The 2022 World Cup is over, and FIFA is slowly but surely preparing for the new one. It seems that the world’s biggest football governing body is still a bit confused about the future of this competition, but at least it has secured a draft of changes ahead of the next World Cup. It will certainly be historic, since for the first time as many as 48 national teams will appear at the final tournament, and it will be played in three countries, as it will be organized jointly by the United States of America, Canada and Mexico.FIFA is set to approve changes for the 2026 men’s World Cup in North America.—12 groups of 4 teams (rather than 16 three-team groups)—104 games (rather than 80)—Top 2 & the 8 best 3rd-place teams go to R32—Finalists will play 8 games (up from 7)—Final: July 19 in the US pic.twitter.com/O5cip4jj34— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) March 14, 2023 That is what was known. The dilemma of how the competition system will look lasted for months, and it has been resolved ahead of next week’s FIFA Congress in Rwanda. According to announcements, the delegates will vote on a proposal according to which 48 selections will be divided into 12 groups with four teams each. Thus, the idea of some FIFA individuals to form 16 groups with three teams each, two of which would be placed in the elimination phase of the competition, didn’t pass.##EDITORS_CHOICE##The winners and runners-up will advance to the next round, and they will be joined by the eight best national teams that finish third in the group competition. Thus, the knockout phase will begin with 32 teams, which means that a round of eliminations is introduced and that, instead of the round of 16 as it was before, the most interesting part of the tournament begins with the matches of the round of 32.##NAJAVA_MECA_7087816##This change will result in watching a drastically higher number of games in the future. There were 64 in Doha, according to the plan as mentioned there could have been 80, and now there will be as many as 104! It seems that only the ones who will vote in Kigali next week for this propoals are aware how will it look like. This also means that instead of seven matches each, as was the case before, the finalists in the next World Cup will play eight games. The new champion of the planet will be announced on July 19, 2026 in the United States of America.
