64 team World Cup

[phil]

How does anyone feel about this prospect? I see FIFA is now ‘heavily weighing’ as to opposed to just ‘weighing’ (a few days ago) the possibility. On the face of it , it is mad, of course, and you wonder if the whole thing is becoming so inflated it’s in danger of bursting. But if the choice is between 48 and 64, then there are advantages to the latter. The most conspicuous is that we could go back to two through from each first round group, with games played simultaneously, and no need for a Phd in mathematics to work out all the 3rd place scenarios. I’d love to see that. As to European qualifying, I think the continent could easily contribute another half dozen teams at least, of respectable quality (Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Italy, both Irelands, Wales, and others). I could imagine European qualifying with 11 groups of 5, top two through from each. No play-offs. It would be an absolute doddle for France, Spain, England etc, but then it already is. That, and a couple more from Africa and the Americas and Asia wouldn’t make much difference to overall quality, which is already very diluted. Not sure there is a huge difference between FIFA rankings in the 40s and 70s/80s. After the first round, it would be the same as 2026.

Edited July 21 by phil

[exile]

Good question, but may be better (re)posted in the main TA Specific section, where people more likely to see it.

[phil]

Thanks!