Elon Musk has been all over the headlines today, 12 June, as he tips over the threshold to become the world’s first trillionaire. And inevitably, Musk is a walking, talking argument against the existence of such wealth — which he uses to oppose democracy and amplify the far-right around the world.

The real-life Bond villain (thanks, Financial Times) owes his latest windfall to SpaceX. The company, of which Musk is the majority shareholder, makes its initial public offering at a value of around $1.8tn.

Of course, once any individual’s personal wealth enters the billions — never mind the trillions — it becomes largely hypothetical. We, humanity that is, just aren’t made to comprehend that kind of amount. NBC tried to visualise the total:

A stack of $100 bills worth $1 million stands just over 3 feet tall. Scale that up to $1 billion, and the stack is over half a mile high. At $1 trillion, however, the stack reaches a staggering 679 miles in height, nearly 11 times the distance from Earth’s surface to the edge of outer space.

Elon Musk — Buying up democracy

Personally, we at the Canary still find it difficult to picture that kind of thing. We’re activists and journalists — we work in concepts. Fortunately, there’s a ready example in those terms, too. $1tn will buy you, more or less, one global democracy, or a sizeable chunk of it at the very least.

Back in January, Oxfam released research highlighting that billionaire wealth had reached its highest level in history, breaching $18.3t (trillion) globally. Inevitably, that wealth also brings vast political power. In fact, compared to the average citizen, billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office.

Elon Musk already tried his hand as a fascist politician — after a buy-in donation of over $250m to the Republican Party in 2024. Under Donald Trump, he became the unelected co-chair of ‘DOGE’ (the Department of Government Efficiency).

Of course, the department did absolutely nothing to alter the USA’s national debt, which actually spiked in 2025. However, Musk’s wild slashes to the USAid budget caused a conservative initial estimate of 750,000 deaths around the world. Likewise, that’s not even mentioning the 300,000 federal employees he left out of a job.

All that in the mere 10 months of DOGE’s tragic existence.

Amplifying the fash on Twitter

However, even outside of direct political office, Musk — seen here sniffing around for a party invite from convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — has still proven himself perfectly capable of buying political influence and stifling democracy.

Actually, scratch that, ‘capable’ is the wrong word — $1tn just makes up for an awful lot of incompetence.

After seemingly accidentally backing himself into a corner and being forced to purchase Twitter for $44bn, Musk gained massive power over (what was once) one of the world’s more popular social media platforms. Over and over again, he’s used that power to amplify far-right voices and talking points.

Since the ill-fated Twitter purchase, far-right accounts have seen a boom on the site. As NBC News found in 2024:

at least 150 paid “Premium” subscriber X accounts and thousands of unpaid accounts have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content on X in recent months, often in apparent violation of X’s rules.

In several cases, the Nazi accounts gained traction because of Musk’s active help. He personally retweeted several prominent ‘race science’ adherents. Mother Jones described him as:

spreading misinformation about racial minorities’ intelligence and physiology to his audience of 176.3 million followers.

Oh, on that note, a quick aside. Musk — pictured here giving a Nazi salute at a far-right political rally — has argued it should be criminal to describe “non-violent” people as Nazis or fascists. Oh, and the same goes for telling people to hate America.

So much for Musk’s famed ‘free speech absolutism‘ (except when he’s defending his AI bot generating child sexual abuse imagery).

Attacks on UK democracy

One of Musk’s favoured pet fascists is Rupert Lowe, founder of the extreme-right Restore UK. Since launching Restore back in February, ten of Lowe’s X posts have received over 10-million views. This, in turn, has caused massive issues for Reform UK, as it faces pressure from the even-further-right.

Another key beneficiary of Musk’s algorithmic patronage is Tommy Robinson, one of the organisers behind the white-supremacist ‘Unite the Kingdom’ (UtK) rally. The white-supremacist agitator/all-round scumbag has openly admitted that Musk previously covered his legal costs.

Likewise, Musk addressed the 2025 UtK rally via video link. He called for “a change of government in Britain” along with a:

dissolution of Parliament and a new vote held.

The Financial Times counted more than 100 of Musk’s social media posts attacking British multiculturalism. More recently, he exploited the tragic murder of Henry Nowak to foment the riots in response. Likewise, he also amplified Robinson’s dogwhistle calls to riot in Belfast earlier this week.

In response, Green Party leader Zack Polanski stated that:

This man is a threat to our democracy. He backs violence and extremism.

Blaming a group of people for the awful actions of an individual leads us to a very dark place.

Musk, Lowe, Farage, Robinson – these men don’t give a shit about this country, they want to rip us apart.

In our deeply broken system, money is power. A billion, let alone a trillion, gives an individual the power to buy things that should never have been for sale. Musk is a living demonstration of the fact that no reasonable society should permit the existence of such obscene wealth.

Featured image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By Alex/Rose Cocker

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New defence secretary Dan Jarvis has previously received around half a million pounds in donations from corporate lobbyists. So, as mainstream media outlets say the Labour right-winger “once looked like the future” and “is a fine choice“, let’s look into the dark money that’s been fuelling his political career.

Jarvis and his local Labour Party in Barnsley have done such an awful job at countering Tory damage to the town in recent decades that it turned to Reform in the 2026 local elections. And when you look at where Jarvis’s funds come from, you can understand why the people of Barnsley might not exactly be his top political priority.

1 — Labour Together millionaires

One major source of donations to Jarvis has been key Labour Together donor Martin Taylor. Taylor runs a hedge fund that invests in private healthcare.

Fellow Labour Together donor and proud pro-Israel lobbyist Trevor Chinn also gave thousands of pounds to Jarvis. It seems likely that such support was at least in part because Jarvis was a parliamentary supporter of Labour Friends of Israel who even received money from the lobby group.

Labour Together was a prominent vehicle for undermining Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party and forcing vacuous corporate lackey Keir Starmer onto the country.

Other beneficiaries of money from Labour Together or its donors have included high-profile cronies such as Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting, David Lammy, Shabana Mahmood, and Rachel Reeves.

2 — The “multimillionaire recruitment tycoon” with interests in private healthcare

EveryDoctor explains that “multimillionaire recruitment tycoon Peter Hearn“:

made his fortune through recruitment firms PSD and Odgers Berndtson

Odgers Group Limited, where he resigned as a director in 2025, has offered:

headhunting services to the NHS as well as the private healthcare sector. The firm has faced criticism for some of the senior executives it has helped recruit to the NHS. Former TalkTalk executive Dido Harding was headhunted by Odgers Berndtson to lead the NHS Test and Trace programme during the pandemic, which was later deemed to be ineffective by MPs.

A fellow director at Odgers was Tory peer Virginia Bottomley.

While Hearn clearly has a massive soft spot for Labour right-wingers Wes Streeting and Yvette Cooper, Dan Jarvis has been the other key recipient of Hearn’s money. They’ve all received money from Hearn’s OPD Group and MPM Connect Ltd. Labour campaign group Momentum once called MPM “dark money“, and Sky reported that:

The company has no staff or website and is registered at an office in Hertfordshire where the secretary says she has never heard of them.

EveryDoctor says Hearn’s OPD Group also “provides services to the NHS“.

With Dan Jarvis, the lobby’s grip on government continues

In 2016, Blairite strategist John McTernan said Jarvis:

so clearly wants to be Leader of the Labour Party.

Many on the right of the party mentioned his name “as a potential challenger to Jeremy Corbyn” early into Corbyn’s time as leader, with some of them even seeing him as “the party’s greatest hope“. Jarvis also reportedly had links to Blue Labour, whose whole argument is basically that Labour should be ‘more conservative‘.

Jarvis has largely remained quiet in the last ten years, just accumulating corporate money and doing little of note for people in his constituency. But his move into the role of defence secretary may be a sign that his star on the Labour right is rising yet again.

Considering that lobbyists’ empty vessel Keir Starmer has pushed Labour far to the right as leader, it’s unsurprising that Dan Jarvis fits neatly into the project.

The question now is, exactly how much will Jarvis’s deep links to the corporate lobby influence Ministry of Defence policy at a time of already increasing military spending?

Featured image via Carl Court/Getty Images

By Ed Sykes

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The Canary upsets all the right people. Particularly, it seems, in print. The far-right hate peddler known as ‘Tommy Robinson’ has got a bit upset at being called out on a Canary front page for his part in inciting white-supremacist violence in Belfast. And in his annoyance, he gave the Canary some accidental free advertising:

He doesn’t have a leg to stand on about the ‘smear’, legally speaking. Truth is an absolute defence and libel requires damage to reputation, while his — and no doubt his income — depends on his supporters seeing him inciting. And even in the UK’s corrupt justice system, there’s no way to say evil like this isn’t inciting:

The whole of the United Kingdom is hitting the streets tonight at 7pm following yet another invader attack on our people.

It’s time pic.twitter.com/tscckc9ceK

— Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) June 9, 2026

And the Canary is not the only outlet to point out that he was not just inciting, but coordinating, the Belfast white hate riots. Like the i:

And even far-right ‘msm’ rags have taken him down before, just as brutally:

They are far right shithouses. pic.twitter.com/mmrQMALuCy

— Andrew (@AndrewEgan89975) June 13, 2026

Of course, Tommeh’s mates might not be too impressed that he was (again) sucking up to foreign billionaires while he was doing it. But then again, they might not care. Only certain kinds of foreigners are despised, perhaps.

Tommy Robinson — “Cry harder”

And his post didn’t exactly generate much sympathy. Lots of responses encouraged him to get even more upset:

Cry harder! You only have yourself to blame!

— Duncan Still Socialist tired of LIES & Anger (@BRUMSTOKIE) June 12, 2026

Others focused on the truth of the headline and the article:

You mean… the truth??

— Ren (@RenLaz17) June 12, 2026

And quite a few added the ‘patriot’s liking for foreign climes (and cash):

You do have ten names though don’t you, protecting British values but changes his name and moves to Spain.

The guy that has been an illegal immigrant, complains about illegal immigration. pic.twitter.com/JZIoJFp3LU

— My Two Pence (@MyTwoPenceUK) June 12, 2026

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Oh fuck I HOPE they did. It’s about time your grifting coked up shit stirring little arse got a proper headline.

That’s MARVELLOUS.

Well done @TheCanaryUK pic.twitter.com/XdD8W887js

— Damian (@D_MQuail) June 12, 2026

Lots pointed out the cash, actually:

Where’s the lie exactly you malformed little racist runt? pic.twitter.com/deFGhG0j7s

— CaptainBird (@CaptainBird5) June 12, 2026

And the foreigners operating him in return for it:

pic.twitter.com/NOrX6TgXi0

— George (@seeyouinpub) June 12, 2026

Some pointed out the, ahem, inconsistency of Robinson’s ‘political’ positions:

The whole of the United Kingdom is hitting the streets tonight at 7pm following yet another invader attack on our people.

It’s time pic.twitter.com/tscckc9ceK

— Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) June 9, 2026

While others just contented themselves with taking the mickey out of him for not realising the obvious:

It’s literally there in front of you, you bleeding imbecile

— RandomHero (@ImMeHooYou) June 12, 2026

Of the many hundreds of responses, only a few were from people willing to reinforce the idea that he doesn’t incite, or is right to. There are far too many good replies to include them in an article, so if you have a spare few minutes, reading the others will be a rewarding way to spend them.

And of course, spare a few to pop out and buy a Canary print edition, Monday to Friday. You can find your nearest stockist here. It really is upsetting all the right (wrong) people.

Featured image via Luke Dray/Getty Images

By Skwawkbox

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Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn, and PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher attend a press conference in Belfast, 10 June 2026.

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Protesters in stand-off with police in Glengormley, north of Belfast, Northern Ireland, 10 June 2026.

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9 min read27 min

He’s in charge of an institution with £1.5bn assets and of services vital to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people – and he’s not yet 20 years old. Nadine Batchelor-Hunt meets Reform UK council leader George Finch

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If ever there was a child of his time, it is George Finch.

“My mum was a hairdresser, my dad worked as a carpenter for the council at the time,” says Finch, Reform UK’s leader of both Warwickshire county council and Nuneaton and Bedworth borough council. “Finances were fine, but then they had me in 2006, and then obviously the financial crash happened… It destroyed what we did, and the income wasn’t sustaining a family.”

Growing up in the shadow of the crash and austerity shaped Finch – and arguably makes him perfectly attuned to the politics it has produced.

“Every system was just failing,” he says. “Everything was cut, nothing was working… and this was a kind of carbon-copy of families across Bedworth at the time… The system was completely broken. Families like mine were left and thrown to the curb.”

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There were additional strains: both of Finch’s sisters have significant health issues that continue to confront them with the harsh reality of the state of some NHS services. Speaking of one sister with a neurological disorder, he says: “Even when I’ve been in this job, I’ve spent hours and hours and hours in A&E waiting by her side on a ward where there’s kids self-harming, and it’s not right.”

If the council leader is daunted by the weight of the responsibility of his office, he does not show it. Indeed, in his telling, this is light work when compared to his previous gig as a carpenter and plasterer.

“I was working when I was 16, 17 – not on building sites but in doing up homes, carpentry, plastering, all that type of stuff,” says Finch. “I’ve done that type of stuff before, and I know what it’s like to sit in a damp house when it’s dripping, while just eating a sandwich. You don’t get a nice little tea break like you do in offices.”

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He [Lee Anderson] was really my type of people… just say how it is.

Despite his tender age, Reform isn’t even Finch’s first party. “I was a young conservative who joined the Conservative Party at 16,” says Finch. “It was more the conservative values, not necessarily the party.” He speaks of his disillusionment with the party and is especially critical of Boris Johnson – describing the former prime minister as a “wet liberal in proper Conservative clothing”.

The catalyst for joining Reform UK, he says, was an encounter with Reform MP Lee Anderson at school. “I was in the politics class, and me and my mate, we love Lee Anderson,” says Finch. “He was really my type of people… just say how it is. You know, like, ‘Oh, have a lovely day, lovely ladies’… Say something like that in Warwick? ‘How dare you call me a lovely lady?!’”

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Finch says he asked Anderson a question about education, namely, ‘How will Reform UK resist the wave of wokeism that’s washing across our education establishments?’. “I practiced that, because it’s so important to me,” says Finch. He recalls Anderson “spoke to so many” in the room and behaved like such “a normal chap” that when he approached Finch and asked whether he’d join Reform, he did. “He said: ‘George, you going to join?’ I went: ‘Go on, then – I’ll join tomorrow.’ So, I did. And then helped the general election candidate – we got third place, 9,000-odd votes, great from a standing start. We’re going to win at the next election.”

Asked why he was attracted to politics, he replies: “It goes to my old background: my family, my town.” Finch is sitting next to a stuffed bear clawing a tree, the symbol of the county he presides over. The bear’s name is Wendy, according to The Times, loaned to Finch’s office from a local museum – something Finch reportedly made an early priority upon taking office.

Bedworth, the town he is from, is in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in North Warwickshire. The last coal mine in the town closed in 1982, ending a long history of coal mining dating back centuries; in many ways, it is typical of the area Reform must win to make it to No 10. “It’s been totally forgotten about, even though it is a town that’s got a huge pride in what it does,” says Finch.

In the several years since then, Finch has enjoyed a meteoric rise. He says his priorities locally have been to “change the entire foundation of which the council is built on” – describing running two councils as “phenomenal”. He says highways, crime awareness and prevention and finances are all areas where he’s seeking improvements, as well as home school transport, which he says costs the council £50m a year. The way he speaks about local issues makes it clear he sees Reform’s record in local government as an opportunity to gain the electorate’s confidence, saying it’s “the only chance” the party has to prove itself to the people. “We have to work as hard as we can to get the best value for money for taxpayers, voters,” says Finch. “If we get local champions, we’re winners.”

But it has not been plain sailing; Finch narrowly won a no-confidence motion earlier this year by one vote – something he dismisses as a “farce” that “backfired”. The Green Party tabled the motion concerning Finch’s remarks relating to the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Warwickshire, and a dispute with county council chief executive Monica Fogarty over Pride flags. On the former, Finch had risked contempt of court after sharing details about the suspects and accusing the police of attempting to cover up their immigration status – claims which Warwickshire police rejected.

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I haven’t got a problem with young kids and women coming over on boats – if they have got a genuine refugee status and they need genuine help

Finch defends himself, telling The House he “had to fight tooth and nail for transparency”. “They’ll refute that,” says Finch, saying that they argued for the need to preserve community cohesion. He recalls being told, “’You don’t want riots like in Epping’.” He replied: “‘We won’t have riots in Epping if we tell them the truth’… And I put a statement out: no riot.”

There is growing speculation that Rupert Lowe’s breakaway party, Restore Britain, could put pressure on Reform at the next general election, given its standing in the polls for the Makerfield by-election. The race is expected to be tight between Labour’s Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon, meaning any votes lost to Restore may cost Reform the election – something to which Finch is very much alive.

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Finch says he is waiting to see the results in Makerfield before passing judgement but likens Restore to the British National Party (BNP) and questions whether its social media presence is “matching up” to votes. “What are their policies?” asks Finch. “What are their people? Look at other political parties in the past, when they stand a load of candidates – parties like BNP and Ukip… you can see their candidates and what they stand for.”

Finch tells The House he believes a Restore government would deport people based on their colour, and believes a lot of Restore voters do not realise this – nor do the two previously Reform Warwickshire councillors who have defected to the party. “[Gurkhas would] be gone… no excuse, no reason; gone, just because of their colour,” claims Finch.

While it’s obvious Finch sees Reform as different to Restore, he describes immigration as “terrible, terrible, terrible” and “a complete failure”, defending Reform’s Zia Yusuf’s remarks on deporting legal immigrants living in social housing.

“Zia is absolutely right, and we’re looking at it on the borough council,” says Finch. “Social housing, council housing, should be there for British nationals – British citizens.”

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Finch also says veterans and care leavers should be at the top of housing lists, “not asylum seekers, not illegal immigrants” – though he does express some sympathy for women and children arriving on small boats. “I haven’t got a problem with young kids and women coming over on boats – if they have got a genuine refugee status and they need genuine help,” says Finch. “I haven’t got a problem with that, but I’m not seeing that materialise on the boats.”

The council leader is also dismissive of allegations that Reform’s agenda is racist, saying people “need to understand our policies a bit more”. “Those people that are just ignorant, they go: ‘Oh, you’re all racist’,” says Finch. “Well, if you sit down with me for an hour, I can tell you that I’m not racist.”

Sitting beneath a framed Reform football shirt reading ‘FARAGE’, Finch insists the party is not a “one-man band”, but one of policies, local champions, councillors, council leaders and MPs, as well as its high-profile leader. “I know what it’s like in a head office, I’ve seen it – I’ve seen the way it works,” he says. He adds that no politician alive deserves the keys to No 10 more than Nigel Farage. “He’s changed his country for the better – and he’s not even been elected to British Parliament until recently,” says the 19-year-old. “So, he deserves it.”

Finch also praises the recent policy announcement on tax-free overtime by the party. “The no tax on overtime – great policy… In the town centre, they love that policy,” says Finch. “I think it’s great. We have our own policies, we are our own party, we’ve got fresh-thinking people.”

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As the interview winds down, we circle back to whether Finch has ambitions beyond leafy Warwickshire, a question side-stepped earlier on.

“To become a Member of Parliament for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, or the East, or wherever: it’d be a great honour to serve locally, in my home town – but I’m not focused on that at the moment,” he says. “When a general election comes, we’ll see, but I am 100 per cent committed to these two councils. That’s a new line – these two councils – because that’s why people get elected.” 

 

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INGLEWOOD, California — FIFA paid tribute to California’s Native American tribes as part of the pregame festivities ahead of Friday’s match at SoFi Stadium, the tournament’s first in the United States.

So-called native land acknowledgments have become common in North America, especially on the West Coast of the United States and across Canada, but have faced criticism and ridicule as the “latest woke ritual,” as one Wall Street Journal commentary put it.

The prerecorded video that played as the stadium filled up with U.S. and Paraguay fans acknowledged the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation and Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians, among others, as “the original inhabitants of Los Angeles County.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s campaign-style efforts to win support from local political officials across the United States last year included visits with tribal leaders, POLITICO reported at the time.

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Lebanese PM Nawwaf Salam has condemned Iran for Israel’s war of aggression in southern Lebanon, in a deranged interview with the Murdoch Times.

Nawaaf claimed that Tehran rejected a supposed ‘ceasefire’ ‘deal’ in Israel’s invasion of Lebanon because:

Tehran wanted to say Lebanon is a card in our pocket, that ‘we decide on Lebanon’s behalf … we are the decision-makers’.

The one-sided ‘deal‘ involved Israel being free — its usual modus operandi — to continue attacking and seizing territory in southern Lebanon. By contrast, resistance group Hezbollah would have to cease all operations, lay down its arms and leave the territory, giving the invaders free rein. But Israel would supposedly stop bombing Beirut.

Instead, Iran has continued to refuse any ceasefire in its own war with Israel and the US that does not include Israel leaving all Lebanese territory and ceasing all aggression against Lebanon. And when Israel bombed Beirut this week, on 8 June 2026, Iran struck Israel in retaliation, having warned the occupiers it would do so.

Lebanon’s ‘Vichy’ government

Despite Shia Muslims forming the largest group in Lebanon, Lebanon’s so-called ‘National Pact’ mandates that the country’s president must always be a Maronite Christian and its prime minister a Sunni Muslim — while the speaker of parliament is Shia Muslim.

Salam’s government is widely considered a ‘Vichy‘ regime collaborating with its occupiers. This collaboration has led to accusations of “high treason” and “servile collaboration” with Israel and its US backers despite Israel’s bombing of Beirut. This has triggered renewed street protests against the regime demanding resistance to Israel’s invasion.

Salam clearly isn’t listening, too busy parroting his sponsors’ narrative that absolves Israel of its land theft and murder and blames Iran for daring to resist.

Featured image via DailyNewsEgypt

By Skwawkbox

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The X account of Howard Beckett, the popular former Unite general secretary candidate, has been taken over by hackers. The culprits may to be aligned with the Israeli occupation, of which Beckett is a staunch opponent. However, they are continuing to put out watered-down versions of Beckett’s usual output in an apparent attempt to fool followers. The account has also posted ‘crypto’ content, a topic in which he has never shown an interest.

Unite — Unauthorised

Complaints about the crypto posts have succeeded in having those removed, but Beckett has still been unable to regain access of his account. Those who follow his account should be aware that any posts are currently not generated by him or anyone authorised to post.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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An 81-year-old German fan died near Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, the Mexican capital, hours before the kickoff of the opening match of the 2026 World Cup between Mexico and South Africa.

According to the Mexican website Publimetro, the fan suffered a heart attack while attempting to enter the stadium through Gate 1, near the “Rampa 2” area, which necessitated immediate intervention from the ambulance and emergency teams deployed around the stadium.

The report added that medical staff performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the fan at the scene before transferring him to the National Institute of Cardiology in Mexico City, where he passed away due to his health crisis.

The incident occurred before the start of the opening match of the tournament, which ended with the Mexican national team defeating South Africa two goals to nil in Group A competition.

Azteca Stadium holds historical significance in World Cup tournaments, as it became the first stadium to host the opening match of the tournament in three different editions, having hosted the opening ceremonies of the 1970 and 1986 World Cups before hosting the opening of the 2026 edition.

Featured image via Carl Recine/Getty Images

By Alaa Shamali

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Former German coach Joachim Löw has voiced clear criticism of FIFA’s decision to expand the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams, arguing that the new format has diminished the tournament’s competitiveness and technical quality.

In an interview with the German channel RTL as part of the series “World Cup Fever: Monica Lierhaus and the National Team Coaches,” Löw—who led Germany to victory in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil—confirmed that he was never in favor of increasing the number of participating teams.

The 66-year-old coach stated that he had always believed the 32-team format was the most suitable for the World Cup, explaining that group stage competition was more intense and exciting when qualification was limited to just two teams per group.

The current edition of the World Cup is being held for the first time with 48 teams across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Löw considered this an excessive expansion, even while acknowledging the right of smaller teams to dream of participating in the world’s biggest event.

The German coach pointed out that allowing eight teams finishing third in their groups to advance to the knockout stages has reduced the importance of first-round matches, making the group stage less compelling than in previous versions.

He added that the old system forced a genuine struggle within each group to secure the two qualifying spots, whereas the current 

version has a wider margin for qualification, which negatively impacts the level of competition and excitement.

Löw believes that maintaining the tournament’s technical quality should be a priority for FIFA, emphasizing that he prefers more selective and competitive tournaments rather than increasing the number of participants.

The German coach concluded his remarks by stressing the need to maintain the high standard of the World Cup, suggesting that reducing opportunities for qualification to the knockout stages would enhance the value of the matches and raise the quality of competition in the tournament.

Featured image via Daniela Porcelli/Getty Images

By Alaa Shamali

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