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World Cup 2026 Australia thread

patjennings said:
The dedicated train line takes you to Lidcombe. You then need to get to Strathfield to head north. If it was part of a connected line. i.e. Lidcombe to Concord West or Rhodes it would be ideal. As it is except for major events it is awful to get to. Even when the Sydney Metro West connects to Sydney Olympic Park it will only connect to North Strathfield - not Strathfield.

As for the Asian Cup - it is a bigger tournament that it was in 2015. Why would the FA forgo 20000 to 30000 tickets per game to play at AAMI rather than user Perth or Brisbane. Even Newcastle has more seats in a much smaller population base but close to Sydney is more likely.
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For major events they run trains direct from the CBD to Olympic Park with stops at Strathfield and Redfern. This is the one I use as I come from south (usually I change at Redfern). Again I'm not sure why you think its poorly serviced by public transport. It's better serviced than the other Sydney Grounds we play major football matches at. I was at all our home games in round 3 and the Sydney and Canberra games in round 2 and although we didn't have a game at Homebush I reckon its as easy to get to via public transport as any venue we used (admittedly I stayed within walking distance of Adelaide Oval and AAMI Park so didn't use PT at those venues. Parramatta Stadium may be a bit easier now that the light rail has opened if you don't like walking from Parramatta Station.

The Asian Cup is now a 24 team tournament with lots of games. There may not be a stadium in Melbourne to host the semis and final but AAMI Park is adequate for all other matches. If we ever host another we will likely need to use all those stadia you mentioned. Your wrong about Newcastle. It has less seats than AAMI Park. Last Asian Cup it operated at a reduced capacity because the hills at the end were unable to be utilised. The semi final involving Australia there had a crowd of 21,000. There are plans to build stands there in the future but we will wait and see if that ever happens.
 
Alex M said:
For major events they run trains direct from the CBD to Olympic Park with stops at Strathfield and Redfern. This is the one I use as I come from south (usually I change at Redfern). Again I'm not sure why you think its poorly serviced by public transport. It's better serviced than the other Sydney Grounds we play major football matches at. I was at all our home games in round 3 and the Sydney and Canberra games in round 2 and although we didn't have a game at Homebush I reckon its as easy to get to via public transport as any venue we used (admittedly I stayed within walking distance of Adelaide Oval and AAMI Park so didn't use PT at those venues. Parramatta Stadium may be a bit easier now that the light rail has opened if you don't like walking from Parramatta Station.

The Asian Cup is now a 24 team tournament with lots of games. There may not be a stadium in Melbourne to host the semis and final but AAMI Park is adequate for all other matches. If we ever host another we will likely need to use all those stadia you mentioned. Your wrong about Newcastle. It has less seats than AAMI Park. Last Asian Cup it operated at a reduced capacity because the hills at the end were unable to be utilised. The semi final involving Australia there had a crowd of 21,000. There are plans to build stands there in the future but we will wait and see if that ever happens.
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You're right about Newcastle.

As for public transport. Getting away from Homebush going north means leaving before the game is finished or waiting in Strathfield for close to an hour. Epping or Hornsby is slightly better but any other station is stuffed. Whenever I have done that the earliest I have been home on the Central Coast is around 1am. At least with Allianz there is plenty of places to go before the train in the City. Otherwise it is Whelan's pub at Strathfield (if they're still open).

I used to work in in Figtree Drive (the street opposite the Swimming Centre). We could park there, have a BBQ, play pool and have a few beers before the game. After the games we'd stop there, watch replays, play pool and have a couple of coffees before heading home. A lot better than waiting for an hour on a cold Strathfield Station. There's also plenty of places to go in Parramatta after a Commbank game and if you don't want to do that you can stay for all of the game and still make the same train at Strathfield while staying warm on the train.

By 2031 Melbourne's population will have grown about a third again from 2015 and the expansion of the tournament teams like Indonesia, Philippines, India & Vietnam with large diaspora populations in Australia (none of which where in the 2015 edition) will have a better chance of qualifying. Indonesia and the Philippines have qualified for the next Asian cup.
 
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Morocco are the first African team qualified. Nigeria still goalless against Rwanda and are in deep shit if things don't change.
 
There are 495 possible 3rd placed advancing combinations possible!
 
NicCarBel

Post in thread '2026 UEFA WC Qualification'

Am doing this here first, as this is the one that will be most affected

Disclaimer* - bold nations are already qualified - confirmed for the playoff stage. These are SOLELY using the current standings of WCQ groups - the only exception will be the rest of AFC as this has not started (using seeds as the basis)

EDIT: Have updated as of 10 Sep 2025 AM AEST

Intercontinental Playoffs

  • Iraq (58)
  • Bolivia (80)
  • New Caledonia (150)
  • Congo DR (60)
  • El Salvador (88)
  • Curacao (84)

AFC
  • Japan (18)
  • Iran (21)
  • Uzbekistan...
  • Like
 
Did anyone purchase Socceroos tickets overnight for WC2026?
Seems Category 4 very limited availability, and hence forced into Category 3 which is about $400AUD per match!!
 
AEK4969 said:
Did anyone purchase Socceroos tickets overnight for WC2026?
Seems Category 4 very limited availability, and hence forced into Category 3 which is about $400AUD per match!!
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Got roped into Cat 2, not for Australia though but cities that we are visiting whilst we are there.

Australia three game package seems the best value imo rather than doing individual games.
 
MoorePark said:
Got roped into Cat 2, not for Australia though but cities that we are visiting whilst we are there.

Australia three game package seems the best value imo rather than doing individual games.
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OK..so about $1000aud per ticket?? (For Cat 2)
 
So we were going for TST3(Australia's 3 group games), and the availability/pricing we got was AUD260 per each ticket to each game for Category 3. No option for Cat4.
 
The Category 4 tickets are a joke.

Here's the seating chart in Kansas City. 79,500 capacity. Can you spot the green Category 4s? There are maybe 400? 500? in the whole stadium at that price?
1759773542908.png

I got TST3 in Category 3 this morning for Canada's group matches. So all things considered I'm quite pleased, but the prices are outrageous. I went to 12 matches in Qatar (and I saw Argentina twice) and those tickets were less than 3 category 1s for Canada's group stage this time around.

Good luck to everyone trying to get tickets.
 
Is this the Visa presale? Did you get email notification yesterday/over night? I still haven’t heard anything yet.
 
AEK4969 said:
Did anyone purchase Socceroos tickets overnight for WC2026?
Seems Category 4 very limited availability, and hence forced into Category 3 which is about $400AUD per match!!
Click to expand...
Someone on bigsoccer posted they got 4 overnight at $US75 each after about an hour in the queue. Didn't say what category but probably cat 3. Interestingly they said we were grouped with the Oceania countries and not AFC countries.
 
It is the Visa pre-sale. I expected to hear October 1 (with a staggered time/date to actually get into the portal) from what I had read, but I didn't hear anything and neither did anyone else I knew. So I assumed I was out of luck. But Friday afternoon I got an email. It said I was successful and would be given a date/time. Nothing had changed in my FIFA ticket account, but just before I went to bed Friday night my time was in my account. I didn't get an email with my time until a couple of hours before it was due to start (9 am my time Monday morning).

I was in the queue for about an hour before I was able to access the portal.

There seemed to be not bad availability for TST3s (Argentina's were all sold out, no surprise, but everyone else had something available). Individual matches were much more hit and miss and I've heard that finding Cat 3 or 4 is very difficult. I was just really happy to get the group stage (and I bought a possible Round-of-32 match in Cat 2 just because I could).

The Visa pre-sale doesn't end until Oct. 21 so there's still hope for anyone who is waiting. I had been assuming I would have to try to hope for the best with the federation or lean on friends who were luckier than I. I never thought I'd get in through the Visa sale.

I went to go in to look around more just now and it's not letting me access it. It seems like it's closed. Which is odd. I did enough damage to my credit card, so maybe it's a blessing I can't log back in today.
 
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