FIFA may rethink the 2026 Tournament format - reports say

[Calderyon]

After all, Fifa may be spinning its head regarding the reform of the World Cup - on the table, among other things, is an NHL-style "conference model"

The FIFA World Cup tournament format is set to change when the next tournament is held in 2026. It is certain that the joint tournament between the United States, Mexico and Canada will feature 48 teams, but there are no guarantees about the structure of the tournament.

According to the current plan of the international football association Fifa, the 48 countries of the upcoming tournament would be divided into 16 groups, each of which would have three teams. Currently, there are 32 countries participating in the games, which played in eight initial groups of four teams. The top two continued to the playoffs.

Fifa's director of global football development, Arsene Wenger , said on Sunday that we are now in two stages regarding the new format.

Wenger revealed that there are three different options under consideration.

- No decision has been made. "Either we play 16 three-team groups, 12 four-team groups, or two halves with six four-team groups," Wenger said at a press conference.

The two halves diagram as a wild card

Due to the number of teams, in addition to the top two from the groups of four teams, a few of the top three in the group would continue.

A third option would be the two-part scheme mentioned by Wenger: the countries would be divided into two halves of 24 teams, within which six groups of four teams would be played. The winner of both halves would meet in the final. This format would resemble, for example, the format of the Eastern and Western conferences of the hockey league NHL and the basketball league NBA.

- I can't make a decision. The decision is made by the Fifa board. I think the solution will be made in the next year, Wenger said.

The threat of fixed matches has been a pain point for the groups of the three countries

The reform of the World Cup was once strongly driven by Fifa president Gianni Infantino . FIFA's 30-member executive board voted unanimously in favor of increasing the number of teams at the beginning of 2017.

At that time, there was talk of, among other things, a 48-team format, where 16 countries would have already qualified, and the remaining 32 countries would have played one match for the next places in the playoff round. The idea was scrapped because it would have shortened the tournament to just one match for many countries. As a product of further processing, a model of 16 blocks was born, from which 32 countries could continue.

The groups of three teams have attracted criticism, for example, due to the increased possibility of tactics based on the result and the loss of the drama of the last round of the group stage.

Nowadays, all the teams in the group finish their games at the same time, while in a group of three teams, one of the games would have already been played when the other two meet. A few years ago, Fifa, for example, considered penalty kicks to resolve group stage ties, and according to recent media reports, the same idea is now back under consideration.

https://yle.fi/a/74-20007259

[Mystic Mock]

Personally just leave it as it is.

[bitontheslide]

its all driven by money, but adding more teams simply dilutes the quality. I think its fine as it is

[Nicky91]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

its all driven by money, but adding more teams simply dilutes the quality. I think its fine as it is

but otherwise some countries may never ever take part in the world cup

[MTVN]

This WC has shown why they shouldn't do groups of three - the drama in the last round of games was brilliant and you'd lose that if all teams only played two group games. There'd also be too many teams getting knocked out on goal difference

The idea of 6 team groups is interesting but that's a lot of games in the group stage

[Calderyon]

Originally Posted by MTVN

The idea of 6 team groups is interesting but that's a lot of games in the group stage

Nothing like that in the article though, so you thought that up yourself.

[MTVN]

Well hopefully I get credited if they go for that

[Nicky91]

my suggestion dear FIFA even out the participating nations some more pls

more equality across the world


better chances for oceania for example which is long overdue, lesser uefa places