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Sport Nation
'An absolute cringe fest': How World Cup Draw has FIFA looking lost under Infantino
Sport Nation • December 8th, 2025 11:00 am
FIFA president Gianni Infantino | Photo: Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire
Saturday morning while enjoying breakfast, New Zealand football fans learnt which nations the All Whites would face in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Now an expanded tournament featuring 48 nations dividing into 12 groups of four, next year's tournament will be New Zealand's third appearance, following in the footsteps of the 1982 and 2010 sides.
Sport Nation's Scotty & Izzy invited former All White Fred de Jong onto Monday's show to talk about the NZ Derby between the Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix, along with gauging his reaction to Saturday's draw - but before getting into who the NZ side will face, de Jong took aim at the way FIFA president Gianni Infantino conducted himself during the globally-televised event.
“What a cringe-worthy draw,” de Jong said.
“What an absolute cringe fest. That shows how far FIFA have lost their way under Infantino. I don’t want to see Shaq, I don’t want to see Gretzky - I want to see football people who understand football, not calling it soccer.
“And to give this guy (Trump) a peace prize was just the ultimate blow.”
de Jong chose not to acknowledge the recipient of FIFA's inaugural 'Peace Prize' - the current US president.
Not calling football 'soccer' became a running gag throughout the broadcast, to the point that Donald Trump has now called for the National Football League (NFL) to consider a new name for American football.
Politics aside - de Jong likes the look of Group G, where New Zealand will face Belgium, Egypt and Iran, aiming to advance out of the World Cup group stage for the first time.
On June 16 (NZ Time), the All Whites begin their campaign against Iran in Los Angeles at the home of the NFL's LA Rams and Chargers, SoFi Stadium.
June 22 will see Darren Bazeley's side go up against Egypt at Vancouver's BC Place, the home of MLS club Vancouver Whitecaps. NZ will play at the same venue on June 26 against Belgium.
“I was slightly disappointed with New Zealand’s draw in that we didn’t get a big game." de Jong told Sport Nation.
"Sure, Belgium’s a big game - but it would’ve been fantastic to see France, Germany, Spain, Argentina - one of those big games that you can really talk about.
“(New Zealand) certainly capable of getting points out of this group though … Certainly the Egypt and Iran games I think are the ones that Darren Bazeley will target.
“We played Egypt and lost one-nil when we played in the Canadian Cup a while back, a very different Egyptian team is going to walk out on the park at the World Cup. For one, all their best club team players weren’t there and it’s not a friendly.
“I think this is the big difference in that we’ve played Norway, Poland, Ecuador, Colombia, but it’s at the World Cup where you’ll see the best players trying their best.
“Now, it’s serious. You’ll see the best out of the opposition as well. And we’re going to have to set up because we haven’t been able to score goals against these teams in friendly games. It’s a tough group, but points are possible.”
