The Road to World Cup 2026 and UEFA Nations League

[jd1981]

Quiz question 16 stadiums have hosted home England internationals since 2000, name them

 

[Sniffer]

Stadium of Light
St Mary’s

 

[Sniffer]

King Power
Upton Park

 

[machin05]

Molineux

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Wembley
Villa Park
St James Park
Portman Road
Pride Park
White Hart Lane

 

[Sniffer]

Elland Road
Anfield

 

[Tony Towner]

Old Trafford
Etihad

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Elland Road
Anfield

Not sure on Bellend Road, an Umbro Cup game vs Sweden was there (when Anderton scored that goal in off both posts) but that was 1995. Have they had one since 2000?

 

[Sniffer]

Not sure on Bellend Road, an Umbro Cup game vs Sweden was there (when Anderton scored that goal in off both posts) but that was 1995. Have they had one since 2000?

Google says Italy 2002 and Costa Rica 2018.

Edit: Not that I looked prior. I can recall us playing there - not the specifics of the games.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Think the Riverside is the missing one

 

[Stan Hullis]

Think the Riverside is the missing one

Yes I think it is.

The same question was asked on the Football Ramble at the weekend.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I honestly can't remember us playing there, just a process of elimination with big stadiums (and we've never played at Arsenal or Chelsea in my time, for whatever reason).

 

[Sniffer]

Was it the Turkey game to qualify for Euro 2004 - Rooney was sensational in that game.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Was it the Turkey game to qualify for Euro 2004 - Rooney was sensational in that game.

That was Sunlun I think (and the fans didn't cover themselves in glory, 'I'd rather be a P**i than a Turk' and all that)

 

[Alan]

No I think it’s case of realising a World Cup is an elite event that includes the very best not just a jolly get together or charity event.
The 32 team format is just fine and kind of makes it an elite event that even qualifying for becomes an achievement. 48 teams is a complete dilution of all that. UEFA participation has dropped from 40% to 33%, thats fine. Having an extra knockout game also runs the risk of burn out come the final.

This rings so massively of sour grapes to me.

Like I say, I wanted it to stay at 32. But the more chances there are for another ‘04 Greece or ‘16 Iceland, the better.

“Dilution of quality” is the sort of argument that not only won’t play for me, it outright pushes me further in the opposite direction. It doesn’t ring as protecting the sanctity of anything, just as elitism. Besides, if these other 16 teams are so shit, the traditional big boys should go on as they have, no? Meanwhile, nations that legitimately had a < 1% chance of qualifying previously now have a real opportunity to get on a stage they could never realistically hope for in the past.

Give me NZ v Bolivia, give me fucking Lithuania v Haiti; I’d watch that a hundred times before yawning over the thousandth match between Spain and Portugal, who aren’t even that much better to watch. Anything that makes the opportunity for a final that isn’t always CONMEBOL or UEFA even slightly greater is a winner in my book.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I think the problem is we've seen the likes of Honduras, Panama, North Korea and Qatar add absolutely nothing to tournaments since 2010 (you can go back further and pick out other examples), they were all palpably out of their depth. And now we're going to bring in teams who are objectively worse than that?

Although my principle issue remains that of maths. There's no 48 team structure that works properly.

 

[jd1981]

This rings so massively of sour grapes to me.

Like I say, I wanted it to stay at 32. But the more chances there are for another ‘04 Greece or ‘16 Iceland, the better.

“Dilution of quality” is the sort of argument that not only won’t play for me, it outright pushes me further in the opposite direction. It doesn’t ring as protecting the sanctity of anything, just as elitism. Besides, if these other 16 teams are so shit, the traditional big boys should go on as they have, no? Meanwhile, nations that legitimately had a < 1% chance of qualifying previously now have a real opportunity to get on a stage they could never realistically hope for in the past.

Give me NZ v Bolivia, give me fucking Lithuania v Haiti; I’d watch that a hundred times before yawning over the thousandth match between Spain and Portugal, who aren’t even that much better to watch. Anything that makes the opportunity for a final that isn’t always CONMEBOL or UEFA even slightly greater is a winner in my book.

Sour grapes about what? My team is at tournaments with the exception of 2 blunders.
The 32 team World Cup pretty much allowed for fixture variety. ie Qatar v Ecuador, Poland v Saudi Arabia, Australia v Tunisia etc
I’ll argue back that it sounds very sour grapes that you’re desperate for a none CONMEBOL V UEFA final.
Stacking the World Cup with countries from outside those regions isn’t going to change that unfortunately.
The latter stages will always be dominated by the above 2 confederations for the foreseeable. Indonesia coming to a World Cup and losing 8-0 to say Spain isn’t going to enhance their development either.
El Salvador rocked up in 1982 and were beaten 10-1 by Hungary and haven’t be back since.

 

[Mel Evo]

This rings so massively of sour grapes to me.

Like I say, I wanted it to stay at 32. But the more chances there are for another ‘04 Greece or ‘16 Iceland, the better.

“Dilution of quality” is the sort of argument that not only won’t play for me, it outright pushes me further in the opposite direction. It doesn’t ring as protecting the sanctity of anything, just as elitism. Besides, if these other 16 teams are so shit, the traditional big boys should go on as they have, no? Meanwhile, nations that legitimately had a < 1% chance of qualifying previously now have a real opportunity to get on a stage they could never realistically hope for in the past.

Give me NZ v Bolivia, give me fucking Lithuania v Haiti; I’d watch that a hundred times before yawning over the thousandth match between Spain and Portugal, who aren’t even that much better to watch. Anything that makes the opportunity for a final that isn’t always CONMEBOL or UEFA even slightly greater is a winner in my book.

I’m going to say you haven’t watched as much Bolivian football as I have if you actively want to see it at sea level. I get you might not personally want to watch Portugal v Spain, but really the alternative should be something like ‘funny cats’ or ‘a programme about cooking’, not a monumentally worse version of the same thing.

Bolivian football should only be consumed in its natural environment. At over 4,000 metres above sea level any relative merits about ability can be safely put to one side as you try and get your head around how quickly and far the ball is travelling compared to how slowly and feebly the players are. It’s amazing. It also shouldn’t be in the World Cup finals.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

“Dilution of quality” is the sort of argument that not only won’t play for me, it outright pushes me further in the opposite direction. It doesn’t ring as protecting the sanctity of anything, just as elitism.

Yep. It's very Tory.

 

[jd1981]

Football isn’t the welfare state.
The whole point of the World Cup is to become the elite.
As said the balance between being inclusive and maintaining standards is just about right now.
The World Cup isn’t soccer aid it’s top level competition.
The equivalent of saying we should relegate the bottom 7 from the PL each season to give more clubs a chance even though they’d be way out their depth.
The idea of having more teams at the WC will make it better is a noble idea but a flawed one.