Wouldn’t the problem still exist either way? And you still have the fight for 1st place in a group which usually won’t be determined until the last game. A team that goes 2-0 in a 4 team group format may have already reached 1st place and could care less about their 3rd game.
Terrific news! Very excited for what should be an outstanding event. Hard to think about a 48 team format. Is it too soon to build an enemies list of countries voting against us again? As a starting point, Brazil, Belgium, France, Italy and Netherlands are on it. http://amp.si.com/soccer/2018/06/13/world-cup-2026-voting-results
Taiwan voted for Morocco? Tai-freaking-wan???? Now that I look at the whole list, Brazil was the only Western Hemisphere nation who could vote to vote for Morocco (Cuba abstained, I believe).
Yep. I'm hoping that 16x3 format was just FIFA being devious to get the idea of a 48 country World Cup into the door. Now that things are set, the format should be switched to something at least a little better, like 12x4. Of course, the big European leagues will be furious if the format lengthens the World Cup.
12x4 means 72 games just for the group stage, and the winning bid was entirely premised on an 80-game tournament.
Problem is 12x4 doesn't give you a clean second round. Group leaders plus the best four runners up? I see coin flips. 16x3 gets you a nice easy Round of 32. Basically you trade a group match for an elimination match.
But because of who the winner is, you can play as many games as you want, the infrastructure is there.
so goddamn happy. attended Romania Sweden quarterfinal at standford stadium in 94 as 14 year old super naive (dont think i'd ever watched a soccer match on tv) soccer player. that game turned me into a fan and i can't wait to take my niece and nephews to watch the beautiful game on the biggest stage
Sure, if you trash all the plans laid out in the bid that was just approved, add host cities that were not in the bid, extend the calendar length of the tournament, etc.
I don't think they will. But they could. And the 23 cities in the bid could host as many games as you could possibly need.
12 groups of 4, top two advance, the eight advancing teams who scored the most goals in the group stage (regardless of if they were group winners) get a bye to the round of 16, with FIFA ranking being the tiebreaker. Done and done.
I agree that it goes against the approved bid, but 16x3 is an ugly format. I'll take 3rd place teams advancing over that format.
Sure, Qatar can host in the winter, three nations can host together and all get automatic slots, we can invite 48 teams, but BYES? A bridge too far.
This news took some sting out of us missing the World Cup this year. This will help the healing process
Great news! My wife and I were fortunate to attend all of the games at Stanford Stadium including the US vs Brazil game. Additionally, we were able to attend the 3rd place and final at the Rose Bowl. Amazing experience which will not be repeated. We tried to get back to another WC in 2006, but ended up having our 4th kid. Surprise! I could have gone to Brazil with my wife's cousin, but it wouldn't have been the same without her. So, no go. By 2026, we will both be in our 60s. Health permitting, we will plan to attend as many games as possible and try to make the final again.
Do you think they want an entire round of games being played between teams not named Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain, etc? Besides, the logistics of supporting a team in a single tournament across and entire continent is hard enough w/o that variable added into the mix.