If you're going to have a 24 team knockout, why not just stick with 12 groups of 4, with the 8 best group winners getting a bye in the knockout? The groups of 4 work pretty well right now, and the potential of a bye would further compel teams who may have won the fist 2 games to try in their final group game. I think that's about the best you can do as far as reducing 'dead' matches. I agree that your 3 vs 3 format is a decent option if they do go groups of 6 - but, either way, the 24 team knockout round seems to me to be the key to making a 48 team tournament work successfully.
I had never thought about byes in the knockout phase. I suspect there would some serious pushback on that from some of the Confeds, but let's count games: Group play: 6*12 = 72. Knockout: 23...Total of 95 games. 3 team groups.....3*16 + 31 = 79. Now, scheduling....if 3 groups play every day, then it takes 12 days for the group play. The extra round, compared to this year, adds 8 games over 4 days, so it's altogether 4 days longer than present. Can FIFA live with that?
With the huge geography of this tournament, they could reduce travel somewhat by putting each 24 in half of the venues
It would be a change but there have been a number of them throughout the history of the World Cup. Also the UEFA Champions League would be doing a fairly similar 24 team knockout stage by then with the top eight sides effectively getting a bye. So it's not like the football world would be completely blindsided by such a format.
I'm reading that FIFA has reportedly announced the format, venue and allocations for 2026: Allocations: 3 hosts plus 16 UEFA, 9 CAF, 8 AFC, 6 CONMEBOL, 6 CONCACAF, 1 OFC, 2 PO (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF) Format: 16 groups with 3 teams
The allocation has been long known. FIFA is starting to show signs of wanting to change the 16 groups of three. My guess is they eventually will. It'll mean 102 games though for the tournament and I'm curious to see how the schedule would work out.
6 games a day, either they have concurrent games at all stages or they stagger them which would not be hard as the US has 4 times zones at play. Noon, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 start times eastern time zone. If you put those start times at 10 start times on the west coast it means a 7 kick off which is fine. Extends the tournament 3-4 days max for the added knockout round.
Actually, the 3 hosts are part of CONCACAF's allocation, i.e., of the 6 teams from CONCACAF, 3 will be the hosts and the other 3 will come from qualification. Also, the playoffs will be disputed between 6 teams: 1 each from all confederations except UEFA, plus 1 more team from the host confederation (in 2026, CONCACAF, i.e., CONCACAF will have 2 teams in those playoffs).
I oppose having 12 groups, since the top 12 teams would be split in different groups, and the top 24 teams would play just 12 matches between them (instead of 16 with my format).
I'd love to have four continental teams: Rest of Europe, Rest of America, Rest of Africa, and Rest of Asia-Oceania.
1603341957027307522 is not a valid tweet id Each competition is becoming a contest to see what're the most negative issues for each country.
I’d like to direct him to Tyler Adams. To use one of his words, what an extraordinarily stupid thing to say.
The cities Ready for 2026 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇸FIFA's announcement of the host cities for 2026 World Cup is a top moment this year #22in2022More about World Cup stories of 2022 🔗 https://t.co/wyoi6T0Ias pic.twitter.com/8QB9eUeJG3— Concacaf (@Concacaf) December 22, 2022
Happy New Year guys !!! FIFA is expected to reveal the format definitely, the opening game and final venues. I already resgistered for tickets. I feel some Twitter users will activitaly call for a boycott because of some issues concerning the human rights, the environment, the word "soccer" and the large distances. Their slogan is "Blame America all the way".
I think your sarcasm meter is out on holidays. Look at the context of the quote. He was talking about how corrupt the Qatar bid was, and how Linekar himself was accused as being very racist by pointing-out these issues. So, a lot of finger-pointing going on but it seems Linekar is poking fun at those in the Qatar camp (i.e. basically just Qatar and FIFA) who labels anyone who criticizes Qatar as "very racist".
what clearly speaks against 12x4 with round-of-32 with 8 3rd placed teams advancing is that is seems impossible to me to keep travelling low. The same goves wit 2x24 team and 4 3rd-placed in each half. If that world cup would be held in Qatar that would be different, as the distances were that short, but with a WC spread over the whole North America, I cannot see that working. As mentioned, teams playing in Seattle the last group match would have to play a round-of-32 in Mexico City 3 days later. With the proposal I made for the round-of-24 (Wild Card), it would be possible to form regional clusters, as I proposed to have clusters of always 3 groups (ABC, DEF, GHI, JKL). So imagine: ABC = Boston, Kansas City, New York, Toronto DEF = Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia GHI = Dallas, Guadalajara, Mexico Ctiy, Monterrey JKL = Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver So, all group matches of A, B and C will be staged at only 4 venues, + 2 extra venues on the last group day as all six matches shall be held in parallel. The 2 ABC wild card matches of the round-of-24 could be played at Toronto + Kansas City The 2 round-of-16 matches featuring ABC teams can be played at New York + Boston. So the winners of these need only travel beyond their cluster from the quarter final on. In the brackets overview, you can follow my agrumentation, that any team might stay in its cluster until they reach quarter final.
Just curious why you have KC in the same cluster as Boston, Philly grouped with southern cities, and why separate Dallas from Houston? Wouldn't it save on travel if we have something like: ABC = Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Toronto DEF = Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, Monterrey GHI = Atlanta, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Miami JKL = Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver
Well, there are various options, but I thought to have not one cluster with no travel (ABC) and all other with some amount of travel. By that allocations, the area of travel is quite equal. Also I thought, FIFA might like to avoid Texas hosting only one cluster and therefore at max 12 teams instead of the option of 24 team when hosting 2 clusters. and i need to mention, that some teams must travel for the last matchday, if 3 groups won't to all have their matches in parallel. You need 6 venues for that, so 2 extra venues adding to the venues of a cluster.
Ah, ok. I was confused about the need for 2 extra venues, but that clarifies it. Although I don't think there is a chance that FIFA will schedule six matches at the same time (nor would I want that as a fan).
The only way I would want six games at the same time is if FOX/Telemundo have an NFL Redzone/ CBS Sports Golazo type show that takes you to all the big moments of matches and scoring opportunities live/semi-live.
I guess it would depend on the country you are in and if you are home or not. But for those attending the WC live and therefore either watching at the stadium, at a FIFA fanzone or at a bar/hotel realistically they could only watch 1 out of six. Or max 2. I can't see a fanzone or too many bars showing all 6 matches plus a "Redzone"-type show at the same time. Anyway, six matches at once seems a bit unnecessary. We haven't seen anything similar happen in 24-team tournaments that I am aware of, so I doubt they would start now, especially given it would have a negative impact on TV ratings.
Once again an opposition to the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be held in Canada, Mexico and USA The 2026 FIFA World Cup in the US will sportwash the horrors of Guantanamo – Middle East Monitor #closeguantanamo https://t.co/YG6VScG3VD— yvonneridley (@yvonneridley) January 11, 2023 They should've opposed during the bid. Now it's too late.
Sharing here only because this is the first test run (that I'm aware of) for the next WC format: It’s official! 🚨 Leagues Cup groups are finally here ➡️: https://t.co/nVyd1rD1hF #Leaguescup2023 pic.twitter.com/t2vlGGeVpX— Leagues Cup (@LeaguesCup) January 20, 2023 (mind you, no one's getting byes in the WC finals. Leagues Cup just has to make do with not actually having 48 teams)
I feel some smear campaign on the social media, especially on Twitter. The objective is to try to make FIFA reconsider the host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup because of social, political and geopolitical issues for Mexico and the USA. For each bad news, they want FIFA to act. Many Twitter users already began. For the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, they'd find a great opportunity to trash some people.
hmm... interesting. Of course, one of the big problems with groups of 3 won't be exposed in the Nations Cup. Which is that each team has to take turns twiddling their thumbs for 8-10 days while the other 2 teams in their group meet. So, the Nations Cup format is more reminiscent of the UEFA Nations League at its beginning, when the third team would still be playing football while the other two teams in their group are playing each other (it would just be for a different competition).