Thoughts on the 2026 World Cup

[StirlingEgg]

48 minutes ago, dan cake said:

Iv got half the board on ignore 😀

😂

 

[del_boy1]

44 minutes ago, Souness said:

If you went to the Euros and the World Cup, then you'll agree the World Cup was miles better.

If you only got to the Euros, then sorry to hear, you missed out big time.

I'm in the latter camp. I'd say that's subjective. I certainly don't feel like I missed out in paying disgusting amounts to watch those 3 awful matches. I genuinely feel like i dodged a bullet.

As for the social aspect, I similarly don't feel like I missed out, i went to Austin and Nashville over the past 18 months with my mates instead, and had a ball. I'd do that any day rather than the usual Tartan Army nonsense. 

Have mates that went and loved it, I'm genuinely delighted for the folk that went and had a great time. I'm sure I'd have also enjoyed it had i went, but I had zero FOMO and have no regrets.

[Ally Bongo]

8 minutes ago, del_boy1 said:

 

As for the social aspect, I similarly don't feel like I missed out, i went to Austin and Nashville over the past 18 months with my mates instead, and had a ball. I'd do that any day rather than the usual Tartan Army nonsense. 

 

Agreed

What was so different from the Tartan Army partying in Boston/Miami than the partying they have did all over Europe in the last 40 years ?

 

[dan cake]

1 hour ago, Ally Bongo said:

Agreed

What was so different from the Tartan Army partying in Boston/Miami than the partying they have did all over Europe in the last 40 years ?

 

Telling folk about it on your Insta/Facebook/Tiktok if we’re being cynical 😀

[Toepoke]

2 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

Agreed

What was so different from the Tartan Army partying in Boston/Miami than the partying they have did all over Europe in the last 40 years ?

One thing I noticed that was a bit different were the number of North American ex-pats or 2nd/3rd generation Scots that converged on Boston.

The vibe among the Tartan Army was broadly similar to Germany 24 or France 98 though.

 

[RanelaghScot]

Disappointed by yet another piss poor tournament for Scotland. We got done with the group draw but the manner of defeats especially vs Morocco was disappointing. Big players didn't turn up and were posted missing when it mattered.

The increase in participants added to the world cup but at the same time I wouldn't like to see further increases, there's a balance to be found.

I'm glad the TA left such a special impression on Boston and glad that the fans had such a great trip outside of the football.

Being based in Argentina their knockout games were an excruciating watch at times given how they had to go 1 or 2 down before actually deciding to play. I didn't understand the hate they got which has turned into a tik tok bandwagon situation. Faux outrage over their at times aggressive style of play from people that loved every moment of games such as Spain vs Netherlands in 2010.

England was an incredible hatewatch as always and the added bonus of them getting knocked out and then greeting for days on end about the Argentinian banner was lovely to take in with a bottle of Malbec.

 

[DoonTheSlope]

13 hours ago, Broath Boy said:

I’m one of the original members of this board, member no 150 back in the very early 2000s, don’t post a lot but like to read, have to say the 3 who are at it are pushing me close to but have never ever put anyone on ignore, but very close to doing so, no 1, the antagonistic kunt followed by poster M and lastly the fake SNP poster from the NE.

Is that McCAughey?

13 hours ago, Broath Boy said:

I’m one of the original members of this board, member no 150 back in the very early 2000s, don’t post a lot but like to read, have to say the 3 who are at it are pushing me close to but have never ever put anyone on ignore, but very close to doing so, no 1, the antagonistic kunt followed by poster M and lastly the fake SNP poster from the NE.

Or is that McCaughey?

Maybe you should find the bottle to name the folk you have a grievance with 

[DoonTheSlope]

13 hours ago, del_boy1 said:

I'm in the latter camp. I'd say that's subjective. I certainly don't feel like I missed out in paying disgusting amounts to watch those 3 awful matches. I genuinely feel like i dodged a bullet.

As for the social aspect, I similarly don't feel like I missed out, i went to Austin and Nashville over the past 18 months with my mates instead, and had a ball. I'd do that any day rather than the usual Tartan Army nonsense. 

Have mates that went and loved it, I'm genuinely delighted for the folk that went and had a great time. I'm sure I'd have also enjoyed it had i went, but I had zero FOMO and have no regrets.

Agree

Im gutted I never got the chance to reacquaint with friends but I’m certainly not in any way shape or form gutted that I missed going to the World Cup considering the costs involved

[vanderark14]

Fifa president Gianni Infantino accuses critics of spreading hate at World Cup | Gianni Infantino | The Guardian https://share.google/Rgt2mlyX1xae4cofi

Complete detached from reality if he believes what he says.

[Yosemite Sam]

1 hour ago, vanderark14 said:

Fifa president Gianni Infantino accuses critics of spreading hate at World Cup | Gianni Infantino | The Guardian https://share.google/Rgt2mlyX1xae4cofi

Complete detached from reality if he believes what he says.

He did have a slight point though, many many people were determined it was going to be a disaster before it even begun. Mainly due to their inherent hatred for Donald Trump 

[Bzzzz]

On 7/20/2026 at 2:50 PM, vanderark14 said:

 

whats the thoughts on the world cup overall? Putting aside the feeling of Scotland being there and the initial euphoria, it wasn't a great world cup. Hydration breaks, political interference, the pre final show and the half time shows were utter garbage. It feels like the football was 2nd to the off field shite

There were some memorable footballing moments, Argentina's come backs which have been soured due to their players on field behaviour. Spain and France played great football. Cape Verde getting to the last 32 but other than that I don't think it was memorable for positive reasons

If you take us out of it then my overriding feeling is one of deep concern. There has been so much that has happened that really is very very worrying and unacceptable. 

Infantino has dragged FIFA, the World Cup and football into the gutter and made all of it a laughing stock, not only that he has interfered with the rules, pandered to a sex offender and disgraced one of FIFAs core principles of NO POLITICS by hand said sex offender a fking Peace Prize... I mean what the actual fuck!? 

Was in a bar in Salzburg watching the draw and when he did that we said "fuck this, not a chance we're being a part of that shite"... then got pasht and got excited about the ACTUAL football aspect. But seriously this man needs to go and FIFA needs a restructure to make sure that this shit can NEVER happen again. 

[Bzzzz]

5 minutes ago, Yosemite Sam said:

He did have a slight point though, many many people were determined it was going to be a disaster before it even begun. Mainly due to their inherent hatred for Donald Trump 

For football, and the fans, it HAS been a disaster, and a disgrace. FIFA should be telling people (like Trump) "NO". 
You cannot interfere with the rules, ever. I'm absolutely RAGIN about all of this pish. Look at the way the man grovelled and slithered up to Trump, the other leaders of Canada and Mexico both behaved with the utmost dignity and this is what should be applauded and should be recognised as "the norm". Normalising these men, it's abhorrent and it's NOT what football's all about. For the sake of the future of the game we need this man OUT as quickly as possible, sadly that's a lot easier to say than to make happen. 

[Ally Bongo]

21 minutes ago, Yosemite Sam said:

He did have a slight point though, many many people were determined it was going to be a disaster before it even begun. Mainly due to their inherent hatred for Donald Trump 

It was all to do with the exorbitant ticket prices then finding out accommodation and internal travel costs had quadrupled 

It was hatred for FIFA 

Trump and the actions of ICE at the time was a secondary issue  

[Goozay]

On 7/22/2026 at 11:03 PM, Ally Bongo said:

Agreed

What was so different from the Tartan Army partying in Boston/Miami than the partying they have did all over Europe in the last 40 years ?

 

I was at France 98, Euro 2024, the World Cup last month, and loads of away games in between.

In Boston and Miami - this was the best behaved, most conciliatory, and positive iteration of the Tartan Army I've experienced.

Examples include: very few, if any, songs about England or paedos. In France 98, you'd frequently hear "Stand up" and "Alan Shearer - with a packet of sweets." Thankfully, I didn't hear "Harry Kane - windaes on the bus" once, whereas that was pretty common in Germany two years ago. 

We were tidier. Previous trips you could definitely tell when the Tartan Army had been jakeing it up in a park or town square and that there was work to be done by the city's cleaners. It's not that we left places spotless like Korea or Japan fans, but this time there was a definite attempt to tidy up after ourselves.

Being in Boston for two games back-to-back definitely had an impact too. It meant the love-in between Boston and the Tartan Army went on for over a week, whereas usually it's four days maximum.

Was it so different from previous trips? Not massively, the basic elements were always there. We were, however, better guests than I've ever seen us previously and we were loved even more by the hosts as a consequence.     

[bahookie]

31 minutes ago, Goozay said:

I was at France 98, Euro 2024, the World Cup last month, and loads of away games in between.

In Boston and Miami - this was the best behaved, most conciliatory, and positive iteration of the Tartan Army I've experienced.

Examples include: very few, if any, songs about England or paedos. In France 98, you'd frequently hear "Stand up" and "Alan Shearer - with a packet of sweets." Thankfully, I didn't hear "Harry Kane - windaes on the bus" once, whereas that was pretty common in Germany two years ago. 

We were tidier. Previous trips you could definitely tell when the Tartan Army had been jakeing it up in a park or town square and that there was work to be done by the city's cleaners. It's not that we left places spotless like Korea or Japan fans, but this time there was a definite attempt to tidy up after ourselves.

Being in Boston for two games back-to-back definitely had an impact too. It meant the love-in between Boston and the Tartan Army went on for over a week, whereas usually it's four days maximum.

Was it so different from previous trips? Not massively, the basic elements were always there. We were, however, better guests than I've ever seen us previously and we were loved even more by the hosts as a consequence.     

Excellent post.

[vanderark14]

1 hour ago, Bzzzz said:

For football, and the fans, it HAS been a disaster, and a disgrace. FIFA should be telling people (like Trump) "NO". 
You cannot interfere with the rules, ever. I'm absolutely RAGIN about all of this pish. Look at the way the man grovelled and slithered up to Trump, the other leaders of Canada and Mexico both behaved with the utmost dignity and this is what should be applauded and should be recognised as "the norm". Normalising these men, it's abhorrent and it's NOT what football's all about. For the sake of the future of the game we need this man OUT as quickly as possible, sadly that's a lot easier to say than to make happen. 

I wish more people were angry at the way football has gone and is still going. Then we might see some real change but it's like a drug which we are all addicted to, we keep going back for more despite knowing it's corrupt and almost fixed nowadays 

 

[Skyline Drifter]

5 hours ago, Goozay said:

I was at France 98, Euro 2024, the World Cup last month, and loads of away games in between.

In Boston and Miami - this was the best behaved, most conciliatory, and positive iteration of the Tartan Army I've experienced.

Examples include: very few, if any, songs about England or paedos. In France 98, you'd frequently hear "Stand up" and "Alan Shearer - with a packet of sweets." Thankfully, I didn't hear "Harry Kane - windaes on the bus" once, whereas that was pretty common in Germany two years ago. 

We were tidier. Previous trips you could definitely tell when the Tartan Army had been jakeing it up in a park or town square and that there was work to be done by the city's cleaners. It's not that we left places spotless like Korea or Japan fans, but this time there was a definite attempt to tidy up after ourselves.

Being in Boston for two games back-to-back definitely had an impact too. It meant the love-in between Boston and the Tartan Army went on for over a week, whereas usually it's four days maximum.

Was it so different from previous trips? Not massively, the basic elements were always there. We were, however, better guests than I've ever seen us previously and we were loved even more by the hosts as a consequence.     

Yeah broadly agree with that. I was at all three games in France 98 but it was a different era. I enjoyed it but there was no social media, I was pretty young, did on a budget bus tour and Campaniles. I only got to one game in Stuttgart v Hungary in the Euros because a long absence from away travel with a young family meant I didn't have the points to get via the SFA. We did have a great time in Stuttgart though.

The World Cup with my 16 year old son in tow was a bucket list thing and I loved pretty much every minute of it. Florida was MUCH too hot for my liking but Boston was phenomenal. The only sour note to an extent the damned trains to the stadium and even then in reality the Morocco one was ok. The Haiti experience in terms of travel there and back to the stadium was pretty disastrous though. 

I wasn't massively disappointed by the actual games. I expected three points, we got three points. Made harder work of Haiti than I hoped but got there. Disappointed to lose such an early goal to Morocco but thereafter competed well and denied by poor officiating probably from getting a draw. Brazil performance was meek but changed nothing. 

In wider terms, I enjoyed the World Cup. I'm surprised how many people are saying otherwise. From an armchair point of view in terms of watching I thought the football was generally good with very few dreadful games. Kick off times didn't massively bother me though granted I was in the US for the first half for the tournament so the times were fine there and there weren't all that many middle of the night games once I got back.

I don't get too animate about ticket prices. Cat 1 & 2 prices for competing nations were too big a step up from Cat 3. I'd accept that allocations of 4,000 tickets or so were too low. But the Cat 3 level pricing wasn't awful and once it goes to resale markets then it is what it is I guess. 

Infantino's fawning to Trump was pretty sickening (that Peace Prize nonsense is peak sycophancy), as was the US refusing to let a referee in and treating Iran's team as they did. And the shenanigans around Balogun not being suspended for a red card were scandalous. Infantino should stand to account for these things but won't. 

Outwith that though the US experience was tremendous. US Customs was an easy pleasant experience. Boston is a tremendous welcoming place and you're absolutely right that the bulk of Scots being based there for at least a week helped that. In contrast to expectations, there wasn't really any evidence of surge pricing on site in Ubers or local transport. Even the hotels ended up not all that unreasonable. All the Americans we met were excellent - friendly and helpful. 

[Bzzzz]

4 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

I wish more people were angry at the way football has gone and is still going. Then we might see some real change but it's like a drug which we are all addicted to, we keep going back for more despite knowing it's corrupt and almost fixed nowadays 

 

I wouldn't suggest for a minute that we (the TA) are completely unique but for the last generation or two for us international fitba is a whole different kettle of fish than for other nations, many are used to qualifying etc, and each nation has it's own attitude about how they behave. I'd say we perform more than "behave", we're magic and we know we are! 
We're interesting, fun, non offensive and don't walk about with an attitude problem singing about shite. 
Other than the easy to get to big games (and I'd include Euro 24 in this) the whole thing is more of an occasion, it's where fowk catch up wi their Scotland pals and escape the real world. I love it, I won't stop going and tbh the fitba is not always the best part! Cannae wait for the qualifiers, and maybe we might get a bit of a different experience from the matches too, it's going to be an interesting next few months that's for sure! 

With regards to the fitba, we need to be angry about the way it is going, we MUST be angry about shite like Infantino and his Peace Prize, about rehydration breaks, 27 minute half time breaks etc, we need to protect this fantastic game, this global cultural phenomenon, we'd be lost as a nation without it. 

[Ally Bongo]

5 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

I wish more people were angry at the way football has gone and is still going. Then we might see some real change but it's like a drug which we are all addicted to, we keep going back for more despite knowing it's corrupt and almost fixed nowadays 

 

 

[Ally Bongo]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8xng9894z0o

Uefa reacts with fury to Infantino World Cup plan

European football's governing body Uefa has reacted furiously to proposals from Fifa to seek private investment in its competitions, including the World Cup.

Fifa - the sport's global governing body - said it intends to expand football development funding to more than $10bn (£7.5bn), which it claims is to grow the game - subject to approval by its member associations.

The story was first reported in the Financial Times and the Times, with the latter claiming the plans could potentially earn Fifa president Gianni Infantino tens of millions of pounds.

"This crosses a line that football's governing institutions should never cross," Uefa said in a statement in response to those reports.

"None of us are the owners of football. [The World Cup] is not Fifa's to sell."

[stocky]

3 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Yeah broadly agree with that. I was at all three games in France 98 but it was a different era. I enjoyed it but there was no social media, I was pretty young, did on a budget bus tour and Campaniles. I only got to one game in Stuttgart v Hungary in the Euros because a long absence from away travel with a young family meant I didn't have the points to get via the SFA. We did have a great time in Stuttgart though.

The World Cup with my 16 year old son in tow was a bucket list thing and I loved pretty much every minute of it. Florida was MUCH too hot for my liking but Boston was phenomenal. The only sour note to an extent the damned trains to the stadium and even then in reality the Morocco one was ok. The Haiti experience in terms of travel there and back to the stadium was pretty disastrous though. 

I wasn't massively disappointed by the actual games. I expected three points, we got three points. Made harder work of Haiti than I hoped but got there. Disappointed to lose such an early goal to Morocco but thereafter competed well and denied by poor officiating probably from getting a draw. Brazil performance was meek but changed nothing. 

In wider terms, I enjoyed the World Cup. I'm surprised how many people are saying otherwise. From an armchair point of view in terms of watching I thought the football was generally good with very few dreadful games. Kick off times didn't massively bother me though granted I was in the US for the first half for the tournament so the times were fine there and there weren't all that many middle of the night games once I got back.

I don't get too animate about ticket prices. Cat 1 & 2 prices for competing nations were too big a step up from Cat 3. I'd accept that allocations of 4,000 tickets or so were too low. But the Cat 3 level pricing wasn't awful and once it goes to resale markets then it is what it is I guess. 

Infantino's fawning to Trump was pretty sickening (that Peace Prize nonsense is peak sycophancy), as was the US refusing to let a referee in and treating Iran's team as they did. And the shenanigans around Balogun not being suspended for a red card were scandalous. Infantino should stand to account for these things but won't. 

Outwith that though the US experience was tremendous. US Customs was an easy pleasant experience. Boston is a tremendous welcoming place and you're absolutely right that the bulk of Scots being based there for at least a week helped that. In contrast to expectations, there wasn't really any evidence of surge pricing on site in Ubers or local transport. Even the hotels ended up not all that unreasonable. All the Americans we met were excellent - friendly and helpful. 

👍👍😎👍👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[StirlingEgg]

5 hours ago, Ally Bongo said:

 

It makes you think of the Tories selling off the national assets in the last few decades. They didn't belong to them and they should have acted as custodians. The Fifa president just has the reins just now, it's not his to sell off. 

[Ally Bongo]

21 minutes ago, StirlingEgg said:

It makes you think of the Tories selling off the national assets in the last few decades. They didn't belong to them and they should have acted as custodians. The Fifa president just has the reins just now, it's not his to sell off. 

It won't happen but i would love it like Kevin Keegan if UEFA withdrew all clubs and International teams from FIFA tournaments 

The shitty World Club cup would be scrapped and we could have a Euros every two years 

Could even invite overseas countries which would tempt them to leave FIFA also 

FIFA will never be restructured for the better therefore it needs to die 

The elephant in the room is the billions FIFA holds which they will dangle under UEFA's noses  

[StirlingEgg]

7 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

The elephant in the room is the billions FIFA holds which they will dangle under UEFA's noses  

Also...

"Thrive Capital, an investment company founded by Joshua Kushner – the brother of Donald Trump’s son‑in-law Jared Kushner – is leading the search for investors."

So many pies with Trump family fingers in them; arms sales, Gaza 'redevelopment', crypto and now this. At this point what can you actually do with that amount of money; is it just about how many folk you can buy off?? 

[dan cake]

26 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

It won't happen but i would love it like Kevin Keegan if UEFA withdrew all clubs and International teams from FIFA tournaments 

The shitty World Club cup would be scrapped and we could have a Euros every two years 

Could even invite overseas countries which would tempt them to leave FIFA also 

FIFA will never be restructured for the better therefore it needs to die 

The elephant in the room is the billions FIFA holds which they will dangle under UEFA's noses  

I’d deffo be up for a Euro’s every 2nd year fuck the World Cup, I really enjoyed myself in America but I also knew I was being taken for a complete fool by FIFA.