Here’s a bit of a surprise. FIFA has proposed extending the World Cup to 48 countries. On the face of it, this would probably negate the need to bother with qualification. They have also made provision for England by stipulating that 16 of the teams would be knocked out after one game, leaving the tournament with 32 teams just like now. This really is genius.
It is so utterly bonkers, you would think that Sepp Blatter was still in charge, raking in backhanders from dubious former eastern block oligarchs and Arabian billionaires. To increase the number to 48 means that you would now have something like four countries who might actually win the competition instead of the four we have now. Some change.
You really could not make this stuff up. Imagine qualifying through a group that would in all likelihood include minor world players like Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Lichtenstein and Scotland, selecting your squad, flying halfway round the world before getting eliminated by just about anyone in the knockout game. If you are English, you would expect nothing more than qualifying easily before being defeated at the first possible opportunity. I don’t bet but I might put 50p on us cocking up before the shebang kicks off in anger.
If I am appointed to the FIFA top job – I believe I am not high on the shortlist, to be fair – I would seek not to extend the tournament but reduce it to, say 24. It is always nice when someone like a minor nation turns over a giant in the group stages, but we all know what happens next and what happens next is they are eliminated either in the same group stage or in the last 16. Almost none of the 32 clubs in the finals, the conclusion of a world tournament, have the slightest hope of winning the damn thing. The Hungarys of this world, the Bulgarias and of course, it goes without saying, the Englands are there to make up the numbers, albeit not for very long. We have more chance of winning the Eurovision Song Contest.
Not 48 teams, please. I don’t really mean it’s a stroke of genius at all. It’s more games that don’t mean anything in a tournament that, if out carries on at the current speed, won’t be quite as much, too.
