I might be the only one that loved 48 teams and am totally for 64. Not be cause of the actual competition but because with 48 teams it became more of a celebration of soccer. It was so great seeing so many countries having fun and supporting their teams in very unique ways. Loved it. Best World Cup ever IMO because of that. Now that said, I will be curious to see if other hosts can pull it off the way the US, Mexico and Canada did. I have a feeling Spain, Portugal & Morocco will be a ton of fun. Saudi Arabia though in 2034??? Anyway, huge success for our nation in hosting the World Cup! Wish we were hosting the next one!
I don't mind the 64 team idea because it just means more games to watch in June-July 2030. I had no idea what to do with myself yesterday with no games on. UGH But I loved the major anxiety and competitiveness of Qualifying and that will basically go away. I loved freaking out right before every Qualifier, knowing what was on the line. The sense of urgency and anxiety will go way down if we get 7 teams in.
56 teams. 14 group, 4 3rt place teams stay in against the 4 best fifa ranking teams in the first play off. Uefa 17,5 Africa 12 Asia 11 Ofc 1,5 Conmebol 7 Concacaf 7
With 64 teams we could face one of our "other" teams in the WC. Fans will have a problem chanting "USA, USA". Our "other" teams are Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa. Each is a territory or whatever, players are US citizens, they pay US taxes. And most importantly, each has their own fifa-affiliated soccer federation and each has a world cup team. https://inside.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men start looking at #154
Not what I want for a number of reasons but I wouldn't be shocked to eventually see a scenario where the US is just permanent host for like half of the group stage and maybe some knockout games, and they rotate the other half and the later knockout games to other countries who serve as the official host that year
PR is unlikely to qualify even at 64 (maybe if they start recruiting more mainland born/developed players), considering they've never even qualified for a Gold Cup although I'd like to see them improve...they should be better than they are The other 3 would still have absolutely no chance even if AJ DeLaGarza finds the fountain of youth and comes out of retirement to play for Guam
Even if we stay at 48, we won't play them in qualifying at all this cycle. Probably not Canada either.
64 gets rid of all the weird permutations around third place teams advancing, and simplifies the bracket with every group winner just playing a group runner-up again, like in the 32-team format.
I am all for 64. I recently learned that no ASEAN nation has *ever* qualified for the World Cup. No Indonesia (since they’ve been Indonesia), Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia. Those are nations that love soccer and would be welcome additions as fan bases. And of course China or India, plus a bunch of African nations that fight for very few slots right now.
It does seem that we are sacrificing the tension of the build-up for a bigger and broader final event. I wonder if we could consider 'tiers,' in addition to traditional seeding. "The UEFA Nations League divides all 55 European national soccer teams into four main divisions called Leagues: A, B, C, and D. Leagues A, B, and C each have 16 teams split into four groups." I could imagine a World Cup League A with (say) the top eight Euro teams plus two each from Africa, Asia, South America, and CONCACAF France Germany Japan Mexico Spain Switzerland Senegal Brazil England Belgium Iran Argentina Portugal Norway Morocco USA Everyone gets three group stage matches, then QF + SF + 3P/Final = six matches maximum This would give us more of the matches 'everyone wants to see' at the top, and make the other tiers more competitive. For League B, the next sixteen, the Euro representation could drop, and the other confederations could step up. You would still need a lot of fields and infrastructure, but you could also use tighter geographic zones, double-headers, smaller stadiums for the lighter-weight matchups, etc. A lot of details would have to be worked out, but that's why we have massive computing power. Promotion and Relgation? Based on what? If Saudi Arabia hosts, do they become a League A team? One example, CONMEBOL: Better to stratify 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8 into WC leagues ABCD, than to play 18 qualifying matches over 18 months solely to exclude the bottom two teams. CONCACAF is trickier, because it is difficult to imagine the big teams not qualifying at all, but a 'league system' in the finals would raise the stakes enormously (if Panama and Canada could push past the USA and Mexico and drop us into League B).
Not sure the group stage would be any longer than a 48 team world cup. Just add more matches each day. Assuming the group stage will be across multiple countries there is no real limit on venues.
64 teams makes the group stage virtually a glorified additional qualifying round, but I guess one can always skip Panama v Indonesia and Burkina Faso v New Zealand anyway.
If it helps, I will volunteer to take all of June and July of 2030 off from work to watch all of the matches. It's a sacrifice. But one I'm willing to make for the good of the game.
One thing I've always wanted to see globally is a single elimination, random draw knockout cup. Seed only however many teams needed for a play in round to get the total field down to 128, then go from there. No seeds (other than determining who gets a bye in the first round, matchups and venue are completely random draw just like many domestic cup competitions. England at Solomon Islands? LFG. France vs Argentina in the round of 128 while Nicaragua plays Kenya in another tie? Luck of the draw. It would be a hell of a lot of fun, an incredible way to grow the game globally, and wouldn't take up that many match dates--at most 8 per team, which is very doable over a 4 year cycle especially if you get rid of or at least cut down on the shitty Nations Leagues.
"Screw you Mozambique. You're going down in the round of 128." The stadium camera crew would find the 1 small group of American fans who took a plane, 40 year old school bus, and finished with riding on a camel to get to the stadium in Maputo.
Interesting idea, but FIFA would lose less money if they just set a billion dollars on fire. (Scenes when Germany loses in La Paz and Portugal goes down in a cow pasture in Guinea.)
I'm looking for work and told prospective employers I'm not available until the 27th of July. I need a week off to get stuff done around the house after the World Cup (of course I didn't tell them that). It's been a great 6 weeks to be unemployed although sometimes it felt like hard work to watch 8 hours of soccer a day.
Do the semis and final in a single window in Dubai or Qatar or wherever and let the sheiks pay for it
I always loved the excitement of WC Qualifying. Those tense matches against Costa Rica, Mexico, etc. Now all that is gone. The Hex produced a team tested under pressure. Something the 26 team could have used.
Yes, it's often overlooked that all national associations depend heavily on competitive games for match day and commercial revenue and to maintain fan engagement with national team soccer between continental championships and the World Cup. In May, UEFA announced new formats for the Nations League and European Qualifiers which will start after EURO 2028 and which will serve to make games more competitive. It will also means that the UNL effectively becomes round one of qualifying because both leagues in the EQ will be composed on the basis of the preceding final UNL ranking. Therefore it's certainly not the case that qualifying for UEFA teams has been overly weakened despite 16 teams now qualifying for the WC.. Actually this idea of a 64-team WC is unlikely to be adopted because UEFA, its member associations and European Leagues strongly oppose it.