Canada

I went to a concert at a stadium that refused to let you keep the cap to your single use plastic water bottles because people had been throwing closed bottles full of water at the stage.

During the concert I saw 4 or 5 open bottles fly at the stage with liquid coming out.

People are terrible.

"Safety concerns" are of course concerns for the safety of FIFA's bank account balance.

Dunno how it is everywhere else but in Toronto the FIFA preparations have also fenced off certain public parks around the stadium which were heavily used for through-traffic, forcing pedestrians and cyclists to have to take massive detours around them. It’s particularly annoying because they’ve just been fenced off for weeks now with barely anyone inside except for some half asleep volunteer guards on their phones. How this is legal, I don’t know, but I’m assuming it came with the bribes. Just stinks of classism and corruption and it makes me like this World Cup even less (among all the other reasons).

Already walked back. What a circus.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/06/fifa-backtracks-on-plastic-water-bottles-at-world-cup-after-backlash-to-ban

C O N S U M E!!!!

Since when does FIFA give a shit about safety?

To put this in perspective, ticket prices start at over $1K cdn. If that's your price range to watch a soccer match a $10 bottle of water isn't your problem.

It's like they're looking for ways they haven't pissed off people yet.

All the more reason not to go

I'll probably enjoy the atmosphere around the city during the WC, but I'm not enthusiastic about the event itself. As a kid, it would have felt like a dream to have the WC going on in Canada. Now, I'm just too cynical about FIFA. They're just awful.