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https://bsky.app/profile/illimij.bsky.s ... y3ax52qs2v

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The United States Should Not Be Hosting the World Cup
By Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright,
June 13, 2026

Introduction:

(Popular Resistance.org) FIFA and its leaders ignored international demands to host the matches elsewhere and now face calls for a boycott of the World Cup and of the U.S.

“Football is the only sport where you put people together, it doesn’t matter if you are rich, or poor, or black, or white. It is one nation. This is the beauty of football.” – Pele’

This week the United States, along with Canada and Mexico, will host the first matches of the 2026 World Cup (Copa Mundial). The U.S. acting as one of the tournament’s hosts has been met with a mix of concern and outrage. For instance, earlier this year when President Trump insisted that the nation of Greenland should be annexed as a U.S. territory, members of the German soccer federation’s executive committee suggested a boycott of the World Cup. At the time, Oke Göttlich, the president of Bundesliga club St. Pauli and one of the German federation’s 10 vice presidents stated, “As organizations and society, we’re forgetting how to set taboos and boundaries, and how to defend values. Taboos are an essential part of our stance. Is a taboo crossed when someone threatens? Is a taboo crossed when someone attacks? When people die?” He continued, “I would like to know from Donald Trump when he has reached his taboo, and I would like to know from [German Federation President] Bernd Neuendorf and [FIFA President] Gianni Infantino.”

For his part, Infantino seems to have answered Göttlich’s questions by performing more cosmetic surgery on the image of the United States than all of the plastic surgeons in Southern California combined. As part of numerous trips to visit Fuhrer Trump at the White People’s House, FIFA’s sycophant in chief has bent over backwards to please the U.S. president.

Read more here: https://popularresistance.org/the-beau ... the-ugly/

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This article is slightly dated, but since nobody else has posted it here….
We Ran 100,000 Computer Simulations of the World Cup. And the Winner Will be…
By Achim Zeileis
June 9, 2026

Introduction:

(The Conversation) In times past, when we wanted to know which team would win the World Cup, we had to turn to seers with crystal balls, use divination via tea leaves, or hope for Paul the Octopus to tell us what would happen.

But modern data science can provide a better alternative. As part of a team of statisticians, I helped train a machine learning algorithm to predict the most likely course of the tournament.

Probabilistic forecasts and loaded dice

The algorithm we built proceeds in two steps.

In the first, sophisticated statistical models and expert insight from bookmakers and transfer markets are combined to determine the strengths of all teams and their players. In the second step, a machine learning algorithm decides how to best combine the strength estimates with other information about the teams.

This produced a probabilistic forecast for each possible match in the tournament. It can be thought of as a pair of loaded dice: Instead of having the numbers 1 to 6 with equal probabilities, these loaded dice have different probabilities for the number of goals for either team

Read more here (including which team is rated as having the highest probability of winning the tournament): https://theconversation.com/we-ran-100 ... e-284629

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Iran left a thank you note in their locker room thanking LA for its hospitality during the World Cup.*

*Source Reuters via Christopher Webb on Blue Sky.

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USA makes plans to host follow-up World Cup and leapfrog other countries in shock $2bn bid

26 Jun 2026

With the 2026 World Cup widely praised by international fans -- especially in viral social media posts -- initial plans are already underway for the USA to host another World Cup in just 12 years.

The 2030 tournament will feature co-hosts Spain, Portugal and Morocco, while Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will also host matches.

The 2034 World Cup has been awarded to Saudi Arabia.

The 2038 edition, which could expand to 64 teams, doesn't have a host yet and that's where the USA could come into play -- again.

"There's no better country that's positioned to host a World Cup than the United States, and I think we're seeing that on social media," said Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House's Task Force for the World Cup, via the BBC.

https://talksport.com/football/world-cu ... rump-fifa/

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Anybody watching England v Norway?

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England 2–1 Norway... we are through to the semis!!!

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Wayne Rooney delivers Thomas Tuchel verdict after England lose World Cup semi-final

Former England captain has not held back on Thomas Tuchel’s decisions in World Cup semi-final

2 minutes ago

Thomas Tuchel cost England a place in the World Cup final with his second half substitutions in the semi-final defeat to Argentina.

That is the view of former Three Lions captain Wayne Rooney, who has been extremely critical about Tuchel’s changes after Anthony Gordon had broken the deadlock.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 90144.html

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This article is slightly dated, but since nobody else has posted it here….
We Ran 100,000 Computer Simulations of the World Cup. And the Winner Will be…
By Achim Zeileis
June 9, 2026

Introduction:

(The Conversation)...

Read more here (including which team is rated as having the highest probability of winning the tournament): https://theconversation.com/we-ran-100 ... e-284629

Looks like their prediction for the winner was spot on, although they did somewhat underestimate Argentina's chances of making it to the final. From the linked article:

The results show that Spain is the favorite for the title with a winning probability of 14.5%, closely followed by England and France, each at 12.4%, and Germany at 11.2%.