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

As others have mentioned in this thread and others...
...for those who do not like expansion just start watching the tournament at the Round of 32.

It is that simple.


The round of 48 is like an extra round of qualifying on a neutral site.
Sure, you may not like the format but you don't have to watch..
Just watch when the knockouts start which should be more exciting anyway.

 

Except it isn't. The format is totally different. I like the group stage as the games tend to be more entertaining/less cagey.

Also I start watching every WC when there are still ~190 teams involved. In most regions, qualifying will now have less overall drama and be interesting for fewer people, not more. If you recall the end of this tournament's qualifying, the last day was insane in both the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL regions.

 

I don't know. " Interesting" is a very relative term.
It was very interesting to me during Euro Qualifying when expansion occured and it was great to see teams advance that had no shot prior.

 

So yes, that's the counter-argument. However those countries on the cusp of qualifying or not qualifying will tend to be smaller than the ones that were "on the bubble" of qualifying for the 16-team Euros. Smaller population => less people interested.

For neutrals its also less interesting since they tend to want to see the likes Portugal or Italy on the cusp of qualifying for greater drama. For e.g. the qualifying playoffs that are held at the end of euro qualifying process were less interesting in 2015 because we knew the winners (while it may be a nice story) were just there to make-up the numbers. They aren't going far in the final tournament.

 

We still saw a team like Netherlands not Qualify to the Expanded Europe.
I think we will see teams like that in WCQ too.
Especially at first because some teams may have the tortoise and the hare syndrome and say it is going to be easy to qualify and then may find themselves struggling because of their overconfidence.

 

Maybe in UEFA or CAF. I simply don't see any surprises (or even close calls) happening in other regions, such as ones involving the US, South Korea, Japan, Argentina, Chile, etc. that we witnessed last year.

UEFA qualifying looks like it won't change fundamentally since we're only talking about an increase of 3 spots. [Although 3 spots is probably still enough to prevent something like the Italy v Sweden playoff that we just saw, which was probably the most memorable part of the entire UEFA qualifying round.]

 

Well with the new netral site playoff system we could get some weird El Savador over Paraguay played in Los Angeles or DC sorta thing.
(Yes I know Morroco can get it too.)

 

I'll likely start watching the 48 team World Cup once the Round of 32 begins but I'll be keeping a close watch on the group standings and may start watching during the third round of the group phase, depending on if the possibility exists of a non-playing team is sitting in the stands watching their chance to advance to the knockout rounds get flushed down the toilet as the two teams on the pitch conspire manage to achieve the perfectly desired result that sends both of them through. I wanna see chit hit the roof.

 

Any chance the 2026 World Cup reverts back to 32 teams?

 

Nope.

 

I think Fifa have voted no to 48 teams 2022 in Qatar.

 

I get why they are doing this. More games = more money obviously.

But your really making those group stage games watered down now.

 

Horrible group stage after the 48-team expansion. Lesser entertainment value and increased worry of fixed matches.

 

As I said in this thread I view the round of 48 as like a set of inter- confederation qualifiers for the real tournament of 32.
Having an extra do or die knockout stage is really exciting to me.

 

If you view it like that, then you must have also noticed that the World Cup Finals have been shortened by 10 days or so. Not good.

 

any chance FIFA reconsider and create 12 groups of 4, with top two teams in each groups plus 8 best third place teams advancing to round of 32?

 

Don't know what I hate more: the third team progressing or the three team groups...

 

I dislike the 3-team groups more (the 'collusion' factor trumps everything else for me) . BUT I can also see that playing 3 matches that might only eliminate 1 team from the group is quite tedious. Also, because of the way the brackets must be arranged there often isn't any advantage between finishing first or second in a group (unlike in 3-team group format where all group winners play 2nd-place teams). These issues are compounded given that each group will have (on average) 1 team that is quite weak (imagine 4 teams playing for 10 days just to eliminate North Korea ).

That's why for me the best 48-team format is 12 groups of four with the top 2 in each group advancing, with the 8-best group winners earning a bye to the Round of 16.

 

Yeah, much better.

 

Too bad that 50% of R16 teams would get such a long rest.

 

True. But the rest comes at a good time - i.e. after already playing 3 matches.

With the 16 groups-of-three format teams also have a long rest at some point, but that rest comes at a useless time for most - like after playing 1 game or before the tournament even begins in some cases. Or worst of all: resting on the 3rd matchday while the other two teams in your group play.

 

That is why I hate the 16-triads model, there are rest dates built-in that should not be there.

Moving up rest dates for 50% of the R16 brackets is a worse idea: unfair advantage to group leaders in easy groups.

FIFA would easily control who gets to rest on R16 by drawing its favored squads into groups full of minnows.

 

For starters, here's three important things: Groups of 3 are far too problematic regarding potential for ties and collusion; every World Cup team plays warm-up games in the weeks prior to the 32-team tournament and, the worst teams at the World Cup are truly horrible, making for some unwatchable soccer.

Here's a format that keeps everything good about the current structure and opens the tournament to 56 teams.

Twenty-four teams throughout the world qualify outright and 32 qualify for eight wild card spots. The June to July tournament structure remains the same: eight groups of four: three outright qualifiers and one wild card per group.

Of the 32 play-in spots: teams are seeded into four pots, and eight qualifying brackets are created. In the first week of June there are an additional two match days: 1 v 4 and 2 v 3 on the weekdays; before the group stage and winners play for the 4th spot in every group the weekend before the group stage starts.

So... This way a national team that is going to stink up the tournament gets one game to show their ineptitude. Teams that can compete get two, and only the best wild cards get into the groups.

The 24 teams that qualify outright get the benefit of playing friendlies before the group stage starts. The host nation gets to host more games. More nations get to qualify for the World Cup, and the level of competition in the group stages is higher.

Everyone makes more money, and everyone wins. And there can still be tons of drama about minnows without ever having to watch Saudi Arabia embarrass themselves more than once every four years.

 

Can't wait to see more teams like Saudi Arabia raise the level of the coming World Cups...

 

Going to 48 teams is just awful.