Sincere suggestion here - make it something more like the old European Cup

Basically, get rid of the group stage and drastically change the qualification, because both become so low-stages in a 64 team tournament as to be a bit pointless.

Every national team in the world takes part - entries are staggered like in the FA Cup, using the FIFA rankings to decide who enters when. There are regionalised rounds of two-leg knockout ties until you get to the last 128, then teams can be drawn against anyone in the world for the round of 128 and round of 64, again two leg knockout. This runs through the current international calendar, with the round of 64 taking place in the March before the main tournament. Then the last 32 play in the final rounds in June/July - straight knockout to the end.

That way, you deal with the tournament being too big for any single country to host it, you keep the best things about the current set-up - access to more countries and the opportunity to play the bigger sides, knockout football being geuinely good - and get rid of the bits that don't work so well.

Downsides for FIFA are less television money, and not being able to electioneer by promising to expand the tournament (which is really the main card for any presidential candidate) so it might not happen, but I think it would be better ...

Posted By: Ottosson Foxtrot, Jul 13, 11:28:39