Footballer Lionel Messi still remains as one of the most popular sports stars among Chinese fans. (Photo : Twitter)
The FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious tournament in all of football, which means that only the best national teams will be able to compete in it. However, FIFA has recently come to a unanimous decision that will expand the number of participants of the World Cup to 48 nations instead of the current 32. This change will be implemented beginning in the 2026 edition of the tournament and will be the first major reform to it since 1998.
The World Cup occurs every four years and begins with a qualification stage that narrows the participants down to eight groups of four. The teams each group will fight it out for the top two spots and a place in the last 16 of the tournament. The teams will then face each other one on one in an elimination bracket until only one team is left.
The FIFA vote held in Zurich last Tuesday would vastly change this setup though. For starters, instead of the 64 matches that take place, the 2026 World Cup will consist of a total of 80 matchups. The eventual winners of the tournament will still only play in seven games though, according to the BBC.
The 2026 edition of the World Cup will also be held over the course of just over a month, taking 32 days to take place from start to finish. This was done in order to take into consideration the packed international schedule of clubs around the world, particularly in Europe. In spite of this, a lot of people are still opposed to this change.
FIFA's stated intention for this change was to make the World Cup more inclusive. However, more games mean more TV rights to sell as well as more sponsorship, which bring in more money. This also vastly increases recently-elected FIFA president Gianni Infantino's chances to clinch re-election as early as now, Sports Illustrated reported.
More participants also mean that more games will be less of a contest. There is a big chance that more powerful teams will have an easy berth to the last 16 if they are grouped with smaller nations. There will also be three-team groups meaning that even poorly performing third-placers will get to advance, which waters down the thrill of having to perform well to clinch the top two spots in each group.
Watch the announcement of the 2026 FIFA World Cup reform below:
