In the 2022 World Cup in Qatar The most important international football series organized with the participation of 32 teams for the last time, starting from the introduction in 1998, won the gold medal at the end of 64 matches.
The 2026 tournament will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the first 48 teams could start – but before we get too happy, the current tally of 13 European teams, despite an increase to 16, means just three additional teams from our continent (16).
The original idea was that 48 teams into 16 groups of three listed and total 80 sessions It’s tidy.
However, this raised fears that a team could be eliminated from the competition in the decisive third game, and some national teams could only play two matches during the competition.
However, according to the current proposal 12 sets of four The top two places can be generated automatically (24), and they will be joined by the eight best thirds (8) groups in the table of 32, where the competition will continue in a direct elimination system.
All of this would also mean that, even compared to the original proposal, 24 more meetings, a total of 104, would be held over the 40-day competition – beating the previous record by forty.
Teams that reach the final position (final, bronze) will play in eight matches instead of the previous seven.
According to informed sources, the leaders of the six continental confederations met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino and none of them expressed any objection to the proposal, which could be adopted on Tuesday.
(Cover photo: Tom Jenkins/Getty Images)
