Fifa will at present verify the 2026 World Cup would be the longest and largest in historical past.
World chiefs below President Gianni Infantino have agreed on the ultimate construction, to be rubber-stamped on the assembly of the organisation’s ruling Council in Kigali, Rwanda, The Sun reported.
It will imply a event expanded from the 64 video games in Qatar to an enormous 104 break up throughout the venues in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
And whereas Qatar 2022 was performed over 29 days to squeeze it into the smallest attainable window, the subsequent World Cup will likely be performed over 39 days, a fraction over five-and-a-half weeks.
That is not going to go down nicely with the golf equipment who provide the gamers, though Fifa will minimize the preparation interval to a most 17 days reasonably than the 24 days specified for the final summer season World Cup in Russia in 2018.
Instead of the much-criticised preliminary plan of 16 teams of three groups – which noticed many consultants voice worry of potential collusion within the last set of video games – Fifa will persist with 4 workforce teams.
It means the highest two in every of the 12 opening teams will undergo to the knock-out part, together with the eight finest third-placed groups.
That will see the knock-out stage beginning with the spherical of 32.
For the primary time in World Cup historical past, the winners should play EIGHT video games to carry the trophy.
The choice to develop the competitors to 48 groups for the primary time brought on controversy when it was made in 2017.
Since then, Fifa has checked out varied choices earlier than reverting to 12 teams of fours.
Ideas that have been thought of after which rejected included penalty shoot-outs on the finish of drawn group video games and a “winner’s” bonus of the workforce topping the group staying in the identical metropolis for the opening knock-out tie.
But the drama of the ultimate group video games in Qatar, together with the unimaginable evening by which, at factors within the video games, all 4 of Spain, Japan, Germany and Costa Rica have been each going by means of and going dwelling, noticed Infantino add his weight to the brand new format.
This story was initially revealed by The Sun and was reproduced with permission
Originally revealed as Massive modifications coming to the World Cup
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au