World Cup qualifiers - Qatar 2022

[craigkillie]

The 48 team format for 2026 will be so unfathomably shite that they'll move to 64 for 2030.

[charger29]

The 48 team format for 2026 will be so unfathomably shite that they'll move to 64 for 2030.

Surely that'd be far too late to up the number of teams?

They'll try the other 48 team method they looked at i.e. 16 automatic group stage qualifiers and a 32 team playoff round before the groups.
After that they'll look at jumping to 64 for 2034.

[craigkillie]

I can't see why it would be too late. Qualifying wouldn't have started and the hosts probably aren't going to mind.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Maybe they will move to 64 teams as a trial in celebration of the centenary, then just stick with it. I was disappointed Copa America chose not to stick with the sixteen team format they employed for their own centenary edition. Much better than the twelve team or the laughable ten team format with 8/10 going through.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Bully Wee Villa

[Donathan]

12 minutes ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Maybe they will move to 64 teams as a trial in celebration of the centenary, then just stick with it. I was disappointed Copa America chose not to stick with the sixteen team format they employed for their own centenary edition. Much better than the twelve team or the laughable ten team format with 8/10 going through.

If we end up with a 64 team world cup then the South American qualifiers will become even more laughable than that. They're going to have 6.5 slots in a 48 team tournament. So, in a 64 team effort you'd be looking at 8 or 9 qualifiers from the 10 countries in CONMEBOL. A 2-year long, 18 game round robin to eliminate 1 or 2 teams. 

 

If that happens they'll probably rebrand it as a South American version of the nations league and attach some prestige to actually topping the qualifiers, with the qualifying itself just being part of the puzzle.

[Bully Wee Villa]

My ideal choice would be merging the Americas. Don't know if it will ever happen.

[Dunning1874]

26 minutes ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

My ideal choice would be merging the Americas. Don't know if it will ever happen.

Merging the CONMEBOL/CONCACAF & AFC/OFC qualifiers would really be necessary with a 64 team tournament, but it's never happening. Shite like the US know fine well how easy they have it just now and aren't giving up that advantage.

Regardless of the tournament size I still favour reducing the number of automatic places for each continent and having huge all in intercontinental playoffs where you can't draw a team from your own continent. Every continent still gets automatic places so you still have global representation, every continent's representatives get a chance to prove they're good enough and deserve their places on merit rather than through an accident of geography. No one can whine about another continent getting too many places or their own getting too few if you're all getting 16 teams into a massive intercontinental playoff.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Dunning1874

[Bully Wee Villa]

Not for me. Even though would potentially benefit Scotland. I like the diverse nature of the World Cup seeing diddy teams you wouldn't normally see. A format that just had loads and loads of Europeans at the expense of African and Asian teams would be less fun.

[Donathan]

25 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Merging the CONMEBOL/CONCACAF & AFC/OFC qualifiers would really be necessary with a 64 team tournament, but it's never happening. Shite like the US know fine well how easy they have it just now and aren't giving up that advantage.

Regardless of the tournament size I still favour reducing the number of automatic places for each continent and having huge all in intercontinental playoffs where you can't draw a team from your own continent. Every continent still gets automatic places so you still have global representation, every continent's representatives get a chance to prove they're good enough and deserve their places on merit rather than through an accident of geography. No one can whine about another continent getting too many places or their own getting too few if you're all getting 16 teams into a massive intercontinental playoff.

The USA would still coast through a joint Americas qualifying for a 64 team World Cup, they’d probably be looking at 14 places. The entire CONMEBOL region could qualify and the USA would still likely come in the top 4 of the North American sides. And I’d expect them to finish above diddies like Bolivia and Venezuela. 

[Bully Wee Villa]

Europe 20

Americas 14

Africa 15

Asia/Oceania 15

If it was up to me. No intercontinental playoffs... teams should know whether they've qualified when the draw is made (obviously wars and other disasters excepted).

Edited April 3, 2022 by Bully Wee Villa

[Donathan]

10 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Europe 20

Americas 14

Africa 15

Asia/Oceania 15

If it was up to me. No intercontinental playoffs... teams should know whether they've qualified when the draw is made (obviously wars and other disasters excepted).

 

Give Europe an extra 4 at the expense of 2 each from Africa and Asia/Oceania imo. 24 European slots would allow the qualifying to use the same format as the euros qualifying.

 

Also I’d just keep Asia and Oceania separate and have 11 Asians, 11 Africans and 2 Oceanians for the banter 

 

[Bully Wee Villa]

Two Oceanians would be a good laugh but I'd rather have more African and Asian diddies than some boring Slovenia type team. And I'll happily never watch Israel play ever again.

Imagine the fun when Italy somehow fail to qualify again and they have to sit at home watching Chad vs Cook Islands.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Bully Wee Villa

[Donathan]

1 hour ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Two Oceanians would be a good laugh but I'd rather have more African and Asian diddies than some boring Slovenia type team. And I'll happily never watch Israel play ever again.

Imagine the fun when Italy somehow fail to qualify again and they have to sit at home watching Chad vs Cook Islands.

We are a “boring Slovenia type team” 

[eez-eh]

13 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Europe 20

Americas 14

Africa 15

Asia/Oceania 15

If it was up to me. No intercontinental playoffs... teams should know whether they've qualified when the draw is made (obviously wars and other disasters excepted).

Seeing it broken down like that it hits home how much utter shite will be making it to the World Cup when they inevitably change it to 64 teams.

32 was fine. 48 would probably be just about alright but the format is so bad it will never last.

[Bully Wee Villa]

42 minutes ago, Donathan said:

We are a “boring Slovenia type team” 

Yes, quite possibly.

[Bully Wee Villa]

21 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

Seeing it broken down like that it hits home how much utter shite will be making it to the World Cup when they inevitably change it to 64 teams.

32 was fine. 48 would probably be just about alright but the format is so bad it will never last.

For "fun", who might have qualified for a 64 team format using the above allocations and based on most recent qualifying campaign. I have split the Americas 7/7 and Asia/Oceania 14/1

Europe:

Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Croatia, England, Germany, Portugal, Scotland, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Wales, Turkey, Poland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Austria

Africa:

Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde

Americas:

Canada, Mexico, United States of America, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, El Salvador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Chile

Asia/Oceania:

Qatar, Iran, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia, Oman, China, Vietnam, Tajikistan, New Zealand

[Merkie84]

At what stage is it just too big and unwieldy? 
 

Even someone like me who absolutely loves the World Cup struggles to watch all the games in a 32 team tournament. 

No chance with a 48 or 64 team WC. 

Might end up like the cricket World Cup where the first round is just a procession for the big teams until the real tournament starts in the knockouts. 

Less jeopardy and fewer surprises might start affecting viewing figures like has been happening in the early stages of the champions league. 

[charger29]

This is an example of a 64 team WC given by a draw simulator:

 

[Salvo Montalbano]

2 hours ago, charger29 said:

This is an example of a 64 team WC given by a draw simulator:

 

FFS, we can't even qualify for that? And Kyrgyzstan and NI do!

[Bully Wee Villa]

FFS, Clarke out!