Heck, everyone can do what the CONCACAF was going to do with the Hex with teams that automatically were in it and lower level teams that had to qualify in somehow.
Any effort to reduce the number of qualifiers is going to run into same problem that has caused the current bloated qualifying structures...namely the fact that smaller nations want more matches because that's how they generate their revenue.
I think they would have to combine continental and WC qualifying. Otherwise it means you only have 4 FIFA windows for WC qualifying, including inter-continental playoffs. In UEFA for e.g., with the Euro likely expanding to 32 teams, they could then use those 3 FIFA windows to widdle-down the field from 32 to 16 (4 groups of eight, six matchdays). That will help ensure that there isn't much change in teams that qualify from one WC to the next. That was literally the reason the CONCACAF format was implemented. I don't know if it saves much time. The CONCACAF qualifying isn't exactly short.
It was hyperbole. I am not advocating for every Confederation to do that. I am just saying there are many ways to transform qualifying and make it so that qualifying can just take a month.
It may be hard to squeeze qualifiers in a month but it can be done. Each Confederation can figure it out.
You mean qualifying in separate tiers? Well, it's not entirely farfetched, given that FIFA approved the original qualifying format that Concacaf put forth. They shelved it b/c of pandemic-related lost matchdays, not from external FIFA pressure; and the internal pressure never rose beyond some public grumbling from the since-disgraced Yves Jean-Bart and co. But that's the rub, the trade-off for the smaller teams would be fewer qualifiers for twice as much in WC dividends.
Two consequence of Wenger's proposals are the end of the international friendly and the end of inter continental matches other than at a World Cup.
Wouldn't there still be inter continental friendlies right before a World Cup though as they do every World Cup for sparring partners? And the end of inter continental matches other than a World Cup does not sound that bad because there will be more World Cups.
Wenger's proposal is pretty short on that sort of detail but he does have a one week slot before the tournament. He also seems to have shrunk the tournament window by a week. I suppose teams that don't make the world cup could organise friendlies in this period and some may get a friendly against a world cup team. At the moment I'm still sceptical about a 2 year cycle for world cups and confederation championships. Once there is a bit more meat on the proposals I may come around. One thing I do know, my personal opinion will have nothing to do with the final decision and I will still watch matches if the tournament frequency increases.
umm there are no intercontinental matches other than the world cup. unless of course you are talking about friendlies, but what would that matter if friendlies are done.
how about a 32 team world cup every 4 years and the expanded 48 team word cup every 4 years but in between each other. so you'd have 2026 48 team worldcup 2028 32 team worldcup 2030 48 team world cup 2032 32 team world cup at least this way we could look forward to different formats to keep things spicy. Or to cut the calender down more, make one of the tournaments a 16 team affair with 6 entrants from uefa, 4 from conembol 1 from concacaf 2 from Asia 2 from Africa, 1 host Make it so only the top few ranked countries can even qualify. Uefa 3 groups of 4 to qualify for 6 spots Conembol 2 groups of 4 to qualify for 4 spots Asia 2 groups of 4 to qualify for 2 spots Africa 2 groups of 4 to qualify for 2 spots Concacaf 1 group of 4 to qualify 1 spot This way WC qualifying is done after 6 matches played across 2 or 3 matchdays. I guess this wouldn't really be a "world cup" but a beefed up Confederations Cup. This way we still get the appeal of a full World cup being a special and rare event every 4 years, while getting a mini World cup that doesn't take up too much time to qualify for as an appetizer in between World Cups. something looking like this Group A France Uruguay Algeria USA Group B England Denmark Brazil Japan Group C Italy Argentina Nigeria Iran Group D Qatar (host) Spain Portugal Colombia
But then you have: 2026 48 team worldcup 2027 women's world cup 2028 32 team worldcup, olympics 2029 continental championships 2030 48 team world cup 2031 women's World Cup 2032 32 team world cup And how are you going to handle qualifying? Currently it takes around 13 months, so wc qualifying could overlap with continental championship qualifying and will definitely overlap Olympic qualifying.
Yes I'm talking about friendlies. Before Covid we used to play friendlies. The chances of playing against UEFA teams were reduced by the nations league but I still liked to see us play the odd friendly against African, South American and North American teams. Some people didn't like them but I always thought it was good to have the opportunity to play teams of differing styles and also where you could test out some other players and tactics. With the 48 team cup if you make it and don't perform you only get two games against teams from other confederations. If you don't make the 48 you get none.
If we follow Wenger's proposal there is only one (maybe two) windows per year for qualifying for that summers tournament. Pretty hard to combine or overlap the two. I will try to work out a possible system for AFC that uses the continental Championship as a WCQ preliminary stage. For AFC adopting Wenger's timetable Qualifying for 2025 AFC Championship (an extra one for us) to happen through 2023/24 under the existing system of periodic windows 2025 AFC Nations Cup WCQ for 2026 in 2025 October Window Top 16 teams in AFC Championship divided into 4 groups where top 2 qualify for World Cup. Best two 3rd placed teams play off for the playoff spot. Not sure when international playoff tournament will be held. 6 games for most, 7 games for others. 2026 World Cup 2026 October window AFC Nations Cup Qualifiers AFC has 46 teams. 1 will be host for the tournament which means 45 teams need to be reduced to 23. Easiest way is to have 9 groups of 4 and 3 groups of 3 with top 2 of 4 team groups and the best second placed team from the 3 team groups qualifying qualifying and the other two playoff for the 3rd spot. . Repeat the cycle. Not sure what we do with the teams outside the top 16 in a WCQ window. That's a big flaw in what I've proposed.
Man, if this goes through, LOL @ anyone in UEFA who thought they accomplished something with the Confed Cup's demise. Naw, cat's out the bag w/48 teams - no way Infantino or any pretender to the FIFA presidency entertains a reduction now. I like where you're going with this, the allocation excepted - OFC should at least get a play-in berth, and no way Concacaf accepts fewer berths than everyone else (seeing as they'll get equal representation with Conmebol in the 48-team WC - definitely down to political influence rather than performance, mind). This would essentially be if FIFA just implemented League A of the Global Nations League, with an expanded finals.
As for Wenger's proposal: even with the carrot of only 1 FIFA break in the club season, player burnout is a significant risk. With biennial WCs, you'd have 3 straight years of major tournaments (WC - continental championships - WC) - and Chile in 2017 is a telling example of the risk of running an NT into the ground. Yes, Brazil was immensely successful from 1994 to 2005 with a similar clip of tourneys, but that was back when their B-team was Top 10 in the world.
They would probably have to keep the 5 sub rule and make it the official standard from now on. That can help a bit with burnout. Many teams in the World Cup will only play 2 games and then go home which is not going to burn them out.
And now that I think of it, the really good teams and managers may do a lot of experimenting and shuffling the first round of a World Cup keeping players fresh. There's going to be a lot of minnows and the Top teams can play them with B teams in that first round.
Possibly, yes. The expanded WC seems to be designed not to take any more out of a player than the current 32-team format, but I would also say it doesn't take any less out of them. Mainly because its still up to 7 matches and the third match (round of 32) will be quite high stress compared to the 3rd game of the group stage in the current format, which offsets maybe the lower stress/importance of the second game.
It would dramatically reduce the number of home matches. For example, South American teams currently play 9 home matches at the qualifiers, plus friendlies before and after the World Cup. European teams play 10 home matches at the World and Euro qualifiers, plus the Nations League and friendlies. This proposal would reduce home matches to 6 per Olympic period.
That is not a down side as long as the Federations still get money promised to them in the proposal. It may be a down side to some fans who want as many home matches as possible but I am sure many South American teams' fans would like the chance of making a World Cup more often in exchange for home games.
Depends on who you are playing in the round of 32 I guess. Germany vs. El Salvador or Uzbekistan in a Round of 32 many not be that stressful. But it could be I suppose.