Explained: A 48-Team FIFA World Cup š§
Plus, why is Mbappe snubbing Budweiser? and Why are so many penalties being missed?
Welcome to Athletic InterestĀ
Did you know that the next World Cup in 2026 will feature 48 teams instead of the current 32?
This is a huge change, and hereās how it will work.
First things first, the 48 teams will be split into 16 groups of 3. The top two from each group will qualify for a new round of 32.
As for where FIFA will find these extra teams, most of the federations will gain extra slots:
AFC (Asia) ā eight places (up from 4.5)
Caf (Africa) ā nine places (up from 5)
Concacaf (North and Central America) ā six places (up from 3.5)
Conmebol (South America) ā six places (up from 4.5)
OFC (Oceania) ā one place (up from 0.5)
Uefa (Europe) ā 16 places (up from 13)
There are two main advantages of this new format:Ā
More games equals more money from broadcasters and sponsors.Ā
More teams equals more attention and engagement from fans across the world (which ultimately = more money.)
All of this is achieved without needing to increase the number of games that each of the teams must play before reaching the final (itās currently 6 and will remain that way.)
That being said, the new format is not without some criticism.
Some argue that the increased number of teams, especially lower-ranked teams, will reduce the competitiveness of the tournament. Clubs are also concerned that more of their players will be involved in the tournament, increasing the chance of injury and tiredness problems within squads.
Then there is the elephant in the roomā¦
With just three teams in each group, one team will always need to sit on the sidelines while the other two play each other, this increases the chance of collusion between teams.
Itās a little complicated, but let us explain.
Imagine that England, Morocco, and Ecuador are drawn into the same group. The game schedule could look like this:
Matchday 1 - England vs Morocco (Ecuador sits out)
Matchday 2 - Morocco vs Ecuador (England sits out)
Matchday 3 - Ecuador vs England (Morocco sits out)
Now imagine that England beat Morocco to go top of the group with three points, and Morocco and Ecuador draw their game to tie for the second qualification place with one point each.
England is now guaranteed qualification while Ecuador needs just a single point. Ecuador could try and convince England to allow a draw in the final game to send both teams through at the expense of Morocco (who are powerless and sat on the sidelines.)
For anyone convinced that such collusion would never happen, we invite you to search āthe disgrace of GijĆ³n.ā
š Sports Business Bites
šŗ Talking of controversial World Cups, the 2022 edition hasnāt been kind to Budweiser.
First, their products are banned from the stadiums days before the first match, and now they are being publicly rejected by Kylian MbappƩ.
The French superstar has been awarded the Budweiser Man of the Match trophy three times so far this tournament and each time he is pictured with the trophy he has purposely hidden the companyās logo.
MbappƩ is incredibly protective of his brand and refuses to be pictured with logos or products that do not reflect his carefully curated image.
He has even boycotted photoshoots with the France national team to prevent his image from being used by companies involved in fast food and betting.
Donāt worry Budweiser, at least you have this image of Kai Havertz:
š¶š¦ While Budweiser may have missed out on a lot of attention during this World Cup, the same cannot be said for the hosts.
Qatar is hoping to build off its new-found fame, to put in a bid for the 2036 Olympics.Ā
The Middle Eastern nation believes that it has proven its ability to host a major tournament and points out that, after investing over $200 billion for the WC, it already has numerous stadiums and state-of-the-art infrastructure ready for a new purpose.
With fierce competition from alternative hosts like Germany and South Korea and questions over human rights and working conditions, it remains to be seen if Qatar has any chance of success.
If only there was some way for them to sweeten the dealā¦?
šŗ Qatar isnāt the only one in love with sports.Ā
Streaming services, like Amazon and Apple, have started investing heavily in live sports. Meanwhile, Netflix is yet to pick up a single major live event.
āWeāve not seen a profit path to renting big sports,āĀ explained Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos at the recent UBS conference.
Sarandos even referred to live sports as ādramatically expensiveā and a āloss leader.āĀ
This is a stark contrast to Netflixās rivals, which have collectively spent billions to stream events like Boxing, the Champions League, and the MLB to audiences across the world.
This doesnāt mean that Netflix will never enter live sports. The streaming giant was supposedly in negotiations with F1 to control the rights for America before being priced out by ESPN.
The Netflix CEO also made it clear that āāāWeāre not anti-sports, weāre just pro-profit.ā
š„
One of the most memorable moments of the World Cup so far has been Moroccoās surprise defeat of Spain on penalties.
The actual match was relatively boring, but the part that people canāt seem to forget is the truly awful penalties from the Spanish players.
Spain is not alone, the other penalty shoot-out between Japan and Croatia also produced some awful misses.
In fact, only 58% of the penalties taken at this World Cup have actually gone in. Thatās considerably down on the 71% average for a WC shoot-out.
So, what is happening this year? Is it pressure, or good goalkeeping?
This is a great moment to link our recent video about predicting penalties based on a playerās body languageā¦
šŖšø Spainās penalties werenāt their only highlights from this tournament. Their manager, Luis Enrique, spent a lot of the tournament streaming with fans on Twitch.
This move was intended to help the manager establish a direct connection with fans, and itās fair to say we got way more than we bargained for. Here are some of our personal highlights:
We like to end these newsletters with a fun or inspirational videoā¦but this weekās offering is just plain weird: