Gianni Infantino wants World Cup to be longer

It is believed to be supporting the proposal of making World Cup a longer tournament with 16 more teams taking part in it than before.


However even if that proposal gets a green signal by FIFA, it’s only going to come into effect 10 years later i.e. from the tournament of 2026 as it has already been decided that the next two tournaments, the ones of 2018 and 2022, are going to follow the present format only.

As per the present format, there is straightaway a pre-quarter final round after the group round, but, the format that has been put on the table proposes another knockout round to be included ahead of the pre quarter final round and that is the Round of 32.

But, this one extra round will not increase the no. of matches that a particular team has to play. Currently, the teams which make it to the title round play 7 matches and in the new format too, the teams reaching the title round will be playing 7 matches only because they will have to play one game lesser in the group round.

The groups consist of 4 teams at the moment, but, after the change in the format, there will only be 3 teams in each group which means that the no. of matches played by every team in the group round will be 2 only and then the team which advances has to play a game at the Round of 32 level which did not exist earlier.

So, for the teams which are advancing, the no. of matches remains the same and that’s why, the clubs are not likely to stand against this format either because they will have to send their players to their international sides only for as long a period as before and not for any extra days.

 

 

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