Any 48-team World Cup is an absolute sh*t-show but at least this version is slightly less awful than the alternative. We think.
because of those 48 teams. Once FIFA’s top brass, dollar signs spinning round their eyes as usual and also as usual with absolutely no regard for the wellbeing or quality of the sport they occasionally profess to love had decided to expand the tournament, it was already doomed.
It’s just absolute bollocks, frankly. Intelligence-insulting bollocks at that. Nothing about the existing World Cup format failed to deliver on that front. The 32-team format that’s been in use since 1998 was essentially unimprovable.the 32-team tournaments of the last 25 years have been the very best of themThe 32-team set-up hits every sweet spot you could ask for.
The qualification system already very correctly prioritised a wide geographical spread of teams over merely the ‘best’ 32, but did so artfully enough that the tournament still looks like what it’s supposed to be: the pinnacle. Any pretence, flimsy enough already, that sporting considerations might be in any way involved in the decision-making are entirely torpedoed by the fact the total time allotted in the football calendar for the 2026 jaunt around North America is 56 days – exactly the same as for the World Cups from 2010 to 2018.
It would at least be an argument that could legitimately be made: “This won’t be quite as good a football tournament, but the extra money and increased exposure will allow us to do x, y and z and that’s a worthwhile trade-off.” You could disagree, you could challenge FIFA’s record of delivering on such promises, but it would at least be a reasonable starting point for debate.
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