FIFA announced this week that the World Cup is going to be expanded to a new 48 team format after a voting session decided to expand the event. It won’t happen immediately of course, but from 2026 the world will be watching in on a bigger tournament. The voted to expand was passed unanimously in Zurich on Tuesday this week.
The expansion up to 48 teams from 32 as it stands now, will mean that the number of games at a tournament will of course increase. There will 80 matches as opposed to the 64 that are currently played in the World Cup format. However, the eventual winners won’t be exposed to extra games, there will still only be seven games needed to win the World Cup.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced that because of the expansion, the tournament won’t be played over a longer period, a worry of top European clubs. The tournament will go over a busy 32 day period so that the intentional schedule doesn’t drag on over that particular summer. This is the first time since 1998 that the World Cup has undergone changes to its format.
From the 2026 World Cup there will be an initial stage of 16 groups of three teams which will precede the knockout stage of the remaining 32 teams in the tournament, which will be the top two from each of the 16 groups. While the expansion will naturally pull in some of the smaller nations to the big stage, opposers of the plans cite that it will be diluting the natural competitiveness of the tournament even further.
2018 FIFA World Cup Betting Odds
Germany 9/2, Brazil 8/1, Argentina 8/1, France 8/1, Spain 9/1, Belgium 14/1, Italy 16/1, England 16/1, Portugal 28/1, 33/1 bar
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