This is what happens when you have a dumb # of teams like 24 or 48. Either you have 3-team groups, which is horrible, or you have to give byes or advance 3rd place teams, but only to a select few. They should probably just expand to 64 if they’re hell-bent on expansion.
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Less unfair than 3 team groups?
Forgot about the 2 teams per group advancing thing.
I’d be on board with the 3 seed wildcards.
Then we have 32 so let’s really go wild and re group them and play it out (yeah that’s not happening).
I can confirm from some Playstation FIFA tournaments I had at my house back in the day, 3 team groups will lead to shenanigans and crowd violence.
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seems like letting in 4 third-place teams would be superior to 4 byes, and I don’t see any other option than those two in order to have 12 4-team groups (which I think we all agree is superior to 16 3-team groups).
The team that knocked us out in 2014 should be in here
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8 groups of 6. Top 2 advance. (Just winner would lead to a lot of dead rubbers) Would need an extra week for the tournament
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Anyone handicapping these fixtures? Seems like a weird slate to start off.
Or just run it like a tennis grand slam with seedings and knockouts from the start.
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All these discussions are showing is that the format is fine as is.
Some good teams missing out occasionally is part of the fun.
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Neither just 4 third place teams nor just 4 byes work.
12 four team groups = 24 top twos. You need to get to 32 and can add one for either a bye or a third place team. 8 byes would give you two RO16. 8 third places would give you a RO32. 4 byes and 4 third places gives you a RO24 followed by a RO16.
I think I like the last option’s incentives the best, maybe 3 byes and 5 thirds. I want to see Brazil put up 15 on North Macedonia.
Cristiano better hurry up and sign the Saudi papers, he looks like washed (not that they care).
It’s clearly in. In soccer, the rules are different than basketball or football. What’s touching the ground can be all out of bounds, but as long as a small bit of the side of the ball overhangs the goal line, it’s still in. They had a perfect shot demonstrating it is still in.
Americans should be good at understanding this, it is much like the idea of the handegg crossing the vertical plane of the endzone for a TD, is it not?
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It is fine. This is solely about money. Qualification is going to get even more ludicrous than it already is for the top sides, I can see the clubs getting more and more pissed when their top assets have to play San Marino etc for really no reason at all as qualification becomes a certainty.
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Pretty much, just different than what’s called in and out of bounds everywhere else.
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Maybe and no.
That isn’t to say he isn’t playing better than their current guys in the tournament. He’d be starting if they could guarantee his production that he’s had. He’s been out of form for club for a bit (fuck Xavi), and I think a lot of the dutch don’t rate him. They’ve always slagged him since he’s played at Ajax, but some of that is probably because he spurned them.
I think they meant 4 second place finishes.
Thanks. I watched it playing in the background with no commentary (maybe they explained it). If this is the rule, then I think it was probably in. I guess it makes sense for that to be the rule because if the ball is not on the ground, then there is not really a better criterion to use.
European qualification will not change as much. 16 instead of 13 participants out of 55 UEFA teams will probably lead to fewer qualification games. For 2022 you had ten groups with have of them consisting of 5 and the other half of 6 teams.
For 2026 there seem to be two possibilities: eleven groups of five and then some format of playoffs for the ten teams coming in second to determine the remaining 6 spots. Model 2 would be 13 qualification groups (ten groups of four+ three groups of five) and then playing off 13 second place teams for the remaining three slots.
Korea!
