World Cup Expansion to 48 Teams (Update: FIFA Council Agrees 2026 Slot Allocation)

None of both have destroyed anything. Calls regarding the WC, have always depended on lots of people, and the figure of the president of FIFA is only one of them, that alone doesn't decide anything.

FIFA's presidents really are there , only for the money.
They'll support anything, that gets them richer, even if it is against what they believe.

 

And Korea 2002...and Qatar 2022..

Well I said somewhat.

 

IF......, Argentina makes it there.

With only 6 guaranteed spots for Conmebol, and how they finished now together with the emergence of former weaker teams being lots stronger in the near future (a strong Venezuela, for instance, is almost a reality). They have no certainty to make it there when the time comes. For the 2026 WC, Messi will be probably retired by then, so they also will not have whom to save them through.

 

Its called "getting old".

 

Don't worry, Peru will be crap again within a year or two. That's more likely to happen than Venezuela becoming good.

 

Peru, Venezuela ?

Those are only 2 of potential qualified teams. Argentina will also have to worry on how everybody else in the neighbourhood does, where almost all have progressed, with the exception of Bolivia, whom seems to be the only team in Conmebol to be being left behind, although still have it in them to give a hard time playing at home to everybody (specially Argentina, whom seems to be the only team in Conmebol that still can't win points there).

And let me remind you, that even with Messi, Argentina couldn't beat Venezuela at home (while playing away against them , without Messi, they had Argentina on the ropes, beating them by 2-0, till Argentina got lucky enough to get that final draw). Same thing on regards to Peru, btw. This time with or without Messi, home or away, Argentina couldn't beat any of those two.

The one thing for sure, is that in Conmebol, Argentina has become into a very beatable team. Not making them anything diferent to the rest of the teams.

In conclussion, with 9, or 10 teams (if Bolivia somehow figures how to catch up with the rest), in competition for only 6 spots, at the end means that at least 3 of them will not get the tickets.....

 

The main thing the perennial powers in CONMEBOL will have to worry about is if they shorten the qualifying process. If, for e.g., they split the qualifying into two groups of 5, with each team playing 8 matches instead of 18, it will lessen the margin for error. That could create some surprises even though the top 3 from each group would qualify.

 

Till now, the only ones whom have suggested it, are people from outside Conmebol.

For Conmebol, current WC qualifier format (all against all), is the best economic type of tournament that exists in Conmebol, where every Federation gets the best from them. To replace it for a group system,as it was in the past, there would no longer be lots of match-ups between important teams, that will sure mean less profit for everyone in Conmebol, and also less regional classics being played, as top teams wouldn't need to play against each other.

Something pretty much like a scaled down version, of the 48 team WC that everyone talks about, where only Conmebol teams, would be fvking other Conmebol teams, with no intervention of no one else. I believe no one in Conmebol would go for it.

 

The reason I bring it up is because expansion of the World Cup brings with it changes in qualifying formats. The only region that doesn't have to re-think their qualifying format is UEFA.

 

Perhaps. The thing that will happen is they don't lower ticket prices, and I don't go because they want me to spend $300 to see Cameroon play Thailand.

 

lol Argentina is not gonna play like crap forever dude. In these qualifiers Argentina had 3 coaches and 3 federation presidents, it was only logical to see this unestability in results. Now things have been normalized the last few months.

Also I can make an U25 Argentina team that should on paper beat anyone but Brazil. Can Chile for instance do the same?

 

It's perfectly ok to be more a team fan than a soccer fan.
Personally I prefer to watch to a bad match when I root for one of the teams than to a wonderful match I don't care who will win.
And many people are like this.
Perhaps this plays also a major role for you ... more than you imagine.
Because corporate or not, corrupt or not ... if your team is playing an important match you'll be watching. And WC is important.
If your team is not playing than other issues do matter.

 

No, he wouldn't. Your statement is not ok, it is only guessing.

I got response from his secretary on one mail, that I wrote to his new foundation. He still considers 32 teams in 8 groups to be perfect and that FIFA once made bad experiences with 3-team-groups in 1982.

In fact, he is right. Group C with ITA, ARG, BRA was an unforgettable festival, but the other 3 groups served boring and tactic-prone football. So FIFA shifted immediately to the knock-out round of 16 in 1986.

 

And West Germany 1974 according to João Havelange (FIFA President)

 

Now I really love expansion if Blatter is against it.

 

if wikipedia needs further references for their 'opportunism' article, i'm gonna link your response from here.

 

But where and when would those penalties take place? The only time the 2 teams are under the same roof is for the match they have against each other. Thus any tie-breaking action done on the field must be done immediately following their head-to-head match.

This is why the idea of having penalties after every group game was discussed (even games that don't end in draws). That would greatly reduce the chances of a 3-way tie.

Unfortunately, it would also make a total farce out of the World Cup group stage. Thus I would refer using Global Nations League ranking as the tiebreaker if pts, goals for and against, and head-to-head are all the same.

 

You could combine the WC with Miss World, with the most attractive woman being the tie-breaker, though this may bestow an unfair advantage to Colombia.

 

Yeah, unless Colombia are in the same group as Russia.

But seriously, I'd rather watch Miss Universe than a penalty shootout that has a 3% chance of ever meaning anything.

 

So there’s a 67% chance a team would have to fly from Massachusetts to Mexico (or wherever) just so they maybe have to take 5 penalty kicks.

Doesn’t seem like a very efficient method.

Its totally non-sensical, that’s why I would be totally against it. However, I don’t think its fair that the idle team has to travel across a continent either.