Sure, Conmebol can always move the final match to Barcelona, after local thugs throw tantrums for not getting paid.
Alternatively, we can give it to Morocco in 2025. They finally get to have their "major" FIFA tournament and it's close for traveling European fans.
How about the confederation that hosts the WC gets to host the CWC before since it will be in the same year as the Confederations Cup was? When Brazil hosted the WC, most stadiums were in eastern Brazil, and they weren't close to Colombia or Venezuela. If CONMEBOL got to host the CWC first, it could have been shared by Bogota and Medellin. I'm not saying those are good stadiums or areas. I'm just providing a geographic example. If England or Spain hosted a WC, the CWC could be in eastern Europe like Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Turkey. If Morocco or anywhere else in northern African hosted a WC, the CWC could be in southern Africa like South Africa, Angola, DR Congo, or Zambia.
The Confederations Cup served as a host "testing" function. The expanded CWC will no longer serve that purpose. Therefore I would prefer to see it in a confederation other than the one hosting the World Cup to spread the game as much as possible.
China has been awarded the 2023 Asian Cup: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...-football-step-hosting-rights-asian-cup-2023/ Interesting quote: Hmmm....
Speaking of which: with no WC expansion this time, the playoffs won't serve that purpose either. In that light, giving Qatar the December CWCs makes sense. Sorry, my throat got super-dry all of a sudden
Infantino returns to Club World Cup plan saying the Europeans will be in 24-team mix: http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...d-cup-plan-saying-europeans-will-24-team-mix/
Infantino eyes '$50 billion' windfall for new Club World Cup: https://www.france24.com/en/20190605-infantino-eyes-50-billion-windfall-new-club-world-cup
For those interested, South Korea withdrew in mid-May of this year, and India withdrew last October, so it was effectively by default, although China likely would have been favored, anyway, especially considering their future WC hosting ambitions. Going on a bit of a tangent now, I hope India puts in a serious bid for the next Asian Cup now that we've gotten the obligatory China one out of the way. Or even a bid for a Women's WC for that matter. We need some serious tournament hosting experience under our belts.
Glad the CWC is expanding. Still not crazy about it being just every 4 years, but fixture congestion is a danger to every cool idea. Maybe a smaller "FIFA Champions League" could be run in the off years, with maybe just 12 teams (this current 7 is awkward for me)?
"Too much soccer is too much of a good thing, Adidas boss warns" also applies to expanding the CWC. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-s...-a-good-thing-adidas-boss-warns-idUKKCN1U201I
I know how he feels. While I did watch the final of the Nations League, I skipped the finals of the Women's WC, Copa America and Gold Cup. Lets see if I watch the AFCON final. NL is not really 'more soccer' since it just replaces friendlies, but biannual Copa Americas, AFCONs and Gold Cups need to disappear.
It has 4 rounds, with the host and OFC playing in the First Round. 3 teams start in the Second Round, and the UEFA and CONMEBOL champions start in the Semifinals. I'm not saying FIFA should do this, but the simplest 7 team format is 1 bye to the Semifinals and 6 teams starting in the same round. Teams not from UEFA or CONMEBOL want to get lucky and get drawn in the CONMEBOL half of the bracket to have a chance at reaching the Final.
I guess I think the current format is OK. The teams that want to play the most matches- OFC and the host - can. And one of the ones that wants to play the least - UEFA - does.
According to this clubs per association will be limited to two for the expanded CWC: https://www.foxsportsasia.com/footb...orld-cup-revealed-manchester-united-excluded/ It also looks like the Europa League winners won't get in. Makes sense I suppose with UEFA introducing a third tier club competition (and some kind of promotion/relegation mechanism between the three?)
Hold up, now: I'd be very interested to know if this would apply to the non-champion qualifiers (4 from UEFA and 2 from CONMEBOL according to the rumored 8-6-3-3-3-1 distribution of berths) or all qualifiers. If the latter, that would be punishing a country for its clubs' superiority...although it might be the only way to guarantee an MLS team making the tournament
With eight clubs from UEFA, would they be the Champions League Quarterfinalists with spots handed down if countries had more than two Quarterfinalists? I wouldn't want to choose one or two of the Champions League Round of 16 losers. Using 2018-2019, the Manchester clubs would have been excluded as Quarterfinalists that didn't go as far as Liverpool and Tottenham. Giving two spots to the Europa League, Chelsea and Arsenal would be excluded, and the Semifinal losers Valencia and Eintracht Frankfurt would have qualified. I don't think people want those two clubs to be among eight representing UEFA. PSG, both Madrid clubs, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund would be among the clubs that missed out.
The link in question mentions the UEFA club ranking to fill the slots for the non-champions. I can only assume the rumored "two per association" rule only applies to non-champions. Had the expanded CWC been played this summer it would have looked like this for UEFA: 1. Real Madrid (Spain) - Winner 2016/2017/2018 2. Liverpool (England) - Winner 2019 3. Barcelona (Spain) - Winner 2015 4. Bayern Munich (Germany) - 3rd in Club Ranking 5. Juventus (Italy) - 5th in Club Ranking 6. Manchester City (England) - 6th in Club Ranking 7. Paris St. Germain (France) - 8th in Club Ranking 8. FC Porto (Portugal) - 10th in Club Ranking Atletico Madrid (4), Sevilla (7) and Arsenal (9) would have missed out due to the alleged two team rule.
Aren't the qualifiers only from the previous four CLs? In your example, Barça's 2015 UCL triumph would've qualified them for that year's CWC. They still would've made it to 2019 through the club ranking, I imagine...