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Why a 48-team FIFA World Cup is quite possibly the dumbest decision ever

10th January, 2017
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(AFP PHOTO / FILES / MICHAEL BUHOLZER)
Roar Guru
10th January, 2017
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The FIFA World Cup is a spectacle. It allows fans to watch the greatest players on Earth battle it out for world domination. However, a unanimous FIFA decision to expand the competition to 48 teams could diminish the integrity of the tournament.

There are a number of reasons which could explain why FIFA has opted to expand the world’s most famous football competition.

Give a chance to lesser nations? Provide greater scope for giant killing? Allow the Lionel Messis and Cristiano Ronaldos of the world to, god forbid, break Archie Thompson’s record 13-goal haul against American Samoa with blinders against the likes of Burkina Faso?

All possibilities.

However, there is clearly only one motivation behind this decision: money. Not like FIFA to go chasing coin, right?

In times gone by, some brave souls have been able to argue that FIFA actually cares for the game of football, that they really are the caretaker organisation for the world game. However, all possible rumours of this have been dispelled now as FIFA have clearly thrown off any shred of integrity they had left for another whopping sum of money.

Football is the world game, and apparently, FIFA’s members only speak one language. The language of money.

Anyway, aside from the heartbreaking truth of the decision, it also will have massive ramifications on the way football fans can drink in their favourite fix every four years.

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The structure of the tournament will be changed completely from 2026. 48 teams will be arranged into 16 groups of three, which will no doubt make it impossible to keep track of who is playing who and, more to the point, could well take the shine off playing.

For a nation like Australia, the gloss of qualifying for a World Cup remains. The same can be said for a number of smaller up-and-coming footballing nations who treat an appearance at the tournament as a victory within itself.

However, the expansion of the Cup will see teams not work as hard for qualification and remove the satisfaction of achieving it.

That undoubtedly devalues the product – the World Cup is supposed to be about brilliance and being the best. It’s about the top teams in the world playing against each other for the game’s ultimate prize.

Germany win the 2014 football world cup in Brazil (Image: Wikicommons)

With 48 teams, this simply won’t happen in the group stage. You’ll be seeing teams like New Zealand and Burkina Faso duelling it out at a huge 85,000-seat stadium witnessed by an uninspired crowd of 4,000 and that simply isn’t what the World Cup is about.

Sure, you’ll be able to see your fair share of giant killings, but who really cares? If you want to see poor teams beat good ones, go watch the FA Cup.

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The World Cup is for the best of the best and this new decision will not see this happen until a later stage in the tournament.

I will pause my rant to say it’s not all doom and gloom. Fans will get to see more matches during the tournament, with the number going from 64 to 80, and fans of lesser footballing nations will be able to finally see their side take to the pitch at the World Cup.

However, these are not good things for football fans. The World Cup is for elite football and entrance should be a hard-fought process.

Apparently, FIFA doesn’t share my sentiments, and they probably won’t give them a second thought as they wheel their novelty oversized wheelbarrows full of money to the branch of their local bank.

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