World Cup switches to 48-team tournament

:wilshere:

Yes, yes it is. :slight_smile:

I look forward to discussing the ‘Festival of Football’ that will be USA 2026. Left field prediction: President Donald Trump to special guest referee the 3rd/4th place play off.

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Maybe it’s just becoming a tournament of inclusivity then, so we can get all misty-eyed when teams like Iceland do well and when tournament debutants like Albania get all plucky and underdog-gy. For me it’s been that way anyway once it went over 24 teams, and I guess I would’ve felt the same if i’d been around when it went 16 --> 24

Clearly we’re heading towards a 64 or more team World Cup and at that point it will be so boring that you might as well just root for the little teams and get onboard with them.

**[quote=“shamrockgooner, post:62, topic:789, full:true”]
Yes, yes it is. :slight_smile:

I look forward to discussing the ‘Festival of Football’ that will be USA 2026. Left field prediction: President Donald Trump to special guest referee the 3rd/4th place play off.
[/quote]

One way of getting rid of the mexican wave that really does piss people off.

The biggest problem with 48 teams in 16 groups of 3 each is the format anyway. It rewards draws, has all kind of stupid tie breaker situations, in the worst case you only play twice and leaves options for collusion and that’s not even taking into account that the gap in quality between the first 16 and the second and third 16 will be so huge that these teams won’t stand a chance of an upset anyway.

To even make that remotely work they would have had to come up with some innovative ideas right away and not pushed it back X years just to realize that it won’t quite work the way it was intended, as they did with the Qatar world cup and the realization that they won’t be able to play in summer.

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Mate under Blatter thats what they tried to do ,plus of course 4 qtrs and tv time outs . FIFA is almost corrupt as Politians and the IOC . The medellin cartel had more morals. !

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The worst thing would be to organize the tournament. With 48 national teams in it, it would be such a waste of money.

International football has been dying for some time now, this move by FIFA will only confirm it. It’s clearly about money and votes to them, not about the importance of the spectacle on show.

More should be done to tackle the inequalities between European and South American teams etc in order to strengthen claims for a genuine club world cup.

How the World Cups gonna look

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Haha that was definitely put together by an Irish guy. Was it on arseblog? :smiley:

Edit: just clicked on it in full size and see where it came from now. :slight_smile:

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Bit of a bump. FIFA definitely making it up as they go along.

https://twitter.com/richard_conway/status/988473083668426753

https://twitter.com/richard_conway/status/988473390347497472

48 team world cup. VAR heaven.

Totally bollocksed the world cup FIFA have. From winter world cups, to the holders not being able to automatically compete to, now, a 48 team tournament.

We wait 4 years for this and it’s slowly turning to shit

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Isn’t the Qatar World Cup taking place over a shorter time span than usual because of the awkward time of year it’s taking place?

And now they want even more teams in it? They’ll have to be about 8 games a day!

It’s actually the same amount of group games with the extra games all coming in the round of 32 so I think it doesn’t really add all that much time.

Not that it’s not ridiculous. That’s a given.

£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££
£ I wonder why they want so many teams in the World Cup. £
£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$ I’m sure there must be a good reason for it, but I just can’t $
$ seem to work out what it might be.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€
€ I’m sure the answer is staring me in the face €
€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

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ffs stop messing with the world cup format twats!!

https://twitter.com/footballitalia/status/991661154672967681

Barely watched the last euro cup, least interested I’ve been in an important national tournament ever, and if it goes the way it looks like it’s going, I will probably be saying that about upcoming world cups. At this point I just hope Messi gets one so people can shut the fuck about that bullshit “you can’t be the best if you haven’t won a world cup” (or the worse version: “Ronaldo has won a major tournament and Messi hasn’t”) so I can stop caring about international football entirely aside for being an excuse to have drinks with mates at the bar on a nice summer day when Spain plays.

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Baldy going mental. It’s just to gain votes and money.

Is that not what the confederations cup already is?

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