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They increased the Euro 2016 Championships, to be held in France, from 16 to 24 teams, so why not the World Cup from 2026? There are 51 countries in Europe, so nearly half could qualify for Euro 2016. Seems quite generous to me. Where as there are between 193 and 250 countries in the world, depending on how you define a country, yet only 32 at the moment have a chance at getting to the World Cups in 2014, 2018, 2022. That is not very generous. Why not increase it to 40 from the year 2026? It will give lesser teams more chance of qualifying. It is a global spectacle after all, and I think more teams from South America / North America, and Oceania and Asia should have more spots, as well as Europe.
It will mean each team will play one more group match, meaning the competition would need to be extended for another 3 to 4 days.
I don't know about that. You allready get some teams there that are not able to compete well at that level. Where are those extra 8 slots going to come from? I assume 1-2 CONMEBOL, a few to UEFA. But then you are going to get more underperforming African and Asian sides, who just aren't good enough. I think the tournament is fine as is myself.
All of south america would have to automatically qualify for that to be fair. As it is CONCACAF,Africa, and Asia get to many to many teams going to the world cup. As for your euro comment, they should have never expanded it to 24 quality is really going to drop.
I agree, "the more the merrier", the group matches filter out the pretenders and the occasional upset or inspirational moment for a minnow nation, like Haiti going up 1-0 on Italy before they ultimately where outclassed.
When you consider the break up of the ussr, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia divided, you have 10 or so countries that didn't exist on a map so UEFA did the right thing, not sure it translates to the World Cup, but two spots for Europe seems fair.
All of south america would have to automatically qualify for that to be fair. As it is CONCACAF,Africa, and Asia get to many to many teams going to the world cup. As for your euro comment, they should have never expanded it to 24 quality is really going to drop.
I think number 24 of Europe would still easily be able to compete with all Asian/African/Oceanian/ North American teams. The current number 25 on the UEFA-ranking is Serbia, which is a damn' fine team.
All of south america would have to automatically qualify for that to be fair.
Venezuela, Paraguay and Bolivia are NOT better than the Top 20 of Europe...
Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, England, France, Russia,
Bosnia, Montenegro, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Czech Republic, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Romania
Venezuela, Paraguay and Bolivia are NOT better than the Top 20 of Europe...
Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, England, France, Russia,
Bosnia, Montenegro, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Czech Republic, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Romania
# 20 in europe is norway and they are no better than Venezuela and Paraguay and they are equal to Bolivia.
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. They had their "glory days" 15-20 years ago.
