64-Team World Cup Tournament is a Good Idea

You are off by one round. The playoff round was Madrid v Benfica (with the winner to face City).

And that's about as interesting as it got.

 

I don’t know why you stay stuck on my made up numbers, I said “something along the lines of”, the numbers themselves weren’t strict numbers I’d come up with after days of deep thinking xD

That wasn’t the essence of my message, insane how people always only read numbers instead of reading the text…
Asia is huge, people from the Middle East are very different from people of East Asia, who are very different from people of the Pacific, that is literally all I was advocating for, reshaping those confederations. The numbers I gave were made up non-important numbers.

 

It brings fewer good matches though. That's just a fact and that's the other side of the argument.

The flaw with your argument is that you are saying the ugly matches is just icing on the cake - its extra, and you don't have to eat it.

Ok. Thanks. I may or may not eat it, but there's also LESS CAKE (the part I like).

 

Depending on how qualifying spots are allocated, 64 might not be much worse than 48. But 32 was definitely optimal.

 

But then it goes back to my other point of just do not watch those games and watch the more competitive ones. Expansion brings both good and bad. Just like any tournament that has good and bad.

 

Yes, I will. But there are fewer of those competitive matches (less cake).

 

Adding more teams to the Euro did not bring less competitive matches. Did it?

 

OK

This is kind of true of all continents though. I don't think Poles or Ukrainians feel represented by Sweden or Scotland, lol.

Splitting up AFC might not be the worst idea in the world. Just put India in the East zone though xD, gives us a better chance of qualifying.

 

For sure it did. The extra knockout round makes up for most (not all) of what is lost in the group stage, but if we expand to 64 it would obviously still be 5 KO rounds - so its a pure loss.

 

The math is not mathing.
Expansion adds good games and bad games. Not just bad games.

 

I guess we're going in circles. Because this just takes me back to what I wrote 10 posts ago: " I want to watch Spain v Japan/Germany/Costa Rica way more than Spain v New Caledonia/Jordan/etc."

I could choose to skip the latter and just start watching in the R32, as you keep pointing out, but that won't bring back the other 3 games (only partially recouped with 1 extra KO round).

The math is 7-3+1=5 (less than 7)

 

Those types of games will still happen. And matches you do not want to see can be competitive. It is not binary or easy to predict.
Look at the playoffs. Months ago people thought a team like New Caledonia would get throttled in a World Cup playoff.
That way of thinking is just biased and closed minded.

 

Now we're getting dangerously close to where this thread began and people saying rapid expansion of the WC doesn't decrease the overall quality.

 

I am just saying don’t have your preconceived notions of how matches are going to go in the future affect your view on expansion. Because those types of arguments and people who thought similar in previous generations ended up being incorrect.

 

Because we didn't have rapid expansion before. They'd expand by like 8 teams every 25-35 years. If this thread was titled "64-team WC in 2066: yay or nay?" then I'd have to rethink my arguments.

 

Yes. We even have a thread for players changing their FIFA country affiliation just so they can play in a WC. No prior interest in helping their new team qualify to a WC, they just want to parachute into a WC.

When a federation replaces all of its national-born citizens in its WC squad with ex-UEFA players, then you know a nation's population is no longer represented at a WC.

Pretty much you end up with Rent-A-Players at WC matches. Add Qatar's 2022 Rent-A-Fan program, and we have plastic entertainment within a diluted world tournament.

FIFA's priority should be to not dilute WC competitiveness. Infantino knows he can destroy that as long as fleeced WC fans are jumping up and down in stadiums for FIFA's WC Instagram.

Infantino knows there is no higher profit than lowering product quality while customers still pay up the nose.

 

Man, Reality must be biased and closed-minded then:
2025 u17 WC, match day 3 in Group B: MAR curb-stomped NCL 16-0. MAR advanced to R32 with 3pts +8 goal differential.

WC minnows get blown out whenever a third-best qualification is at stake, not when a one-leg playoff qualifies you to the next phase.

FIFA ain't fooling nobody, though. Sticking minnows in 3rd-best-qualifies WCs is how you protect an entire WC group into knockouts. Talk about bracket manipulation in the name of *world party*.

 

ah yes... i though now italy was 1nd and nigeria 2nd. kudos.

so than it was 1 from 4 at each editon.

 

Youth tournaments are different.

 

No need to be closed-minded

48-team WCs will get minnows exposed. That should help put 64-team WC expansion to rest.

 

Once the Norwegian player from Man Citeh scores 10 goals on a team in the World Cup up will I agree.

Until then your argument is an apples too oranges comparison as your arguments usually are.

 

There you go! That goalpost-shifting train is never late with you

Minnows got exposed in a 2025 48-team WC, and will again in 2026. No need to limit curb-stomping options to UEFA goals.

 

No shift. Just observations. World Cups and Senior comps are different than Youth.
There’s some minnows who get blown out. There’s some who surprise and play competitively.
There’s some matches that are blowouts and there’s some that are surprisingly closer than expected.
Adding a few more teams is probably not going to change those pattern or trends.

 

Don’t worry, FIFA will do everything in its power to give you guys a shot once they lock China in hahaha
But agreed, of course it’s always debatable, and I apologize for heating up a little bit earlier on, I should have thought of better numbers or not mentioned them in the first place

I’m still in for a 64 nations WC! Better than this 48 nations one, I never liked the best thirds systems.

 

It would be a good idea to see what the group stage of this World Cup looks like with 48 teams before considering further expansion. If there are multiple thrashings then why would we want more uncompetitive matches?

There is also the fact that qualification is far too easy and boring for the big nations. This is mainly a European problem as South American nations get to play rivalry matches even though qualification is assured for many.

The dilution of the World Cup in terms of geographic spread is also a problem for feel and atmosphere of the World Cup. The vast scale of this year's tournament is part of the reason the cost of attending has been pumped so high. Far more locals to buy tickets and extra travel costs.

I think expanding to 48 teams was a mistake. Although it is too early to be certain. We will see this summer.