How would 3 groups of 4 work? Maybe something like this? Group winners go through automatically. Two-round playoff for runners-up (could be one-leg ties if needed to save time): Semifinal: Best runner-up based on group performance (I prefer group performance to FIFA ranking) gets bye to final; other two play for spot in final; semifinal loser gets sent to playoff for intercontinental playoff spot Final: Team that got bye plays semifinal winner for last automatic spot; final loser gets sent to play semifinal loser in playoff for intercontinental spot And then obviously you have the playoff to go to the intercontinental playoffs. Alternately, you could eliminate the semifinal loser altogether and just send the loser of the final straight to the intercontinental playoff. But IMO this is too much of a reward for that best runner-up to effectively guarantee them at least the intercontinental playoff. "Best runner-up" is kind of silly to begin with, I'm only using it since you kind of have to with 3 groups.
Hmm. Knowing how things work, this may well be what they go with in the end come to think of it. I think I sort of agree with @BocaFan, especially if the format is indeed as you said. Although it could really apply to any of the top teams. Especially with the whole best runner-up business. AFC’s top teams do generally seem to drop some odd points away. One weird 1-0 loss for Australia in Oman or 1-1 draw in Jordan for South Korea could well be the difference between that fourth auto spot and being stuck in the playoffs. And if the playoff is CONMEBOL then finishing as one of the two worst runners-up will pretty much mean you’re out.
I just checked, and it doesn’t seem like anything’s been confirmed yet. A lot of people seem to think it’s AFC-OFC this time because it’s been rotating the last three cycles, but it’s not official.
They haven't even announced how they intend to decide, although the last couple of times when they have done a draw it curiously seemed to follow the rotation pattern.
If the Jan 2022 FIFA window is long enough, there may be time for a quick round-robin among the 3 second-place teams(?) I agree that they will probably go with what you say above but that would be a bit unfortunate imo. I mean, it depends alot on who the inter-confed playoff is against. If its someone like Colombia or Argentina, then it makes the AFC playoff somewhat meaningless. Whereas the 3-team round robin would be hugely important regardless of the opponent in the inter-confed playoff.
Going back to this, Colombian media is now reporting that the Federations were Nigeria and Brasil. Unfortunately the matches will not be played due to work permit issues. Also, I am hearing major rumblings that CONMEBOL is really leaning towards scrapping the marathon qualifying and doing the aforementioned Two Groups of 5 starting in March of next year supposedly.
Concacaf president Montagliani confirmed exactly that in a recent interview: FIFA will hold a draw to determine the intercontinental playoff matchups, and the date has not yet been set. Yup - the AFC's decision sent shivers down the spines of the football press in South America.
One way or another we will find out soon because I don't see how the normal CONMEBOL qualifying process can happen if it doesn't begin in October. Especially since they choose to piss away valuable time between now and 2022 by scheduling matches like Argentina v Australia next June. Anyway, 2 groups of 5 is not the worst. Beats the format used in 1993.
3 team groups can be played out in a normal length window. Here's how. Team 1 at Team 3 Wednesday Team 3 at Team 2 Saturday Team 2 at Team 1 Tuesday A full round robin with home and away matches would need 2 windows. So the Group format with everyone playing 1 home and 1 away match would have to be the alternative.
If CONMEBOL does go to two Groups of 5 the format is 8 matches and they'd need 10 matchdays. Top 2 teams in each group qualify to World Cup with 3rd place teams advancing to play South American playoff. Calendar could look something like this. March 2021 Matchdays 1-2 June 2021 Pre-Tournament Friendlies June/July 2021 Copa America September 2021 Matchdays 3-4 October 2021 Matchdays 5-6 November 2021 Matchdays 7-8 January 2022 Matchdays 9-10 March 2022 South American Playoff (Group A 3rd v. Group B 3rd two legs) June 2022 intercontinental Playoffs
Yes, but would probably have to be played at a single venue (due to potential of large travelling distances in AFC)
I think Brazil and Uruguay should be the Seeds based on FIFA rankings. Maybe something like this: A Brasil Argentina Chile Venezuela Ecuador B Uruguay Colombia Peru Paraguay Bolivia
Potentially. You could have say Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia and a neutral venue may make sense. You could have Bahrain, Uzbekistan and Iran and the travel would be a lot less. Kinda just depends.
If you go by FIFA rankings and the teams are divided evenly you actually get this as the groups. A Brazil Colombia Chile Paraguay Ecuador B Uruguay Argentina Peru Venezuela Bolivia If they divided it by zone to reduce travel. The groups would be. North Zone Brazil Colombia Peru Venezuela Ecuador South Zone Uruguay Argentina Chile Paraguay Bolivia
I do not think they would divide it by zones because it would just be a repeat of the Copa America format. I would want to mix it up a bit.
Unofficial reports out of South America: 🔵 El Consejo de la @Conmebol, ratificó que las Eliminatorias Sudamericanas al Mundial de #Qatar2022, arrancarán en octubre del 2020.📌 A pesar de los rumores de una nueva postergación, se respetará el calendario ya establecido en la última reunión de la #Conmebol.1/2 pic.twitter.com/7iyPeM1Qfu— Contraportada (@contraportadaec) August 13, 2020 Conmebol's committed to starting WCQ in October and playing out the full schedule. ...plus the Copa América 1293955736033263619 is not a valid tweet id
^Good. I was going to say that maybe now is not the best time to implement the expanded Copa América format, but I know...$$$. And there is still time to play 2 wcq matches before the copa kicks off, but it will feel like a shit load of CONMEBOL matches by the time Copa ends.
It is a roller coaster ride of emotions. Anything can happen between now and October and I am not sure Countries will be ready to host and accommodate teams plus travel, etc. It is good to have a backup plan with the 2 Groups just in case in my opinion.
Plan A: Full World Cup Qualification (if started by October 2020) Plan B: 2 Groups of 5 (if no matches played in 2020) Plan C: Qualification Tournament Olympic Style (if no matches played until 2022)
For the 1990 + 94 World Cup qualifying, they basically played a single round-robin tournament of 6 teams to determine who qualified. I wonder if they'd consider doing the same thing this time around if time gets too tight. Maybe even played in Qatar itself.