The World Cup is good, but with 32 or 48 teams? If it’s from 48, should it have 16 groups of three or 12 of four? And be every two or four years? Or maybe every three?

It looks like world football’s governing body has been playing the…pumpkin lately as FIFA president Gianni Infantino appears desperate to boost revenue from his main source of funding, but also leave a legacy as an administrative leader to stand out from the rest. his predecessors in some way.

The delightful 32-team World Cup in Qatar came to an end and was (probably) the last 32-team World Cup as the World Cup expansion to 48 teams was completed and will come into effect after the US co-hosts the event in three and a half years. six months, Mexico and Canada. This means that approximately one in four national teams from around the world will reach the final.

Now the question is whether they should be divided into 16 groups of three as announced, or to maintain the successful group system of four, simply increase the groups to 12. Infantino admitted last week that the issue is being reviewed. , given the success of the group stage in Qatar, as well as major European competitions, both national teams and clubs.

World Cup every three years instead of four Infantino is reportedly looking into what’s going on with the Club World Cup.

The main problem is that in a group of three teams, those who are drawn to play the last match will know exactly what result they want, and many matches can be completely indifferent. On the other hand, the number of matches in the final increases significantly to 104 if 4×12 is chosen, and the top eight third-place groups will also move forward, perhaps limiting interest in the final match day.

In addition, the idea, expressed by Marco van Basten in 2017, that penalties should be taken after every draw in a group match, returned to the discussion. A proposal widely discussed during the Qatar World Cup is for the penalties in tied games to be taken with an extra point, so the winner of Russian roulette gets two and the loser gets one. This will be especially useful when forming groups of three teams.

However, new confusion arose last week with reports that after FIFA’s bid to host a World Cup every two years failed, it is now reportedly proposed to be held every three years starting in 2033.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Infantino also plays squash in the Club World Cup. His proposal to expand from 7 to 32 teams from 2025 has already sparked a new backlash…