World Cup: Fifa president wants 48-team tournament

[Sandros Shiny Head]

Oh look, another reason to be less and less interested in international football

 

[thinktank]

They won't stop until they ruin the game.

 

[UncleBuck]

They won't stop until they ruin the game.

Broken already, I got offered a ticket on Saturday and turned it down, just not interested.
With the right management back in the 90's/nawties we really should have won something as a national team.

 

[Matecheck]

"These are ideas to find the best solution,"

You find solutions to problems. What exactly is the problem?

 

[kungfugrip]

48 teams would be too big to actually follow the tournament and know what's happening. It would be a diluted, overlong, meandering mess of a competition and everyone would heave a sigh of relief when it actually finished.

 

[chaching]

I can see the benefits, In theory when you get to the first round out of the way the groups should have stronger countries.

Ultimately the world cup should have just the best 32 or however many countries in the world but that would mean it would be mainly European and South American countries with a couple from Africa and / or Central America. To counter this they water the quality down to allow the other federations to have representatives. This means a lot of the group games are rubbish as they usually have one or two lower quality teams with little chance of qualifying. The supposed benefits of the current solution is that it improves the poorer (in terms of football quality) countries and I guess you can see that happened in Africa over the last 30 years.

I don't know how they would give out the extra 16 places but you would assume that it would be similar proportions as to now by federation. You would then expect a lot of the better (generally European and south american) teams who would not have qualified previously to get in to the groups making it more competitive. So overall we will have a better tournament.

So more poorer countries get to go to the tournament but they will generally play less games. I am not sure if this is a benefit for them or not I guess its more of a benefit if they would not have gone in the first place but less of a benefit if they would have gone. It would also be a pain if the tournament is the other side of the world and you are out after one game.

I guess you have to weigh up how much you want the world cup as a show piece of the best countries and how much you want to use it to improve developing (football wise) countries.

Maybe one solution is you make the qualifying groups world wide where by the really small countries (San Marino, Cook islands etc) have a pre-qualifying group so that they do not get completely demoralized being thrashed each game as that isn't going to improve them either. This then means that countries just below the elite get to regularly play different levels of teams to improve them and not relying on the world cup which can then be the true showpiece event.

I also think if FIFA want the international competitions to remain relevant they need to do something as the next two world cups could cause a lot of damage to the international game.

 

[Trix]

The way things are going, it would be more difficult not to qualify for these tournaments.

The Jocks will show us how.

 

[Yid-ol]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37547545

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has proposed expanding the World Cup finals to 48 teams - after initially suggesting he wanted to boost it to 40.

According to the 46-year-old Italian, 16 countries would be eliminated after a preliminary knockout round.

The rest of the tournament would then be the same as it is now, with 32 teams competing in the group stages, followed by further knockout rounds.

Infantino said a decision on possible expansion would be taken in January.

"These are ideas to find the best solution," he said. "We will debate them this month and we will decide everything by 2017."

Infantino took charge of world football's governing body in February.

One of his election promises was to expand the World Cup to 40 teams.

But his idea now is that 32 teams take part in a preliminary knockout round in the host country, with the winners joining 16 seeded teams in the group stages.

"It means we continue with a normal World Cup for 32 teams, but 48 teams go to the party," said Infantino, who replaced Sepp Blatter.

"Fifa's idea is to develop football in the whole world. The World Cup is the biggest event there is. It's more than a competition, it's a social event."

Bet scotland would still find a way not to qualify!

saying that, it would almost get to the point in no qualifying and just have more groups and then knock outs.

 

[SambaSpurs]

Might be the cynic in me but I just see it as him drumming up support and future votes from all the smaller national federations who dream of playing at a World Cup. Essentially locking himself in and establishing himself as a long-term FIFA president. Everyone's vote is equal and he wants to be seen as the guy who 'upped it to 40' or 'who might up it to 48'. If I remember correctly blatter used to constantly go on about this sort of thing, and Figo certainly spoke about upping it during his FIFA presidency bid.

 

[LSUY]

They won't stop until they ruin the game.

They won't stop till they've milked it for all its worth.

 

[Teemu]

Maybe one solution is you make the qualifying groups world wide where by the really small countries (San Marino, Cook islands etc) have a pre-qualifying group so that they do not get completely demoralized being thrashed each game as that isn't going to improve them either. This then means that countries just below the elite get to regularly play different levels of teams to improve them and not relying on the world cup which can then be the true showpiece event.

This is a good idea in principle but I'm not sure the Cook Island FA would have the budget to charter planes to San Marino, Liechtenstein etc every couple of months!

 

[chaching]

This is a good idea in principle but I'm not sure the Cook Island FA would have the budget to charter planes to San Marino, Liechtenstein etc every couple of months!

True but there are enough pacific islands to have one group and enough small countries in Europe for another etc.

 

[talkshowhost86]

 

[Azazello]

I just don't care really. FIFA will need to try a lot harder to salvage its reputation than get a few more crappy sides in on the action.

 

[tiger666]

It's happening

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38565246

 

[Marty]

It's happening

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38565246

The only positive with this is that it's still only a month long and seven matches to win it.

 

[Dougal]

The negative is your country may only have 2 matches before your tournament is over. Sure, for some smaller nations like my own it could be two matches more than not qualifying at all, but it's hardly a festival of football.

 

[Danners9]

South America could have 7 places if they win the playoff.

7 places for 10 member nations.

 

[Danners9]

Prof Simon Chadwick ‏@Prof_Chadwick 1m1 minute ago
China set to benefit from WC expansion. Wanda deal ends 2030 #payback But role of China shouldn't be overplayed. Diverse interests at play.


there we go, there's one of the main reasons.

 

[WalkerboyUK]

Now confirmed that there will be 48 teams from 2026.