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FIFA 2026 WC - general

Rudi Völler criticizes the current rules regarding national team switches in international football.

Völler calls for clearer regulations and views it critically when players are able to switch national teams multiple times.

Recently, several talented players opted against representing the DFB. Examples include 🇩🇿 Ibrahim Maza (Algeria) and 🇹🇷 Can Uzun (Turkey). Both could potentially feature for their respective nations at the World Cup.

🇩🇪↔️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jamal Musiala also previously played for England's youth national teams before ultimately deciding to represent the DFB.
 
Crazy that they’ve never played given the calibre of those teams, though to be fair with the Nations League being a thing in addition to Euros and World Cup qualifiers there’s a limited amount of times European teams actually get to play against non-UEFA sides.
I saw the post and just believed it. Haven't authorised it.

I was only enough to follow France 98 but it's great looking back at highlights of the time. Asian sides were also rans back then and the North Africans weren't respected. Morocco did well. Tunisia, despite continental night have never been able to shake off the weak tag.

They took England to the last in 2018, Beat France in 2022 and made Spain battle in 06.
 
Egypt may be the only side at the World Cup to have named four keepers in their final 26-player list but they're allowed to do so as the regulations stipulate having at least three keepers as opposed to exactly three.
That's odd. I'd throw in an extra midfielder whenever possible. Popovic getting ideas now.
 
Chong runs alone from halfway to score for Curaçao. Nicely taken goal. Haiti actually look more formidable on paper. Just a friendly but not the nicest start to Scotland's world cup period.

There'll be a lot of tweets about John Souttar. Souttar to be a name for the next 24 hours.
 
Scotland getting completely out muscled on the ball by tiny nation is hilarious.
Adocaat back and he's implementing the system that qualified them. Brilliant to see. Red card for Curaçao now.

I'll spit out my beer if they take the lead against Germany. They'll be hanging back as counter is their style and Germany can break deep blocks easily enough.
 
Chong runs alone from halfway to score for Curaçao. Nicely taken goal
Tahith Chong is the only player in Curaçao’s squad to be born on the island, and the only one born outside the Netherlands proper.

There’s a large Antillean diaspora in the Netherlands as the Dutch Caribbean territories (formerly split into Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles) are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with varying degrees of autonomy. Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten have their own parliaments and elections as constituent countries of the Kingdom, while Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius are administered as special municipalities. Only Aruba and Curaçao are members of FIFA, though the others have their own unaffiliated teams, some of which are affiliated with CONCACAF.

A fun fact about Arubans, Bonaireans and Curaçaoans: the majority speak four or five languages: Papiamentu (called Papiamento in Aruba), Dutch, English, Spanish and Portuguese. Most Sabans, Sint Eustatians and Sint Maarteners speak English only though many also speak Dutch, Spanish and Virgin Islands Creole. I have no idea how many of the Curaçao national team speak Papiamentu but all of them speak Dutch and English (plus perhaps German or French) since they come from the Netherlands.
 
Scotland got the job done 4-1 over 10-man Curacao in their first of two pre-World Cup friendlies with Findlay Curtis scoring his first ever international goal and Tyler Fletcher making his Scotland debut at the half, but they've lost Billy Gilmour to injury just over two weeks out from their campaign getting underway.
 
Scotland got the job done 4-1 over 10-man Curacao in their first of two pre-World Cup friendlies with Findlay Curtis scoring his first ever international goal and Tyler Fletcher making his Scotland debut at the half, but they've lost Billy Gilmour to injury just over two weeks out from their campaign getting underway.
Curaçao’s next match will be their final sendoff. They’ll fly straight from Glasgow, stop over wherever then go to Willemstad (the island’s capital and Tahith Chong’s birthplace) where they’ll play an epic derby against Aruba (another constituent country of the Netherlands) before the World Cup. That should be an epic game!
 

Billy Gilmour has been ruled out of the entirety of Scotland's World Cup campaign after sustaining a knee injury in their pre-World Cup friendly against Curacao and will return to his club side Napoli to commence his rehabilitation.
Oh that is disgusting! 40min against Curaçao to miss the big show. The excitement, colours and flags gets you in the mood for pre tournament games but they're just so insignificant once you lose it all.
 
South Korea are thrashing T&T 5:0
South Korea got the job done 5-0 over Trinidad and Tobago in their first of two pre-World Cup friendlies courtesy of a brace of goals from Son Heung-min in the 40th minute and a converted penalty in the 43rd minute, another brace from Cho Gue-sung in the 66th and 77th minute and a converted penalty from Hwang Hee-chan in the 75th minute of the match.
 


I think people may be underestimating the support the American nations will have at the tournament. A lot live there already.
 
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