Forums
Welcome to Live View – Take the tour to learn more
Start Tour
There is currently 1 person viewing this thread.
zygote
13 Jul 26 20:30
Joined:
Date Joined: 14 Aug 03
| Topic/replies: 478 | Blogger: zygote's blog
So Infantino wants to expand the World Cup finals to 64 countries. The logic behind this confounds me. He is quoted as saying that all countries should have achievable dreams of playing in the World Cup finals, but where will this end? Maybe there should be no qualifying refional rounds, and ALL countries be able to go straight to the finals (?). IMO, 32 teams was the ideal balance and should have been retained.
Show More
Loading...
Report MrStrawMan July 13, 2026 8:46 PM BST
It will go to 64 , the 3rd place qualifiers is a joke and is basically unfair on teams in the earlier groups , but as always there is like this world cup no thought what so ever for fans , with multiple hosts and not even having a group playing in the same country , some fans had to go from usa to mexico and back to the usa etc . It is in real terms worse than 1 in 3 teams qualifying as there are probably 40 or 50 countries that have no chance of qualifying even with 64 teams .
Report tobermory July 13, 2026 8:50 PM BST
64 is better than 48.

But they should do away with the groups in that case, have a knockout with double elimination for the first 3 rounds...

Which means you go home if lose first two. Bye to last 32 if win first two.
Report lurka July 13, 2026 9:01 PM BST
The key word is achievable
Report MrStrawMan July 13, 2026 9:53 PM BST
Yes 64 is better than 48 , It wouldnt surprise me if he made some spaces available for the very lowest ranked countries to gain experience and say the finals are achievable for all the countries .
Report Shrewd_dude July 13, 2026 10:01 PM BST
It won't last. How many countries can actually host a World cup with 64 countries?

The next one is already split between 4 countries and then it's Saudi Arabia which will just be another Qatar.
Report MrStrawMan July 13, 2026 10:09 PM BST
The next one is 6 , he could possibly be thinking to have the hosts in different continents like the next one , so you could have more games a day at better times for local conditions .
Report mesmerised July 13, 2026 11:45 PM BST
If I've said it once I've said it several dozen times, UEFA countries have the power here, a World Cup without them has no value, if they pull out there is no World Cup. What's to stop it going to 128 teams? that's the size of a tennis grand slam draw.

Even Carlos Quieroz who benefitted from the expansion with Ghana, said it devalued the World Cup, and that's at 48 teams, now the bald mug wants 64, prancing around like some kind of holy State like figure, what a mug.

South American qualifying is already a joke as it is, 6 automatic spots, 7th into the play offs, there's only 10 teams. At the next World Cup 3 have already automatically qualified, I get Uruguay as it's 100 years since the first World Cup held there, but Paraguay automatically qualfying simply because CONEMBOL HQ's are there and Argentina because they were the first losers in the World Cup final, but give them 1 match to host in the groups just to justify it lol.


Kind Regards.
Report jasstardust July 14, 2026 5:02 AM BST
how many countries are there in the world today..?
Report s.kenbo July 14, 2026 6:07 AM BST
May as well chuck the top 64/128 teams in automatically and do away with all the qualifying games. One or two knockout rounds then group games when they get to the final 32. Same for Euros, no international breaks two weeks into the new season.
Post Your Reply
<CTRL+Enter> to submit
Please login to post a reply.

Wonder

Instance ID: 13539
www.betfair.com