2026 FIFA World Cup

[RandomMe]

I don't know if there was a thread already, but I started one anyway

The first 48-team World Cup is here!

And remember:

This thread abides by the no politics rule of the forums, so no comments on any political nonsense or nonsense of other nature that happened behind the scenes.

Teams taking part:

AFC:
Australia
Iran
Iraq
Japan
Jordan (first time)
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
Uzbekistan (first time)

CAF:
Algeria
Cape Verde (first time)
DR Congo
Egypt
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Morocco
Senegal
South Africa
Tunisia

CONCACAF:
Canada (co-host)
Curaçao (first time)
Haiti
Mexico (co-host)
Panama
United States (co-host)

CONMEBOL:
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Ecuador
Paraguay
Uruguay

OFC:
New Zealand

UEFA:
Austria
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Czech Republic
England
France
Germany
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Scotland
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey

Groups:
A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Czech Republic
B: Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar, Switzerland
C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland
D: United States, Paraguay, Australia, Turkey
E: Germany, Curaçao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador
F: Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Tunisia
G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
H: Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
I: France, Senegal, Iraq, Norway
J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan
K: Portugal, DR Congo, Uzbekistan, Colombia
L: England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama

Hope you enjoy.

 

[IlPuyoPuyotchi]

in Philippines, select matches will be available on Aleph Arena's YouTube channel, while PPV (all matches) is available on Cignal (Cignal Pay TV, CignalPlay and Pilipinas Live), BlastTV and GSat.

in Hong Kong, select matches to air on ViuTV (with highlights on ViuTV and ViuTVsix) and all matches available pay-per-view on Now TV.

 

[The Bloo Lagoon]

In Hungary, the matches will be mainly on M4 and its website, some simultaneous matches will move to Duna World and its timesharing block M4+.

The only problem is, due to timezone differences between the host countries (USA, Canada, Mexico) and Hungary, the live matches will mostly air during sleeptime hours, and no full repeats, only cuts. So I will only watch those which air between 18:00 and midnight CET, and the around 06:00 CET one.

 

[Andu]

In Romania, all of World Cup 26 matches will be available to Antena Group, with the television broadcasters Antena 1 (General broadcaster), Antena 3 CNN (News channel) & the VOD website Antena Play, along with the sports news retail Gazeta Sporturilor.

Besides the transmissions, Antena 1 also announced a show related to this, with Dan Alexa & Gabi Tamaș as the main hosts.

Tamaş şi Alexa, emisiune la Antena cu ocazia Mondialului

Tamaş şi Alexa au emisiune la Antena.

www.paginademedia.ro

 

[Markus]

In Finland the matches are on YLE TV1 and MTV3. 52 games for both channels so in total of 104 games However 20 of these games will be exclusive on the MTV streaming service behind a paywall for some dumb reason.

 

[RandomMe]

Stadiums:
Azteca Stadium, Mexico City (never before has a stadium hosted so many World Cup matches)
MetLife Stadium, New York area (East Rutherford)
AT&T Stadium, Dallas
SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles area (Inglewood)
Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City
Levi's Stadium, San Francisco area (Santa Clara)
NRG Stadium, Houston
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
Lumen Field, Seattle
Hard Rock Stadium, Miami/Miami Gardens
Gillette Stadium, Boston area (Foxborough)
BC Place, Vancouver
BBVA Stadium, Monterrey
Akron Stadium, Guadalajara area (Zapopan)
BMO Field, Toronto

 

[Andu]

The opening ceremony has started!

Antena 1 has made the studio handover before transitioning onto the stadium live footage, and likely, some stations are doing the same.

 

[Markus]

Over here the studio show already started at 8p on MTV3.

 

[The Bloo Lagoon]

Here, 19:28 CET on M4. I joined late as I didn't hear about the ceremony.

 

[Markus]

Here they air commercials inbetween the ceremonies. I get it's the largest local commercial channel but it's so dumb. And they'll air news in 5 minutes lasting 15 minutes so we are basically going to miss half of the ceremony over here. And they just now cut to commercials during the FIFA theme song from Shakira as it leads to news now. Ugh...

 

[The Bloo Lagoon]

 

[PinkieLopBun]

I don’t watch soccer, but I found out Toronto has beaver statues for this and I love them (pictures taken from Reddit).

 

[Markus]

They air commercials here even during the match. What are you doing MTV3?

 

[RandomMe]

I enjoyed the opening ceremony, now it's Mexico vs. South Africa, Quiñones scored the first goal.

 

[Markus]

I could have enjoyed the ceremony too without commercials but they had commercials and news programming interrupting the ceremony. I only saw half of it. To make things worse, they went to commercial durink Shakira's FIFA theme song.

 

[RandomMe]

TVI didn't exceed with the commercials.

They did do a commercial during the hydration break, which is new for this World Cup and is similar to US broadcasting practices (on OTA TV and IIRC also cable)

 

[Markus]

Good for you. I realize that the WC airs on the biggest commercial channel but it's not good to interrupt the ceremony. The fact that they even put news when they already do that 10 hours a day at least.

 

[The Bloo Lagoon]

The first match is over. 3 yellow and 3 red cards.

 

[Markus]

Makes me wonder if rules have become way too strict. Red cards are likely be given in most games now.

 

[RandomMe]

Up next: South Korea vs. Czech Republic, kick-off time 10pm EST. I won't watch it live because it will air overnight here.