As you know by now, the 2022 world cup in Qatar will be held in November and December. With the tournament happening later in the year there's extra time to kill. There will be additional international dates in March and June 2022 available. With these extra dates I'd like to see CONCACAF expand the qualifying format to give more teams meaningful competition. They could either expand the hex to 8 or 10 teams. Alternatively the semifinal group stage could change to 2 groups of 6 instead of 3 groups of 4. And please, don't reply with posts about Qatar being stripped of the world cup. There are a thousand other threads to discuss that.
Yes, the hex should become the octo. In the semi-final phase, the groups are always unfair. The US always seems to be the beneficiary of this. Guatemala, T and T and St. Vincent? All three are worse than any of the four in Costa Rica's group. The Asian federation seems to have a better system. They eliminate the mega minnows early, then have a fair middle round (in progress now) and then have a ten team final.
The round before the Hex is more problematic imo. I like the two groups of six idea but that ups the games being played from six to ten. Maybe do what UEFA does (kind of) and take the two top group winners, automatically qualify them, then spots 2-4 in the two groups go to the hex. Would technically expand the hex, give more grace in the round before, and the teams that don't need to play a ton of qualifiers don't have to.
As of now, qualifiers end in November, 7 months before the World Cup starts. If the same schedule is applied to Qatar, qualifiers would need to end in April (April is 7 months before November and I know that there are currently not FIFA dates in April). Also remember the interconfederational playoffs. If CONCACAF went to an Octagonal, the seven pairs of games might be in November 2020, March 2021, June 2021, September 2021, October 2021, November 2021, and March 2022. If CONCACAF has 3.5 spots or fewer, I'd still prefer a Hexagonal. Another issue is when the 2021 Confederations Cup would be.
Finally found the international match calendar starting 2018. I included the Euro championships because the mid-year's apply to Concacaf, but did not include the Africa championships. And the Confederations Cup will be in "Asia" during the normal mid-year: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/aff...c2018-2024fifa_15-02163_101_en_en_neutral.pdf 2018 - 19-27 March 2018 - 3-11 September 2018 - 8-16 October 2018 - 12-20 November 2019 - 18-26 March 2019 - 3-11 June 2019 - 2-10 September 2019 - 7-15 October 2019 - 11-19 November 2020 - 23-31 March 2020 - 1-9 June (for non-UEFA confederations) 2020 - June - July (European Championship Euro 2020) 2020 - 31 August - 8 September 2020 - 5-13 October 2020 - 9-17 November 2021 - 22-30 March 2021 - 31 May - 8 June 2021 - June - July (FIFA Confederations Cup in Asia) 2021 - 30 August - 7 September 2021 - 4-12 October 2021 - 8-16 November 2022 - 21-29 March 2022 - April (Final Draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar[tm]) 2022 - 30 May - 14 June (4 matches) 2022 - 19-27 September 2022 - 14 November (Release of players for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar[tm]) 2022 - 21 November - 18 December (FIFA World Cup Qatar[tm]) 2023 - 20-28 March 2023 - 12-20 June 2023 - 4-12 September 2023 - 9-17 October 2023 - 13-21 November 2024 - 18-26 March 2024 - 3-11 June (for non-UEFA confederations) 2024 - June - July (Euro 2024) 2024 - 2-10 September 2024 - 7-15 October 2024 - 11-19 November
Thanks for posting the full calendar. EvanJ is correct. Intercontinental playoffs would have to take place in March 2022. The calendar could also be affected if the 16 team Copa America (CONCACAF and CONMEBOL) happens again in 2020. I'm sure if it makes a ton of cash next year they'll find a way to bring it back again. This would wipe out the June 2020 FIFA dates. With an octagonal, it could start in October 2020 and finish in November 2021 (14 dates). The preceding semi-final group stage would be played in Nov 2019, March 2020, and Sept 2020 which is identical to the dates for the 2018 WCQ semi-final group stage beginning in a few weeks. If they went to a 10 team final group (decagonal?) it could start in March 2020 and finish in November 2021 (18 dates not including June 2020). There are 10 dates available in 2019 to narrow the field down to the final 10. The top 2 or 4 could get byes directly into the final group.
I don't know if CONCACAF would want the Hexagonal (or Octagonal) to start the month after the Semifinals end because there has to be time to make the Hexagonal (or Octagonal) schedule, select venues, and sell tickets. This cycle the Semifinals will be played in November 2015, March 2016, and September 2016, but the Hexagonal will start in November 2016, not October. I don't want a group of 10. My guess is CONCACAF players on clubs in UEFA think 16 qualifiers is enough flights over the Atlantic Ocean and wouldn't want a group of 10 (requiring 18 games if you started in the final round) or Semifinals and group of 8 (requiring 20 games).
I understand the “too many matches” argument but there’s one main reason I disagree with it. In the absence of competitive fixtures the teams just travel all over the place playing friendlies anyway to fill the dead space in their calendars. It’s not like they’re just taking a break when there’s no qualifiers. If you look at the fixtures and travel of the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, and even Jamaica (they went all the way to Korea FFS) over the past year they’re not exactly taking it easy on their euro based players. I say, if they're going to fly all over the place playing games on every date anyway then why not make those matches meaningful?