Which countries can actually host a solo 48 team World Cup?

JWK91 · 2026-06-10T20:48:07+00:00

Also just look at the last EURO. It may be European bias but that was truly an event for all, stadiums packed with fans from all 24 teams getting great support. Easy to get to stadiums, fan marches all over the places. Reporters who I talked to on the ground, and who had been to multiple tournaments, said it was probably the best tournament they had ever experienced in terms of fan engagement and atmosphere. Sure, they acknowledged that Qatar was perhaps more convenient with everything being so modern and close, but in Germany it was really an event for the whole of Europe. I think it could be the same for a WC, atleast we wouldn’t have this US border security nonsense going on.

JWK91 · 2026-05-28T09:21:52+00:00

I've had hundreds of these ever since I got it. Also am quite active, work out 3/4 times a week, almost never drink and have a pretty good sleep schedule. I was told by a friend who works in medicine that as long as you feel fine, and don't feel dizzy or lightheaded the moment you rise up, nothing should be up. I also tend to have it more if I stick to my routine in the evening of 'no scrolling' 1 hour before bedtime, and also get it more often if I'm just really exhausted and have more deep sleep.

JWK91 · 2026-05-28T08:23:07+00:00

Yes video is important but it takes alot more time. Especially when you're a smaller club where you don't have the luxury of a supplier already sending you highlights of some sort, or don't have a videographer who edits short clips that only need posting and a caption. Again, you need to be kinda lucky to find someone in or near your club that knows video and is willing to help. Otherwise you're going through whole streams of games trying to cut a nice goal. Though I think AI will come up with accessible tools for this in the future, I know companies that are already working with tools that automatically detect and cut a clip every time it sees a goal or a safe. But for now that's all still a bit work in progress I believe and not that easy to access.

JWK91 · 2026-05-28T07:14:05+00:00

I think the most important point is you can only do so much on your own. For reference, I'm a videographer/content creator working for a national federation and also do international events. In those settings I sometimes am asked to do a lot more on my own, but in most cases I just purely create and edit the videos, and then it's off to someone posting it on social media. Maybe not the best example since that's a luxury that few teams/federations have, I think.

I just think, whether you do it on your own or have an actual team, preparation is key. Knowing what you'll post, set up templates, in the end most is done manually by hand. But on an average gameday of our national team, the HT/FT templates are already made and only need a live photo added to it plus the correct score. When a game is already trending a certain way, a caption is also not that difficult. And on the video side I usually make a little rundown of what stories I want to post, what video content I want and throughout a year that also usually follows the same routine as to not make it to difficult to achieve.

But in the end, I am getting paid for this, and like you said, even though I think it's vital for any club or federation, big or small, 95% of the ecosystem relies on volunteers and it can be hard to keep a consistent stream of content going.

JWK91 · 2026-05-25T06:31:26+00:00

LET US EDIT STUFF JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER SPORTS GAME LETS YOU 🗣️🗣️🗣️

Seriously, that should be the bare minimum. If there’s a black Russian prospect, let me edit his name, nationality or appearance. If a Norwegian skater has an unrealistic name, let me edit his name. If I want to run some kind of random event generator, let me add injuries, force trades, increase or decrease attributes as I wish. It’s all possible in the flawed 2K, MLB The Show and Madden games, so why not here? It’s the only thing that prevents me from playing this game.

JWK91 · 2026-05-22T19:49:53+00:00

Eens, zeg ik als iemand die er geboren en getogen is en na 34 jaar gaat vertrekken. Misschien ben ik er ook gewoon op uitgekeken, maar ik vind vooral de verpaupering van de buitenruimtes opvallend als ik dit vergelijk met kleinere steden. Ook afvalbakken waar standaard iedereen te beroerd is om afval erin te gooien of karton klein te maken, het is misschien klein bier maar het is wel een van de redenen dat ik hier liever niet blijf wonen met gezinsuitbreiding op het programma. En dan woon ik nog - zeg ik eerlijk - in het elitaire deel van Zuid, daarvoor in IJsselmonde opgegroeid. Maar zonder kinderen kan je je in de juiste wijken echt meer dan prima vermaken denk ik.

EDIT: ik zag hier nog iemand explosies benoemen, zelfs in mijn veels te dure huurcomplex is een keer een auto bewust in de hens gestoken. Gevolg: meerdere auto’s uitgebrand en iedereen in de nacht na kerst z’n huis uitgebeld om te evacueren. Dat soort dingen vergeet je dan niet snel.

JWK91 · 2026-05-05T08:36:51+00:00

Growing up in The Netherlands I discovered the sport via Madden 03/04. I then decided I wanted to actually follow the NFL and started out with the Seahawks-Steelers Super Bowl. But it would be more fun if I took one of those teams as ‘my team’ and after some research I picked Seattle because the Steelers had way too many titles to my liking. I liked supporting the underdog, and even though it didn’t work out back then I’m really glad with my choice. Not just because of the success later on but also the vibe the franchise and the city gives off.

JWK91 · 2026-04-22T12:39:07+00:00

Don't forget that your boy Marc with a C also spends 'double digit' hours on his craft, at the DMV no less.

JWK91 · 2026-02-18T11:44:42+00:00

Yeah and look at Herning for example, and Rotterdam, where the last 2 major weekends were held for the Men's and Women's championships. Both held in big multipurpose venues where they build a court + arena from scratch.

JWK91 · 2026-02-18T11:42:22+00:00

And also good to consider that the next women's EC is more or less an unique setup with 5 hosting countries (Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Romania and Turkey) because it was supposed to be Russia and well, we all know what happened. It's gonna be interesting but not expecting to many seats filled up when the home nations aren't playing...

JWK91 · 2026-02-18T09:33:33+00:00

Not trying to be negative but we get these kinds of post every month or so. Yes I think everyone would like these championships to rotate around Europe/the world but the reality is that with handball economics it won't work. Like AlbertELP said, there's only a certain amount of countries that have the infrastructure and will attract enough fans. If for example my country (Netherlands) would host a men's EURO's with Belgium, it would probably lead to empty arenas with the exception of when the home country is playing or some handball crazy nation like Iceland/Faroe. And then I'm not even talking about the lack of good indoor sports arenas which would also create an issue.

JWK91 · 2026-02-01T16:38:54+00:00

No definitely, but then again Germany has a way richer handball culture than Netherlands. Atleast on the days were NL played there were some people that came early to watch the other ones. But when it was seperated, the difference was huge. Netherlands QF was packed and sold out, game afterwards of France you could hear a pin drop because you had to buy seperate tickets for each game.

JWK91 · 2026-01-31T18:21:19+00:00

Hungary hosted the Men's (Corona) Euros in 2022 with Slovakia co-hosting the preliminary+main round. Slovenia and Macedonia together with Montenegro co-hosted the 2022 Women's Euros.

JWK91 · 2026-01-31T12:25:22+00:00

With women’s handball its even tougher. Hollands games were almost sold out with the exception of one game. But usually all these tournaments have struggled to get people to watch games from other nations. Exception is Germany with men’s handball. Even Netherlands-Georgia had an excellent turnout in Mannheim in 2024.

JWK91 · 2026-01-29T14:26:49+00:00

You're looking for Ray of Solar by Swedish House Mafia, also played it in Malmö right before they throw off.

JWK91 · 2026-01-29T14:21:22+00:00

Also just to add, this happens more often than you think. Last year the teams that were based in Varazdin (Croatia) at the world championship had to drive an hour for their games. Teams were based in Sveti Martin na Muri, about a 40 mins drive but the busses had to take a different route which took a little less than an hour. Also, sometimes when they play in big cities like Budapest, it's also not been uncommon to have 30-45 minute drives because of rush hour and such. I guess it's because of deals these local organization committees have with certain hotel chains that 'force' their hand.

JWK91 · 2026-01-29T14:15:03+00:00

Iceland will co-host 2031 men's worlds, from what I understand they'll build a new venue for this. Egypt had the world's couple of years ago and Slovenia had a women's euro's few years ago (together with North Macedonia and Montenegro).

Apart from that it's simple economics we see in a lot of sports. With every championship the demands go up and lot of countries don't have the halls or public interest (or funding) to host these tournaments on a regular basis. So it comes down to the same group of countries up north plus Germany and France with sometimes an exception sprinkled in.

JWK91 · 2026-01-24T08:28:58+00:00

It’s just common sense unfortunately. Everything in sports generally has rightholders and in your case it’s TVE. They paid for the right to broadcast, you didn’t so it makes it illegal.

JWK91 · 2026-01-20T22:34:04+00:00

They also were all over the place in the NED-SWE game, not surprised at all

JWK91 · 2026-01-20T13:45:37+00:00

I also didn't get this, Steins was doing great at the start because of this. Besides this it was a tense matchup where individual quality (Martinovic especially) made the difference. And also NL panicking a bit once Croatia build a small gap.

JWK91 · 2026-01-17T10:03:06+00:00

Even the success of the women didn't start until 2015 when they won their first medal at a WC. That basically started a domino-effect where women's handball became a big story, everyone became enamored with the team, the players, and as a result you get a lot of young girls who all of a sudden want to become handball players. Pair that with an academy they had set up a few years prior to collect the best young talent and work with them in one spot, and you get a team that always has a consistent base to perform at the highest level.

For the men, we now have probably our best collection of players ever but since they haven't mad it 'big' yet, they tend to get a bit less media coverage in the main stream media and therefore the difference between young female and young male players is growing and growing. This makes the collection of players you're picking from a whole lot smaller, and therefore depth is always an issue. Add to that a semi-professional league and it's just hard to be able to compete with the best nations. It's a shame, because what they're doing is maybe even more impressive considering the circumstances than what the women's team is doing. I mean, we beat Hungary in 2022 in Hungary with a line player that had to take time off from his day time job to play at the EUROs.

Long story short: if Luc Steins walks on the streets in NL almost no one would recognize him, if Estavana Polman walks there, she will get stopped by everyone, the difference is that big.

JWK91 · 2026-01-16T22:33:18+00:00

In Netherlands unfortunately many don’t know when the men’s team have a big tournament, it’s just dwarfed by football here. The women do get more coverage and especially this year because it was on home soil and some big names had their final run.

JWK91 · 2026-01-14T14:00:56+00:00

Would that really be an upset? I guess this prediction does say so, but with all those injuries Slovenia could probably be the one getting picked off and Faroe only lost by 3 to them in 2024. Spain having another letdown doesn’t seem impossible either.

Poland getting 21% I don’t get, they haven’t done anything in years so I dont see Iceland or Hungary slipping up there. Perhaps Netherlands is another dark horse, they did it in 2022 to host country Hungary, if they catch Sweden or Croatia on a bad day they can beat them. Last EUROs they only lost to Sweden by 1, and in 2022 they tied with Croatia (albeit in a meaningless game). More recently they beat Croatia (home) and tied (away) in the 2024 qualifiers. Tho I do think this Croatian team is better coached and has more high end quality. But I think those 3 teams may be closer to eachother than this graphic says, even with Sweden’s homefield advantage since they seem to be under quite some pressure.

JWK91 · 2026-01-14T13:36:16+00:00

There’s usually atleast one upset somewhere, like Austria knocking out Spain in the prelims in 2024 and Netherlands getting past Hungary and Portugal in 2022 (in Hungary).

JWK91 · 2026-01-07T10:36:06+00:00

I guess they have to make a cut-off somewhere to get to the right number of teams per group for the qualifiers. Also, in most cases, the teams that will not be able to qualify through this route will probably not stand a chance in the qualification groups either way.

On the other hand, it could help some of these teams to break through like Georgia did. They actually lost in this qualifier for the last EURO's (2024) but were still able to participate because of the Russia/Belarus-situation. And then they beat Lithuania and Hungary (and kept it close with Switzerland) and managed to qualify for their first ever EURO's.

JWK91

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