Fifa To Announce World Cup Expansion Soccer

[Best]

FIFA is set to approve an expansion of the men's World Cup with 40 more matches from the 2026 tournament in North America.

The decision to grow from 64 to 104 matches, rather than the 80 originally planned in 2026, is due to come at a meeting of the governing body's ruling council in Kigali, Rwanda.

Rather than having 16 groups each featuring three teams, FIFA will have 12 groups each with four countries, sources say.

 

[Steve]

The current World Cup format already stretches (at least my) ability to watch most of the games. I got tired in the third round of the group games and only watched the ones that I felt like I couldn't miss. I missed some of the first knockout round. And after the World Cup, I definitely had a hangover from watching too much football and I haven't watched as much since - I just feel I've had enough.

People are likely to have to pick and choose the games they watch as there are too many games. Just like only those people whose teams are playing watch the qualifiers, some of the group matches will just be watched by those who are directly involved.

I don't see this format being more popular than the previous one and yet it will not be possible to go back to 32 teams after this change takes place. Nobody will accept something getting taken away and AFC, UEFA, and the other federations will not accept this.

Besides - the 'best third places will get through' means that there will be many groups where it's pretty clear before the last round that 3 teams will go through, especially for the groups that play on the last day or two. So there will be plenty of games where the result is not too important and plenty where teams could be happy with a loss as it would put them on the better side of the draw.

It's sad that they're messing with a format that works really well.

 

[Ghost]

Who wants this?

It feels like super overkill. Having too much is not exciting.

108 games is more than a quarter of the whole of a Premier League season!

 

[Snoops]

The 3 team group they initially proposed sounded great because there would have essentially been no dead rubber games in the group stage.

Now they've backtracked on this it just means a drop in the quality of group stage fixtures with no added jeopardy, along with the extra game.

 

[Bandit]

The best format for 48 teams is without a doubt 12 groups of 4 with top 2 advancing in each group. Rank all 24 remaining teams from 1 to 24 based on points, goal difference etc. Top 8 teams get a bye, bottom 16 teams play in a "wild card" round, then on to round of 16.

The bracket is easy to create:
1 vs Winner 16vs17
8 vs Winner 9vs24
5 vs Winner 12vs21
4 vs Winner 13vs20
2 vs Winner 15vs18
7 vs Winner 10vs23
6 vs Winner 11vs22
3 vs Winner 14vs19

This is better than what FIFA is proposing:
- 96 matches instead of 104
- No 3rd place team advancing--sorry, but if you can't finish top 2 in your group, you deserve to go home
- First knock-out ("wild card") round would consist of 8 games with fairly evenly-matched 2nd tier teams--better than a full round of 32 with many unbalanced matches, more chances of injuries to star players, etc.

I'm completely baffled that FIFA doesn't seem to have even considered that format. But hey, 3 months ago they were still pushing for the ridiculous 18 groups of 3 format, so maybe give them 3 more months and they'll get it right!