World Cup 2026

[JD2168]

Spain beat Portugal 1-0 in a poor match with Mikel Merino getting the winner late on. Probably the last international match of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career.

Hopefully England can overturn the Quansah red card, if Balogun’s can then every red card should be

Was an excellent match the England-Mexico game, definitely best of the tournament although the last 30 minutes was excruciating to watch as Mexico laid siege on England’s goal.

Jordan Henderson getting booked & then injured forcing him to miss the rest of the tournament whilst not being on the pitch playing is going to be a quiz question in future

 

[Trackman]

PS: If you offered me: DR Congo, Mexico and Norway at the start of the tournament I would have snapped your hand off. Lets go for it.

If we do meet Argentina in the semis, I think we are in with a shout.

 

[Iskra]

Comically horrific cock-up from the USA for that Belgian goal.

 

[Trackman]

Comically horrific cock-up from the USA for that Belgian goal.

I'm working so only seeing bits, what happened?

 

[brad465]

Trump tonight: "Gianni, I just need you to find me 4 goals"

 

[Iskra]

I'm working so only seeing bits, what happened?

A goal kick went into the USA half, the USA keeper came to collect it but made a real hash of it, mis-kicked it and was robbed of the ball. A shot went in and a USA defender was in position to deal with it, but he couldn’t sort his feet out in time and it deflected into the net off him instead.

 

[Howardh]

Thread "what made you happy today?"

Belgium. Made me VERY happy today. Go the Red Devils, the very first time I've wanted something in orange to lose!!

No doubt someone will be saying " four postal goals went missing, count them and we won bigly".

 

[Springs Branch]

Big new tariffs going on all Belgian exports into the USA, as of tomorrow morning??

 

[YorkshireBear]

Spain beat Portugal 1-0 in a poor match with Mikel Merino getting the winner late on. Probably the last international match of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career.

Hopefully England can overturn the Quansah red card, if Balogun’s can then every red card should be

Was an excellent match the England-Mexico game, definitely best of the tournament although the last 30 minutes was excruciating to watch as Mexico laid siege on England’s goal.

Jordan Henderson getting booked & then injured forcing him to miss the rest of the tournament whilst not being on the pitch playing is going to be a quiz question in future

I was hopeful the FA wouldn't appeal and just leave it. Don't follow in their footsteps.

 

[43096]

Are they even trying to hide corruption anymore:

World Cup 2026: US striker Folarin Balogun's one-game red card ban suspended by Fifa

Folarin Balogun is available to play for the United States in their World Cup last-16 tie against Belgium after his one-game ban is suspended by Fifa.

www.bbc.co.uk

Regardless of the decision to red card him, and I don't think the stud contact was intentional, the manner of interference by FIFA and the US government looks very suspicious.

Intent is irrelevant. It was removed from the laws some time ago.

 

[The exile]

Absolutely sickening. Now we need a journalist with a pair of balls to ask Infantino why he allows political interference in footballing decisions

Or which documents his name appears in.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Jul 2026 ==

Thread "what made you happy today?"

Belgium. Made me VERY happy today. Go the Red Devils, the very first time I've wanted something in orange to lose!!

No doubt someone will be saying " four postal goals went missing, count them and we won bigly".

Oh for a “like” button. Bravo Belgium!

 

[SuspectUsual]

I assume there will be complete radio silence from Trump today, as he doesn’t like being associated with losers.

 

[81A]

Long live Belgium (until we play them, if we do )!

 

[Cowley]

Belgium did exactly what everyone was hoping they’d do to the USA last night. Although I should imagine that Trump will say something crass about Belgium once he’s bowled a shiny question by a journalist over the next few days.

Gianni Infantino. His position is completely untenable now. I don’t know what the situation is with an organisation such as FIFA and how the head of it is replaced? But there’s no way he can carry on in that role after this.

 

[Ivor]

Belgium did exactly what everyone was hoping they’d do to the USA last night. Although I should imagine that Trump will say something crass about Belgium once he’s bowled a shiny question by a journalist over the next few days.

Gianni Infantino. His position is completely untenable now. I don’t know what the situation is with an organisation such as FIFA and how the head of it is replaced? But there’s no way he can carry on in that role after this.

Infantino definitely has to go, to bow to the whims of Trump was a disgrace, can nobody say no to the man?

From a football news perspective I do wonder though if this will unfortunately vanish quickly from the back pages.

 

[nlogax]

Lovely stuff by Belgium, and their Trump dance after the fourth goal was icing on the cake. "Overturn this" indeed.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Now. The next big question. Who is on the Norwegian commentator’s list in case they “gave your guys one hell of a beating” on Saturday.

I’m hoping for at least one of the Chuckle Brothers

(Link to YouTube clip of famous commentary after Norway beat England in the early 1980s)

 

[Peterthegreat]

Belgium did exactly what everyone was hoping they’d do to the USA last night. Although I should imagine that Trump will say something crass about Belgium once he’s bowled a shiny question by a journalist over the next few days.

Gianni Infantino. His position is completely untenable now. I don’t know what the situation is with an organisation such as FIFA and how the head of it is replaced? But there’s no way he can carry on in that role after this.

I agree Infantino's position should be untenable.
However I suspect he will be reelected next time.
He has overwhelming support from the African and Asian federations.

 

[D1511]

Now. The next big question. Who is on the Norwegian commentator’s list in case they “gave your guys one hell of a beating” on Saturday.

I’m hoping for at least one of the Chuckle Brothers

(Link to YouTube clip of famous commentary after Norway beat England in the early 1980s)

You'd think Clement Attlee and Sir Anthony Eden might be updated this time around......

 

[SuspectUsual]

I agree Infantino's position should be untenable.
However I suspect he will be reelected next time.
He has overwhelming support from the African and Asian federations.

Their support is based solely on what they are offered. Another candidate offering more would likely get their votes, but that could bring problems of its own.

But you’re right if you’re implying that a candidate running on an anti-corruption ticket wouldn’t stick a chance

 

[D1511]

I agree Infantino's position should be untenable.
However I suspect he will be reelected next time.
He has overwhelming support from the African and Asian federations.

I'm afraid this is the case. The vile slimebag will be around for a while yet.......but I hope one day in the future, we'll look back on this incident as the beginning of the end for FIFA in its current form.

 

[martin butler]

Trump has ensured that this world cup will be remembered for the wrong reasons, and the fall out will effect FIFA for years to come,

People have always suspected that corruption is rife in international football, this just shows that there is no longer any suspicion, Infanti, will be sacked as soon after the contest is over, but what else is waiting to be discovered, what other dealings have he and Trump been involved in?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Infanti, will be sacked as soon after the contest is over,

Sacked by whom?

 

[D1511]

Sacked by whom?

Precisely.....
If only it were a possibility.......

 

[DarloRich]

Gianni Infantino. His position is completely untenable now. I don’t know what the situation is with an organisation such as FIFA and how the head of it is replaced? But there’s no way he can carry on in that role after this.

but he will

Infanti, will be sacked as soon after the contest is over, but what else is waiting to be discovered, what other dealings have he and Trump been involved in

Who is going to sack him? he already has the votes for his next election sown up.

He has overwhelming support from the African and Asian federations.

His pork barrelling pays dividends. I bet few questions are asked where the money actually goes. Plus he has expanded the world cup to 700 teams to increase qualifying opportunities for teams from Asia and Concacaf nations. Yes Cape Verde was a great story but did Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan add to the quality of the world cup?

What will do for Infantino will be what did for Blatter: an independent legal investigation into the dodginess.

 

[Howardh]

Just a thought that's spreading around twitter - did Trump think the suspension meant US would play Belgium with only 10 men? After all he knows nothing about the game, so it's plausible but Infantino mis-read Trump and went for the "oh, he can play after all if it pleases you" button, instead of telling Trump "US will still have XI"?

 

[Purple Train]

Lovely stuff by Belgium, and their Trump dance after the fourth goal was icing on the cake. "Overturn this" indeed.

Indeed, I wonder what he'll make of that as that is exactly the way to rile a narcissist.

A more pleasing story, as quoted from the BBC page here:

Belgium head coach Rudi Garcia told reporters that Balogun "came to talk" after the game.

"I really liked that," he said. "It's not his fault, he's not the one to blame and that's what I told him."

Bless him.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Jul 2026 ==

Just a thought that's spreading around twitter - did Trump think the suspension meant US would play Belgium with only 10 men? After all he knows nothing about the game, so it's plausible but Infantino mis-read Trump and went for the "oh, he can play after all if it pleases you" button, instead of telling Trump "US will still have XI"?

That wouldn't surprise me at all, particularly with regard to Infantino. You're presumably right about Trump, although I do feel compelled to point out that he is on the record as saying this, when he was doing the League Cup draw on Saint and Greavsie in 1991:

By now Greaves is on a roll and takes it upon himself to ask Trump if he’s ever played football before. “I used to play,” the tycoon replies. “It’s a great game, I love soccer, I played actually in high school.” He sounds convincing but given the things we’ve heard from the 70-year-old’s mouth during the presidential campaign it’s probably best to take the idea of a teenage Trump shouting: “Get it in the mixer, lads!” with a pinch of salt.

(Quoted from the Guardian, here - a fantastic story if you haven't come across it before.)

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Consequences for Infantino's actions? Almost certainly none. As stated upthread he already has his re-election in the bag.

So could UEFA do something unilaterally? That would have to mean leaving FIFA. So World Cups would become meaningless. And non-European players would almost certainly be prevented (by FIFA) from playing in Europe. Financially it would make little difference to European football but might a more insular UEFA make a European Super League more likely? Be careful what you wish for!

 

[yoyothehobo]

I was hopeful the FA wouldn't appeal and just leave it. Don't follow in their footsteps.

The optimist in me thinks that this is a deliberate ploy to back FIFA further into a corner, rather than any genuine attempt to overturn a justified red card.

So glad the US lost to Belgium, especially after all the US discourse on the matter.

 

[martin butler]

Possibly pressure from some countries that see no good for themselves internally, and externally from being associated with this corruption, might be what starts change within FIFA,

This could, then kick start independent investigations, to What's been done, what deals were struck, and in the same way as Seb Blatter became persona non gratis within European football, the same will happen to the head of FIFA.