2026-07-20, 08:05 AM - Word count:
The expansion hiring post mentioned that the Board of Directors would be looking for expansion teams in places with strong football culture and places lacking representation currently. With those in mind, and Wikipedia open, I set out to think of potential expansion locations. I have no real knowledge of football so this is all via reading things on the internet. I think I'm going to break this up into two pieces just for the sake of getting them out in time, so the first two "tiers" will be covered today. Tier 1 is places I think are overdue for an expansion team (with some caveats)
Tier 1
Uruguay
Possible Cities: Montevideo
Possible Colors: Sky Blue (#87ceeb) , Dark Blue (#0038a8), Gold (#f2c615), Olive Green (#377716)
South America currently has two teams which is the fewest of any non-Oceania continent. There's a lot of historic success in international play for Uruguay. They hosted and won the first world cup and currently sit ninth in overall points - one of three top 10 countries without a team currently (more on those 2 later!). It seems like a natural fit to add a team here. The team pretty much has to be in Montevideo since the capital also has over half the citizens of the country. Which is one drawback of choosing Uruguay: there are only 3.5 million people who live in the country, one of the smallest in this list.
I opted to not go for a red color as both of the current South American organizations use red and orange. Therefore, I propose either the sky blue (the Uruguayan national football team is nicknamed la Celeste, and often wear a light blue), an olive green from the flag of the indigenous Charrua, or the dark blue or gold from the country's flag. There's already a lot of green and brown/tan/yellow so I would personally opt for one of the blues.
Belgium
Possible Cities: Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges
Possible Colors: Brown (#654321), Pink (#FFC0CB), Mint Green (#a6d2bd)
Belgium has never won the World Cup or Euros but that's fine because they're trying their best. That's what really counts. They've appeared in both many times and have a strong football culture, which is my impetus for including them. Western Europe, especially, is over-represented compared to population (and Belgium specifically doesn't help much with only 12 million residents) but as the continent is the epicenter of the sport it makes enough sense. I think any of the large cities in Belgium would serve fine as host cities, but I'm partial to Bruges thanks to the movie In Bruges.
Choosing a primary color is difficult with so many options. I don't think they can take Black since they border Germany (and the Black Forest organization), nor red since they border France (and AS Paris). I think the Flower Carpet, in Brussels, opens up the chance to use more vibrant and bright colors such as pink or more earthy tones of brown. Another option, of course, is the yellow that is ever present in the flags of the country and cities, and the EU flag but that feels a little on the nose, doesn't it? The final option, a little more out there, is a mint green sort of color seen on the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Netherlands
Possible Cities: Groningen, Utrecht, Rotterdam
Possible Colors: Orange (#fc8104), Slate Blue (#5987ac), Tulip Red (#be181c) or Tulip Pink (#d69a9c)
The Netherlands is a very slightly more successful version of Belgium in international play. They suffer from the same problems as Belgium, however, when considering them as an expansion location: relatively small population and in the over-represented Western Europe. I'm not sure if there's a big Belgium-Netherlands rivalry so hopefully that comparison didn't upset anybody! Of course both Belgium and the Netherlands aren't needed - this is very much a one or the other situation.
The Netherlands national anthem mentions, specifically, William the Silent (born into the House of Nassau) who later became the Prince of Orange and eventually his monarchic line would become the Kings/Queens of the Netherlands. And boy do the Dutch love their orange for some reason. My second color choice, Slate Blue, comes from Van Gogh's The Starry Night. Van Gogh is from the Netherlands and it feels like as good of a reason as any to pick a color. Last, but not least, are the two colors I picked for the tulip fields the country is known for. Of course the tulips are all sorts of colors but you'll probably see more of yellow, red, and a pink-ish color than anything else.
Tier 2
Sweden
Not a lot to say here really other than: convert the Academy Team straight over and call it a day. Gets you some representation for Northern Europe, already has a great color scheme, and there you go. Historically a decent team as well and hopefully a strong culture for the sport.
Colombia
Possible Cities: Cali, Bogota, Medellin
Possible Colors: Off-White (#eeede9), Brown (#685151)
Much like Uruguay, Colombia would bring much needed representation to South America. I was actually between Colombia, Chile, and Paraguay for this spot in tier two due to their similar levels of international success, but went with Colombia. Colombia is a significantly larger country than Uruguay with 52 million residents, but there's much less of a history of international success than Uruguay.
I'm not sure if white is really an acceptable choice as a primary color, but why not? Let's get wild with it. Colombia sits at the northern end of the Andes and is known for their mountains and cities at high elevations. I'll think of some other scheme for the next South American country. Mountains have snow caps. Snow is white. If not a straight white, maybe something very slightly off-white would work better? If that doesn't quite suit your fancy, maybe we go with an earthy brown color for the mountains themselves? It's all mountains here, buddy.
Morocco
Possible Cities: Fes, Casablanca
Possible Colors: Jade (#005339), Gray / Blue (#9ba2b4), Desert Sand (#e9954f)
Morocco would bring additional representation to Africa which currently has 5 teams, and would be the first team in the Maghreb, and the second Arabic team (in lieu of a middle eastern team). They are also scheduled to host the next world cup. They've had growing success internationally in the 2020s and look to be on the upswing, reaching the World Cup semifinals and winning several African/Arabic cups. I think putting the team in one of the two cities with, by far, the most domestic success would make sense. And if it's Casablanca you can make references to the movie as well!
El Garawiyyin, in Fes, claims to be the oldest university in the world and has a distinctive Jade colored roofing throughout most of the buildings and is also present in a few other places throughout the city. Casablanca is right on the Atlantic ocean which gives inspiration to the gray/blue color. And the last one is cliche, I'm not afraid to admit that, but it's the color of sand. For a mostly desert country. I'm not afraid to lean into it a little sometimes.
Australia
Possible Cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
Possible Colors: Kangaroo Brown (#b16524), Reef Water (#00bfc4), Royal Red (#d6121b)
Australia, much like Sweden, already has an academy team so it's easy to make the transition to a full fledged team. Because I feel a little more motivated I'll actually talk about this one (sorry to any Swedes out there).
Australia is a good size country with twenty seven million people, and they are absolutely rabid for sports. Admittedly football isn't the most popular sport - that would be asutralian rules football (rugby) and cricket, but there's still a lot of fans. With New Zealand already having a non-Academy team, it just makes sense to elevate Australia and finish out Oceania. I can't see any other Oceania countries (or the countries in the Malay Archipelago) getting an expansion team in the foreseeable future, so it might be best to rip the band aid off and do it now.
Also one of the expansion OMs is Australian so I would not be shocked at an Australian team.
Much like picking sand in the previous entry for Morocco, I am not above being cliche. Kangaroo Fur is the first color proposed. It seems like there's actually a couple different colors for Roos, including Gray, but I'm just sticking with the brown one. The second inspiration is from the beautiful blue waters of the great barrier reef. There's been a lot of blue suggestions because, frankly, not enough teams employ blue as a color.
Tier 1
Uruguay
Possible Cities: Montevideo
Possible Colors: Sky Blue (#87ceeb) , Dark Blue (#0038a8), Gold (#f2c615), Olive Green (#377716)
South America currently has two teams which is the fewest of any non-Oceania continent. There's a lot of historic success in international play for Uruguay. They hosted and won the first world cup and currently sit ninth in overall points - one of three top 10 countries without a team currently (more on those 2 later!). It seems like a natural fit to add a team here. The team pretty much has to be in Montevideo since the capital also has over half the citizens of the country. Which is one drawback of choosing Uruguay: there are only 3.5 million people who live in the country, one of the smallest in this list.
I opted to not go for a red color as both of the current South American organizations use red and orange. Therefore, I propose either the sky blue (the Uruguayan national football team is nicknamed la Celeste, and often wear a light blue), an olive green from the flag of the indigenous Charrua, or the dark blue or gold from the country's flag. There's already a lot of green and brown/tan/yellow so I would personally opt for one of the blues.
Belgium
Possible Cities: Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges
Possible Colors: Brown (#654321), Pink (#FFC0CB), Mint Green (#a6d2bd)
Belgium has never won the World Cup or Euros but that's fine because they're trying their best. That's what really counts. They've appeared in both many times and have a strong football culture, which is my impetus for including them. Western Europe, especially, is over-represented compared to population (and Belgium specifically doesn't help much with only 12 million residents) but as the continent is the epicenter of the sport it makes enough sense. I think any of the large cities in Belgium would serve fine as host cities, but I'm partial to Bruges thanks to the movie In Bruges.
Choosing a primary color is difficult with so many options. I don't think they can take Black since they border Germany (and the Black Forest organization), nor red since they border France (and AS Paris). I think the Flower Carpet, in Brussels, opens up the chance to use more vibrant and bright colors such as pink or more earthy tones of brown. Another option, of course, is the yellow that is ever present in the flags of the country and cities, and the EU flag but that feels a little on the nose, doesn't it? The final option, a little more out there, is a mint green sort of color seen on the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
Netherlands
Possible Cities: Groningen, Utrecht, Rotterdam
Possible Colors: Orange (#fc8104), Slate Blue (#5987ac), Tulip Red (#be181c) or Tulip Pink (#d69a9c)
The Netherlands is a very slightly more successful version of Belgium in international play. They suffer from the same problems as Belgium, however, when considering them as an expansion location: relatively small population and in the over-represented Western Europe. I'm not sure if there's a big Belgium-Netherlands rivalry so hopefully that comparison didn't upset anybody! Of course both Belgium and the Netherlands aren't needed - this is very much a one or the other situation.
The Netherlands national anthem mentions, specifically, William the Silent (born into the House of Nassau) who later became the Prince of Orange and eventually his monarchic line would become the Kings/Queens of the Netherlands. And boy do the Dutch love their orange for some reason. My second color choice, Slate Blue, comes from Van Gogh's The Starry Night. Van Gogh is from the Netherlands and it feels like as good of a reason as any to pick a color. Last, but not least, are the two colors I picked for the tulip fields the country is known for. Of course the tulips are all sorts of colors but you'll probably see more of yellow, red, and a pink-ish color than anything else.
Tier 2
Sweden
Not a lot to say here really other than: convert the Academy Team straight over and call it a day. Gets you some representation for Northern Europe, already has a great color scheme, and there you go. Historically a decent team as well and hopefully a strong culture for the sport.
Colombia
Possible Cities: Cali, Bogota, Medellin
Possible Colors: Off-White (#eeede9), Brown (#685151)
Much like Uruguay, Colombia would bring much needed representation to South America. I was actually between Colombia, Chile, and Paraguay for this spot in tier two due to their similar levels of international success, but went with Colombia. Colombia is a significantly larger country than Uruguay with 52 million residents, but there's much less of a history of international success than Uruguay.
I'm not sure if white is really an acceptable choice as a primary color, but why not? Let's get wild with it. Colombia sits at the northern end of the Andes and is known for their mountains and cities at high elevations. I'll think of some other scheme for the next South American country. Mountains have snow caps. Snow is white. If not a straight white, maybe something very slightly off-white would work better? If that doesn't quite suit your fancy, maybe we go with an earthy brown color for the mountains themselves? It's all mountains here, buddy.
Morocco
Possible Cities: Fes, Casablanca
Possible Colors: Jade (#005339), Gray / Blue (#9ba2b4), Desert Sand (#e9954f)
Morocco would bring additional representation to Africa which currently has 5 teams, and would be the first team in the Maghreb, and the second Arabic team (in lieu of a middle eastern team). They are also scheduled to host the next world cup. They've had growing success internationally in the 2020s and look to be on the upswing, reaching the World Cup semifinals and winning several African/Arabic cups. I think putting the team in one of the two cities with, by far, the most domestic success would make sense. And if it's Casablanca you can make references to the movie as well!
El Garawiyyin, in Fes, claims to be the oldest university in the world and has a distinctive Jade colored roofing throughout most of the buildings and is also present in a few other places throughout the city. Casablanca is right on the Atlantic ocean which gives inspiration to the gray/blue color. And the last one is cliche, I'm not afraid to admit that, but it's the color of sand. For a mostly desert country. I'm not afraid to lean into it a little sometimes.
Australia
Possible Cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
Possible Colors: Kangaroo Brown (#b16524), Reef Water (#00bfc4), Royal Red (#d6121b)
Australia, much like Sweden, already has an academy team so it's easy to make the transition to a full fledged team. Because I feel a little more motivated I'll actually talk about this one (sorry to any Swedes out there).
Australia is a good size country with twenty seven million people, and they are absolutely rabid for sports. Admittedly football isn't the most popular sport - that would be asutralian rules football (rugby) and cricket, but there's still a lot of fans. With New Zealand already having a non-Academy team, it just makes sense to elevate Australia and finish out Oceania. I can't see any other Oceania countries (or the countries in the Malay Archipelago) getting an expansion team in the foreseeable future, so it might be best to rip the band aid off and do it now.
Also one of the expansion OMs is Australian so I would not be shocked at an Australian team.
Much like picking sand in the previous entry for Morocco, I am not above being cliche. Kangaroo Fur is the first color proposed. It seems like there's actually a couple different colors for Roos, including Gray, but I'm just sticking with the brown one. The second inspiration is from the beautiful blue waters of the great barrier reef. There's been a lot of blue suggestions because, frankly, not enough teams employ blue as a color.
