Tendencies in modern sports are such that money is the main and fundamental ingredient of almost any issue. So in order of huge profits and gains, FIFA decided to ruin the football as we all familiar about. From the 2026, we gonna have World Cup with 48 national teams, hosted by USA,Mexico and Canada.
Again, having in mind how big these sums are, or how much profit has started to bring 90 minutes of football - it's absolutely nothing weird, however hard we can accept it.
It is also logical that money dictates the conditions more precisely in the most important secondary thing in the world, where everything will start to be expressed in hundreds of millions and billions more.
So in the recent past, we received the European Championship with 24 national teams, the matches of the strongest European matches in the early morning terms, so that fans from Asia could make their contribution, while the preparatory tour of the United States and the Far East has become a practice.
So far, the changes have been mainly related to changes in terms, both in the Best European Leagues and in the Champions League, one of the most profitable competitions in the world of sports. Nevertheless, the situation began drastically to change globally, with the arrival of Alexander Ceferin in the leading position in the European Football Union (UEFA) and Gianni Infantino at the helm of the International Football Federation.
The first has decided to give even more comfort to the most powerful clubs, since from the next competitive year, four teams from the Premier League, Primera, Bundesliga and League 1 will go directly to the Champions League, while shortly thereafter came the decision on the total commercialization of friendly matches - a new, group competition called 'League of Nations', as a continuation of an idea that began with the expansion of EURO last summer.
On the other hand, the former first UEFA man, the successor to the controversial Joseph Sepe Blater, announced a lot of good things and began to carry out at least part of it into the work (first of all, introducing video technology), but then a great shock and a shock came directly to the 'sanctuary' changing the format of the adored World Cup.
The decision at the FIFA summit was unanimous at the beginning of the year, which means that from Mundial in 2026, we will watch 48 teams at the Final tournament, instead of the previous 32.
Knowing where the biggest threat is to him, since the strong criticism of the new system started almost simultaneously after the decision was announced, Infantino touched the media in the first press release - pointing out that the financial moment has nothing to do with changing the format of the world's most viewed and popular planet-sports event.
Yeah right, if only I could believe him!
Soon thereafter came the first research that says FIFA's profit will increase by one billion, and some projections say that the 2026 earnings could go to over eight billion euros!
It will be the fourth time that WC, from the Uruguayan tournament in 1930, is experiencing this kind of change, but this is certainly the most extreme.
There were 13 national teams in Montevideo, the next five in the SP three more, so that the first major changes began to take place in the early eighties. First in Spain in 1982, we had the opportunity to watch six groups with four teams, and so it remained all the way to WC in France - when the format we will look at this year in Russia is selected.
The decision that four teams would be accommodated in eight groups was also disappointed, although it was fully consistent with the growing expansion and huge popularity of football around the world, and, from this perspective, FIFA in the same way explains the decision.
From the current format of the competition we will be released officially in Qatar for four years. But it will still be the smallest problem when the Championship in this Arab country is in question because all the opportunities will be for the first time WC to look at the winter, in the air-conditioned stadiums that come with camels or boat ... But about that we will definitely have another occasion.
That WC in 2026, will bring us a lot of low quality football in early stages. Even now in Russia, there were half full stands on some fixtures in Russia. Image 8 years from now how it would look like when Trinidad & Tobago played against Panama in the derby of the day. Who would like to watch that except their own citizens. I mean, I don't have nothing personal against those countries, but they are not football powerties. And not to mention that all three hosts are qualified automatically to the tournament. No harsh feelings but for Canada, that is the only way to participate at the WC.
I don't know how it would look like eight years from now but I'm very skeptic about that WC. Who know, it might be interesting!
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