One thing amazes me: FIFA (at least they say) did this for Asia and Africa; as both are obviously biggest gainers and both have biggest population, although we know they do this just for money - Asian fans here (majority) don't like it. Seems like they did it for Indians and Pakistanis who appreciate football like I appreciate that funny game called cricket. They don't care. I, although am not Asian, dislike it also. Dilution of quality, lot of strayed teams, disgraceful format. Only ones that will benefit are fat executives in poor countries that will fill their pockets with money allocated for football development, and, of course, FIFA people who did this. They killed Champions League, they killed UEFA Cup, they then took national teams competitions and killed Euro, now World Cup. Asian Cup too. Ouch.
It is more for rich second tier west Asians (UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, KSA), and populace second tier east Asians (China, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia)
The underlying problem here is that expanding the World Cup will not address certain structural issues that plague the game, both in Asia and in the wider footballing world. Unfortunately we cannot oust all the old men in charge of FAs across the world. Many of them- particularly in Asia- are only in it for the money and do nothing to improve the game. The AFC, being just an amalgamation of these idiots, puts structures in place to ensure their pockets are lined with that sweet, sweet cash. Take for example Asian Club competitions. Somebody needs to explain to me how India gets to participate in the CL when they are, quite frankly, one of the worst footballing nations on the continent (and yes, if you lose to Guam, you suck). Everything in Asian football has to be overhauled and I would say that the labor laws of the European Union have done more for developing the game in places like Iceland than any UEFA investment. Let me explain. As it stands now, if you are a supremely talented footballer from an unheralded nation in Asia you need a lot to go your way to make it out of the local league and play in a reputable Asian one. On the flip side, if you are Emirati or Chinese and are a footballer of similar quality you live the good life. Big money salary without having to test yourself or compete with others for it. Most Asian leagues operate with a 3+1 or 4+1 model when it comes to foreigners. This not only safeguards local talent against competition it also artificially inflates their value which leads to them getting paid more than they are actually worth. If 80% of your team has to be made up of players from a certain nationality then automatically footballers of that nationality become a commodity. For the foreign player slots. Adding the +1 Asian slot was a nice touch but it still means our player from an unheralded nation has his work cut out for him. Al-Ain went and signed Nasser Al-Shamrani- a crazy soon to be 34 year old Saudi- instead of a 24 year old from less established league. Why? Because all the foreign player slots are a marketing opportunity to increase interest in your brand. Smaller clubs are willing to take a risk on players from less heralded nations but those moves only materialize when the player is in his late 20s. By then a player can forget about improving his game to try and move to Europe. What the AFC should do is this. Mandate that any league that allows foreign players must not cap the number of Asian players in their ranks. Since these gulf clubs have found a way to make non-Asian players Asian through the illicit purchasing of passports they should mandate that the player must be capped by his national team in order to qualify. Any league not willing to do this should not be allowed to play in Champions League and instead be made to play in the AFC Cup. When that happens then you'll see Asian football start to improve. As it is now, nothing will change.
Probably because only a few AFC nations will stand a good chance of benefiting. It actually makes it tougher for Iran, South Korea or Japan to make the final 32. They'll qualify for sure (but they usually do anyway), but then be placed in the same pot of the final WC draw as the 7th-best AFC team. So even if they dominate qualifying for 2 years, if they encounter some bad luck in the WC draw they might not reach the final 32.
Actually, Iran is one of the other 43 teams in Asia that benefit from this expansion. Here is a good analysis by Iran manager Carlos Queiroz. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-but-australian-benefits-will-become-apparent
Teams usually making it can change pretty quickly. If we had suffered our 2013 meltdown a bit earlier (or not had as many home games in the last few matches) we may well have missed out on 2014. Saudi Arabia were once one of the teams who usually make it, but missed out twice in a row and could easily make it 3 in a row. I think his good analysis was mainly trying to lower expectations on Iran.
Yeah, it can produce unfair results. Iraq can be drawn with Wales and Panama at the World Cup while Japan gets drawn with Argentina and Mexico. That's more disparity than now I would say.
I wonder how much oil money went straight into the pockets of some Fifa officials to make this happen.
Haha it appears Asia and a little bit CONCACAF ruined the World Cup for everyone. Why couldn't an interconfederaton tournament replace confederations Cup for the World Cup slots? A 16 team inter confederations tournament would have been great with QuarterFinalists going through
https://www.odt.co.nz/sport/football/slots-announced-proposed-cup-expansion Slots announced for proposed Cup expansion FIFA announced its proposed slot allocation for the expanded 48-team World Cup on Thursday. It includes an automatic place for Oceania, 16 places for Europe - up from 13 - and a six-team inter-zonal playoff tournament for two more spots. The proposals will be submitted to the FIFA Council at its next full meeting in Bahrain in May for a final decision, FIFA said Under the proposal made by the FIFA Bureau for the enlarged tournament beginning in 2026, Europe would get 16 places, Africa nine, Asia eight, South America six, CONCACAF six and Oceania one, totalling 46 teams. The host nation would qualify automatically and its slot would be taken from the allocation of its confederation. The two remaining places would be decided by a six-team playoff tournament which would take place in the World Cup host nation, possibly in the November before the finals, FIFA said. The tournament would include one team from each confederation, except UEFA, and an extra one from the continent of the host country. FIFA decided in January to increase the tournament from 32 teams to 48.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39448474 How have the slots been allocated? All six confederations will have at least one team in the expanded tournament, with no inter-confederation play-offs prior to the play-off tournament. The World Cup hosts will still qualify automatically, with their slot taken from their confederation's quota. The recommended places for each confederation are: Africa - 9 (up from 5) Asia - 8 (up from 4 or 5) Europe - 16 (up from 13) North, Central America and Caribbean - 6 (up from 3 or 4) Oceania - 1 (from 0 or 1) South America - 6 (up from 4 or 5) How will the play-off tournament work? Should the proposals be ratified, as expected, it will consist of one team from each confederation except Uefa, with the final team taken from the confederation of the host country. Two teams will be seeded based on their Fifa ranking, and then face the winners of two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams, with the prize a place in the World Cup. The play-off will be played in the World Cup's host country, with November 2025 suggested as a possible date for the 2026 qualifying play-off. It will also double as a test event for the main tournament.
With this expansion, I think the qualifying format will be changed. Most likely we will see more than 12 teams in the final round and more than two groups. You can discuss about your preferred format if you want.
I t My preferred option 8 first round groups with 5 or six teams. All nations involved. That would make 7 groups of 6 and one of 5. Top two of each group go to next round making 16 teams. 4 groups of 4 teams each with top two going to world cup. Best 3rd placed team to play offs (or a mini knock out tournament of the 4 3rd placed teams in a neutral venue on a FIFA match date with the winner going to playoff).
Here is mine: There are 46 teams. A play off match for the lowest 12 teams of FIFA ranking. The winners join to other 34 teams. Then 8 groups of 5 teams and top two teams of each group advance to the final round along with 4 best third place teams or 10 groups of 4 teams where top two teams of each group advance to the final round. In the final round, 4 groups of 5 teams where top two teams of each group advance. Two best 3rd placed team play a play off match and the winner advances to the six nations play off tournament.
Here’s my qualifying format: 1st Round Bottom 20 nations play in 5 groups of 4 with top two progressing. 2nd Round 10 nations from 1st round plus remaining top 26 ranked nations playing in 9 groups of 4 with top two progressing. These 18 teams progressing to 3rd round also qualify for next Asian Cup. 3rd Round 18 teams from previous round playing in 3 groups of 6. Top 2 from each group qualify for WC, plus 2 best 3rd place teams. Worst 3rd place team goes to World Play-off. Or a 3 way play-off for ranking of 3rd place teams, if preferable. The 10 teams knocked out in round 1 join the 18 teams knocked out in round 2 playing for the remaining 6 places at the Asian Cup. Probably 4 groups of 5 and 2 of 4. Winners qualify for Asian Cup. You could expect some teams to pull out at this stage so it might be best to have a knock out if required and then 6 groups of 4.
I like the 32 team format for the final rounds and am against any expansion of the final rounds. But if we are going to have an expansion, I prefer to keep the 8 group format, with the top 2 teams in each group advancing to the round of 16.
At the moment, a Asian side will play 18 games (if they played in Round 2 and play in round 3). based on that, my thoughts are very simple, avoids all this round business, Option 1: - Throw all of the 46 teams in to 4 groups ( 2 groups with 12 nations, 2 groups with 11 nations). - Top 2 in each group qualify for world cup - Top 6 in each group qualify for Asian Cup - 22 and 20 games to be played throughout the course of the qualifying, which can quiet easily be fitted into the match days and also include a heap of friendlies. Option 2: - Include current round 1 of bottom 12 teams to play off for 6 places. Get the total teams down to 40 - 4 groups of 10 teams - Top 2 qualify for WC - Top 6 qualify for Asian Cup Gruelling? yes, wont happen? most probably, but it will just standardies everything, and will avoid the 'best 2nd place' motion and complicated system which AFC love to do.
You would end up with far to many dead rubbers and that could start to influence the results as teams just stop trying once they are eliminated with still 6 or 7 rounds to go. But more importantly not enough big games to satisfy broadcasters and pull big crowds.
Why not just use what AFC did in the second round? 8 groups, except only the group winner advances. Using that round as an example, these would be the teams at the World Cup: Saudi Arabia Australia Qatar Iran Japan Thailand South Korea Uzbekistan
I wouldnt say 6-7 rounds as remember top 6 goes through to the Asian Cup from a group of 10, So it would be still competitive for the lower ranks sides to get some points on the table. Thats reality with UEFA and South America. You will always have teams in the bottom that are already out of contention with a few rounds to go (Lithuania, San Marino, Malta, Kazahkstan) If you think about it, there would be 10 pots of 4 teams. Based on fifa rankings, it would be like this, Pot 10 looks suspect but we have some some big margins but also some good performances from those teams. 1. Aus, Iran, Jap, S Kor 2. Saudi, Uzk, UAE, Qat 3. Chn, Syr, Jor, N. Kor 4. Iraq, Oman, Phil, Kyrgz 5. Bah, Thai, India, Tajik 6. Pales, Viet, Mald, Hkg 7. Tkm, Leb, Afg, Yem 8. Malay, Sing, Kuw, Taipai 9. Idn, Nep, Myan, Laos 10. Cam, Bhut, Brun, Macao
No way they will use one stage. It will be multi-stage competition with weaker teams going out early so top teams (I'd say 16-18) qualifying to final stage. These are my options with first stage stays the same (8 groups of 5 as in 2018 WCQ): A) They add four more teams so 16 teams take part in final stage. Two groups of eight teams with top four from each qualify to WC, fifth-placed teams take part in playoff for spot in intercontinental playoffs. B) They add six more teams so 18 teams take part in final stage. Three groups of six teams with top two from each qualify to WC with two best third-placed teams - worst third-placed team qualify to intercontinental playoffs. For option B they could include six teams eliminated in preliminary round (one group with six teams, eight with five) with top two of each (18) qualify to final stage.