The International Football Thread

[Fulham Broadway 17,455]

England have won 11 consecutive games first time ever. The squad has a lot of depth - FA gambling on 'Two season Tuchel' -but need to play some South American, and quality European teams between now and WC

Broja injured again...

[Vesper 30,463]

After back-to-back braces in a historic international break, Erling Håland has now scored 55 goals in 48 caps for Norway, who have now qualified for the 2026 World Cup Finals in North America next summer.

Of the 84 men with at least 50 goals at senior international level, only one now has a better goals-per-game ratio than Håland; Niels Poul Nielsen, who scored 52 goals in 38 caps for Denmark from 1910 to 1925.

[Fulham Broadway 17,455]

They Didnt think it was Possible: Infantino Worse than Blatter

When Sepp Blatter was thrown from a moving gravy train in 2015 amid an explosive corruption scandal, it would have felt like a genuine feat of sporting excellence to have beaten his record for craven awfulness.

And yet here we all are. This year, the Fifa president has been the Forrest Gump of Trump’s administration. Back in May, he attended the US president’s Middle East peace summit, causing him to be so late for Fifa’s own congress that even Uefa accused him of prioritising “private political interests” and staged a delegate walk-out. Last month, Gianni was back on the political trail at Trump’s Gaza peace talks in Egypt, and earlier this month instituted some preposterous Fifa peace prize that he’s going to inaugurate at the final draw for the 2026 World Cup in Washington next month, quite possibly so that the orange organ grinder can be the first winner of it. He spent yesterday grinning along while Trump announced things such as the possible ordering of “strikes” on one of the US’s 2026 World Cup co-host nations, Mexico. Perhaps the writing was on the wall when Gianni kicked off the year of ceaselessly grim politicking by attending Trump’s inauguration, where he was filmed giggling appreciatively during the bit where the US president announced he’d be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Back then, in January, Infantino looked like a competition winner. Now he resembles a fully operational member of Trump’s troupe of winged monkeys. 

APress

[Fulham Broadway 17,455]

Also Infantino smiled and ignored Trump when he pocketed one of our World Club Cup medals....

[Vesper 30,463]

World Cup 2026: Curacao becomes smallest nation ever to qualify with draw against Jamaica

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6816600/2025/11/18/curacao-smallest-nation-world-cup-2026-teams/

Curacao has become the smallest nation to qualify for a World Cup after Tuesday’s 0-0 draw against Jamaica.

Curacao has a population of 185,487 —the world’s 189th most populous nation, as ranked by Worldometer — and surpasses Iceland (population 398,266), who qualified in 2018 — as the smallest nation by population to play in the tournament.

Last month, Cape Verde — whose 525,000 inhabitants make it the second-smallest country by population ever to qualify — joined Jordan and Uzbekistan as first-time participants. Curacao nearly tumbled to second in the group, but a penalty call in Jamaica’s favor in second-half stoppage time got overturned by video review.

Meanwhile, Panama, a 3-0 winner over El Salvador, clinched qualification by winning its qualifying group over Suriname, which missed out on its first qualification through automatic means by coming in second in its group. A late own goal in their 3-1 loss to Guatemala did salvage a place in March’s inter-confederation playoffs, though, as one of the top two second-place finishers in the qualifying round, while Jamaica will also play for its World Cup life in the playoffs.

Curacao and Panama will be joined at the World Cup by Haiti, which beat Nicaragua 2-0 to top its group and has reached its second men’s World Cup, having competed in the 1974 tournament.

The 2026 World Cup will be contested between 48 nations for the first time, an expansion from the 32-team format that ran between 1998 and 2022.

Due to the U.S., Canada and Mexico qualifying as co-hosts, Concacaf had three World Cup spots available through the qualification process, alongside two additional spots in the inter-confederation play-off system. Honduras and Costa Rica surprisingly missed out altogether.

Those playoffs are held in North America in March, with Bolivia, DR Congo, Iraq and New Caledonia the other four participants. The mini tournament will yield the final two qualifiers for next summer’s competition.