The next World Cup could have a 48 team competition. There is a time and a place. The World Cup ends this weekend, marking the end of an era for the tournament before it arrives in the US, Mexico and Canada in four years. There will be news and features at the World Cup. At France '98, the current format saw 32 teams drawn into eight groups of four nations for the knockout round. Football fans have known it for 24 years and seven editions. A total of 48 teams will compete in the World Cup in the year 2026. The hosts will not have to go through qualification according to the president of the sport's governing body. The format of 32 teams in eight groups with the top two teams going through to the knockouts is over. More teams, more games, and a longer tournament are on the way. The World Cup will have to be at least 35 days if the tournament is expanded to 104 games. Who will qualify for the World Cup and what will it look like are questions that need to be answered. The World Cup has seen a number of expansions. Between 13 and 16 nations began in the 1930s. The tournament featured 16 teams until it was raised to 24 for Mexico '86 and then 32 for France '98. It will be difficult for a single country to host the event due to the venues and infrastructure required. The decision to expand to 40 teams was defended by Infantino when he was elected to run the sport's governing body. The money will be reinvested in football in order to make sure that the teams can qualify. There are 16 additional slots at the World Cup, and this is where the automatic places will be. Asia: 8 to 4. Africa's numbers are 9 and 4. The North, Central America and Caribbean have 6 positive numbers. Europe's rating is 16. South America is rated 6 by 2. It's 1 to 1 in the region. The six places allocated to North, Central America and Caribbean will include the United States, Mexico and Canada. There are two places left for the 48 to be completed. There are six teams from each of the five confederations apart from Europe and one from the host confederation. The expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams was being considered by the world governing body. The qualification places have been given to the best nations in the competition for each confederation. Italy missed out on the playoffs as they didn't make the final. There are 16 teams in bold. Africa is comprised of Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia, and others. Australia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, and Saudi Arabia are located in the Asia region. Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, and the United States comprise the North, Central America and Caribbean. Europe includes Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. New Zealand is an area of the world. South America is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, and others. The two teams that are the best in the world are given the last places. The other countries in the playoffs would have been El Salvadoran, Honduras, Solomon Islands, and Syria. It would have been the World Cup debut for several countries. 🎉🇨🇦 ᴠᴀɴᴄᴏᴜᴠᴇʀ 🇨🇦🎉 Vancouver will be a #FIFAWorldCup 2026 Host City! 🙌#HostCity2026 pic.twitter.com/8IJhekesYR
Why are there more nations at the 2026 World Cup?
Who gets the extra places at the 2026 World Cup?
Who would qualify for a 48-team World Cup?
We can get a picture of 2026 if we take the teams who would have qualified in a 48 team format.
The size of the World Cup was increased from 48 teams to 64 and the top two teams from each of the 16 groups advanced to the knockout stage. With a final decision due in 2023, there is a chance that this could be changed.
The number of games would increase from 64 to 80 and the tournament can be played in 32 days. During the European domestic club season, the World Cup was held in just 29 days.
The 16 European teams would be divided into one pot and the remaining pots would be ranked.
The draw pots are based on the latest world ranking of the game.
Pot 1 contains Belgium, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Portugal, Ukraine, Wales.
Pot 2 includes Mexico, USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and others.
Pot 3 includes Nigeria, Algeria, Australia, Egypt, and many others.
Canada was placed alongside the US and Mexico in Pot 2 as they would be a host to play in their own country.
The following groups are produced by a test draw.
Canada, Wales, Algeria are in group A.
Group B includes France, South Korea, and Nigeria.
The group includes the USA, Serbia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Group D includes Portugal, Japan, and Egypt.
Group E includes Switzerland, Senegal, and the United States of America.
Group F is made up of Belgium, Iran, and Venezuela.
Group G includes Australia.
Group H is made up of North Macedonia, South America and Africa.
Group I includes England, Jamaica, and Columbia.
Group J includes Croatia, Tunisia and Iraq.
Group K includes Saudi Arabia.
Group L includes Netherlands, Argentina, and Panama.
Group M is made up of the following countries:
Group N includes Brazil, New Zealand.
Group O includes Germany and Costa Rica.
Group P includes Mexico, Spain, and Malian.
The top two teams in each group would go through to a round of 32, which has caused controversy as it means the teams in the final group match could play out a specific result to ensure both go through. At the 1982 World Cup, with four-team groups but final matches not played at the same time, West Germany and Austria played out a 1-0 game which meant both teams went through at the expense of Algeria. Concurrent final group games were adopted byFIFA after this incident.
The possibility of a specific result like a goal in the third game isn't eliminated by the idea that all group-game draws can be decided by penalty shootouts.
Depending on the draw, there would be very few marquee matches. Mexico vs. Spain and Netherlands vs. Argentina are two of the best draws. The format reduces a lot of jeopardy with two-thirds of the teams making it to the next round. The countries would only get two games.
This option is almost certain to be abandoned due to these reasons.
🎉🇲🇽 ᴍᴇxɪᴄᴏ ᴄɪᴛʏ 🇲🇽🎉
Mexico City, the Mexican capital, will be a #FIFAWorldCup 2026 Host City #HostCity2026 pic.twitter.com/FnJVVrmyHL
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 16, 2022
The 48 teams are drawn into groups of four teams. The 16 or 32 teams that come out of the groups have to make a balanced knockout brackets. A round of 32 may include the top two teams from each group and the eight best third-place teams. The last two European Championships have seen third-place teams advance to the knockout round.
It creates a regular group stage with double-header final games, which can produce great drama like we saw in the 2022 edition. It feels like a more natural system for the World Cup with third-ranked teams going through. All teams would play three games.
Two methods are being considered by football's world governing body.
There are 12 groups of 4 feeding through to the knockouts.
2) Two halves of 24 teams, creating 6 groups of 4 in each. The halves would come together for the final.
You wouldn't be able to play a team from the other side until the final with option 2. The best eight third-place teams might not make it, as each half would need four third-place teams to make it.
The usual system of hosts in Pot 1 along with the top-ranked teams would likely be retained.
Pot 1 includes Mexico, United States, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, Argentina, France, England, Spain, Netherlands, and Portugal.
Pot 2 includes Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, and many others.
Pot 3 includes Sweden, Poland, Ukraine, South Korea, and others.
Pot 4 includes Saudi Arabia, Panama, Jamaica, and North Macedonia.
Europe would need to have four groups with two teams in order to have more than one team from each confederation.
The following groups are produced by a test draw.
Group A includes Argentina, Switzerland, and Iraq.
Group B includes Costa Rica.
Canada, Iran, and North Macedonia are in the group.
Group D includes Netherlands, South Korea, and Jamaica.
Group E includes Mexico, Serbia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Group F includes the United Arab Emirates.
Group G includes England, Croatia and Nigeria.
Group H includes the United States, Poland, and the Dominican Republic.
Group I includes Portugal, Australia, and Panama.
Group J includes Brazil, Japan, andUkraine.
Group K includes Spain, Wales and Tunisia.
France, Germany, Algeria, New Zealand are in the group.
The number of games in a group of four is a problem. The World Cup had 64 games, and the three-team group stage format produced 80, but with four-team groups and a round of 32 we would be looking at 104 matches. The World Cup needs to be expanded to at least 35 days for this to happen.
The impact on the domestic calendar was one of the reasons why the European Club Association was against the increase. The World Cup can still be played within 32 days, despite the fact that there will be 104 games.
There are more teams and more games.
There were only 24 teams at the 1994 World Cup in the US. In the group stage, it is expected to be 72.
More host cities are spread around the world.
The USA '94 tournament was mostly held on the East Coast and only two of the nine host cities were on the west coast.
The World Cup will be held in three countries in one year.
San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle are included in the fourth part.
Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City are included.
Atlanta, Miami, Boston, New York/ New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Toronto are included.
It's possible that more games will lead to later kickoffs.
There was no game kicking off later than 4:30 p.m. in 1994. In the UK, there is a time limit of 11:30 a.m.
With so many more games to be played it's likely games will be stretched across the day to maximize the time spent indoors.
It was possible to avoid evening kickoffs in Europe in 1994 because there were only 24 games to schedule. With 48 matches to fit into a similar timescale and played across time zones, it will be hard to avoid.
The first match of the day was at 1 p.m. at the men's World Cup. The time is 6p.m. The last match is on the West Coast. The office is open from 2 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. 7:30 a.m. It's not ideal to have matches in the evening.
One match at the World Cup was scheduled to be played at 10 p.m. local time. In the first two rounds of group matches, there were no more than three matches. This is the first time that the World Cup has had a 10 pm kick off.
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