Are there any redeeming features of the Qatar World Cup? Perhaps one: the tournament has a sane and logical format. Having 32 teams reduced to 16 after the group stage, followed by a straight knock out is easy to understand and should produce an exciting third round of games and plenty of thrills thereafter. But if you do have the stomach for Qatar 2022 savour this comforting crumb: it could be the last time a major tournament is organised in a way that makes sense from a footballing – rather than a revenue generating – standpoint.
For let’s look ahead to USA 2026. There might not be human rights concerns here, but the tournament will certainly be controversial for other reasons. It will bloat to 48 teams, divided initially into 16 groups of three, producing a bewildering 80 games in total. Eighty games? To paraphrase a John Updike reference to sex and money, with World Cup football, it seems, only too much is enough.
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