World Cup 2026

[Pagan Hibernia]

FIFA have now ditched the proposed 3 team group format and gone back to the four team groups, meaning the tournament will be bloated to 104 matches, most of them probably almost unwatchable with some terrible teams, and a round of 32 after the group stage. Presumably meaning the finalists will play 8 games.

what a mess they’ve made by bumping it up to 48 teams

[nonshinyfinish]

https://i.makeagif.com/media/12-30-2020/WU7ZMA.gif

[Onceinawhile]

There will be more group stage games (72) than total games at 2022.

4 team groups is better than 3 team groups, but it's still a shambles.

[HFC17]

I'm not against increasing the number of teams but it is so difficult to make it manageable with that many teams that it probably isn't worth it.

[Diclonius]

And UEFA only gets 3 extra spots lmao

[Pagan Hibernia]

Surely only 36 group games. They only play each other once.

there will be 12 groups. Each group will have 6 matches.

[ancient hibee]

there will be 12 groups. Each group will have 6 matches.

Already deleted my post:greengrin

[MWHIBBIES]

Brilliant. More football to watch over the summer.

[hibsbollah]

I don’t like it one bit, but won’t make it ‘unwatchable’. And there’s some good football being played out with Europe and the two big South American giants, be good to see. African qualifying in particular is always a lot of tight affairs and not much between Egypt, Algeria, Cameroon etc who didn’t make it last time and Ghana and Senegal who did.

[Nakedmanoncrack]

A bit early to start the World Cup moaning is it not?
It's a sensible move away from the proposed 3 to a group format.

[Paul1642]

Brilliant. More football to watch over the summer.

The World Cup this year was great however we already had 4 games each day which included a few that less people would be interested in. All adding extra teams will do is dilute the quality of the games. We could end up with some really poor games in the group stages which unless you support one of the team involved will be pretty hard to get excited about.

There are obviously games like that in any World Cup but the number is going to be drastically higher this time around.

They aren’t changing the current formula for fan entitlement but rather greed to squeeze more sponsorship money.

[Michael]

The existing format was perfect. If this doesn't work out then I hope FIFA will be willing to go back to 32.

[cameronw-hfc]

And UEFA only gets 3 extra spots lmao

In fairness does Uefa not get a sizeable amount more slots than any other region? I might be wrong, but I remember reading an article about how Fifa favours EU heavily in the qualifications process. I might be remembering it wrong though so don't hold me to it 😂

[LaMotta]

Tremendous news how can this be a bad thing? More games of football and more countries who may not usually have the chance getting to play on the world stage in the best competition on earth.

If there are games people dont fancy watching then there is no obligation to do so.....

[Mibbes Aye]

The existing format was perfect. If this doesn't work out then I hope FIFA will be willing to go back to 32.

:agree: The 32-team format as it was worked very well.

I don't mind trying the increase to 48 teams if it means more teams from outwith Europe and Latin America. Teams from outwith qualified from six out of the eight groups (although only one made it to the QFs). With more opportunity and more encouragement a World Cup could become more genuinely 'World' whilst still being competitive. It was maybe the vagaries of the draw but almost every group tie offered something for some neutral observer, and that's not always the case.

The biggest saving grace is they abandoned the proposal for groups of three.

[SJNB Hibby]

A bit early to start the World Cup moaning is it not?
It's a sensible move away from the proposed 3 to a group format.

The negativity thread had gone a bit quiet

[AgentDaleCooper]

And UEFA only gets 3 extra spots lmao

UEFA is pretty over represented tbf. Asia and Africa really are due more places.

[Fergus52]

UEFA is pretty over represented tbf. Asia and Africa really are due more places.

Not if you look at the quality of the teams.

Each of the last few world cups there have been 5 or 6 uefa sides that you'd expect to comfortably beat the African and especially the Asian teams who also narrowly missed out on qualifying.