Our World Cup Group chat ! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[Big Ramy 1314]

Scotland, Brazil, Morocco, Haiti.. Seven months away, let's get started...

Good group, great chance of qualifying for the next round.. I imagine the top team goes through, and the best 2nd place teams? Who knows what format Fifa are using now...

Anyhow, I like our chances..  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[mccaughey85]

13 minutes ago, Big Ramy 1314 said:

Scotland, Brazil, Morocco, Haiti.. Seven months away, let's get started...

Good group, great chance of qualifying for the next round.. I imagine the top team goes through, and the best 2nd place teams? Who knows what format Fifa are using now...

Anyhow, I like our chances..  🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

8 of the 12 teams in third place qualify.

I would hazard a guess that three points should get us through or give us a massive chance.

Beating Haiti is our best chance of going through. 

[Burj_Alba]

I don't know why people are getting so uptight about Morocco.

I had a thought about which players I know from them and there are a few very good ones, checked with Transfer market and they estimate the total value of the squad is $37.5 million, that is les than they reckon is McTominay's value of $50. For the record the 25 Scotland squad is $220 million.

I know that these figures are arbitrary but it shows that they do not have any players playing in major leagues, a lot of them play in Gulf countries.

A lot of the positives of Morocco is based on the last WC in Qatar where they did fantastically well. But it was almost like a home tournament for them with the Morocco ( and other Arab countries diaspora living there). Might not be as easy for them in North America.

FIFA ranking system is almost as bad as Transfer Market (Seriously Morocco 11th in the world?) but the key point is that this is a winnable match for us. But WE MUST BEAT HAITI comfortably in the first match to set us up for this.

After pots 1 and 2 were drawing I was worried we might end up in the Spain and Uruguay group, that would have been much worse than where did end up.

 

 

 

 

[mccaughey85]

6 minutes ago, Burj_Alba said:

I don't know why people are getting so uptight about Morocco.

I had a thought about which players I know from them and there are a few very good ones, checked with Transfer market and they estimate the total value of the squad is $37.5 million, that is les than they reckon is McTominay's value of $50. For the record the 25 Scotland squad is $220 million.

I know that these figures are arbitrary but it shows that they do not have any players playing in major leagues, a lot of them play in Gulf countries.

A lot of the positives of Morocco is based on the last WC in Qatar where they did fantastically well. But it was almost like a home tournament for them with the Morocco ( and other Arab countries diaspora living there). Might not be as easy for them in North America.

FIFA ranking system is almost as bad as Transfer Market (Seriously Morocco 11th in the world?) but the key point is that this is a winnable match for us. But WE MUST BEAT HAITI comfortably in the first match to set us up for this.

After pots 1 and 2 were drawing I was worried we might end up in the Spain and Uruguay group, that would have been much worse than where did end up.

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the world cup being in a Muslim country was beneficial for Morocco.

I remember some guy pointing out to me that our ref for our 98 game v Morocco was Muslim. 

Didnt give it much thought until you pointed the fact Qatar are an Arab country and are therefore fellow Muslims. 

[Burj_Alba]

Think they also had support from other Arab nations (apart from Algeria of course)

RE 98 match, don't think they needed any help from the ref that night. We were a shambles.

As I said in previous post, good side but nothing to fear about them.

[mccaughey85]

5 minutes ago, Burj_Alba said:

Think they also had support from other Arab nations (apart from Algeria of course)

RE 98 match, don't think they needed any help from the ref that night. We were a shambles.

As I said in previous post, good side but nothing to fear about them.

yeh but the ref cast a Muslim spell on us and caused us to play shite so he could help his Muslim brethren.

[vanderark14]

58 minutes ago, Burj_Alba said:

I don't know why people are getting so uptight about Morocco.

I had a thought about which players I know from them and there are a few very good ones, checked with Transfer market and they estimate the total value of the squad is $37.5 million, that is les than they reckon is McTominay's value of $50. For the record the 25 Scotland squad is $220 million.

I know that these figures are arbitrary but it shows that they do not have any players playing in major leagues, a lot of them play in Gulf countries.

A lot of the positives of Morocco is based on the last WC in Qatar where they did fantastically well. But it was almost like a home tournament for them with the Morocco ( and other Arab countries diaspora living there). Might not be as easy for them in North America.

FIFA ranking system is almost as bad as Transfer Market (Seriously Morocco 11th in the world?) but the key point is that this is a winnable match for us. But WE MUST BEAT HAITI comfortably in the first match to set us up for this.

After pots 1 and 2 were drawing I was worried we might end up in the Spain and Uruguay group, that would have been much worse than where did end up.

 

 

 

 

Good post

I am not putting any stock in Morocco reaching the semi finals, by the time this WC starts, 4 years will have passed. Sweden and Bulgaria miraculously reached the WC semi finals in 94............in 98 Sweden failed to qualify and Bulgaria went out in the group stages. England reached the semis in 1990 and failed to get to 94

Clarke, his coaches and the players simply need to focus on one game at a time and go in with the same mentality they did against Denmark where they gave everything, if they do that they can win. 

 

Edited December 6, 2025 by vanderark14

[Orraloon]

Morocco won 8 out of 8 WC qualifiers. Scored 22 conceded 2. Obviously playing against really pish opposition.

[COLT NY]

33 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

Clarke, his coaches and the players simply need to focus on one game at a time and go in with the same mentality they did against Denmark where they gave everything, if they do that they can win. 

Win the World Cup? That's bold talking right there. Are you England in disguise?

[fringo]

13 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Morocco won 8 out of 8 WC qualifiers. Scored 22 conceded 2. Obviously playing against really pish opposition.

I was looking at that and all their teams were ranked between 100-200th in the world apart from Zambia who are ranked 90th.

BUT, I still think they will be a very decent side.

[Tartan blood]

50 minutes ago, fringo said:

I was looking at that and all their teams were ranked between 100-200th in the world apart from Zambia who are ranked 90th.

BUT, I still think they will be a very decent side.

Well the Africa cup of nations starts in 2 weeks, so we'll be able to get a good look at them against decent opposition. 

I can't think of a better way to warm up to a tournament than playing in another tournament...

[fringo]

2 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

Well the Africa cup of nations starts in 2 weeks, so we'll be able to get a good look at them against decent opposition. 

I can't think of a better way to warm up to a tournament than playing in another tournament...

I was thinking the same and will be watching them. Hopefully Steve Clarke does too. 😃

[Clyde1998]

4 minutes ago, Tartan blood said:

Well the Africa cup of nations starts in 2 weeks, so we'll be able to get a good look at them against decent opposition. 

I can't think of a better way to warm up to a tournament than playing in another tournament...

I think Afcon will be the big test for them. They got knocked out early in 2023 - losing in the round of sixteen to South Africa - but should easily get out of their group containing Comoros; Mali; and Zambia.

2 hours ago, Burj_Alba said:

I don't know why people are getting so uptight about Morocco.

I had a thought about which players I know from them and there are a few very good ones, checked with Transfer market and they estimate the total value of the squad is $37.5 million, that is les than they reckon is McTominay's value of $50. For the record the 25 Scotland squad is $220 million.

I know that these figures are arbitrary but it shows that they do not have any players playing in major leagues, a lot of them play in Gulf countries.

A lot of the positives of Morocco is based on the last WC in Qatar where they did fantastically well. But it was almost like a home tournament for them with the Morocco ( and other Arab countries diaspora living there). Might not be as easy for them in North America.

FIFA ranking system is almost as bad as Transfer Market (Seriously Morocco 11th in the world?) but the key point is that this is a winnable match for us. But WE MUST BEAT HAITI comfortably in the first match to set us up for this.

After pots 1 and 2 were drawing I was worried we might end up in the Spain and Uruguay group, that would have been much worse than where did end up.

Morocco's market value on TransferMarkt seems to be based on their squad for the FIFA Arab Cup taking place at the moment, with what's effectively a B team (who are based entirely in the Middle East and North Africa) - only four of their twenty-three man squad have double figure appearances. Hakimi has a value on there of €65m alone (compared to the overall figure of €37.9m of the Morocco squad) and the value of their squad for their final qualifiers against Congo was €380.6m.

I've done a weighted average of the Football Manager abilities for the teams in our group (based on minutes played in qualifying), as a guide, and they're comparable to us: Brazil (155.50); Morocco (138.55); Scotland (136.11); Haiti (111.82). Will end up doing the entirety of qualified teams.

For context, Brazil's rating means their squad is on average comprised of players who'd be at the top end of the Premier League; Morocco and ourselves average towards good/decent Premier League players; Haiti average to decent English Championship/top League One players.

Morocco absolutely have more depth than us though.

It's certainly a winnable game, but Morocco will almost certainly be favourites.

[Broath Boy]

Where can we view the stadium allocations at 5pm, cheers

[Big Ramy 1314]

6 minutes ago, Broath Boy said:

Where can we view the stadium allocations at 5pm, cheers

Oooof !! Wee session for that mate !! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🍺🍺🍺😂😂

[dezmondo]

8 minutes ago, Broath Boy said:

Where can we view the stadium allocations at 5pm, cheers

You Tube channel apparently. 

 

 

[Toepoke]

6 minutes ago, dezmondo said:

You Tube channel apparently.

Cheers. Fingers crossed for a Boston double 🤞

[Toepoke]

4 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

8 of the 12 teams in third place qualify.

I would hazard a guess that three points should get us through or give us a massive chance.

Beating Haiti is our best chance of going through. 

Mentioned somewhere else, but at the last World Cup, in 7 out of the 8 groups the 3rd place teams finished on 4 points.

We'll almost certainly need points on the board in more than one game.

 

[Toepoke]

Live link...

 

 

 

[mccaughey85]

9 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Mentioned somewhere else, but at the last World Cup, in 7 out of the 8 groups the 3rd place teams finished on 4 points.

We'll almost certainly need points on the board in more than one game.

 

Had a wee look at the 2014 and 2018 world cups and 6 out of the 8 groups had third placed teams on 3 or less points.

Gonna be tough to judge imo. Probably need 4 points but might get lucky and make it with 3 provided our goal difference isn't terrible.

Edited December 6, 2025 by mccaughey85

[Toepoke]

4 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Gonna be tough to judge imo. Probably need 4 points but might get lucky and make it with 3 provided our goal difference isn't terrible.

That's true you could get lucky with three but more likely end up like Hungary last year.

With weaker 3rd and 4th seeds than previously there could be some pumpings dished out.

 

Edited December 6, 2025 by Toepoke

[Ally Bongo]

They couldn't just announce the venues and times could they ?

More inane shite and more Infantino 

[fringo]

[CumbernauldJag]

So a 2am kick off for our first game back at a world cup in 28 years. Fuck FIFA!

[DoonTheSlope]

I wonder if The Honourable President Donald J. Trump will lay on a banquet at Mar-a-Lago for Stevie and the boys after the Brazil game