FIFA approves plan to expand World Cup to 48 teams

ES wrote:There has always been potential for collusion, there will always be, even in the 4 group format

yes but it's less likely to happen

There will be TONS of talk of collusion every time the scenario presents itself and then if the right results happens, regardless of whether there was collusion or not, there will be so much outrage. Its just a mess and completely avoidable.

More money, but competition won't change.

Players will be able to easily beat the WC records set by the greats, such as R9, Klose and others, because of more matches and easier opponents, giving likes of Muller, Neymar and co. chance to become top scorers of the competition.


Adding Iran, El Salvador, China, Egypt, Serbia and Saudi Arabia, constantly in the mix, will just give big teams chance to beat those teams easily without much affect on the outcome of the tournament

Yes, thats part of the negatives, all records would be obsolete. Top players and goal scorers like todays Messi, CR7 etc., can get hattricks for fun if they come up against some of the much weaker teams in the early stages

The longer duration of the tournament is a good thing though, more days of having football to wathc then not is always a good thing

the amount of games played by each team remains the same (7 max)

juve_gigi wrote:Great news!!!

Not happening. We actually have more chances to qualify if we send the ladies.

We are such a shit side lol, the extra spots might be taken by Trinidad, Cuba or St Kitts and Nevis. But Canadians will stay home that's for sure.

BarcaLearning wrote:Yes, thats part of the negatives, all records would be obsolete. Top players and goal scorers like todays Messi, CR7 etc., can get hattricks for fun if they come up against some of the much weaker teams in the early stages

The longer duration of the tournament is a good thing though, more days of having football to wathc then not is always a good thing

The longer duration is not necessarily a good thing

Watching low quality football, like Iran vs. Serbia, or El Salvador vs. North Korea

Warrior wrote:

juve_gigi wrote:Great news!!!

Not happening. We actually have more chances to qualify if we send the ladies.

We are such a shit side lol, the extra spots might be taken by Trinidad, Cuba or St Kitts and Nevis. But Canadians will stay home that's for sure.

Good to know there are more canadaians here, i thought i was the only one...

but nah... we suck at soccer, thanks to lack of culture and funding...

and we play so horrible, poor man's USA team... no tactics, no passing, no vision.. omg, Mule league lol

International tournament never had quality imo. The level of football was never entertaining for the neutral watcher. Unless you were entertained by "quality" football played by "quality" sides in the final stages like Netherlands and Argentina not having a goalscoring chance up until the 90th min, Portugal winning a Euro by playing to 0-0 and getting in extra time and penalties, etc.

The only entertaining part for me was watching my nation play or watching complete outcasts wreck shit up that I ended up sympathizing for. Like Costa Rica, Wales, Greece in 2004 etc. Those underdogs stories were the most memorable things of the international tournaments and the sole reason I bothered to watch tbh.

I for one would welcome with open arms new additions. Not sure about the 3 teams per group tho.

The worst football at these tournaments has always come from the big teams, so the quality argument is bunk for me.

The potential collusion due to the 3 team groups is a legitimate worry though, but I don't think it's something to stress about, since it's something that will be obvious and players don't want to become known as match fixers.

Don't get why the fuss about all this. The winner will still be a strong team and Fifa makes more money. Quality? There's competition everywhere now.