WEEKLY WHINE

Men’s World Cup expansion: How?

FIFA have approved expanding the Men’s World Cup to 48 teams starting with the 2026 tournament. We here at GoobNet believe that they have made a mistake. Not an enormous mistake that will ruin the Men’s World Cup forever, so go ahead and sit down. And perhaps breathe into a paper bag.

No, in this case, FIFA have merely made a medium sized mistake that will end the Men’s World Cup as we know it and replace it with a rather different tournament.

A Men’s World Cup made up of sixteen groups of three is not the worst thing they could possibly have done. The worst thing they could possibly have done would have been to change it into a U-5 tournament.

Assuming they do not now proceed with that change, let us now analyse the expanded Men’s World Cup. FIFA have surely analysed the financial aspect of this proposal ad infinitum. We, however, are going to do what FIFA should have done in the first place: analyse the sporting and competitive aspects of this proposal. So join us in the coming weeks for that.

In the meantime, we will try to determine what an expanded Men’s World Cup would look like in the first place. Here, for illustrative purposes, is our draft schedule for the 2026 tournament if it is cohosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Each group will reside in one of the sixteen host cities, and the first placed team in each group will remain in the same city for their round of 32 match. As a result, each city will host five matches: three in the group phase, one in the round of 32, and one in the remainder of the elimination phase.