Many more games, many more days
FIFA is likely to inflate the 2026 World Cup even further
03/14/2023, 12:16 p.m
Even after the World Cup in Qatar, there were indications that FIFA was planning the next tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico on an unprecedented scale. According to a media report, the World Cup is to be extended and have a total of 104 games.
According to a media report, FIFA has presented its plans for the next World Cup in 2026 in the USA, Canada and Mexico. As the “New York Times” reports with reference to several anonymous sources, the previously planned format with 16 groups of three will be changed to 12 groups of four – increasing the number of games by 24. According to the new plans, the next world champion will be played in a total of 104 games, 40 more than in Qatar. The football association had already decided to increase the number of participants from 32 to 48 national teams for the first time.
The chairmen of the six major football associations met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Monday evening. As the NYT reports, there were no objections. The Council of the world governing body FIFA will now decide on the corresponding format change for the preliminary round during a meeting in Kigali (from 1.30 p.m. CET) this Tuesday, the newspaper wrote in an online report.
The new mode means additional burdens for the participating teams. Not only will the tournament take place in three countries, the duration should also be increased to 40 days. The final round would be much longer. The last World Cup to date in Qatar at the end of 2022 was still held with 32 nations and 64 games in 28 days. World champion Argentina played seven games to win the title.
For the individual teams, the format change would only add a maximum of one game – for the World Cup fans it would be 24 more games compared to the originally planned three-player mode. The three-way mode had caused criticism because of the higher risk of collusion, since a nation is forced to be free of play.
The 2026 World Cup was awarded to the three organizers in 2018, and the increase from 32 to 48 nations was approved in January 2017. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who will be unopposed for another term at the Congress in Kigali on Thursday, had already praised the format with groups of four as a great success in Qatar. “Here the groups of four were absolutely unbelievable, in the sense that until the last minute of the last game it was not clear who would go through,” said the Swiss.