World Cup switches to 48-team tournament

Surely even Scotland could not fuck up and qualify for this :giroud:

Seriously though this is madness. Leave it as it is ffs. 48 teams you may aswell just axe the qualifiers!

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What is it with the Italians, always want to be just a bit more bonkers than the rest? :gunnersaurus:

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Gots to be getting that dollar.

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They should introduce a rule that if you need to build more than one stadium youre not allowed even bid to host it.

I thought expanding the euros was a bad idea but then I quite enjoyed the tournament itself. I doubt I’ll give the same level of fucks watching Botswana v Yemen though.

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:facepalm:

My friend Gianni talks shit :wilshere:. A 48-team tournament would see the quality drop badly.

Gianni is blatter only younger , the more teams the more cash the more cash the more money for gianni , cant wait for him to introduce 4 quarters and the abolition of the offside rule and throw ins ,plus TV time outs !

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Gianni, you greedy bastard :arteta: :bellerin:

A very cheap way to satisfy the African countries a bit without taking starting places from Europe.

Any more teams and its practically the FA Cup.

Might as well let the top 25 in the world automatically in and let the rest qualify.

Another shambles of an idea to create more games and more money.

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Why not. This is the World Cup, I think it should be more inclusive.

I think the bigger farce with these tournaments is the two year qualifying campaign where 80% of the teams don’t even get through. There’s also a big luck factor in who you get in your group.

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I don’t get why people are moaning so much about this and saying it’s not as prestigious.

You’re still the best team and in the world if you win and will still need to beat the best teams in the world to do it. If anything, more teams at the finals actually makes it harder thus proving you really are the best team.

I’ll only be annoyed if it impacts club football somehow.

It won’t make it harder having extra shit teams at the tournament, it wont be easier either it just means more bang average matches to get through before we get to the pointy end of the Tournament.

Fair but no-one is going to force you to watch Namibia vs Kenya.

Global football federations are “overwhelmingly in favour” of plans for a 48-team World Cup, Fifa president Gianni Infantino says.

The head of football’s governing body outlined his vision for an expanded tournament comprising 16 groups of three teams earlier this month.

The top two teams in each group would progress to the knockout rounds.

A decision will be made in January but any change to the 32-team format is unlikely to come in before 2026.

Fifa’s council will discuss the proposal at a meeting on 9 January but Infantino, 46, made expansion part of his election manifesto.

“We have to be more inclusive,” he said at a sports conference in Dubai, adding that a 48-team tournament was the most financially appealing.

“If we can have a format that does not add any additional matches but brings so much joy to those who don’t have the chance to participate then we will have to think about that,” Infantino said.

“When discussed with the associations in the summits they were overwhelmingly in favour, but more discussions will have to take place.”

The number of competing teams at World Cups last changed in 1998, increasing from 24 to 32.

The European Club Association, which represents the region’s leading clubs, has rejected calls for the World Cup to be expanded.

Infantino also said experiments around video technology in refereeing at the recent Club World Cup had been “very positive” and that he hoped the system would be used at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The system was first used to award a penalty in Kashima Antlers’ semi-final win over Atletico Nacional, with the referee alerted by an assistant watching a monitor.

But there was confusion in the other semi-final between Real Madrid and Club America when the technology was used again.

After the referee asked for a consultation following a Cristiano Ronaldo goal, play briefly restarted from a free-kick for an infringement before the goal was eventually allowed to stand.

Infantino said tests in Japan had moved the system in “the right direction” but added “there is still a bit of fine-tuning to be made”.

Three team groups is the only thing I dislike about this.

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Three team groups is a horrible idea. With the way the ranking systems works it’d be impossible to go out in the group stages. Seems like FIFA are playing with something that doesn’t really need to be changed. The group stages at the last World Cup were fantastic; no need to ruin it!

They may as well expand it to 64 teams and start straight with the KO stages tbh. The quality down at the 48th team of such a tournament wouldn’t be nearly good enough to stand a real chance as it’s not going to be a team coming from the better continents, but from Asia, Africa, Oceania, the countries that will promise Infantino their votes if he helps them to participate.

Also one more thing is to find countries that are actually willing to host such big tournaments. We may be heading in a direction where major football tournaments will be held more regularly in oil countries as no one else will be able to pay for it.