sweden's qualification for the world cup was an absolute farce. i honestly can't remember ever seeing such an undeserved achievement in my life. you finish dead last in your qualifying group with 2 points, and let me emphasize this, just because you beat the likes of slovakia, estonia, and azerbaijan in nations league c, you get to play in the playoffs. i mean, you're playing in the playoffs because, per the rules, you got relegated in the previous nations league cycle. then, because you're not seeded in the playoffs, the match you were supposed to play away at ukraine ends up being played on neutral ground in spain. then, by sheer luck of the draw, you beat ukraine on neutral ground, and again by luck of the draw, you end up playing poland at home in the final. you beat them at home too and book your spot in the finals. having all of this line up back-to-back just wasn't fair in any way.
first and foremost, this whole nations league nonsense needs to go. why are you rewarding failure? if you absolutely insist on having some kind of incentive, then give that extra spot to teams in leagues a and b so that teams actually fight to get promoted to those leagues. why is a team getting special treatment just because it beat azerbaijan and estonia in league c?
the playoff system itself also needs a serious overhaul. just have all the matches played on neutral ground in a single host country, like the european cups did during covid. today, turkey was the only away team to advance, even though on paper the away teams were actually stronger, which goes to show how much home advantage matters.
this is what happens when incompetents are running the show. then again, uefa probably figures, "as long as the big teams make it, who cares about the rest." hopefully they'll move past this mindset and we'll get a fairer qualification process.
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if you want quality football, go watch club tournaments, watch the champions league.
the world cup is about seeing all these obscure, mysterious, exotic countries together in one place.
it's about half-naked african fans doing tribal dances in the stands.
it's about those weird painted-up characters the camera catches grinning away, not even paying attention to the match.
it'll be a breath of fresh air for those of us sick of these systematic european teams. -
this will be the first world cup played with 48 teams.
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some interesting statistics i gathered and pulled together from here and there, based on the finalized 26-man squads (1248 players in total):
clubs represented by the most players in the tournament (based on footballers whose contracts are still active as of the end of june 2026):
manchester city (19)
bayern munich (17)
paris saint-germain (16)
arsenal, fc barcelona (15)
crystal palace, manchester united, al hilal, atletico madrid (12)
galatasaray, liverpool fc, borussia dortmund (11)
fenerbahçe, slavia prague, ac milan, psv eindhoven, real madrid, sunderland (10)
leagues sending the most players to the cup:
english leagues: 205 players, 42 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 184 players are in the national team squads of other countries. in fact, a player named tommy smith was called up to the new zealand national team despite being in this federation's 5th-tier league.
german leagues: 108 players, 8 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 89 players are in other countries' national teams. again, josue duverger, who plays in the 5th-tier league, is in the haiti national team squad.
french leagues: 86 players, 7 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 78 players are in other countries' national teams.
spanish league: 86 players, 5 of them in the lower leagues. additionally, 59 players are in other countries' national teams.
italian leagues: 71 players, 5 of them in the lower leagues. all 71 of these players are, of course, in other countries' national teams.
saudi arabian leagues: 49 players. 24 of them are in other countries' national teams.
usa leagues: 48 players, 41 players in other countries' national teams.
turkish leagues: 45 players. 30 players playing in our leagues are in other countries' national teams. in fact, while leandro bacuna from iğdır fk, which is in the tff 1st league, takes part in the tournament as the captain of the curaçao national team, ryan mendes, also from iğdır fk, will take the field as the captain of the cape verde national team.
dutch leagues: 38 players, 36 of them in other countries' national teams.
brazilian league: 32 players, 25 of them in other countries' national teams.
portuguese leagues: 32 players, 27 of them in other countries' national teams.
belgian leagues: 29 players, 26 of them in other countries' national teams.
the list goes on like this. when all the squads are reviewed, some interesting notes emerge.
it turns out there's no national team whose entire 26-man squad plays in its own domestic leagues. the national teams closest to this are qatar and saudi arabia, with 25 players each.
as the exact opposite of the above situation, none of the players in the curaçao, cape verde, democratic republic of congo, uruguay, ivory coast, and senegal national teams play in their own countries' leagues. in fact, apart from uruguay (1 player), not a single player from the other countries' leagues is in any other country's national team either.
participant countries' populations as a share of world population:
participant countries with the highest populations: usa 340 million, brazil 315 million, and mexico 130 million.
participant countries with the lowest populations are curaçao at 195 thousand and cape verde at 570 thousand.
the total population of the participant countries is roughly 2,200,000,000. if we divide it by the current world population (8,300,000,000), this ratio comes out to 26.5%.
for the 2022 qatar world cup: 1,600,000,000 / 8,000,000,000 = 20%
for the 2018 russia world cup: 1,650,000,000 / 7,700,000,000 = 21.4%
as can be seen, even though the number of teams in the tournament was increased by 50%, the rate of increase in the participant countries' populations stayed at around 25%.
confederations' representation rates:
the number of players playing at clubs registered with uefa is 855 (68%). the number of countries participating from uefa is 16. the quota ratio is 16/48 = 33%.
following this federation most closely is the afc (asia) (15%). this confederation's quota is 9. the quota ratio is 9/48 = 18%.
caf (africa), meanwhile, got a 21% country quota with a 4 percent player quota. fine, let's say that's tolerable. after all, some of the countries participating from uefa have players of african origin.
representation of players of african origin in the national teams of uefa member countries:
france – 21
england – 15
netherlands – 14
switzerland – 11
belgium – 9
germany – 9
sweden – 6
portugal – 4
austria – 4
norway – 2
spain – 2
scotland – 1
czechia – 1
croatia – 0
bosnia and herzegovina – 0
turkey – 0
most senior player: craig gordon (43 years 160 days) - scotland
youngest player: gilberto mora (17 years 235 days) - mexico
managers:
countries sending the most coaches:
argentina (6): lionel scaloni (argentina), gustavo alfaro (paraguay), sebastian beccacece (ecuador), marcelo bielsa (uruguay), nestor lorenzo (colombia), mauricio pochettino (usa)
france (5): didier deschamps (france), sebastien desabre (democratic republic of congo), sabri lamouchi (tunisia), rudi garcia (belgium), sebastien migne (haiti)
spain (4): luis de la fuente (spain), thomas christiansen (panama), julen lopetegui (qatar), roberto martinez (portugal)
germany (3): julian nagelsmann (germany), ralf rangnick (austria), thomas tuchel (england)
italy, meanwhile, despite not taking part in the tournament, is again represented by 3 coaches: vincenzo montella (turkey), carlo ancelotti (brazil), fabio cannavaro (uzbekistan)
