Is this going to earn the crown as the worst World Cup in history or can the football itself save it?

It’s been an exercise in how badly can FIFA and the US treat people and even participants of the tournament so far. Canada and Mexico have barely had a look in. It’s massively bloated with some teams who might be lucky to escape some double digit hammerings. On the other hand, extending the tournament entrants has given some nations a chance to participate that they’d never otherwise have and perhaps they can make good accounts of themselves. Can the football save this World Cup or are the shenanigans already too much for it to be salvageable?

Was the last one good in your opinion? Yeah from the football side. I don't think it's possible to have an objectively bad World Cup (as there will be good and bad games) but South Africa came close. Vuvuzelas ruining any atmosphere and all the players playing with a beach ball. Certainly everyone's morals towards the last one seemed to go out the window as soon as the football started. This WC will 100%, if it hasn't already, damage America's image abroad which I'm all for as they're an absolute shit show at the moment. It's obviously a shame that lots of fans and even referees are being impacted as part of said shitshow, but it's nowhere near the abhorrence that was the last tounrament. Even the Brazil WC had lots of morel questions - all these capitalist mega events are the same.

I only care about the football. Unfortunately the expansion to 48 teams, the lack of jeopardy in the group stages, and the likely number of pointless games will kill this. It's the exact same format as the Euros - has that been 'killed'? Look at the state of the WCs in the 70s and 80s. Group stages were held prior to another 2nd group stage, 3rd place teams qualifying out of groups, and only 2 points for a win back then! Endless shit defensive football. People only remember the great knockout games though.

People thought Qatar would be terrible and it ended up being decent footballwise I think this has more potential to be bad owing even more extreme heat in some matches, dead rubbers and Trump putting his fanny everywhere

Yeah from the football side. I don't think it's possible to have an objectively bad World Cup (as there will be good and bad games) but South Africa came close. Vuvuzelas ruining any atmosphere and all the players playing with a beach ball. Certainly everyone's morals towards the last one seemed to go out the window as soon as the football started. This WC will 100%, if it hasn't already, damage America's image abroad which I'm all for as they're an absolute shit show at the moment. It's obviously a shame that lots of fans and even referees are being impacted as part of said shitshow, but it's nowhere near the abhorrence that was the last tounrament. Even the Brazil WC had lots of morel questions - all these capitalist mega events are the same. I didn't really enjoy the last one all that much, to be completely honest. Aside from the political angle, it just feels like there's very little hype around this, purely from a footballing perspective. With the kick off times, I'll watch very little of it. I'll catch any games that I can, but my expectations are low.

It's the exact same format as the Euros - has that been 'killed'? Look at the state of the WCs in the 70s and 80s. Group stages were held prior to another 2nd group stage, 3rd place teams qualifying out of groups, and only 2 points for a win back then! Endless shit defensive football. People only remember the great knockout games though. the number of teams is a big difference. Far too many games. Everyone will have lost interest. It will pick up again, but there will be no momentum. No one wants to watch all these group games.

the number of teams is a big difference. Far too many games. Everyone will have lost interest. It will pick up again, but there will be no momentum. No one wants to watch all these group games. There's 48 teams and it takes 8 games to win it. In 1982 there were 24 teams, literally half, and it took 7 games to win it. That's what a real saturated WC looks like. The number of games is due to the new number of teams, which you can argue is too many, but people won't lose interest when it's new teams playing every day. People won't lose interest because it's the World Cup, and "no one wants to watch all these group games" is nonsense given that plenty of people do want to.

Nah, it is going to be great!!! I can't wait to get out there for it. I suppose it helps that me and my family love travelling round the states!

There's 48 teams and it takes 8 games to win it. In 1982 there were 24 teams, literally half, and it took 7 games to win it. That's what a real saturated WC looks like. The number of games is due to the new number of teams, which you can argue is too many, but people won't lose interest when it's new teams playing every day. People won't lose interest because it's the World Cup, and "no one wants to watch all these group games" is nonsense given that plenty of people do want to. Let’s see then. Feels the most low key WC in my life time. It’s not about the no of games each team plays. It’s an extra 40 games from the last WC. What does that add? It just dilutes. More games doesn’t mean it’s a better competition. Obviously for anyone in Europe the timings are awful anyway, so you aren’t going to casually watch all these games - it’s far too much.

More teams = more games = more money for FIFA. This is it.

I love the world cup but having the world cup in a third world country like the US was always going to be trouble.

Qatar was sold as a complete disaster but it ended up being a complete classic of a world cup. All the signs are this is going to be a car crash of a world cup but it could be still be a classic tournament if the teams perform. Personally think some of the games will suffer due to the heat and conditions.

Let’s see then. Feels the most low key WC in my life time. It’s not about the no of games each team plays. It’s an extra 40 games from the last WC. What does that add? It just dilutes. More games doesn’t mean it’s a better competition. Obviously for anyone in Europe the timings are awful anyway, so you aren’t going to casually watch all these games - it’s far too much. "Feels the most low key WC" to other people it feels the most high profile. This World Cup lasts 38 days. The 2018 World Cup lasted 31 days. So despite the expansion, the tournament is only a week longer. The increase in teams isn't dragging the competition out, it just means a busier group stage with 4-5 matches per day instead of 3–4, plus one additional knockout round. I don't see why that would cause people to lose interest. More games don't automatically mean less excitement when they're being played by more teams. The scenario that would actually dilute it would be keeping the same number of teams and simply adding extra matches, forcing fans to watch the same sides play repeatedly over a longer period. That's not what's happening here - the additional fixtures come from additional teams, bringing more variety, more storylines, and more countries with a stake in the tournament, over a similar period of time to previous WC tournaments. I am playing devil's advocate here as I do think there was nothing wrong with the previous format and it's all for the money, but I still think there are major holes in the "diluted" argument and the fact the games are on at a bad time for Europeans has no bearing on whether it's going to be a good tournament or not. Of course, it might mean you don't enjoy it as much, but the people who keep making these points seem to want to argue its going to objectively be a bad tournament for everyone, which is t impossible.

An unfancied team going far in the tournament can redeem it with everyone supporting them. If Iran goes far then it becomes box office.

Qatar was sold as a complete disaster but it ended up being a complete classic of a world cup. All the signs are this is going to be a car crash of a world cup but it could be still be a classic tournament if the teams perform. Personally think some of the games will suffer due to the heat and conditions. Was it a classic?! The final was great, granted. But the rest of the tournament I don’t remember much. That mixed in with the human rights issue in Qatar make calling it a classic a bit of a long shot in my opinion.

Qatar was sold as a complete disaster but it ended up being a complete classic of a world cup. All the signs are this is going to be a car crash of a world cup but it could be still be a classic tournament if the teams perform. Personally think some of the games will suffer due to the heat and conditions. Was it that good? Great final, and Holland v Argentina had some drama, along with Croatia v Brazil, but otherwise it was totally forgettable fare.