One of Gianni Infantino's pledges in his Fifa presidential election manifesto was to increase the World Cup to 40 teams. Will it happen by 2026, we don't know. But, scoff as many of us may, the increased number of countries at this Euros has made it quite exciting. And when you consider how many more countries there are in Europe now than 25 years ago, the percentage of countries qualifying must be very similar. (Of course I could easily figure this out, but it's too late)
A 40 team World Cup would need a new format. With ten groups of four, it will be hard to whittle it down to a round of 16. If the top two teams in each group moved on there's 20 teams. So maybe it would have to be eight groups of 5, with the top two moving on to make a last 16. But whereas the format at the Euros meant every team (bar Ukraine) still had a chance of qualifying in the last round of group matches, just imagine the number of dead matches in a 5 team group. Do I have a point? I'm not sure. I might just be trying to get ahead with a solution for Fifa.
In real, happening now football news the quarter finals at the Euros will be played over the next 4 days. Here's my perception of the 4 days: tomorrow, Poland-Portugal, the boring one; Friday, Belgium-Wales, the fun one; Saturday, Italy-Germany, the true tactical football battle, the clash of the heavyweights, the we've-been-here-so-many-times-before (will probably also be boring); Sunday, France-Iceland, the fascinatingly interesting one, the fairytale team against the hosts, will the fairy tale have another chapter, but a tournament without the hosts loses a lot of the fun factor.
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