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England becomes the first European nation to qualify for this World Cup out of UEFA Group K far and away leading in such an easy field for them with just Albania and Serbia being the real threats in this group. So the Three Lions finally made the most of its second chance to make it to America following its much-chronicled disastrous 1994 campaign under the late Graham Taylor. Congrats to Thomas Teuscher and his team and staff. Hopefully, they'll play a game in Los Angeles, a city with lots of ex-pat Brits. Be great if Albania would qualify for the first time out of the European second round in keeping their momentum with two Euros already under its belt, but I'll grant the edge to Serbia because of its World Cup pedigree. Ghana was the first Sub-Saharan African team to qualify with its Black Stars finishing atop CAF Group I, well ahead of everyone else, all French-speaking, in that group--Central African Republic, Mali, Madagascar (currently in the news lately, but politically), Chad, and Comoros. Algeria's Desert Foxes finished atop CAF Group G the day after Egypt did, making it the last North African nation to directly qualify. Almost all of these nations did except Libya, which finished third in Group C. Groups B and F really went down neck and neck to the bitter end yesterday with Ivory Coast and Senegal both finishing first with Gabon and DR Congo, respectively, right behind them. Those first two finish out the African group leader winner direct qualification yesterday. As expected and predicted by me, the AFC fourth round group hosts, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both were there in the previous World Cup in Qatar with the former as hosts, directly qualified too yesterday as their group winners. Saudi Arabia defeated both Indonesia and Iraq, the latter currently coached by former Socceroos player and coach Graham Arnold and the former coached by Dutch legend Patrick Kluivert. Qatar, also the defending AFC Asian Cup champs that it too hosted, saw the Maroons saw through Oman and the United Arab Emirates, the previous Asian Cup winners before Qatar. Iraq and the UAE will head toward the AFC fifth and final round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification that will be played from November 13 and 18 2025 in a home and home series starting at Hazzad bin Sayed Stadium in UAE's Al Ain on November 13 and then to Basra, Iraq's Basra International Stadium November 18. The winning team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs. Neither team has participated in the World Cup in a while--Iraq only in 1986, UAE only in 1990. Speaking of Indonesia, there's some disappointed and angry post-mortem going on with its team in not advancing out of Saudi Arabia for a nation that adores soccer, despite going further than it's ever been with World Cups since making it to the 1938 World Cup. I did pull for them when it was making noise first under South Korean coach Shin Tae-Yong and then with Patrick Kluivert and hoped with Kluivert's influxing of principally many Dutch/European-based soccer players with Indonesian origins for better and deeper talent and technicality. Thought they were capable. Shame that Southeast Asia isn't still consistently represented in the World Cup (although this certainly isn't the case in the women's version with Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines already in that). Already there are calls for Patrick Kluivert's head and dismissal as head coach after this very disappointing end after losing to Iraq and reinstate Shin Tae-Yong and slamming PSSI head Erik Thorir, who apologized for the failure. Indonesian fans are now angry. But it's worth reminding especially to Indonesian soccer fans that this team, because of this massive and recent naturalized player influx, doesn't quite have the team cohesion, discipline, full and constant training, and established chemistry and time for gelling with consistency instead of fluctuating and limited preparation and competition. International consistent soccer success for Indonesia can't really occur overnight and must be strategic with an eye towards 2030 WC, the 2027 Asian Cup, and 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics which includes establishing short-, medium-, and long-term development targets and nurturing both young diaspora talents and domestic players to build a deeper and more competitive squad, and immediately conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the current program, holding all parties accountable for the team’s Saudi Arabian exit. As for Kluivert, he wants to stay on, but he and his staff since returned to The Netherlands without any issuing an apology or accepting accountability for falling short. Too bad for Benin, they seem to be atop Group C with both South Africa and Nigeria behind them, hoping to make its World Cup debut to be in league with its West African neighbors in that entity's history like Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Togo, Cameroon, Senegal, and Ghana. Now it didn't finish among the top group runnerups with Nigeria's Super Green Eagles crushing the Cheetahs/Squirrels' dreams thanks to Osimhen's hat trick to leapfrog them, which also paved South Africa's direct World Cup path. Nigeria will face Gabon and Cameroon will take on Democratic Republic of the Congo both on November 13 with the winners going to November 16 final. All games there will be held in Morocco. The winner of that heading to next March's inter-confederation playoffs held in Mexico repping Africa as among the six participating like New Caledonia and Bolivia already in. Would've been nice for at least Namibia finish among the top four African runnersup, but hopefully there's both some further national investment towards the sport like from its government, and that the Brave Warriors improve for the long run with future ANCs and World Cups for Namibia.

Someone might want to remind him there are no games being played in Boston. Foxborough is about 30 miles outside of Boston, so if there are safety concerns, somehow I doubt that's much of a solution. And as much as we here know that Trump doesn't have the authority to move the Olympics, feels like someone might want to get in his ear to NOT mess up want he'll want to be his moment in the sun to an audience of billions around the world. Because if the 2028 Olympics don't happen in LA, there's only 1 place that's going to take them and that's China.

As a Brazilian,I'm sad about the choice in personal terms(I planned to be a volunteer in Rio-Niteroi),but I'm sure that Asunción will host excelent PanAm Games....

I don't know that I would go so far as they feel like they didn't happen. I look back on Tokyo and despite everything caused by the pandemic, there was still a sense of hope and joy even with everything the world was going through. Didn't really get much of that from Beijing. The athletes did their thing, but you're right that the buzz was lacking. I'm sure a large part of that was that it was just a few months after Tokyo and we weren't really ready for another Olympics so soon, let alone one in what felt like a very dystopian landscape. And I'm with @yoshi that the timezone is finally one that will be good to follow and watch from the Eastern time zone. There will be a lot of events early in the morning, but at least it'll build throughout the day as opposed to the last 2 Olympics where you wake up in the morning and have to wait nearly all day for events to happen. Plus NBC finally figured out the formula to cover the big events live in the afternoon. I'm sure it'll skew a little bit too hard for my taste towards figure skating, but we've got the NHL players back, so that I am very much looking forward to!

Hi fellow Olympics fans, I'm an amateur fencer and squash player(being 35 y-o now,I started fencing with 31 years and squash a few months ago).....In the past I've played a few more sports,like rugby and volley...I've been an Olympic hardcore fan since my mid to late childhood and,recently,acquired the official programms of London 2012,Paris 2024 and Rio 2016...I've been looking for the programms or official guides of other editions,but,with the exception of Tokyo 2020,I just found specific sports guides or day guides....From Beijing 2008 to other past edition,has the IOC or the Local Organization issued any kind of general guide???? Cheers for all and thanks for the attention!!!!!

Glasgow? How about Gaza??? 🫢

Ahmedabad was chosen over Abuja, Nigeria denying Africa its first-ever Commonwealth Games. India would host its second edition in twenty years following Delhi 2010. Election will be November 26 in Glasgow. The post Ahmedabad, India singled out for election as host of 2030 Commonwealth Games – are the Olympics next? appeared first on GamesBids.com. View the full article

BENGALURU, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The Indian city of Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat, has been recommended as the host city for the 2030 Centenary Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth Sport Executive Board said on Wednesday. The board said it will propose Ahmedabad, also known as Amdavad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, to the full Commonwealth Sport membership for approval at the General Assembly in Glasgow on November 26. https://www.reuters.com/sports/ahmedabad-india-recommended-host-2030-commonwealth-games-2025-10-15/?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=68efaff79ec7f20001fd58f6

Date:2025/10/15 News source: The Japan Times Link to this article:https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2025/10/15/more-sports/mufg-national-stadium/

Glasgow will host them if America pays. 😁

This was supposed to start in July 2025. The 2nd link Mr Bleijie said investigative works would begin today at Victoria Park for the new stadium. This includes borehole drilling and soil sampling, as well as topographical and boundary surveys to map the area and inform design and construction. "We're not mucking around," Mr Bleijie said. ................................................................... TODAY Start of in-ground site investigations at Victoria Park 3rd July 2025 Queensland and federal governments strike funding deal for 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games - ABC News

That would be political harassement. Typical of a dirty fascist. But just imagine, taking the olympics from LA just to them to wind up in China, that would be extra funny.

Sigh… old windbag’s at it again… Trump threatens removal of World Cup games from Boston, Olympics from LA

South Africa's Bafana Bafana have now just book their own ticket for the World Cup with a 3-0 win over Rwanda. Back since 2010 as hosts. Also Nigeria knocks off Benin, who were atop this group, 4-0 to advance to the second runners up round.

Now Chile qualified. This November, we'll find out who taks the final spot.

Goodbye Osaka. See you in Riyadh at the next Expo in 2030.

You have a good point there.

So rols, u were wrong about Asuncion not hosting it. So they will in 2031 after a strong bid

No, it was a low risk bidder. It had many existing venues, got enough government support and Junior Pan Am Games experience. The Pan Am Games village, a new athletic stadium and a new arena need to be built. Rio's was a high risk cuz it didn't get enough government support, hotel problems and many new venues would've been built and some existing venues would've been used if Rio-Niteroi would've won. That's why Asuncion (which i was infavor of) won over Rio by 4 vote 28-24 (Same as 2027 bid which they lost to Lima).

Asuncion “low risk”??? Compared to Rio? You really are comical sometimes.

Cape Verde qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the very first time.

Asuncion was a low risk bidder comparing to Rio-Niteroi. Maybe next time for Rio-Niteroi. They could bid for 2035, unless they're not interested for that year.

Yep. I still think 2036 will go to Europe with 2040 being awarded to Asia