FIFA already has plans to expand the World Cup to 64 teams in 2030. This fait accompli dilution is justified by FIFA as an opportunity for more nations to participate in this great event. But the 2027 women’s World Cup will have only 32 teams. So why isn’t an expanded participation format good for the women’s game?
Qualifiers exist, which allow every nation (except Russia) a chance to make the World Cup. Note that there aren’t mandatory hydration breaks during qualifiers, because no one is watching relatively speaking. This speaks to FIFA’s true motive here, which isn’t player protection.
A 64-team World Cup format would only make sense if it were knockout elimination games from the start– like the NCAA basketball tournaments. A 64-team field with group play only mucks things up more, creating too many uninteresting matches. This tournament took too long to actually get going in 2026, because of the 48-team field. This inevitable move to a 64-team format was decided before this World Cup, and it’s why Fox analysts (& their corporate partners) defended the 48-team expansion so steadfastly. Criticism was curtailed as Fox broadcast policy.
Trump stated to the media yesterday, “This has been a tournament like no other, filled with fierce competition, unforgettable moments. Probably the most unforgettable is when they gave that gentleman — is it a red card? And I was forced to call Gianni and just make a recommendation. I said ‘Gianni, I’d like to make a recommendation. Let the guy in the game!’ No, I didn’t say that. I said, ‘I’d like to wage a complaint.’ I had no idea what was going to happen. But, you know, so much better the way it worked out because there’s no controversy. They won the game and our team had all of its players. [Infantino] made another great decision if you think about it. You’ll never get credit for that.”
For the record, the US lost to Belgium 4-1, in a disasterpiece performance, and there was plenty of controversy over Folarin Balogun’s one-game red card suspension being lifted. Such is the depth of Trump’s delusional ramblings. Neither FIFA nor the USSF has yet explained the discipline of assistant team manager Sam Zapatka & USSF CIA security guy Frank Pannell. ESPN published one brief article on this, which explained nothing, and has apparently moved on.
In 2034, the World Cup is to be held in Saudi Arabia. This means the US is in line to host again in 2038, due to FIFA host-bid rules. Only Oceania/Australia & North America are eligible to host the World Cup in 2038. NFL owners are already lining up their stadiums as 2038 host sites.
It is questionable whether a World Cup will actually be held in 2030, 2034 or 2038. Humanity is now at the outset of another world war, with fronts in Venezuela, Gaza-Lebanon, Iran, and Russia-Ukraine. World War 2 cancelled the World Cup in 1942 & 1946, as defeating the Nazis became a global priority over international sports. We are reaching such a historical inflection point again.
Football brings the people of the world together in joy for the World Cup, but it is not a given right. The World Cup was originally an idea for peace that has been distorted & corrupted by nationalism & international capital to a point where the game on the field matters less than the money & politics driving it. By the time it’s over, fans feel exhausted, not only from the games, but from the politics.
In short, there’s far too much Tom Rinaldi at the World Cup. People who are clueless on the game and who don’t belong in the broadcast booth are given a platform by Fox for their bland mediocrity & bad minds. It’s sad when the semi-finals & finals broadcasts have to be watched with the mute button active to make any sense of what’s happening on the pitch.
As much as I love Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry & Zlatan Ibramivich, I’m always forced to be at the ready to mute Alexi Lalas and his diarrhea of the mouth. Fox simply will not allow a serious football broadcast at the World Cup. They always insist on their stooges being present to muck things up. This is because Fox is about the NFL first.
The first American rules football game was Princeton v Rutgers in 1869. It was called football because the ball was carried on foot. Of course, international football had already been around for centuries, but no matter, American rules football was a fringe game at the start.
The forward pass wasn’t codified into the American rules until 1906, the year the NCAA was established. Michigan v Notre Dame established the NCAA. The NFL didn’t establish until 1920, as college football was more popular in the US through the 1950’s. Long before the NFL Super Bowl-era established mass popularity of the game in America, the World Cup was already a global phenomenon.
American rules football isn’t played with the foot, except for punters & kickers. The modern game is pass dominant, so everything about American rules football is a misnomer today. Yet, NFL fans all insist their name is correct, and that FIFA and the rest of the world have it wrong– and that it’s called soccer.
Soccer v football is much more than an argument over semantics. It goes to the heart of the meaning of words. It represents the idea that wrong-headed thinking can be imposed on a nation as correct by a wealthy & powerful ruling class. It smacks of arrogance & ignorance.
The US men can’t win at the World Cup playing soccer. The world is playing football, and as long as a misnamed American sport takes priority over historical truth and the true meaning of words, the US will continue to crash out of future World Cups. More than anything, that has been my final takeaway from the 2026 World Cup.
Hypothetical situation: I have just invented a new sport and I’m naming it basketball. It’s not the basketball everyone knows– NBA, WNBA, etc– it’s a game played with an oblong ball and woven baskets with completely different rules. I insist the world must refer to it as basketball, otherwise I’ll get upset.
Sat 18 Jul 2026 08:00 PM CDT
US pregame show technical difficulties on Fox led to Thierry Henry & Zlatan Ibramivich being swapped-out before the third-place England v France match. My guess would be a power outage due to violent thunderstorms passing through Brooklyn led to them going off-the-air in New York. Doesn’t Fox have weather professionals who can predict this stuff and be ready if/when the power goes out, while keeping the host & analysts protected from the rain? That, and doing an outdoor broadcast in choking wildfire smoke could also upset the talent. Since it wasn’t game day in NY, an indoor broadcast studio would have been more appropriate with these outdoor conditions, and apparently Fox couldn’t figure that out.
It appears Fox failed on all that. It was a third-place game, which no one wants to be part of. It just happened to become the greatest third-place game in World Cup history, which is like saying it was the greatest NIT final ever played. and I hope Thierry Henry & Zlatan Ibramivich enjoyed their day off after walking out on what was very likely Fox studio incompetence. I’m just speculating because people are wondering, while Fox is deflecting on this.
Darren Fletcher-Owen Hargreaves did a more-than-adequate job carrying the one-hour Fox pregame. The best thing of all was no Alexi Lalas. At halftime Rebecca Lowe was back on-the-air in New York with her B-squad analysts. Rebecca Lowe is too professional to walk out on a broadcast, even though I sense she’s frustrated with Fox. Thierry & Zlatan have had enough.
* All day Fox advertised the Dodgers-Yankees in the Bronx as their Saturday night MLB broadcast. That promotion ran through the World Cup post-game show. After which, Fox viewers were sent to the Giants-Mariners because the Dodgers-Yankees are rained out & postponed.
——-
The rights for the US broadcast of the 2030 World Cup are to be bid upon soon. Fox/Univision, NBC/Telemundo, Disney/ESPN/ABC, Netflix, Amazon, & YouTube are the early partners & competitors, and the asking price is $1.5-2B. For comparison, Fox paid FIFA $485M for the US broadcast rights to the 2026 World Cup. FIFA wants to bundle English & Spanish language US broadcasts in 2030. Fox is upset that English speakers in the US are watching Telemundo over Fox broadcasts.
The popularity of the World Cup (like the NFL, NBA & MLB) will eventually put these games behind a paywall. In 2026 every game was on either Fox or FS1 (cable), meaning people could watch most matches for free with a ‘rabbit ears’ antennae. If FIFA & its corporate partners have their way, this World Cup will likely be the last time that happens.
Sun 19 Jul 2026 10:15 AM CDT
This is the only mainstream article I could find on the Fox NYC technical difficulties yesterday at the World Cup. It’s remarkable how the Fox World Cup broadcast, which everyone was watching, has had virtually no media commentary concerning its obvious issues yesterday. Near the end the article it reads, “In a last-minute wrinkle, a transmission issue forced the team to bring in a full production truck — Mobile TV Group 53RP is parked on Water Street — instead of the BRISK (Broadcast Remote IP Studio Kit) unit that has supported nearly all the remote studio shows throughout the tournament.”
That “last minute wrinkle” was obviously the severe thunderstorms which washed-out Saturday’s pregame broadcast from Brooklyn, as well as the Dodgers-Yankees that evening. Fox Sports senior VP of remote studio operations, Rod Conti, waxed artistic on his production choices, “In the old days before mass media, paintings were commissioned to tell a story. If Napoleon won a battle, the painter who was commissioned would represent him however the story needed to be told. That was like your press. And that’s essentially how I look at our backdrops for sets… When you see this backdrop, you’re seeing Manhattan, you’re looking at the Brooklyn Bridge, you’ve got the Freedom Tower in the frame. We all felt like this was gold.”
The problem for the most logistically complicated production that Fox Sports has ever attempted was that it couldn’t stand the weather. Therefore viewers missed out on Adidas promoting their “New York home of soccer” complex, Tom Rinaldi, and all the rest that Rod Conti & Fox had planned. It was a welcome third-place match reprieve for football fans. Sunny conditions in NYC today– for better or worse.
———
Like every football fan, I’m awaiting Spain v Argentina. Like every sports-loving American, I’m awaiting the fan response to Trump being shown on the big screen at NY/NJ Stadium. The world’s leading war criminal will then present the FIFA World Cup trophy to the winner. This will be visceral for everyone, and the mass media will surely downplay the ferocity, intensity & totality of World Cup fan response to Trump. It will be surreal. If I was Rod Conti, I would commission surrealist painter René Magritte to depict this story.
——-
Exclusive US broadcast rights (English & Spanish) for the women’s World Cup in 2027 & 2031 are held by Netflix, and according to Google AI, the financial terms of the broadcast deal between Netflix & FIFA have not been publicly disclosed. Netflix says there will be no subleasing to cable or over-the-air networks. The World Cup for women has disappeared behind a tech giant paywall. Note the 2031 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.
Today, US viewers have the option, for the last time, of switching to Telemundo for the World Cup final. I want to hear the crowd singing and the football coming off the feet of the players, but I don’t want to listen to John Strong & Stu Holden reciting their scripts & MLS promotions. I also want to hear the crowd reaction to Trump, without Fox jump-cutting & AI filtering what’s going on. This option to switch from a major Fox Sports broadcast to Spanish-language Telemundo will NEVER be allowed to happen again in capitalist America.
* According to Google AI, macro-level data reveals that nearly half (49%) of the total US World Cup audience chose Telemundo & Peacock over Fox Sports during the tournament.
Sun 19 Jul 2026 03:20 PM CDT
Participation trophies for everybody / as long as you can afford to pay-to-play
That was the halftime show message from Global Citizen. Insert banal melody & repeat ad nauseam. The crowd was NOT electrified by this lip-synced halftime show. Football fans went to a World Cup final in NY/NJ, and a bad Fox Sports musical production broke out.
Sun 19 Jul 2026 05:35 PM CDT
Spain 1, Argentina 0 after extra time. The best team won. Football won. The broadcast was much better on Telemundo with two Spanish language teams on the pitch. I noticed Telemundo gets the same feed as Fox (& presumably Peacock), but their resolution isn’t as good. No matter. It’s the announcers energy & passion that hold the English-speaking viewer. Telemundo also stays on the field during the hydration breaks, instead of cutting to commercials like Fox. FIFA clearly had a deal with Fox Sports on this and fans saw right through it.
Fox Sports blew this 2026 World Cup because their executives thought they could get away with doing whatever they wanted. There is a palpable level of Fox executive contempt for international football, who feel this game threatens their beloved NFL. But streaming & a Spanish language alternative in the US gave fans freedom of choice, so football & Telemundo won. Over half of Fox’s viewing audience tuned them out by the finals. Sponsors who paid for World Cup advertising on Fox aren’t happy. How does Fox explain that?
That’s a wrap. The World Cup ends just like that, and leaves everyone wanting more. If the world wants more amazing World Cups to enjoy, they will have to be fought for & earned. Over & Out
………<><><><><><><>………