Have you looked at the World Cup plans for 2026? 16 groups of 3 teams each. Two go through from each group to lead to a 32-team knockout tournament.
Two problems I see:
1. There are going to be a lot of very poor quality teams. Expect several 7-0 blowouts.
2. When there are 3 teams in a group there's plenty of opportunity for collusion a la West Germany v. Austria in 1982.
Yeah also the group phase would be too easy with 2 team passing over 3
shareSounds terrible.
shareHopefully they'll rethink this before it comes around.
We won't avoid 48 but 12 x 4 would be much better.
Yeah, let's hope they make this adjustment, though the number of 7-0 shutouts will probably increase a lot when this number of teams are included. Get too many of those and it could really backfire in terms of interest in the sport. Imagine you're living in a country that has never been to the Cup before and in your first game you lose by that type of score. Do you keep watching? I'm not sure.
shareThere is news that they are rethinking this, and 12 Groups of four teams is one choice, another is splitting it into two mini tournaments, which sounds terrible.
shareGoing from 32 teams to 48 is too much. Stiil, there will a few upsets, lot's of controversy, along with many blowouts. I think 40 might be a more acceptable number.
shareHopefully they will go back to four teams in a group:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/01/world-cup-organisers-consider-ditching-three-team-group-format-for-2026
https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/world-cup/2022/world-cup-2026-fifa-in-talks-about-abandoning-three-team-group-format-for-north-american-tournament_sto9253470/story.shtml