The New World Cup Format Is Absolutely Insane
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- čas přidán 8. 02. 2024
- The 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States will be the first World Cup to feature 48 teams, up from 32 teams at every World Cup since 1998 - but that's not the only change.
The 2026 World Cup will be longer, feature far more games, and it will see a brand new group stage, qualifying, and knockout format.
In this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at the new FIFA World Cup format from the 2026 tournament onwards, the magnitude of the reforms that have been introduced, why they've been brought in, and what it means for various national teams and the future of the World Cup.
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It hurts me to think of how long they considered 16 groups of 3, instead of the very obvious and logical 12 groups of 4.
Problem being 12 groups of four adds another game and 10+ days to players away from there clubs. Something most plays do not want.
Bro it's the world cup, there is nothing more important.
I think they already changed this format in 2022 or 2023 for the 12 groups with 4 teams
@@Kafei01
Maybe. But most players, managers and countries are cerebral enough to know everyone can't win the World Cup. Whether that be Japan/China wanting to win it in 50 years, to people hyping up star players like Halland(Norway)/Demarai Gray(Jamaica) as being a golden ticket to finally winning a World Cup for their country (okay, the Gray one is a personal example as a Jamaican. An absolutely brain-dead take, but I've heard it way too much).
Alloting all your energy towards the World Cup can't be healthy for anyone involved cause not everyone can reap the glory (took the 'G.O.A.T.' Messi like seven tries across different star-studded squads to finally win it). Best to treat it like another completion where you do your best as a professional, make it to Round of 16 before you really start to see the trophy
16 groups of 3 would have been better. The same number of group games as before + an extra round of 32 sounds decent. 12 groups of 4 will be painfully boring. Infinite matches and hardly any jeopardy for most of them.
The easiest way to separate teams with identical head-to-head record in the group phase is to incorporate the FIFA Bribe Coefficient. Each team slips a brown envelope to Infantino and whichever amount is greater, that team can progress.
Infantino votes for that.
And infantino gets to keep the losing teams envelope too of course. It's only fair.
😂😂😂😂😂
Infantino: “You son of a bitch, I’m in!”
Nice one 😂😂😂
When i looked up the term "corruption" in the dictionary, next to it stood "FIFA".
lol, it was UEFA in my dictonary, how different those little books are, but there was a second entry which had UEFA as answer, 'bloody racism'
@@user-qp8go3ss2d I am using an Oxford dictionary, while you must be using a Cambridge one.
@@user-qp8go3ss2dhow is the UEFA “racist” ?
If Infantino really had the balls, he would jump straight to a 64 team world cup with 16 groups of 4
It's coming.
He might not have any balls but he has got a big shiny dome.
2038
It should be 12 groups of 4. What’s the big deal if one more game is played? Only the two best teams are gonna be playing 8 games. All the rest will play 7 games, or less than 6 games. So the tournament increases by 3 more days, is that such a big deal?
@@MikeCee7 The problem with 12 groups of 4 is that it does not neatly become 16/32 teams
And Scotland STILL won't be able to qualify for the second stage
It ain't coming home too. Common Pengland L.
True but now it won't be their fault. They'll likely be shoved in a group with 3 massive teams knowing they'll be destroyed
@@TP-ww7cd nice tournament runs
@@JoDyMa yeah like isreal and jordan or somet...
Scotland and serbia are the two European countries on the rise and could be underdogs
Tbf, the new 48-team format for the World Cup is effectively just the Euros but with twice the teams and more than double the matches, right?
The new Euros format is absolutely abysmal so if true that's bad enough.
@@retardeddragapultyeah and having 495 possible combinations makes it really difficult to schedule who's playing who to make sure they have enough rest, especially as there are no rest days between the group stage and the round of 32.
Current euro format is suck
Much worse than euros
@@Cream147playerI mean it’s not that bad. Issue is the tiebreakers and deciding who goes where
Since I have been old enough (Germany 2006), I have watched almost every world cup match possible. With more games in the 2026 group stage than the entirety of the previous tournaments, I'll be missing out on so many games. The current format was perfect, right in the Goldilocks zone.
FIFA wants $$$$, not you and your perfect format. That game, the quality, the viewing experience, everything else is secondary to $$$$. I predict that within a decade or two there will be a 64-team WC so that FIFA can make even more $$$$.
@@gregorybiestek3431do NOT let them see what you have wrote, please
I was just too young to remember Mexico 70 but I remember all the fuss about Pele and Brazil.
West Germany 74 was the first World Cup I watched and I've been to France 98.
I was outraged for political reasons when Russia and especially Qatar were awarded the tournaments and swore not to watch Qatar....But I was too weak, the drama got to me...
24 in six groups was better. It meant third place teams with two wins advanced as wild cards, not sent packing despite winning games as the current system allows. If there were 12 groups of three (36 teams), you could have 12 group winners and 4 wild cards.
@@gregorybiestek3431 64 would've been a lot more logical than 48. I'm not keen on third-placed qualifiers and obviously the original three team group idea was absurd
A 48 team tournament is just so logistically challenging and overrides the incredible product we get from a 32 team tournament (this format was recently used for the womens world cup and it made it a much better tournament). The obvious answer to football becoming more global is to just make a Europa League type for international competition
Exactly what I’ve come to embrace. It scratches FIFA’s financial itch and provides a competition that’s still entertaining and meaningful to the 32 next best nations- the Austria’s, Peru’s, DRC’s, of the world that are all passionate about their nations playing and achieving glory.
I think it's also bad for the players health.
The more obvious answer is to abandon international football completely.
@@TT-fq7pl i hope you're joking, for your own sake
@@alexchimi7093 Not at all. Most of the best players in the world play in a few European leagues on teams that are together training over long periods of time. That's where the real competition is. International football is an irrelevant throwback to a pre-Internet and pre-widespread global travel time when different countries played different and often surprising styles. I just watched AFCON. It was exactly like every other competition: long periods of play with no chances on net, no one dribbling past more than one player, no team showing any real flair. But I admit: I find nationalism annoying and also irrelevant, considering that there are really only two countries in the world: the rich, and everyone else.
Your idea for turning 12 groups into 12 group winners + 4 best second-placers is savage, and I approve, but there's gotta be a better way. Sadly, that way is 8 groups, 32 teams. Maths is maths
@@syncretismistruth2023 it won't be fair because let's say on the final match day both teams have a chance of qualifying and they agree to have a draw, it won't be fair for for the third team. Hence the reason they play the final group games simultaneously to avoid the teams not knowing the results of the other match. This happened in some WC explained in the above video
That idea sounds awful
I'd honestly just expand to 64 at this rate and do the same format as before just with a round of 32 added in. Then you get more games and more revenue but also have the group stages actually matter.
8 groups of 6, let the smaller countries have some fun.
48 teams, 8 group winners to R16. Next 4 teams and all second places play in an extra game. Would solve “fraudulent group winners”.
There is basically no point in holding the Oceania qualifiers, It's just going to be an automatic New Zealand slot every time
Not necessarily. New Zealand haven’t won every OFC Nations Cup (excluding Australia), so it’s not in conceivable that another team like Solomon Islands could qualify
There's basically no point in the OFC conference existing since Australia left, I say that as someone from NZ. Or well, there are a few greedy people that benefit financially from it's existence
@@milesjcarterProblem is if they join AFC the travel times from Syria to Tahiti
Tahiti qualified for Confederations Cup remember
Other Oceanian teams other than New Zealand (apart from American Samoa, Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga) can compete for the intercontinental play-offs (which they would lose anyway)
The problem with only the group winners (+4) advancing is that
a) most teams will be out of the running even before their last game
b) the draw would be incredibly crucial - which is already a big issue
Both those are true but playing 60 odd games used to eliminate one third of the field seems pointless as well.
The whole 48 team WC seems poorly thought out to be honest.
Correct. The best thing to have done was to keep it at 32 teams and never expand it to 48.
@@nickvickers3486 In truth, a WC that has enough games to be fair, feature a lot of players and a "calendar footprint" large enough to properly rest players in between would be great for football - but we would need to cut back on some other stuff in turn. The problem is that the leagues don't want to cut anything back themselves, UEFA doesn't want to cut anything back and FIFA can't cut anything.
Ideally, you'd find a way in which during a WC year, fall/winter international games are completely cut out (by reducing qualification games for the upcoming continental stuff and NL), the season start in leagues comes a few weeks later and the extra freed up time is given to the WC to fit in 1-2 more games and a lot more break in between.
@@isaachenry5692 Football has improved too much in the last few years though. How are you gonna have a world cup with many important countries missing from africa, asia and europe?
Pre 2000 champions league had similar format
6 groups of 4 teams
6 group winners plus best 2 runners up
United treble winners were one of the 2 best runners up with 2 wins & 4 draws
And somehow, Thogden will still manage to watch all the World Cup matches.
didn't that moron watch like 15 minutes of a match before taking a car to another stadium in qatar?
Yeah, if he clones himself
Sure. In a three country WC 😂 Qatar was literally the smallest host nation ever.
who the hell cares about that prick
Money, money, money is all Infantino ever thinks about. He will gladly destroy all the joy of the game in the chase of 💰 🤑
he already has
Nope
And yet here you are, ready to watch in 2026.
The game was already broken before Infantino took over.
@@MetalMouse67 Football is growing in popularity day by day
'Meaning 32 teams will still progress'. Missed an opportunity to put a picture of Will Still in there. I expect this level of humour from you. Keep up please (great videos as always, thanks).
If this year’s Afcon has shown me one thing, it’s that having best third team places is actually a good thing because it gives teams a fighting chance till the end and serves as a great motivator to push harder
100% Agree. Afcon 2023 was one of the BEST tournaments i’ve ever watched. 3rd place teams advancing means more motivation for teams try harder to qualify for the knockout stages.
to be honest these days AFCON is far better than Euro
It turns the group stage essentially in a friendly tournament as it doesn't matter. A team finishing third in a group of four should be eliminated. Period
@@fresagrus4490 I'm guessing you didn't watch the Afcon huh? it literally proves your point to be mute
@@fresagrus4490
That's not true, only the top 8 of 3rd place group-phase teams will go to the KO-Phase.
And at the end of the tournament there is still only 1 winner. Why are you complaining? Nothing really changes. Except that maybe weaker teams have a chance to go further in the tournament than ever before, is that really so bad?
You're wrong about the Euro group stages, particularly that France / Germany / Portugal group in Euro 2020. That group ended up being dramatic on the final day, as Germany needed a late equaliser v Hungary just to qualify.
Yeah, he lost me a little bit on that one. And really, the sample groups does not seem bad. Plus, his suggestions of only the winner + 4 second place team qualifies would mean even less meaningful games on the final round of the group stages as many of the teams already knocked out...
@@peterkapusi5882 100% agree. Alfie’s idea is horrible. Less spots for the knockout stages would actually mean a-lot more meaningless games on the last group stage match.
Ugh yeah but in the end all 3 favorites still got through. If only 2 got throigh there would have been higher stakes.
A few notes:
1. Regarding your claim that the "Group of Death" in 2020 was a formality: it wasn't. Hungary only lost out at the last minute and kept it really close against most of the teams. I specifically remember the game against Portugal in fact.
2. Upsets can still happen. Talking about another group stage (you may mention this later, I'm only at minute 24), the group of death in 2014. Costa Rica was definitely the whipping boy coming into the group, yet they ended up winning it outright. It's more unlikely, sure, which does suck, but it's not impossible.
3. One big positive of more teams is that in general this could push the overall standard of football in countries to a higher level. The World Cup will definitely suffer at first, but as the dream to play for their own nation is more realistic now, they won't just go to use an uncle who lived in Qatar or England or whatever for a few months as justification to play for the big countries, but instead play for their actual home nation. One big example is Erling Haaland, who can now carry Norway.
It is Fifa so it's a poorly thought out plan, and I do agree with most of what you said, but those are a few points.
yeah Hungary was really close to knocking one of the others out. It usually would be a formality but was not in this case.
Norway couldn't even qualify for the 24 team Euro 2024, how is Erling Haaland going to guarantee their qualification as one of just 16 European teams at the 2026 World Cup?
Remember English fans bitched about expanding to 32 and were wrong. They cried about expanding to 24 and were wrong. They also didn't like the creation of the World Cup itself. It's pretty safe to disregard their opinions on it as they are consistently wrong about it.
I don't think the World Cup will suffer at first. There is ZERO chance we get a 9-0 or 10-1 victory like Yugoslavia Zaire and Hungary El Salvador. even if France draws Mali or England draws Honduras, I think the gap has closed.
Saudi Arabia literally beat Argentina, it's crazy to claim upsets won't happen
The 32 team format is perfect no worry about best third place and all that besides playing in the World Cup should be a privilege not a right
Exactly. The current format is the best possible. Too many teams and matches devalue the product and how is qualifying ever gonna work.
yeah, 32 was perfect. 8 groups, top 2 go through, more competitive groups. with 48 and having 8 best 3rd places in groups makes the group games less important.
I think fifa kinda knows that, but they dont care, they will take all the money they can. @@holmbjerg
Wait til they want to expand to the 64 team world cup
@@BGwControlStop 64 teams is still more reasonable than 48 teams. And every number of teams that is not a power of 2 can only be a step towards the next power of 2.
I like the old format better, but ...
The old format had 32 teams, and the new format, after the group stage is left with 32 teams.
I think that an extra knockout stage increases the probability of a big team messing up. In the new format, the chances of a big team not reaching the ro 16 is higher than the old format.
No that isnt, a big team or first place team will play a third place team, and many second places will play second places in R32. I think you all still didnt find out the logic behind that
Alfie, in a world of shorts, reels and tiktoks these viedo essays are a shining light. Thank you
Alfie providing the breakfast viewing. Thanks mate.
Best solution (other than leaving things as they are) would be 16 groups of 3, with only the winners qualifying automatically. The 2nd and 3rd place teams then go into a knockout play off round (i.e. 2nd from group A vs 3rd from group B and vice versa etc.) That way group winners are rewarded with only 7 games and no dead rubbers.
ooh, I have a similar idea!
In my idea, there will be two kinds of groups, "Golden" and "Silver", both are 4 team groups, with there being 8 Golden groups, and 4 Silver groups
Basically, the Silver groups will contain the extra 16 teams from the expansion, while the Golden Groups will contain the other 32.
In both kinds of groups, top 2 will advance to knockouts. However, the winners of each Golden group will go straight to Round of 16, while the other 16 teams will have to battle it out on play-offs for the other 8 ticket to the round of 16, after that it's just like the good ol' World Cup knockouts
Groups of 3 are ALWAYS unfair because there is no last matchday that all teams participate in.
In addition, they are way too often decided after two games.
@@syncretismistruth2023 Unfair is maybe not the correct word. Unweighted because of what I said. Outrageous differences between the breaks that teams get, that gets unfair. For example, one team has 6 days between their two games, another team can arrive 3 days after the other two...
3 team groups are inherently purposeless and skewed.
@@syncretismistruth2023 Because the last teams will know others results before hand and adjust a strategy accordiling
@@syncretismistruth2023 the group winners would only have max 7 games (2 group + 5 knockout), any 2nd/3rd team would have any extra knockout round so up to 8 games. It's still dumb but there is no good way to have a 48 team tournament. At least this way only winners of the 3 team groups get rewarded so there should be no reason for two teams to play out a draw.
26:21 was clearly directed to Maqwell lol
love the beautiful way your sarcasm comes across iin the one, well done!
The state of that hoodie suit that Infantino is clowning about in.
this guy is so cool, i even considered shaving my head, best thing that happened to FIFA since the advent of Blatter. Grüezi
Imagine a 64-club World Cup...
Well thats just it - there are so many Games that it becomes meaningless - so our poor brains can't 'imagine' it.
16 groups of 4, only top 2 qualify, 32 team knockout. It'll only be one more knockout with very little difference from the 2022 format
at this point just make a 197 country world cup
Imagine the cardinals winning a playoff game…
The Holy See, winner of the World Cup of the year 2058
Thank you for this video. Been wondering about all of this for a while!
One thing to note is that the New Jersey Final site is, yes, not in NY, but it's 200% in the NY metro area and plays to 2 New-York-Labeled NFL teams.
It’s literally closer to NYC than Sofi or the Rose Bowl are to LA or AT&T is to Dallas.
The only reason anyone even notices it’s in a suburb rather than the city proper is because NJ people are loud and annoying about it.
The vast majority of large modern American stadiums are built outside of city limits.
@@kalmenbarkin5708SoFi is only about 1 mile away from the city of Los Angeles at its closest point, and Inglewood is in Los Angeles County and is bordered by the city of LA on 3 sides. AT&T is about 5 miles from Dallas and Arlington isn't bordered by the city of Dallas or even in Dallas County. MetLife is also about 5 miles from NYC and East Rutherford neither borders NYC nor is even in the same state, let alone county.
@@IDub nobody gives a shit where the county or even state border is.
It’s a suburb because of NYC because it’s a suburb of NYC. Inglewood is a suburb of LA because it’s a suburb of LA. Paradise where the SB is today is a suburb of Vegas because it’s a suburb of Vegas. Landover Maryland is a suburb of Washington because it’s a suburb of Washington.
These are small areas just outside the city whose economy and population are based on the city. I don’t care who’s in charge of their garbage collection.
County state or DC borders have precisely zero relevance to whether something is functionally a suburb.
@@kalmenbarkin5708 Here's how I would explain it to a European: "We name our professional sports teams the way you name your airports."
@@kalmenbarkin5708 But you do care enough about distance to lie about it, at least
The best we can hope is an AFCON 2023 outcome for the best third placed teams. It was very suspenseful and gave the incredible journey of Ivory Coast to the finals. Smaller countries shocked the big ones. So let's hope that the standard is as high for the next World Cup (not so likely though).
Let’s hope after 2026 they will revert to old format. We need to see dogfight games in group stages and AFCON is perfect example of that,so much suspense.
3 team groups means we'll have loads of "Gijons"...
they switched it back to 4 team groups no?
@@MarcosGarcia-pj3pq Yeah, they did...for now... But also a number of teams that is not a power of 2 can only be a temporary format on the way to the next power of 2. At least with groups with 4 teams.
I live in Gijón, there's a plaque outside the ground with the signatures of the German, Austrian and Algerian squads on it. Hopefully the World Cup will be back at the Molinón in 2030!
The 3-teams group format makes sense if only 1 team proceeds. Btw, the Gijon's disgrace was part of a 4-teams group but with different timing. These arrangements are mainly possible if two teams benefit. If only one team proceeds, a game arrangement is unlikely to happen, though not impossible. However, this is the case with the 4-teams groups also. Think of the Spanish fiasco last WC as referred here.
@@todorkesarovski8342 You are indeed correct. España 82 was before my time but I've always assumed that the game took place in round 2 which made up of 3 team groups. And that's what so many people have said over the years and it has been used as one of the main argument against 3 team groups!
So a Mandela effect has taken place there.
Another brilliant analysis, so thank you so much for entertaining us on such a grim subject: 👍👌👏!
Really good video Alfie, don’t know why but this video just hit different 💪⚽️
21:13 finally my home country mentioned in an Alfie video 🇿🇲
But not in a good way 😅
33:05 it's a good job that ain't the real world cup draw as you got England playing in 2 groups and Senegal playing in 3 groups
I hate to break the news of the upcoming English and the especially brutal Senegalese civil wars to you like this, but you were going to find out eventually.
@@HITCSevens I wonder how the republic of Northern England will do.
just recently become a football manager addict and your content is great to have on in the background! cheers😂
every video you upload reminds me how glad I am I found your channel. Entertaining and intelligent content
It seems certain that all future World Cups will be hosted by multiple countries.
The costs are astronomical, all the countries that hosted it collapsed (except Qatar)
@@MatheusFernandes-xf4zm The USA will not collapse. The USA could host it all.
Alfie's made that point in previous videos. The only nations that could host it, needing either or both of wealth and existing infrastructure, is the US, Gulf States or select European countries like England, Germany or Italy to name a few.
@@QueintyI'm pretty sure China could host it solo too.
if not even the USA can stage it on their own, it would be smart to bet on that
Mexico has had arguably the best world cups, seeing Pele and Maradona be crowned champions, so I’m excited for this next world cup putting aside the changes made in the format recently
Wrd
Even with this new format, I'm highly doubt that ASEAN countries (including, of course, our country Indonesia) will qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
That's really a shame. The ASEAN countries in Asian Cup this year didn't disappoint at all, like Thailand going unbeaten in group stage without conceding a goal and Malaysia playing an entertaining 3-3 draw against South Korea.
The thing is you have to play the world cup to grow as a team.
@@syncretismistruth2023 Canada still shit tho
ASEAN is kind of in a weird spot. Vietnam and Thailand are the titans of the region yet they’ve had many issues with qualifying over the years (Vietnam I would say has an easier group than Thailand but even if they make it to the third round they’ll likely run into the giants). But it will be fun to see them in and maybe this has a positive knock on effect.
I have to disagree strongly with your assessment of the group of death from the 2016 EUROs, Hungary was extremely close to causing an upset and it was one of the most exiting groups at that tournament
100% Agree. I don’t what alfie’s has been smoking.
Also San Marino in November 2023 scored more goals than Brazil
I think you should make a part 2 of this vieo talking about all the things you didn't have the time for in this one. Sounds interesting and important.
We need a part 2 for the points you weren't able to get to. Love this video!
How to accommodate all the countries in world cup:
Fifa world champions cup with 32 teams...
Fifa world europa cup with 48 teams...
Fifa world conference cup with rest of the teams...
All three tournament will be held at the same timeframe...
With different hosts...
That's kind of a cool idea but the world conference league would be a complete clusterfuck. That's 130 teams and you're having to fly out countries like South Sudan and the US Virgin islands to wherever this is being hosted. I think it would need to be hosted at a different time than the world cup to have any viewers as well
@syncretismistruth2023He just used Europa to equate it to Europa League
Guys.. it was a joke comment... Stop taking it seriously... I was just giving fifa some future ideas to make more money for themselves.. 😜😜😜😜
Hold up, hold up. Arent these just... regionals? I thought that they already served the purpose of choosing who even gets to make up the world cup teams... which would be why the world cup is such a big deal? Because it's not a separare event, but the final horizon to all these other events, the final boss, the best of the best?
I mean pick one man, is it a joke or do you just not know regionals exist, i dont even watch soccer, help me out here
New Jersey might as well be NYC in this case Alfie. Technically, you are correct but in practice the stadium they are going to use is the same stadium used by both of NYC's NFL teams.
it is new jersey, which is trash state of the USA, dont know why it is marketed as NYC
My night time listening thank you for the content love it
Well done! Best summary I’ve seen so far. I totally agree with elimination of the round of 32 with only 12 group winners + 4 best runners up. Keep it high stakes, high quality. The is the World Cup after all, not a back yard kick about.
"if they don't sink into the ocean"
That was an ice cold dose of satire you're not getting away with mate...
Well done.
There's always the possibility that teams perceived as 'weak' and not traditionally gifted in football will surprise everyone in their performance. That'd make things way more interesting, from a spectator pov, and make the whole tournament more exciting overall. Plus, I love the idea of the World Cup lasting longer, as it is one of my favorite events to watch every 4 years. ^^
great vid, allfie. fyi the other two very close stadiums are also seattle and vancouver, it's better to travel by bus or train not plane. it's 2 hour bus ride with the border crossing time included or less than 2 hours by train.
That accent towards the end, top-notch. After a very long day at work crunching 010101 on my computer, that has absolutely lit my evening.🤣
The best format nobody is talking about: who said every team that makes the knockout round had to play in the first knockout round?
Keep the 12 groups of 4, but the top 2 teams from each group advance. The 8 best group winners automatically to the round of 16, and the rest + the 12 2nd place teams make up a play in round to the round of 16. This keeps the drama of the 2022 World Cup in 2026, while also giving an extra incentive for teams to push for the top of their group and beyond, especially when that benefit is extra rest.
Indeed. It's been used in several other sports already and also in the Conference League.
TBH if the ongoing AFC & CAF championships are anything to go by, the new WC expansion would be a blessing in disguise. That argument is dead on arrival.
There are no more big teams walking through easily. Everyone has to earn their keeps.
Very true. Football has matured into a global phenomenon with more participants than ever, so I believe expanding it will only increase it's impact and reach around the world. I say this with the complete understanding that FIFA's motives are financial, but more football is more football.
the USA-Iran match nearly killed me lmao
My favorite part about the expansion is the possibility for more African countries to qualify. With the former format, it was a brutal battle. I feel like 14 countries have what it takes to go to the WC but now, it will be 9 teams instead of 5. As a surprise, Comoros, my country of origin, is leader of its qualifying group, ahead of Ghana and Mali but there were only 2 games played and 8 need to be played, including two tough away games in Ghana and Mali.
My theory : this is a preparation for an expansion at 64 teams by 2036 or 40.
I know this world cup format thing is absolutely insane, but we're in an era where insanity has become the new normal.
IDK what to say anymore, man 🤷
How about, "It is wrong".
Exactly. Saudi princes pay money to piss and shit on young european girls, and nobody bats an eyelid. A truly horrible world to live in.
Just wait until FIFA finds out how much $$$$ they can make if they allow Super Leagues with closed membership, no pro/rel, and salary caps. The amount of media money is 5 times what they get now.
The blue card is the biggest joke
No one asked for it
You are comeing to the usa we now how to put on/host events and sports we do it every day ok and 2 the usa is big from the uk to iraq if you drove a car that how much you would need to drive just east coast to west coast ok so we need a big team and a lot of matches to be played and you adding mexico and canda on top of the usa
Going from 32 teams to 48 teams is insane. A quarter of the world is now qualified for the world cup! 40 teams would have been perfect.
With so many teams and games in the WC there's no point in watching the group stage because only those teams which make it to the next stage will be considered genuinely good enough.
I'll watch the group stage because I like watching football.
I love the “Today i feel” reference at the end, class😂
What i always hated about the world cup was the fact that coming into the third group game you can know exactly which teams you are going to play if you finnish 1st or 2nd i think that is something that has to be eliminated cause in the last world cup i couldnt help but feel like spain purposely didnt play well in the last game to finnish second to get into what was seemingly the better side of the draw
Content, content, content, content! That’s why I love this channel! What I don’t love is that you always say: “change of tact” when the correct saying is “change of tack” - it’s a sailing term! But you continually getting it wrong gets my goat! 😂
I would love to see a 24 team knockout where the top two in each group advance but the 8 best teams receive a bye to the round of 16. I think that would make the group stage stakes still high and every game would matter.
best comment i have read so far, congratulations, very well, you should put that forward to FIFA, amazingly as obvious as it sounds, i have never heard about it before. Essentially college football FCS in USA has such a system.
The first-half of this video had me worried that they went back to that awful 16 groups of 3 format haha. Whatever happens in the 12 groups of 4, I'll just be glad that it ain't 16 groups of 3.
So true!! When the format change was anounced, I immediately thought: "I hope this wont change the calendar footprint of the tournament." So glad they finally adressed that issue!
A format idea I heard floated around for a while before we got the new official one, was that you have the 12 groups of 4, but instead of a Round of 32 and then a Round of 16, you have two Rounds of 16.
Essentially, the top 8 group winners get a bye to the second Round of 16, and the bottom 4 group winners and all 12 group runners-up advance to the first Round of 16.
It means that the amount of games one team would have to play to win the World Cup would be 7 or 8 rather than just 7 in 32-team format, or just 8 in the new official one.
However, it would bring back the stakes of the group stage as in a 32-team format, and still give the increase in overall tournament fixtures from 64 in 29 days of a 32-team format, to 96 in this version of a 48-team format, and with 8 less matches than the new official format, it would mean they could schedule with 4-6 fewer calendar dates, so you could have a 33-35 days long tournament, which would benefit clubs as the quote-unquote calendar footprint would be less.
However, as we know, 8 more games is 8 more opportunities for revenue that FIFA were definitely going to want, so we digress.
I don't think that the Word Cup is prestigious because of the way you qualify for it but rather the symbol of participating in the biggest international football reunion. Even if the level might decrease, it still only involves less than 25% of all federations which means that it remains fairly selective.
Make it a 64 or 32 team straight KO tournament, job done
Great video. Other repercussions to this is that the world cup qualifiers become *almost* redundant with the number of teams being increased. South America only has 10 teams, and now 7 can potentially qualify. 70% of the teams. Meaning they're just playing to determine who's the couple of unlucky teams that are *not* going to qualify.
My plan for 48 teams is 12 groups of 4, top 2 advance. That's 24 which doesn't work for a full knockout, so give the 8 with the most points/best goal diff a bye. Then even if someone wins their first 2 group stage matches, they are still motivated to get a result in the 3rd match to ensure a bye into the round of 16.
Yes! This is the right answer.
Yep. I've said something similar in this thread. It also means that players from the top countries will still only play a max of 7 games, if they perform well
Helding the Final at MetLife is an... interesting idea.
I wanted Azteca... but... yeah...
Especially when it's a dump & is well known for having poor turf.
@@octavianpopescu4776 the fact that the US would host the final has been known for years so you were deluding yourself by hoping that.
Why? I like that the final of a mostly US World Cup is held in a typically American stadium.
@@BrianStorm742 Honestly, I didn't know that.
I mean as someone living in Los Angeles I’m excited to meet all the new fans and hopefully I can go to one game (USMNT or any game for that matter). I do wish we got the final instead but I guess the Europeans don’t want to stay up late because of the 8 hour difference.
😂I just love your sense of humor brother-man with a pinch of sarcasm... You're the best
Based on this year’s AFCON and Asia Cup, I don’t think diluting the quality is a valid complaint about a 48-team format… Instead of thinking about top teams’ chance of failure I think it’s better to think of less highly-evaluated teams’ chance of success.
Well said.
If they're good enough they can qualify like normal
48 teams for FIFA still provide a whole lot more quality than Euro with 24 teams, i just get a sleep attack when thinking of having to watch iceland, scotland, bulgaria, northern ireland, etc etc in Euro matches. that tournament has essentially been killed when getting bloated
@@spacedoge6540with that argument why not reduce the spots? Cause if the team is good enough they’ll still qualify right? There’s a reason the champions league also expanded. If I know anything about football fans it’s that they’ll complain about any change till it turns out to be good. This is not the first time the competition has been expanded
The Cash Grab Cup.
Keep crying
I don't get emotional about dudes kicking a ball.@@roberttorres8477
ironic
tru
@@roberttorres8477bruh about what? you are now telling someone to keep crying about the format?
Qualifying for the World Cup is a prize itself, the 1st time ever Ghana qualified for the WC in 2006, it was a week of celebration.
I will probably be frowned upon, but the best way to solve this is to create 8 groups of 6 teams, 5 matches for each team, top 4 progressing. That way you'll have way more matches and the group stage will be something memorable. Countries that don't generally stand a chance will get to see their team in more matches (revenues). In addition securing the top 4 from each group in the knock-out round, we'll have a better (quality-wise) pick for the knockout stage, not influenced by a terrible group drawing, which is often the case. Moreover, you lessen the risk for fixed matches, which is unfathomably increased with this poor excuse of a format that they proposed.
33:20 fwiw-there arent any stadiums in NYC, or at least any that would work for the world cup. the two american football teams in “new york” play in new jersey, where there will be games (and the final)
It’s 7 miles outside of NYC
Thanks to this new group stage my country will finally be able to qualify for a World Cup!!!!!!! (I'm Italian...)
me too but also american
@@matteoluisrizzo the USA was literally at the last World Cup, Italy, despite having won 4 World Cups and 2 Euros was not at the 2018 or 2022 world cups thats why i said it lol
Oh yeah forgot about that 😂😂😂😂😂
If you had 24 teams automatically qualifying for a group place and the remaining 24 having play-offs for the last group places you could then play the tournament as normal and the weaker teams could come into the group stages with a bit of momentum.
To be honest I’d love to see an hour and a half video. Not only on the WC topic but in general
It's absurdly stupid to say that this current format is worse than 3 team groups where sequels to the Disgrace of Gijón would be possible
As a fan of a middle ranked country (Aus), although i know each game will be less meaningful because it won't be against weaker opposition, a win in the world cup still creates an ecstatic feeling and now it's even more likely.
one day australia will be a good national team🥳
i always root for them
Australia or Austria?
@syncretismistruth2023Bruh, have you not listened about all the problems with a group of 3. Last game week, 1 team sits out, so you wont get amazing moments like in 2022 World Cup. Where Germany, Spain, Japan and Costa Rica (?) were all qualifying at different periods of the match. You also get collusion. And 2/3 is way too easy. And there will still be dead games, eg team 1 and 2 beat team 3 and then play each other last. It’s absolutely awful.
Stupid comment@syncretismistruth2023. The asynchronicity ruins the group stage and allows the last two teams to fix the game easily. West Germany vs Austria 1982 would be an every tournament thing. Imagine team X is a huge powerhouse, team Y is a good team that can upset the bigger team, team Z is a weaker team. X beats Z 2-1 and Y draws with Z. X is already through and tops the group avoiding defeat, Y needs to avoid defeat to advance. Both teams achieve their goals by not even trying to attack. Lets say in a normal game X has a 40% chance to win by 2 or 1-0 and put Z through, this can become near zero very quick. And drawing lots may occur also which is bullshit. If they played it out and it ended 2-1
The problem of 3rd Teams qualifying in a Group of 4 (20:00 on) can be removed in a 48 Team competition -
12 Groups of 4 - 2 Qualify.
Wild Card Round of 16 worst qualifiers (Group Winners seeded 9 to 12 plus Runners Up).
Then Top 8 Group Winners v Wild Card 8 and on....
Hey, good video.
When you say that FIFA would divide the world cup into 3 zones that would be just for the group phase? Or in general?
As an American, I’m really excited for the extra games and am looking forward to seeing a packed Sounders Pitch (at Lumen Field) in Seattle go nuts for a national team home game, because they almost never play here, much less with so much on the line. Lumen Field is known for its ear bleeding fan noise and a local seismic station which regularly records earthquakes when the fans get excited. I pity the poor saps that end up facing off against us there.
I also appreciate that the format is giving Seattle two extra games and hope that our atmosphere wins you over at least a bit. Soccer is thriving in the PNW so this should be less development fodder and more of a coming of age.
I also want to thank the World Cup for finally getting us to replace our awful turf with real grass permanently. The stadium was designed so grass could be added at any point, but the Seahawks were dragging their feet.
The Seahawks field.those earthquakes were at Seahawks games.im a sounders fan but they’ve never equaled the beast quake.
Didn't realise Al-Kheleifi was ECA president until now :(
Not trying to be rude, but where were you during the whole Super League scandal? 😅😅
For me the worst part of a competition is when it's a foregone conclusion who will progress. So keeping that in mind I find it quite refreshing to have more teams at the world cup competing. I am also glad they went back to the group of 4.
I know somone already said it.
Best format would be 8 group of 6
- top of the group get a bye to Round of 16
- 2nd place & third place will advance to play off. Winner of the Play Off to Round of 16.
That way: every team will fight until the end. There won't be dead matches.
As someone who opposed the idea of groups of 3 from the get go, I'm satisfied with the format. If I was FIFA president, I don't know if I would have the resolve to say, yeah, we are kicking 32 of you after the group stage to keep the traditional round of 16. That's the only way I can reason (deludedly) the idea of having 8 third place teams go through.
Here's for the 64 team world cup in 2042!!
TBF it is called a world cup, so having more teams involved would make it feel more like a world cup and grand thing. It will also help spread football and develop football in the lesser nations which is what FIFA is here for.
I am excited for the extra teams and extra games. Lots more opportunity for drama and glory! Should be a lot of fun
Over the course of the 9 tournaments with the 24-team format to which we are now used, 5 teams that finished 3rd in the group phase reached the final: Jordan at the 2023 Asian Cup , Côte d'Ivoire at the 2023 AFCON , Portugal at 2016 Euro, Italy at the 1994 WC and Argentina at the 1990 WC
I kind of disagree. The World cup is the most important sporting event in the world, so it really doesn't matter what football clubs say. People are always resistant to change, even when the world cup was expanded last time. You can criticize the number of games being played and such imo but the expansions is a great idea. The world of football is becoming increasingly more competitive, and we need to adjust with those factors in mind. An extra round of football will just increase the chances of an upset so i disagree with that point as well. The third-place team concept works very well, we seen it in AFCON this year. It keeps every team playing very hard even on the last matchday because they have a chance. So, the 4th place team will really not give up because they have a chance to qualify in 3rd place. Even the 3rd place team has to try hard because all 3rd place teams don't qualify. FIFA tried to find a way to satisfy everyone instead of just being assertive in its position from the get-go and caused too much confusion.
If it were up to me, I would have made it double elimination from start to finish, 2 losses and you are out(yes, bracket reset should be used in the grand finals)
ayye double elim advocate
Would love to see a 7 video series of his ideal World Cup. 1 video per confederation qualification format and one for the finals itself.
Alfie’s the only football content creator that’ll find a way to fix how a conmebol nation can win 5/18 matches and qualify whilst you can win 7/10 games in UEFA and CAF and still fail to qualify
"cross the Is, dot the Ts"😂😂
@30:55 that pin is not even close to the MetLife stadium
It's a lot closer than any pin an American could place, if asked, to locate a country anywhere outside America.
@@mdcs1992you think people from outside the us could point to every state?
Ya'll Americans don't even know how to locate most of your 50 states on a map, we see it on Jimmy Kimmel and every other talk show where they ask random Americans "locate Iowa on this map", "locate Nebraska on this map" e.t.c , it's always pure comedy to see.
How then are people from outside the U.S supposed to perfectly pinpoint locations over there when their own citizens seem to deem it not important ?
@@ochomunna270 I seriously doubt you could point to Iowa or Nebraska on a map, or 90% of states, something that 95%+ of people in the us could do, you know the people that aren’t dumb enough to wind up on the show.
not knowing where your provinces are is not nearly as embarrasing as not knowing where whole other countries are
That map of Philadelphia and the NY-NJ stadiums is wrong.
It’s much farther apart than that.
Philly is like 90 miles from NY
As we thought US styled oversimplified logos was a small problem until FIFA decided to oversimplify the world cup logo since 2/3 nations oversimplify logos all the time (US & Canada) now oversimplified logos are a huge problem
Lets accept that there is no perfect solution to how many teams qualify from each group and how that pans out. However i suggest the following: top 2 qualify leaving 24 teams; group winners are ranked with top 8 going to R16; remaining 16 teams go to seeded play off round with 8 winners going to R16. Definite benefit in winning the first round group. Eventual winners probably still play just 7 games.
I hope this world cup is good especially when it held in Canada, Mexico and USA.
I think we will be fine. The Azteca has 2 of the 3 largest crowds at a world cup game ever, the US has 2 in the top 10. The US regularly sells 100k+ tickets to friendlies between European teams, and we have the largest concentration of top teir stadiums in the world. Vancouver held the Olympics recently and the stadium from that is being used as well. The only downside is with our countries being so large fans will have to fly pretty far to watch thier teams, and going to games on back to back days in different cities will be almost impossible
teams are going to play defensively, it's going to be horrible.