Xela Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Typical bullshit decision from the clowns at FIFA I await the 2050 World Cup with 200 teams played across 50 nations, with the final being held on an underwater pitch in the lost city of Atlantis. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 not sure how its going to work but a 32 team knockout phase would be good at least. Dont think this will really create better money for FIFA in the long run as 3 team groups will be predictable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Most of the extra spaces will to Africa and Asia (ie countries more likely to drop a brown envelope off at FIFA HQ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 7 minutes ago, Xela said: Most of the extra spaces will to Africa and Asia (ie countries more likely to drop a brown envelope off at FIFA HQ) A pretty good reason for them not being put off by the possibility of match fixing in the last group stage matches, IMO. Anyone that saw the South Korea games at the world cup they hosted with Japan knows there's plenty of bungs going around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Xela said: Most of the extra spaces will to Africa and Asia (ie countries more likely to drop a brown envelope off at FIFA HQ) They pretty much double their places and North America is to get more spots than South America. "The proposed breakdown would comprise: Europe 16 teams (13 currently); Africa 9 (5); Asia 8.5 (4.5), South America 6 (4.5), Concacaf 6.5 (3.5), Oceania 1 (0.5), Host nation 1 (1)." https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jan/10/48-team-world-cup-fifa-plan-2026 Edited January 10, 2017 by LondonLax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 6.5 spots for CONCACAF is pretty funny, they basically only have 4 teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 6.5 Concacaf is madness, the 8.5 in Asia is undeserved as well but what can you do New Zealand are the big winners anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 To be fair you may just just be able to justify the expansion if you can demonstrate that there are a large number of new FIFA members in the last 30 years, more members more places etc in inch case it would actually be Europe that deserves the increase, UEFA maybe have 10-15 new members in the last 30 years, 3 places? Not enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 That breakdown can't be serious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 FIFA wants China to qualify every tournament (potentially India too). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 Yay more shit teams and a more bloated tournament, great news. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 2 hours ago, Davkaus said: 6.5 spots for CONCACAF is pretty funny, they basically only have 4 teams. Concacaf is a weak qualifying region but in fairness their teams do usually make an impact....US and Mexico usually make the knock outs and last time out you had Costa Rica as the surprise package so that region makes more impact at a world cup than Asia and Africa. Africa getting an extra 4 places at the world cup...their teams have been pretty much a joke at tournaments since the promise of the 90s that got Pele excited....Ghana are the only ones who've made an impact at recent tournaments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted January 10, 2017 Share Posted January 10, 2017 I posted it before Christmas, but for those who might have missed it, the Guardian's tongue-in-cheek suggestion was: 'a single two-leg play-off to bring the number down to a more manageable 210, followed by a final tournament consisting of 42 five-team groups, from which the winners and the 22 best runners-up progress to the first of six knock-out rounds, for a broadcaster-friendly total of 484 fixtures including the third-place play-off' https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/dec/15/anti-sports-personality-year-awards-2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted January 11, 2017 Moderator Share Posted January 11, 2017 So Oceania gets a guaranteed place. Watch Australia try to re-join them now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 I wonder how they will seed it. The reason for Europe only getting 3 more places seems to be that it'll be 16 teams for 16 groups. If Europe is kept as one pot, I can imagine England getting drawn with Brazil and Mexico or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hornso Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 16 hours ago, BOF said: So Oceania gets a guaranteed place. Watch Australia try to re-join them now Would rather earn qualification. The qualifying games mean less and less as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 On 11/01/2017 at 20:49, BOF said: So Oceania gets a guaranteed place. Watch Australia try to re-join them now It's actually easier with 8.5 sides getting in from Asia, because in Oceania we could drop a cutthroat game to NZ and be done. We'll get in every single time with 8.5 places. Our qualifying standards will be a lot lower now, which will defeat our original purpose of moving to Asia, which was to have to play more important games against quality opposition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted January 12, 2017 Moderator Share Posted January 12, 2017 3 minutes ago, ThunderPower_14 said: Our qualifying standards will be a lot lower now, which will defeat our original purpose of moving to Asia, which was to have to play more important games against quality opposition. Surely your original purpose was to avoid losing a playoff to the South American side - but done under the guise of having more meaningful qualifying games. I'm not saying you shouldn't have done that, but let's not pretend that wasn't a major factor. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Asia qualifying is pretty intense atm...normally it's Japan, Korea, Aussies + 1 but this time you have Saudi Arabia back in contention and also likes of Uzebekistan and U.A.E are really pushing hard. I think we could well see one of the big teams in the play off as Iran look in fairly good shape to qualify. I do think Australia made the right move in going to Asia...they regularly make world cups now and lets not forget they also won the Asia cup last year so can start winning proper international tournaments. Only problem is while they have some decent young players coming through now their squad is nowhere near the level of what it was in the late 90s and not qualifying for world cups back then really hindered them in trying to develop the game there. Surely they'll be restructing of the european zone now...there's no point playing 10 games and likes of San Marino and Estonia constantly if it's so easy to qualify...hopefully they'll be less breaks during the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 12 hours ago, BOF said: Surely your original purpose was to avoid losing a playoff to the South American side - but done under the guise of having more meaningful qualifying games. I'm not saying you shouldn't have done that, but let's not pretend that wasn't a major factor. The issue we had was that we'd absolutely walk the Oceania qualifiers to the point where you could pick 11 Australian men at random and we'd still get through to that playoff, and then all of a sudden we're in a cut throat playoff against a battle hardened side who has been playing against world class opposition in the lead up. Moving to Asia balances that out a bit. With 48 teams getting picked, we're getting a spot every world cup regardless. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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