Meabh De Burca

Yeah, I think, like Ken, I think it's just probably too big, really.

It's 104 games.

It's impossible, really, to watch them all as much as we would have watched maybe in previous World Cups.

But even the length of it, 39 days, so it's a long... We're in for the long haul once it starts.

But, yeah, looking forward, I suppose, to seeing...

the Czechia group I suppose Ireland we would wonder what might have been had we gone so we'll be I suppose keeping an eye on them and how they get on but yeah overall just been spread across three countries as well it's for the first time like it was I know it was held in two countries in 2002 in Korea, Japan but otherwise it's the first time so it's almost like a continental affair really in terms of that it's across the entire continent rather than one host country.

Yeah I think so I mean it is I know the sports market I suppose is saturated in North America with so many different sports being played a lot of these games will even be played in what were traditionally American football stadiums so yeah I think they will be invested but you can even see that a lot of the games aren't even sold out yet so maybe that's just

showing that maybe it's such a big scale that it is hard to capture the audiences at that level.

Yeah, definitely.

And Cape Verde are one of those as well.

And of course, Irish eyes will be firmly on them as well because Robert or Pico, Roberto, Pico as he's known, Lopez, Seán McRover's captain, he'll be...

representing us there I suppose and yeah that group in particular they play their favourite Spain in the first match and then they have Uruguay and Saudi Arabia too so I think for them in particular it'll be exciting and yeah like I said the likes of Jordan Uzbekistan and Curaco as well will be all there and yeah you make you think how could a small Dutch Caribbean island get there and we haven't even qualified but that's what it is I suppose

Yeah I think so I mean when you think that yeah two-thirds of the teams are going to make it into the knockout stages as well and there's going to be in that early group stages I think we will see a lot of mismatches and maybe games that you might prefer to catch the highlights of rather than watching the full 90 minutes so I think yeah I think although you know they're trying to to say it's a good thing that there's more teams involved personally I think it's it's it's

much too many to go from 32 teams right to 48 it's such a big jump really in terms of spreading the quality out and I think it'll only be really I think when the knockout stages kick off really is when the quality will start to shine Despite the newcomers we would expect the traditional contenders still to be in contention

Yeah I think so it's hard to look past the likes of say Spain who are favourites for the tournament obviously they have the superstar Jamal but he is injured coming back off a hamstring injury so it's hard to see will he be at 100% or you can look at the likes of France who I think probably have the deepest squad in the tournament they just have such quality going forward just their pace and power athleticism but then you look to the likes of the Arsenal defender Zabala as well and they have

he's one of the top defenders really in recent years in the Premier League so you can think of England as well I suppose as much as maybe Irish fans looking on we don't always like to see them do as well but it's been 60 years since they won their last World Cup and they're always up there I'm sure they would have mentioned it if they'd won

yeah exactly 1966 I think we all all remember well we don't remember but we know we know of it and yeah there's always such expectation around the English team you know so much expectation on the likes of Harry Kane there who's set to captain them at the third tournament I think and yeah Brazil Portugal Argentina those types of teams as well I think will be up there too

No, exactly.

That's it.

It's hard to nearly tip them from the off.