FIFA Must Rethink The 2026 Format To Avoid Spoiling The Winning Recipe
FIFA 2026
After delivering the most thrilling group stage ever at a World Cup, with a test format that thrilled hundreds of millions of fans, FIFA now faces the prospect of revisiting it.
Instead, they risk a fortnight of lackluster games and scoreless encounters, plus the possibility of unwanted controversy, as they try to host 48 teams for the 2026 edition in North America.
World football’s governing body is in the process of rethinking the format of the next World Cup, as its initial plan, which called for 16 groups of three teams in the first phase, with two teams from each group advancing to the next stage. , now looks dangerously boring and likely to elicit unsportsmanlike behavior.
As it stands, for 2026, when Canada, Mexico, and the United States will jointly host the World Cup, there is a risk of many “dead” matches – for example, if the last group game would oppose two teams that would have already won a victory each and would therefore already be qualified – or of rigged results.
FIFA 2026
FIFA admitted earlier in the year that they were concerned about the possibility of artificial results, where two teams could get a positive result for both, which would eliminate the team from the third group who did not play. “It’s a question that has been raised,” FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani said in March.
The 2026 format sees the 48 teams reduced to 32 after the group stage, with the tournament then becoming a knockout affair.
Alternative formats are now on the table, and the FIFA Council, the organization’s all-powerful cabinet, must make a decision next year.
According to Arsene Wenger, head of world football development at FIFA, these are 12 groups of four teams, with the best third places qualifying with the top two, or another option of splitting the World Cup into two separate halves of 24, each comprising six groups of four teams. The winner of each half would meet in the final.
Given how spectacular and exciting the conclusion of some four-team groups in Qatar is, this proposal seems more viable.
FIFA 2026
MORE MATCHES
But this will imply a substantial increase in the number of matches. The 32-team World Cup in Qatar has 64, played in 29 days, and so far the 2026 finals will feature 80 games over 32 days.
With groups of four teams, there would be 104 games, which would require at least an extra week.
There, FIFA runs the risk of tipping the delicate balance of all-consuming excitement that the World Cup has proven in Qatar into a drawn-out affair that loses its luster with the dilution of the quality of entertainment.
More matches, however, would mean more money for TV rights and with the World Cup bringing in some 90% of FIFA’s revenue, its leaders will be tempted.
The World Cup in Qatar brought in $7.5 billion in rights and sponsorship revenue, $1 billion more than the 2018 finals in Russia, FIFA said last month.
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