FIFA’s short-sightedness in World Cup expansion could make Qatar 2022 last ‘classic’ tournament
London: Competitive Teams. Fair, tight competition with no chance for scorelines or one-sided matches. A hooked, hypnotized global viewership of billions.
It is the “Holy Grail” of audience discovery, viewing figures and lucrative sponsorship for sports governing bodies around the world. And, even with all their arrogance and bravado, to the mightiest of all – FIFA.
Finally, at the ongoing World Cup in Qatar, as the group stage draws to a close and the high-drama of knockout football gets underway, FIFA’s heavyweights may finally have found a winning formula.
But, in true FIFA fashion, in four years’ time the governing body will throw the baby out with the bathwater and will tinker, fine-tune and intervene at the most inopportune moments.
The 1998 tournament in France was the first tournament to feature the now established 32-team format that fans have grown to know, love and plan their lives around for the six-week quadrennial run of the FIFA World Cup. .
At that time the eyebrows were raised. Spain defeated Bulgaria, the Netherlands defeated South Korea, and Argentina defeated Jamaica. Naysayers said that the inclusion of so-called “Bhi-Ran” was watering down the tournament, reducing quality and cheapening the product.
“24-team tournaments just work,” he lamented. “Look at the quality of the European Championship (an intense, high-drama 16-team battle to be the continental champion at the time),” he cried. “Smaller teams will devalue the competition,” he grumbled.
But, FIFA stuck to its guns and produced three World Cups in the ensuing two decades, which arguably top most people’s lists of “favorite World Cups”, especially within the large-spending, post-millennial generation. Demand. The football festival in Germany in 2006 is of particular note to this writer.
Of course, the mathematical, logical reasoning of 32 in 16 was also a major factor in FIFA’s decision-making. There was a long-standing complex equation of best-third-placed teams and unfair criteria from previous tournaments. Now it was the case: “Finish in the top 16 places, you progress.”
And so, 24 years after France’s shock victory over Brazil in the home tournament, the advantage is being reaped in the Middle East.
We just witnessed one of the most memorable World Cup group stages in living memory in Qatar. Saudi Arabia beat Argentina, Japan pip Germany, Morocco look like world-beaters on their way to top their group, with more Asian teams in the round of 16 than South American sides for the first time.
the list goes on.
FIFA’s 32-team format has gripped the world this year and, with Spain’s seven-goal demolition of Costa Rica proving to be the exception rather than the rule, fans have rightly considered every game who could come out on top There is – even the so-called “David vs. Goliath on paper” conflict.
As the old saying goes, the game is not played on paper.
So, although the Euros may have lost some of their magic and allure, when UEFA expanded their showpiece tournament to 24 teams in 2016, it is likely that the kind of memories made in Doha will fade when FIFA expands to 48. Will be done. Teams in the 2026 tournament from the US, Canada and Mexico.
The inclusion of the other 16 teams, some likely playing in their first World Cup, risks making the tournament too long, too long and too complicated.
FIFA’s quest to “spread the game as wide as possible”, to give nations a chance to play on the biggest stage and to give millions of people the joy of watching their national heroes take to the pitch of the World Cup is a laudable, noble one.
But, with all due respect to any of the competing nations, do TV viewers and (more importantly for FIFA) wealthy sponsors want to spend their money or tune in to a Dominican Republic vs. Hungary match? Finland vs Sierra Leone match? Or a possible blowout match between France and Haiti?
FIFA has an uphill task of making the World Cup as egalitarian as possible while maintaining the attractive, high-drama competition that has already marked Qatar 2022 to high praise.
Perhaps, instead of throwing more teams into the mix, an overhaul of the entire qualification process would work? Or, maybe, could help address the apparent imbalance in favor of UEFA’s European monopoly of qualification berths for each tournament?
Whatever the solution, for FIFA, having finally hit the nail on the head with a winning product at the World Cup finals tournament, as another famous saying goes…”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”