The New Format For A World Cup?

[Revelian]

Here's my idea for a World Cup that would certainly incorporate the world:

128 teams - knockout competition - seven rounds to the final.

All 128 based on either the World Rankings or a two leg match against one seeded nation for successful qualification.

The only problem would be hotels for fans, plus the sheer amount of people in the host nation at the time.

A good idea, or a bad idea - you decide.

Revelian

[Century's Best]

Originally posted by Revelian
Here's my idea for a World Cup that would certainly incorporate the world:

128 teams - knockout competition - seven rounds to the final.

All 128 based on either the World Rankings or a two leg match against one seeded nation for successful qualification.

The only problem would be hotels for fans, plus the sheer amount of people in the host nation at the time.

A good idea, or a bad idea - you decide.

Revelian

128 may be a bit too much. 64 would still be pretty damn hard, but ... less difficult and complicated.

IMO a much larger World Cup would be fairer to strong teams from Europe, for example, who get eliminated. Last year we saw Holland and the Ukraine not participate. Ditto for Norway. Yet, weaker teams like Saudi Arabia participated.

The problem is, how to choose the participants? A worldwide qualifying? Seeding, or something akin to the first round of the NBA finals? One game, or a pair of (home-away) games? If it was this last choice, would we see France or Brazil playing American Samoa or Vietnam?

Ideally a World Cup should have only the very best from each region. Sadly, UEFA qualifying is more difficult and competitive than, say, Asian qualifying.

[IASocFan]

Single elimination with 128 teams gives a lot of travel and expense for 64 teams with only one game. Additionally look at the difference between the top 10 teams and teams 121-128.
121 Gabon
122 Lesotho
123 Benin
124 Lebanon
124 St. Kitts and Nevis
126 Tahiti
127 Botswana
128 Mauritius
Your looking at likely 5 or 10 to 0 games with the minnow never getting the ball over the midline. The group setup guarantees three games for all teams. I don't see much reason to change. The WCQ games are meaningful because not everyone makes it to the final. Even England-Macedonia has repercussions in Qualifying.

[Elninho]

What about the idea of creating a true "cup" competition for national teams to go along with the World Cup? Home-and-home knockout rounds most of the way up, with higher-ranked teams seeded. Semifinals and final at a single location. Call it the "International Cup" or something like that.

There are currently 204 FIFA members.

Round 1:
129-204 play; 76 teams playing this round

Round 2:
Add 51-128; 116 teams playing this round

Round 3:
Add 21-50; 88 teams playing this round

Round 4:
Add top 20; 64 teams playing

Round 5:
Round of 32

Round 6:
Round of 16

Round 7:
Quarterfinals

Round 8:
Semifinals

Round 9:
Final and 3rd place match


Would add up to 10 matches to the international calendar for top teams. This could easily be completed in a year - perhaps in the year following a World Cup.

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by Revelian
A good idea, or a bad idea - you decide.


In the words of commentator Toby Charles, "Oh, that was a baahhd one there."

The present format guarantees three matches to fans who want to travel to the tournament. That's appealing for fans, and for organizers. Unless you can match that, no other format could (or should) be considered.

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by Elninho
Would add up to 10 matches to the international calendar for top teams. This could easily be completed in a year - perhaps in the year following a World Cup.

For European nations, is this in addition to, or to the exclusion of, the European Championship that starts qualifying a few months after the World Cup?

[Elninho]

Or... how about spreading out the knockout tournament over the three non-WC years?

[Revelian]

Good idea.

Revelian

[Koeman4]

I think international football should be divided in divisions. It's very boring to see Spain playing with Malta, San Marino or Albania. There should be a previous leg between small countries before they could face the big countries. A similar system works in the UEFA Champions League.

International competitions are losing importance because people is not interested in most of the matches. Most of this matches are only to know how many goals is going to score that player of if the strong team can score more than 5 goals.

[hammie]

Originally posted by Koeman4
It's very boring to see Spain playing with Malta, San Marino or Albania.

First off I think the World Cup is fine as it is! Second having a "International Cup" would make scheduling games even harder than they are for NT teams and clubs.

Koeman, Albania is not even the same category as San marino and Malta. I have seen many games of Albania and Germany and England and other good teams. In which Albania have given them scarces or tied or won. Albania is by far the strongest of the Minnows.

[Quaresma]

Originally posted by hammie
First off I think the World Cup is fine as it is! Second having a "International Cup" would make scheduling games even harder than they are for NT teams and clubs.

Koeman, Albania is not even the same category as San marino and Malta. I have seen many games of Albania and Germany and England and other good teams. In which Albania have given them scarces or tied or won. Albania is by far the strongest of the Minnows.

Good for them..point remains though, they still suck...

[Revelian]

The biggest problem with the current World Cup system is that teams like Saudi Arabia get to go, whereas teams like Holland don't. I know it's a World Cup, but what is a World Cup without the Dutch, yeah?

Revelian

[Roehl Sybing]

Originally posted by Revelian
The biggest problem with the current World Cup system is that teams like Saudi Arabia get to go, whereas teams like Holland don't. I know it's a World Cup, but what is a World Cup without the Dutch, yeah?

Revelian
I don't know, but I thoroughly enjoyed the last World Cup.

[Auriaprottu]

Originally posted by Revelian
The biggest problem with the current World Cup system is that teams like Saudi Arabia get to go, whereas teams like Holland don't. I know it's a World Cup, but what is a World Cup without the Dutch, yeah?

Revelian

It's a World Cup the Dutch weren't in.

I see no reason why the World Cup should alter its format because one confederation's size and clogged club schedule makes it impossible to simplify its WCQ in a way that favors long-term success over one-off results. That's UEFA's problem, not FIFA's- and certainly not the rest of the world's.

A better idea would be for UEFA to divide itself into separate confederations or at least two regions that do not play against one another in WCQ. Same number of spots, same number of matches, but more matches against the same teams = reward for long term excellence.

But back to my original point. As entertaining as the Orange can be, they haven't ever won a World Cup. Ever. There's absolutely nothing about them that would merit changing the format.

[KCWiz]

128 teams is a good idea. maybe down size it to 96 teams. the top 32 get a first round bye. the bottom 64 play a single game to advance to the next round which will consist of 64. from then on just single elimination until you get down to 1 team.

[Revelian]

Originally posted by Auriaprottu
A better idea would be for UEFA to divide itself into separate confederations or at least two regions that do not play against one another in WCQ. Same number of spots, same number of matches, but more matches against the same teams = reward for long term excellence.

Dude. I don't know if you've looked at a map of Europe recently, but if UEFA divided into two confederations all the decent countries would play each other and the Latvias, Georgias and Albanias of this world would have a better chance of qualification. The problem would get worse, yeah?

Revelian

[Bauser]

Originally posted by hammie
First off I think the World Cup is fine as it is!
Best sentence of the whole thread.

[Auriaprottu]

Originally posted by Revelian
Dude. I don't know if you've looked at a map of Europe recently, but if UEFA divided into two confederations all the decent countries would play each other and the Latvias, Georgias and Albanias of this world would have a better chance of qualification. The problem would get worse, yeah?

Revelian

Yeah, I know all the popular teams are on the Western side. Divide it by some criteria other than location, then. I still see no point in FIFA having to do for UEFA (thru altering the WC Finals format) what UEFA can do for itself by altering its WCQ.

The real issue here is the popularity of the Game in the European nations. There are only so many dates available, and a decision must be (already has been,really) made about whether to emphasize the World Cup or various club competitions. Right now the calendar favors club ball. Holland was simply the latest UEFA team to become the victim of what basically amounts to a business decision. But they knew up front what they had to do, and they failed.

[Bauser]

Originally posted by Auriaprottu
The real issue here is the popularity of the Game in the European nations. There are only so many dates available, and a decision must be (already has been,really) made about whether to emphasize the World Cup or various club competitions. Right now the calendar favors club ball. Holland was simply the latest UEFA team to become the victim of what basically amounts to a business decision. But they knew up front what they had to do, and they failed.
The calendar will always favour club ball simply because that is the bread and butter of this sport. Club ball keeps this sport alive. National team ball will always be a sideshow.

Holland was not a victim of anything. Think about this: The WCQ groups for 2002 were drawn before Euro 2000. By late 1999 Portugal hadn't qualified for anything since Euro 1996, Ireland hadn't qualified for anything since WC 1994. In other words Holland's group didn't look particularly tougher than other groups by then. UEFA can not look into its crystal ball and predict which non-powerhouses are gonna hit form over a certain period of time.

[Auriaprottu]

Originally posted by Bauser
The calendar will always favour club ball simply because that is the bread and butter of this sport. Club ball keeps this sport alive. National team ball will always be a sideshow.

I understand this- that's why I said, "already has been, really". My personal preference is international ball (and will be, I suppose, until MLS really becomes a powerful league or at least gets a team near metro Atlanta), but I know I'm in the minority.

Holland was not a victim of anything. Think about this: The WCQ groups for 2002 were drawn before Euro 2000. By late 1999 Portugal hadn't qualified for anything since Euro 1996, Ireland hadn't qualified for anything since WC 1994. In other words Holland's group didn't look particularly tougher than other groups by then. UEFA can not look into its crystal ball and predict which non-powerhouses are gonna hit form over a certain period of time.

When I said "victim", I didn't mean the Dutch had been drawn into a group of death or anything, just that because of UEFA's method of WCQ, there's always the chance that a "big" team can get left out on one or two bad results. This time it was Holland.