Former Poland captain Zbigniew Boniek said he has yet to feel the excitement usually associated with a World Cup, partly because the tournament will be spread across three host nations—the United States, Canada and Mexico—and partly because Poland failed to qualify.
"The emotions will probably start for me around the round of 16," Boniek told Poland’s PAP news agency. "Without the Polish team there, you approach it a little differently."
The tournament, the largest in World Cup history, opens on Thursday in Mexico and features 48 teams for the first time, up from 32 in 2022.
Boniek, a former Juventus star who later served as head of the Polish Football Association (PZPN) and a UEFA vice president, said he would watch from home rather than travel to North America.
"Tournaments organized over such a huge area, by two or three countries, don't really convince me," he said.
Zbigniew Boniek. Photo: PAP/Marcin Gadomski
Despite his reservations, Boniek expects the traditional powers to contend for the title.
"When a World Cup approaches, the favorites are always the same: Argentina, Spain, France and Brazil," he said. "But I also hope for some dark horses, specifically Norway and Morocco."
He singled out Norway as a team capable of surprising many observers.
Boniek also noted that Italy's failure to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup has triggered a major reckoning in the country where he has lived for years.
"Italians are certainly not taking it calmly," he said. "Almost everyone was dismissed, from the national coach to the federation president."
Former Poland goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005 and also played for Real Madrid, described the expanded tournament as "an experiment with a large dose of exoticism."
"A World Cup should be about quality, but FIFA moved away from that because it wanted to give as many teams as possible a chance," Dudek said.
He predicted that the enlarged field would produce entertaining but often lopsided matches.
"We will probably see attractive but somewhat hockey-like scorelines, such as 5-0," he said.
Dudek pointed to newcomers such as Curaçao and Cape Verde as examples of the wider range of nations now able to reach the finals, saying their participation would bring excitement even if they are not expected to challenge for the title.
"It will be a huge celebration, one enormous fiesta," he said. "It's just sad that our national team won't be there, especially when we see which countries have qualified."
Dudek named Germany, France and Spain among his favorites, while also expressing interest in England's emerging generation of players and in whether defending champions Argentina can retain the title.
Former Poland and Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek. Photo: Tim Markland/PA Wire via PAP
Poland failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 2014, ending a streak of three consecutive appearances at the sport's biggest tournament.
The 2026 World Cup kicks off on Thursday and runs until July 19 in Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Poland reached the last 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar before being eliminated by eventual runners-up France. They also qualified for the 2018 tournament in Russia but exited in the group stage.
Poland finished third in the 1974 World Cup in West Germany and were also third in Spain in 1982.
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Source: PAP