2026 World Cup

[The boy Linacre]

8 hours ago, purpleronnie said:

It'll be amazing, as long as you avoid the USA matches.

I'm about to retire so am very keen to go, but didn't get in the Visa pre sale, fingers crossed, can't even use my Lestah A points

[The Year Of The Fox]

12 hours ago, grobyfox1990 said:

Yep defo. Would be worth watching England just to see the happy clappers and mouth breathers that follow them getting beaten up by the sheriffs and troopers 

You asked me fairly recently in a post whether I hate football fans as well

 

What an utterly strange pair of posts you made 

[whoareyaaa]

Northern Island have played well

[Super_horns]

Good night for Northern Ireland.

And Wales if they can get something off Belgium on Monday .

[grobyfox1990]

1 hour ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

You asked me fairly recently in a post whether I hate football fans as well

 

What an utterly strange pair of posts you made 

Yeh did that get deleted? Bloody thought police on here. 
Difference being you weren’t at the matches where you were judging football fans, or the Notting Hill carnival. You were reading clickbait from bots on Facebook. I’ve been to three tournaments with England. They are followed by a lot of freaks 

[The Year Of The Fox]

5 hours ago, grobyfox1990 said:

Yeh did that get deleted? Bloody thought police on here. 
Difference being you weren’t at the matches where you were judging football fans, or the Notting Hill carnival. You were reading clickbait from bots on Facebook. I’ve been to three tournaments with England. They are followed by a lot of freaks 

Think so.

 

I can’t remember which match you’re referring to, so I don’t know whether I’ve been. 
 

I’ve done 4 tournaments so I know what it’s like. Wouldn’t call them freaks though, it’s a complete cross section of society IMO.

 

As for NH- I didn’t realise stats and facts were bots 

Edited 11 October 2025 by The Year Of The Fox

[grobyfox1990]

3 hours ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Think so.

 

I can’t remember which match you’re referring to, so I don’t know whether I’ve been. 
 

I’ve done 4 tournaments so I know what it’s like. Wouldn’t call them freaks though, it’s a complete cross section of society IMO.

 

As for NH- I didn’t realise stats and facts were bots 

It’s good to know normal people follow England abroad!! 

[Alf Bentley]

On 08/10/2025 at 11:27, Lionator said:

A three way between Benin, South Africa and Nigeria. Benin and Nigeria have to play each other while South Afric have two fixtures they should win and therefore should qualify.

 

Tense finale in this group, after South Africa failed to beat Zimbabwe. Realistically, all 3 teams now need to win their final fixture to qualify - the second-placed team probably won't qualify for the play-offs (though the decision to ignore matches v. 6th-placed team complicates matters and potentially helps Nigeria). South Africa probably still favourites, but it's on a knife-edge for all 3. If Nigeria and S. Africa both win, Nigeria could still go out, which is a shameful performance...

 

On 08/10/2025 at 11:27, Lionator said:

 

Ivory Coast and Gabon straight shootout.

Aubameyang made his presence felt yesterday.......scored all 4 goals in Gabon's 4-3 win over Gambia, but then got sent off! 

 

Gabon are now mathematically qualified for the play-offs. Assume Ivory Coast will top the group, though.

 

On 08/10/2025 at 11:27, Lionator said:

 

Ghana, Madagascar and Comoros Islands in a three way. While we have vested interests in Ghana, either of the other two qualifying would be INSANE.

Madagascar are now well placed to make the play-offs - if they win their last match in Mali.

 

Cameroon are not yet guaranteed a play-off place, if they finish second behind Cape Verde.

Africa having so many qualifiers but neither Nigeria nor Cameroon making it would be a shocker.

 

On 08/10/2025 at 11:27, Lionator said:

 

Then we have the Asian qualifiers 

Group A: Qatar, UAE, Oman

Group B: Saudi, Iraq, Indonesia

 

id love to see Iraq do it.

 

Indonesia would be interesting qualifiers, but unlikely to make it. Would certainly be an achievement for Iraq, given recent war-torn history. They qualified in 1986 - lost all their matches by narrow scores.

 

On 08/10/2025 at 11:27, Lionator said:

 

And then the North American qualifiers in their second of three group stage phases. 

 

 

Come on, Curaçao! 

(Fellow nerd)

[Alf Bentley]

On 09/10/2025 at 21:15, Super_horns said:

This is some night  for the Faroes !

https://www.flashscore.co.uk/match/football/faroe-islands-nBmAj3Fc/montenegro-hOduZ1pN/?mid=tESlh7y1

 

What's Montenegrin for "you're getting sacked in the morning!"?? 

[shen]

Andorra scoring two goals and about to get an away point. These hopeless minnows picking up points is refreshing!

[OntarioFox]

1 hour ago, shen said:

Andorra scoring two goals and about to get an away point. These hopeless minnows picking up points is refreshing!

Latvia clearly lacking the prowess of David Nugent 

[JonnyZeroFox]

This World Cup will throw up easy group stages for the big sides… I miss the days when you had to be on it from the off. 

[Lionator]

If Albania can hold on against Serbia, they’ll very likely qualify for the play offs ahead of them. 

[Lionator]

35 minutes ago, JonnyZeroFox said:

This World Cup will throw up easy group stages for the big sides… I miss the days when you had to be on it from the off. 

To be fair we could still end up with a group something like England, Germany, Paraguay, Ghana which is tough. But that would be close to a worst nightmare. Equally we could end up with Iran, Panama and Cape Verde which would be jokes. 

[Super_horns]

Ronaldo misses a penalty v Ireland and it’s still 0-0.

[Bert]

1 hour ago, Lionator said:

To be fair we could still end up with a group something like England, Germany, Paraguay, Ghana which is tough. But that would be close to a worst nightmare. Equally we could end up with Iran, Panama and Cape Verde which would be jokes. 

Even then, the 8 best third teams out of 12 groups still qualify for the knockout stage. 

[Bert]

And an England win on Tuesday will see us the first European team qualified. 

[Lionator]

9 hours ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

Come on, Curaçao! 

(Fellow nerd)

A lot of people would be surprised if Curacao make it but if you look at their squad and where they’ve played, it wouldn’t be a surprise. A lot of Eredivisie experience, throw in some English football icons (Bacuna and Talith Chong), plus with Advocaat as manager, they should be qualifying from here. 

[bovril]

I constantly think we've reached the nadir of Bulgarian football and then somehow it gets even worse. Quite comfortably the worst team in the Balkans now.

[MC Prussian]

Shout out to Uzbekistan. Making their debut on the world stage next summer.

 

And Iraq still with a chance of qualifying for the first time since 1986. Need to beat Saudi Arabia, though.

Edited 12 October 2025 by MC Prussian

[Lionator]

4 hours ago, MC Prussian said:

Shout out to Uzbekistan. Making their debut on the world stage next summer.

 

And Iraq still with a chance of qualifying for the first time since 1986. Need to beat Qatar, though.

Iraq need to beat Saudi. It’s UAE v Qatar for the other, Qatar need to win or else it’ll be UAE. 

[The Year Of The Fox]

Why are the jocks so quiet tonight?

[Corky]

That is never a foul.

[Arkie Bennett]

VAR is earning his money this evening.

[EastAnglianFox]

7 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Why are the jocks so quiet tonight?

Because we have a manager that’s holding us back from being slightly less shite than what we have been for 20+ years