As a fan, I don’t think there are too many matches. It’s kind of like being a manual laborer and complaining that working HARD 35 days per year is too much because of the other 150 days of light (ie practice) work you do on top of that.

At least footballers get paid an amount of money to make the effort worth it.

They will.

I agree with you re: the grassroots and academy structure: it is dreadful and pay-to-play. However, we have a population 10x many of the best footballing countries. Soccer’s popularity in the country is increasing. We have a larger genetic pool to pick top talent from. We have a culture of “i need to be the best” that overshadows many others. I’m not saying its’ going to be this or the next WC. All I’m saying is if you want to bet on a non-Europe or South American nation to win, it will be the US.

I’m not even a fan of the US team, I support Scotland. But we (for better or worse) will win the WC simply due to athelticism and a larger population to pull talent from than many other countries, if nothing else.

EDIT: Oh and the US has already made it to the Semifinals, although their best RECENT result was the Quarters, which in itself is already better than 85% (my made up percentage to just highlight my point) of other nations vying for the WC.

The US. I say this as a non fan/supporter, but have the money and population and all-consuming desire to be the best at everything, that the US will one day hold the World Cup. And sadly it will bring out all the non-fans in the US who don’t like / despise soccer saying “see we ARE THE BEST at that little sport too” or similar.

i think you forgot Glasgow Rangers if you are talking trophies, fans support, history, etc.

I feel like 1995 was the peak of EVERYTHING and it all went downhill from there.

It should be the TOP team per league. More prestige for that club, more leagues in the tournament. More chances for other teams to actually win it.

Offsides rule - why the F is the linesman waiting 10,30 seconds or more to put the flag up?

VAR - get it right out the game.

Diving - Holy F the amount of players that go down and stay down waiting for a call is atrocious and 1. they should be red carded until this stops, 2. they should be F-ing embarrassed to call themselves professionals, and 3. their teammates should kick them while they’re down until they get back up to play.

Managers getting sacked after 4-6 months because they aren’t winning. What happened to managers having a season or 2 to turn things around?

Money - money in the sport has ruined the game.

FIFA having multiple countries host the WC. Come on.