5 goals in a match where Russia were already eliminated (Bizarrely that was his final international appearance)

citytillidie

OFC
Round 1 Final Result
Tonga 1 V 2 Samoa AET

OFC
Round 2
Group A: Solomon Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia & Papua New Guinea
Group B: Aotearoa New Zealand, Tahiti, Vanuatu & Samoa

citytillidie

AFC Third Round
Match Day 1 & 2 Results
Group A
IR Iran 1 V 0 Kyrgyz Republic
Qatar 1 V 3 United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan 1 V 0 Korea DPR
United Arab Emirates 0 V 1 IR Iran
Kyrgyz Republic 2 V 3 Uzbekistan
Korea DPR 2 V 2 Qatar

Group B
Korea Republic 0 V 0 Palestine
Iraq 1 V 0 Oman
Jordan 1 V 1 Kuwait
Oman 1 V 3 Korea Republic
Palestine 1 V 3 Jordan
Kuwait 0 V 0 Iraq

Group C
Japan 7 V 0 China PR
Australia 0 V 1 Bahrain
Saudi Arabia 1 V 1 Indonesia
Bahrain 0 V 5 Japan
China PR 1 V 2 Saudi Arabia
Indonesia 0 V 0 Australia

citytillidie

CONMEBOL
Match Day 7 & 8 Results
Bolivia 4 V 0 Venezuela
Argentina 3 V 0 Chile
Uruguay 0 V 0 Paraguay
Brazil 1 V 0 Ecuador
Peru 1 V 1 Colombia
Colombia 2 V 1 Argentina
Chile 1 V 2 Bolivia
Ecuador 1 V 0 Peru
Venezuela 0 V 0 Uruguay
Paraguay 1 V 0 Brazil

ebbsy

Should I be worried about Brazil ????

Brussels Sprout

I remember Brazil losing a World Cup qualifier for the very first time - which was during World Cup '94 qualifiers in a match at altitude away to Bolivia. It was a big story that broke through in the pre-internet, pre-Sky Sports News era when you generally didn't hear anything about qualification matches outside of UEFA.

Now they've lost 4 matches in their first 8 games in this campaign.

Granted that unbeaten qualifier stat isn't as impressive when you factor in that they never had to play Argentina because one of the two of them had usually already qualified as either host or previous winner (the winner qualified automatically back then) and when that wasn't the case they were placed in separate qualification groups. They had also never played Uruguay in qualification prior to that 1994 campaign.

citytillidie

AFC Third Round
Match Day 3
Thursday 10th October
Group A
Qatar V Kyrgyz Republic
Uzbekistan V IR Iran
United Arab Emirates V Korea DPR

Group B
Iraq V Palestine
Jordan V Korea Republic
Oman V Kuwait

Group C
Australia V China PR
Saudi Arabia V Japan
Bahrain V Indonesia

Match Day 4
Tuesday 15th October
Group A
IR Iran V Qatar
Uzbekistan V United Arab Emirates
Kyrgyz Republic V Korea DPR

Group B
Korea Republic V Iraq
Jordan V Oman
Palestine V Kuwait

Group C
Japan V Australia
Saudi Arabia V Bahrain
China PR V Indonesia

——————-

CONMEBOL
Match Day 9
Thursday 10th October
Bolivia V Colombia
Chile V Brazil
Ecuador V Paraguay
Venezuela V Argentina

Friday 11th October
Peru V Uruguay

Match Day 10
Tuesday 15th October
Argentina V Bolivia
Brazil V Peru
Colombia V Chile
Paraguay V Venezuela
Uruguay V Ecuador

———————————

OFC
Round Two
Match Day 1
Thursday 10th October
Group A
New Caledonia V Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands V Fiji

Group B
Friday 11th October
Aotearoa New Zealand V Tahiti

Saturday 12th October
Vanuatu V Samoa

citytillidie

OFC Round Two
Match Day 1 Results
Group A
New Caledonia 3 V 1 Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands 0 V 1 Fiji

Group B
Aotearoa New Zealand 3 V 0 Tahiti
Vanuatu 4 V 1 Samoa

jacool

Has NZ been "re-named" or rather "re-re-named"?

citytillidie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122714936#Comment_122714936

Yes that is the name they are now using with FIFA since I think 2022

randd1

Any chance they'll do something sensible like change the offside rule to "the entirety of the attacker must be fully ahead of the last defender (not including goalkeeper) for offside to occur" to help boost the attacking and goal count?

Or offer €1m quid a goal?

We need a blast of a tournament with an incentive to attack.

jacool

England will have a new manager if they navigate qualifications. Word has broken that the FA spoke with Thomas Tuchel and he's now 1/2 favourite to take over, whereas Lee Carsley, who was 1/2 has now drifted to 4/1. The English media has turned on Lee after his post-Greece comments, and are distancing themselves from him, big-time now. The next international break will be tense, to say the least. If you ever needed reasons for not wanting England to win a big tournament, and let's be honest, we never needed reasons for not wanting England to win a big tournament, this just makes me hope and pray that I NEVER, EVER see England win anything. The sense of privilege and entitlement is unreal, and as Lee himself said, that he was “really wary of the fact the last time we won something was 1966″. Didn't go down well, at all !!!!!

citytillidie

AFC Third Round
Match Day 3 & 4 Results
Group A
Qatar 3 V 1 Kyrgyz Republic
Uzbekistan 0 V 0 IR Iran
United Arab Emirates 1 V 1 Korea DPR
IR Iran 4 V 1 Qatar
Uzbekistan 1 V 0 United Arab Emirates
Kyrgyz Republic 1 V 0 Korea DPR

Group B
Iraq 1 V 0 Palestine
Jordan 0 V 2 Korea Republic
Oman 4 V 0 Kuwait
Korea Republic 3 V 2 Iraq
Jordan 4 V 0 Oman
Palestine 2 V 2 Kuwait

Group C
Australia 3 V 1 China PR
Saudi Arabia 0 V 2 Japan
Bahrain 2 V 2 Indonesia
Japan 1 V 1 Australia
Saudi Arabia 0 V 0 Bahrain
China PR 2 V 1 Indonesia

citytillidie

CONMEBOL
Match Day 9 & 10 Results
Bolivia 1 V 0 Colombia
Ecuador 0 V 0 Paraguay
Venezuela 1 V 1 Argentina
Chile 1 V 2 Brazil
Peru 1 V 0 Uruguay
Colombia 4 V 0 Chile
Paraguay 2 V 1 Venezuela
Uruguay 0 V 0 Ecuador
Argentina 6 V 0 Bolivia
Brazil 4 V 0 Peru

Pauliedragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122718810#Comment_122718810

Over £100m on St. Georges park which was supposed to develop elite coaches for the national team and they go for Tuchel. Is someone from the FAI running the English FA?

randd1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122724622#Comment_122724622

Or maybe, just maybe, English football is so far up its own ar5e that it hasn't realized you actually have to be able to coach football and not football based entertainment?

English football is the swash-buckling pirate who swings from the mast on a rope, lights the fuse on the cannon and then stands beside cannon to make sure the door to treasure vault is blasted open. The Germans, French, Spannish, Portuguese and Italians et al, just walk up and turn the door handle.

One approach is practical and gets the job done, the other more flamboyant and entertaining but ultimately wildly unsuccessful.

And that's the approach of English soccer. In England, in a choice of the two, Steven Gerrard always gets picked ahead of Luka Modric because he can change a game with a moment of magic. In any other country, Modric is picked because he controls the game so there's no need for a moment of magic.

As long as the eye-catching is prioritised over the technical in terms of footballing culture, English football can spend whatever it likes on developing coaches, it'll be doomed to failure.

Howard Wilkinson was the past English manager to win the English top flight. Only one of the previous six seasons involved an English man managing the title winning team. Two titles in 39 years, none since 1992.

That level of poverty for that length of time can only be a cultural failing. So you can't really blame the English FA in looking to foreign managers when their own have been so poor at coaching.