http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cu...usly-approves-world-cup-expansion-to-48-teams 16 three teams groups and top two advance to round 32 knockout. This is just silly. More driven by greed than spirit of inclusion. 3 game group stage makes for very weird advantages in terms of rest. They need to tweak this.
I'm not opposed to the change. The World Cup happens once every four years and I won't complain that there will be more games.
So basically another Qualification Round until the main tournament begins. Too bad, the last day of Group stage was always kinda interesting with two games played at the same time. Whoever thought things would get better under Infantino now knows better. Of course this is all about money and getting votes from smaller countries, who should not have the same voting power as football heavyweight nations. Probably Africa will get 9 starters, Asia 8.5 and CONCACAF 6.5. That's completely out of hand and makes the first round a joke. More games mean lower quality, as we saw last June. Who's up for Uzbekistan v Panama?
This makes it even more difficult to win the world cup as there will be some massive upsets in the round of 32. Also I feel that seeding is now more important than ever. Also, If I'm the players I wanted expanded rosters to deal with the extra games but I have seen no news of that yet.
No extra games, you'll still need to play seven to win the trophy, otherwise the clubs would've vetoed. It's just one less group game and one more elimination. And a lot of teams that shouldn't take part.
Only so many World Cups in one's lifetime. Gotta let Antigua, Botswana, New Zealand, Thailand play in a World Cup.
so only 2 group games?! someone in each group will always have a bye including last match day. that's just facking weird... 64 teams probably would have been better.
I don't mind it. The quality of WC games are porous already, in fact one of the more entertaining things about the WC is seeing small teams try to compete. This allows more nations to participate increasing the exposure and making it more of a showcase of worldwide football.
F--k it, let's just make it a year long 128 team tournament. Home and Away match ups for the earlier rounds like Champions League until round of 32, then just a normal single elimination knock-out tournament at the host nation.
Another laughable cash grab like the Qatar blunder. $975 Million to be precise. What's the point of even having WC qualifier matches at this point? Let all the children participate and give out participation ribbons instead. I'm sure the corrupt officials in Africa and Asia who finance this racket will be awarded all the additional slots. Federation International of Frauds and Asshat.
Good for teams like England and other teams that narrowly miss out on making it past the group stages LOL 2 out of 3 is much easier than 2 out of 4
Depends. They might abolish draws in group matches and let penalties decide if the score is tied after 90 minutes.
awful cash grab stuff ... well at least it gives a chance for a country like Thailand, Indonesia to be in the World Cup
I can live with 48 but I don't like this arrangement. One of the early proposals had 16 teams playing to get into the 8 groups. I think that would've worked better.than the 3-team groups.
so I guess the weaker teams are only guaranteed 2 games now. I'll miss the concurrent games on the last day of the groups. Since only two of the three will play on the last day, there must be a scenario where a draw would advance both? I wonder how they'd prevent taking a knee. Not that FIFA teams would ever do that.