New World Cup Format 2026

comment by Vorsprung durch Tuchel (U1641)
posted 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
comment by Passion Power - Make 1984 fiction again (U8398)
posted 1 hour, 47 minutes ago
comment by Garnacho cheese (U5318)
posted 27 minutes ago
The "too many teams" argument is just b3cause the European teams don't want more competition. World Cup is like the modern FA Cup, while it's not likely that a minnow will win, there is a chance for a team to have a run and do some giant killing. This is great for the tournament. They should make sure the additional teams should come from Africa, Asia and Latin America, not Europe.
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The argument isn't too many teams, it's too many crap teams or poorly prepared teams.

e.g - African allocated slot will increase from 5 to 9 teams.

It wasn't a mistake that Morocco did so well, they planned it by investing in their grass roots football and infrastructure.

You can't say the same for other countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana etc. Unfortunately their federations will unlikely use any extra funds on improving the sport in their respective countries.

Increasing the allocation I doubt will encourage them to seek improvements as qualifications would be easier.


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As previous these teams being able to get World Cup qualifications more easily will only entice more dual national players to join. Ghana showed in the most recent World Cup how getting to the finals is enough incentive to convince players to represent them.

Additionally they are already good teams in their own right. Nigeria for example, who didn’t make the WC finals at expense of Ghana, can easily field an XI of starting players playing in Europe’s top 5-6 leagues. As opposed to nations like Wales or Macedonia, who have players mainly consisting of Championship standard.
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The only players that would want to join these teams are those that have 0 chance of playing for the nations teams.

It's a lot of hassle to play for countries like Nigeria,
It's very disorganised, sometimes they don't get paid even the expenses to go to tournaments, it's dangerous at times. It's just more hassle than it's worth.

Nigeria, if you look at their population and what they did in previous international tournaments, their popularity and commercial right should have progressed a lot further in international football., but the leaders are incompetent and corrupt so will likely never happen.

comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
It’s a good point about dual nationals. Especially when it comes to trying to poach them from a younger age. Players may be less likely to stick it out and wait for their home team to cap them if there’s a good chance they can play at a world cup.
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I thought Nketiah was going to play for Ghana in the world cup but looks like he's holding out for England.

comment by Passion Power - Make 1984 fiction again (U8398)
posted 20 minutes ago
comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
It’s a good point about dual nationals. Especially when it comes to trying to poach them from a younger age. Players may be less likely to stick it out and wait for their home team to cap them if there’s a good chance they can play at a world cup.
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I thought Nketiah was going to play for Ghana in the world cup but looks like he's holding out for England.
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Yeah but it’s still numbers game, and it’s worth considering how players will view playing for African nations when there’s more guarantees of playing at the world cup.

Timing is also important, there will be a number of players that will be in and around the youth teams of countries like England, France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany and Italy that would be able to represent African nations at world cup, and may have that opportunity presented to them earlier when there’s a guarantee of nine teams from the continent playing there.

A couple of years in football is a lot, it can be the difference between turning down an under 21 call up for France to play for Algeria, or staying there and getting capped for France and no longer being able to represent Algeria, especially if they aren’t good enough to get into a world cup squad.

The only players that would want to join these teams are those that have 0 chance of playing for the nations teams.
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My post above relates to this as well. And it’s also not true. There’s been plenty of players that have turned out for African nations that were more than good enough to play for the nations they were born or raised in. This is especially true of France.

The main problem is that we haven’t even awarded a (men’s) World Cup here in Oz yet. Some countries will have hosted three tournaments before we’ve had our first.

At least we have the women’s World Cup here in a few months to show how well we host events

comment by Passion Power - Make 1984 fiction again (U8398)
posted 1 hour, 50 minutes ago
comment by Vorsprung durch Tuchel (U1641)
posted 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
comment by Passion Power - Make 1984 fiction again (U8398)
posted 1 hour, 47 minutes ago
comment by Garnacho cheese (U5318)
posted 27 minutes ago
The "too many teams" argument is just b3cause the European teams don't want more competition. World Cup is like the modern FA Cup, while it's not likely that a minnow will win, there is a chance for a team to have a run and do some giant killing. This is great for the tournament. They should make sure the additional teams should come from Africa, Asia and Latin America, not Europe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The argument isn't too many teams, it's too many crap teams or poorly prepared teams.

e.g - African allocated slot will increase from 5 to 9 teams.

It wasn't a mistake that Morocco did so well, they planned it by investing in their grass roots football and infrastructure.

You can't say the same for other countries like Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana etc. Unfortunately their federations will unlikely use any extra funds on improving the sport in their respective countries.

Increasing the allocation I doubt will encourage them to seek improvements as qualifications would be easier.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
As previous these teams being able to get World Cup qualifications more easily will only entice more dual national players to join. Ghana showed in the most recent World Cup how getting to the finals is enough incentive to convince players to represent them.

Additionally they are already good teams in their own right. Nigeria for example, who didn’t make the WC finals at expense of Ghana, can easily field an XI of starting players playing in Europe’s top 5-6 leagues. As opposed to nations like Wales or Macedonia, who have players mainly consisting of Championship standard.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The only players that would want to join these teams are those that have 0 chance of playing for the nations teams.

It's a lot of hassle to play for countries like Nigeria,
It's very disorganised, sometimes they don't get paid even the expenses to go to tournaments, it's dangerous at times. It's just more hassle than it's worth.

Nigeria, if you look at their population and what they did in previous international tournaments, their popularity and commercial right should have progressed a lot further in international football., but the leaders are incompetent and corrupt so will likely never happen.



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First point not necessarily true and even when it is true, players like this can still be good quality players, eg. Inaki Williams.

The rest of what you said I mean I don’t necessarily disagree with those very real issues, it doesn’t negate the point I made. In spite of this Nigeria have a good team and don’t think it’s a bad thing teams like this have more access to WC

No issue with 48 teams, just don’t have 8 third place teams reach the second round…reward the 8 best record group winners with a second round bye.

The rest of what you said I mean I don’t necessarily disagree with those very real issues, it doesn’t negate the point I made. In spite of this Nigeria have a good team and don’t think it’s a bad thing teams like this have more access to WC
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As i said before, i think it will stop them from actually working on the real issues why they don't do well. (Investing in grass roots and infrastructure) that's how Morocco got so far, it wasn't an accident.

It's a huge embarrassment for certain countries to not qualify for the WC. They perform pretty poorly also when they are there, they no longer have that fun swagger of play. It's a shame

Cant imagime the BBC and ITV being very happy about cancelling their peak viewing schedules for 40 days to show every game played in this new format. Can you imagine the amount of complaints they will get from all the Angrys of Tunbridge Wells.

comment by Robb #teamlineker (U22716)
posted 21 hours, 32 minutes ago
The main problem is that we haven’t even awarded a (men’s) World Cup here in Oz yet. Some countries will have hosted three tournaments before we’ve had our first.

At least we have the women’s World Cup here in a few months to show how well we host events
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Good point!
Also England, the home of football has only hosted 1 WC nearly 90 years of the competition, and it is nearly 60 years since we last hosted one.
I think Oz & NZ would do well for a completion to be held there too.