Figo proposes extending World Cup and other measures in bid for FIFA presidency

Figo proposes to expand World Cup to 40-48 teams, changes to offside rules,  temporary expulsions for talking back to the ref and investing heavily in youth football

The Fifa presidential candidate Luís Figo is proposing an increase from 32 to “40 or 48” teams at the World Cup finals as part of his manifesto, which he launched on Thursday.

The former Portugal international, launching his campaign at Wembley Stadium, also said that the use of sin-bins should be introduced and that a greater percentage of Fifa’s income should be spent on grassroots development.

“I believe we should consider proposals to expand the competition to a 40 or even 48 team World Cup,” Figo said. “Both these options are feasible with an extra three to four days of tournament play. If this expansion were to take place I believe that additional teams should come from non-European nations.”

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Following the success of goalline technology, Figo also intends bringing in further video evidence in order to help referees send a player to the sin-bin for unsporting behaviour and he is an advocate of bringing back the old offside rule, under which an offending player would be flagged, regardless of whether he were judged to be active or not.

The 42-year-old also wants to end the triple punishment of a penalty, a red card and a suspension should a player commit a professional foul inside his own penalty area.

Figo is one of three men challenging the incumbent, Sepp Blatter. Michael van Praag, who is the president of the Dutch FA, and Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein of Jordan, a member of the Fifa executive committee, are also standing.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/19/luis-figo-fifa-presidential-candidate-48-teams-world-cup

Figo

they all say big things for their campaigns .

48 teams? ffs. only the QF/semi starts to get interesting. lets add more dumb add poule games nobody cares about: uzbekistan vs senegal. good match.

the ref thing is the only thing imo that is long over due

should be like Rugby, players respect refs, none of this crowding shit asking for cards.

Collblanc wrote:48 teams? ffs. only the QF/semi starts to get interesting. lets add more dumb add poule games nobody cares about: uzbekistan vs senegal. good match.

Pretty sure there are some Senegalese or Uzbek people out there which would find that game far more interesting than Italy-Uruguay or Germany-USA

B-Mac wrote:the ref thing is the only thing imo that is long over due

should be like Rugby, players respect refs, none of this crowding shit asking for cards.

Barca and Atletico will be very pissed

Don't agree with the 40-48 teams thing but rest I can fully get behind.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Collblanc wrote:48 teams? ffs. only the QF/semi starts to get interesting. lets add more dumb add poule games nobody cares about: uzbekistan vs senegal. good match.

Pretty sure there are some Senegalese or Uzbek people out there which would find that game far more interesting than Italy-Uruguay or Germany-USA

I dont care about those people. And neither should you. There are enough crap matches as it is already - and the QF is even worse as it was before (more meaningless matches). Reduce the amount of countries.

The World Cup shouldn't be tampered with, therefore I don't want Figo to win. Also not sure if the old offside rule was better.

Collblanc wrote:48 teams? ffs. only the QF/semi starts to get interesting. lets add more dumb add poule games nobody cares about: uzbekistan vs senegal. good match.

what's so bad about this match ?

senegal is heads and shoulder above a lot of the second tier european crap that ends up in the world cup , and Uzbekistan is an up and coming nation for sure .

no no no.

yes yes yes .

do you even know what senegal's starting 11 looks like ? they have more options at CF than spain ,portugal , and Italy .
Uzbekistan is not that far behind Japan and Korea ,and is one its way to becoming an asian super power .

Peope like you make this game suck. There are only 4 good teams and 4 good national teams. All other suck and shouldnt be played at all.

Valkyrja wrote:

B-Mac wrote:the ref thing is the only thing imo that is long over due

should be like Rugby, players respect refs, none of this crowding shit asking for cards.

Barca and Atletico will be very pissed

Indeed. RM won't have to worry Figo will give the ref instruction to make sure every call benefits them

I would restructure The WC's 32 teams. But I think 48 is overkill. It will surely dilute the competition.

If you add a team to each group, and get it up to 40, I think it might be more feasible, but still too much.

48 teams in the WC Figo clearly going for that vote from Madagascar.

No way!!! 48 teams

The old offside rule was stupid which is why they changed it in the first place. Imagine you score a 45yarder and because your striker is a shoulder offside it doesn't get counted even though he was nowhere near actively doing anything to disrupt the play of the defensive team.

Use of sin-bins like in hockey pls go

The only reason I would want Figo is that I don't want that corrupt bastard Blatter.

South American qualifiers to take the top 7 of 10 teams

Collblanc wrote:Peope like you make this game suck. There are only 4 good teams and 4 good national teams. All other suck and shouldnt be played at all.

Why have a World Cup at all then ?

Just let the same 8 team play it out every 4 years....

You don't understand what world cup stands for then. Unbelievable

its getting bigger and bigger because of scum like figo wanting to earn more money with it. you can have a 164 team qualifier for all i care, but the world cup should be played by 8 teams. fine by me.

The old offside rule sucks. Pls go.

Collblanc wrote:its getting bigger and bigger because of scum like figo wanting to earn more money with it. you can have a 164 team qualifier for all i care, but the world cup should be played by 8 teams. fine by me.

It no longer will be WORLD Cup then.

It'll be "big boys capitalist cup".

I hope it crashes and burns if one day it comes to that.

The most entertaining games of this World Cup were games like Algeria-Germany, Algeria-Korea, USA-Portugal, Colombia-CIV, etc.

Worst game of the entire tournament was Argentina-Holland. Much rather watch Senegal and Uzbekistan battle it out than two cowardly teams scared to lose.

Longest thread title ever?

Better now?

On topic I agree that the move to the old offside rule would be ridiculous, no Barca goal would have counted back when we had Villa in our team.