{"id":725357,"date":"2026-06-25T15:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/725357\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T15:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:18:09","slug":"world-cup-2026-the-games-that-show-a-48-team-tournament-is-flawed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/725357\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: The games that show a 48-team tournament is flawed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expanding the World Cup to 48 teams always presented one obvious problem – it was an imperfect number for a tournament.<\/p>\n

With 32 teams, the maths was simple – eight groups of four teams, with the top two going through to a last 16, then quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final. <\/p>\n

By adding another 16 nations, Fifa had to find a way to get to a symmetrical knockout stage. There was no ideal solution – one which preserved the intensity of the previous format. <\/p>\n

The original plan was to create 16 groups of three teams. The two top in each would go through to the last 16.<\/p>\n

But there was an issue. Three-team groups meant individual fixtures – and those in the final match would know exactly what they needed to do to qualify. Nations could play for specific results to secure their passage to the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

Fifa, after all, knew all about alleged collusion from the scandal at the 1982 World Cup<\/a>. Back then, with groups of four, teams did not play their final group matches at the same time.<\/p>\n

West Germany faced Austria in the standalone last game. A slender win for the Germans would send both teams through at the expense of Algeria. The match finished 1-0 to West Germany. Algeria went out.<\/p>\n

Fifa changed the format so all final fixtures would be played simultaneously, but that would not have been possible with three-team groups.<\/p>\n

The climax to the group stage in Qatar was so exciting that Fifa had a rethink. It accepted there must be 12 four-team groups and two matches would be played at the same time to determine who would qualify. <\/p>\n

Except for one crucial difference – something that removed much of the jeopardy that made the last World Cup so gripping. <\/p>\n

Eight of the third-placed teams must go through for there to be 32 teams in the knockout rounds. It became harder to be knocked out than to progress.<\/p>\n

And one issue becomes clear with two matches this week.<\/p>\n

First up, Australia play Paraguay in Group D on Thursday (03:00 BST Friday). Then on Saturday it is Austria v Algeria in Group J (03:00 BST Sunday).<\/p>\n

The teams are second and third in their groups, and all on three points.<\/p>\n

Four points is almost certain to be enough to take one of the eight third-placed qualifying slots. It creates a situation in which the teams could simply play out a draw.<\/p>\n

You could argue a game in Group F falls into the same category, with Japan on four points and Sweden on three. <\/p>\n

A draw might suit both, but as Japan already have enough points to qualify in third there is no risk involved from a defeat.<\/p>\n

It is the same in Group L, too, with Ghana on four points and Croatia on three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Expanding the World Cup to 48 teams always presented one obvious problem – it was an imperfect number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-725357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}