Hello, and welcome. As I am writing this, lots of qualifying matches are minutes away from starting here in Europe and Africa(update, Egypt qualifies with a 3-0 win). While there have not been many surprises, there are some interesting story lines developing…of course there is, this is World Cup qualifying. Europe gets 16 spots in this year’s expanded field. All of the major powerhouses will most certainly qualify in the end.
Speaking of qualifying - lets review who is already in and what the process is before the draw in December.

Right now, as of October 8, 2025, the qualification process is "well underway," and we already have 18 19 confirmed nations. The first three, of course, are the automatic qualifiers—our co-hosts: Canada, Mexico, and the USA. Beyond them, the action has been fierce across the confederations.

South America (CONMEBOL) is always competitive, but they already have six heavy hitters locked in: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, Colombia, and Paraguay.

Asia (AFC) also saw six teams secure their places early, including IR Iran, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Korea Republic, Japan, and Australia.

Rounding out the early qualifiers are Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt from Africa (CAF), and New Zealand from Oceania (OFC). That's a strong group that has already secured their tickets to the tri-nation event.

The reason so many teams are qualifying early is because the entire global allocation has been significantly expanded to accommodate that 48-team field. Europe (UEFA) received the biggest slice of the pie, earning 16 direct qualification spots. Africa (CAF) now gets a generous nine direct spots, while Asia (AFC) is close behind with eight direct spots. For North and Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf), they have six direct spots overall, but remember that three of those are already taken by the hosts—Canada, Mexico, and the USA. South America (CONMEBOL) now has six direct spots. Finally, Oceania (OFC) is guaranteed one direct spot for the first time. Plus, nearly every region also gets to send at least one team to the inter-confederation Play-Off Tournament for a last chance at qualification.

In next week’s edition we will have a much clearer picture of who has punched their ticket for the 2026 tournament.

48 nations, 104 matches across 16 cities = more than 7 millions seats available.
Not all those seats are available for sale of course.

Out of the possible seats available for a match you have:
- National delegations
- FIFA officials
- Hospitality programs
- Host City delegations
and so on. For most of the World Cup matches 20-30% of the seats will be allocated before the public gets a chance to participate. To see all the people bemoaning online that this is “no longer a game for the people” just seems so naive and silly.

That being said, there are seats being sold. The initial Visa presale just wrapped up, and get this: 4.5 million people applied for tickets. And that's just the first wave! Experts think over 20 million fans will apply when the general sale opens up. With odds estimated at just 5-10% to even get a chance to buy, it's basically a lottery within a lottery.

Here's something interesting: tons of fans are applying for tickets without knowing which teams will play. Why? If you live near a host city, it's all about the experience. When the World Cup is literally a train ride or short drive away, many locals figure any match is worth attending. No flights, no expensive hotels, no visa hassles—just history happening in your backyard. I had the same experience purchasing tickets for the Olympics a year before the event. We wanted to see handball, beach volleyball and fencing, so we bought those events. As it turned out, we got to see France at all 3 events!!

Let's be honest: the ticketing system has been a mess. Fans who got selected for time slots found themselves staring at broken websites that wouldn't load. People spent hours refreshing pages and venting online. Apparently, there was also confusion about whether "Visa presale" meant the credit card or a travel document (it's the credit card, by the way).

Here's the big twist: FIFA is using dynamic pricing, meaning ticket costs will change based on demand—kind of like airline tickets or from what I understand concerts as well. A huge matchup like Brazil vs. France could cost $6,000, while lesser-known teams might go for $60. The catch? You won't know what you'll pay compared to the person sitting next to you, and there's a risk that high prices could leave stadiums with empty seats.

Getting World Cup tickets in 2026 is shaping up to be its own competition—one that requires patience, luck, and flexibility. Whether you're a local hoping to catch any game or a superfan planning an international trip, the journey to the stadium might be just as intense as the tournament itself.

For those lucky enough to get tickets, I am working on the complete Host City guides that will help fans navigate the transportation, stadiums and host cities with ease.

The official mascots for the first multinational World Cup tournament were announced- yes, I know you had this date circled on your calendar for months.

I find these mascots remarkably relatable compared to mascots of other international events in recent years. I was lucky enough to attend the Paris Olympics and will never understand how they chose “The Phryges”…So many things about the experience in Paris were iconic and beautiful, but the mascot was definitely not one of them.

Like most things, reactions to the mascots was a mixed bag.

There were those on Reddit who found them "incredibly bland" and "wank", plenty of references to AI slop which is all the rage and of course some Reddit users didn’t hold back — calling the U.S. mascot a reflection of “America’s own over-the-top image,” with a few adding political digs for good measure.

So, what say you?

Coming up next week:
- Updated qualifying table and biggest upsets
- Host City spotlight: what do they have planned
- The physics of the official ball for World Cup 26
- Early odds for the 2026 champion

If you have any ideas that you would like to me include in future editions, please drop me a line at [email protected]

The man behind the curtain:

Oh, hi — I’m Eric, a football fan and tech enthusiast who loves experimenting with new ideas and tools to build things people actually need (and hopefully enjoy).

I’m an American expat living in France — an unabashed Mbappé and Bleu-Blanc-Rouge 🇫🇷 supporter, excited to see if France can extend their World Cup success… though definitely not looking forward to those 3 a.m. kickoffs