Kicking About 13: The Ludicrous Nature of a 48 Team World Cup

Sometimes there are good ideas and sometimes it’s just FIFA trying to go for a quick cash grab when they can.

After the news broke that FIFA reached a unanimous decision to expand the World Cup to 48 teams (as opposed to about a myriad of other options that could have solved the problems they were facing civilly, it was time to sit down and fully discuss the precarious position they put themselves and the rest of us in. It’s not that we’re saying FIFA officials are probably not the ones to be trusted with prudent and transparent financial decisions clear of backdoor motivations it’s just that FIFA officials are definitely not the ones to be trusted with prudent and transparent financial decisions clear of backdoor motivations.

Cameron Climie: So this is actually happening now.

Serge: Yeah… Why?

Cam: The why is not actually that hard to understand.

Serge: More TV money?

Cam: More TV money, but also that there has been a lot of pressure to expand the number of African and Asian teams that participate in the World Cup. At the same time, UEFA is such a vital constituency within FIFA’s executive that you also can’t afford to do that at their expense. Of course, you can advocate that a solution to this is just expanding the World Cup.

Serge: That’s fair. As a fan, I don’t see it working.

Cam: I think there are three problems. Problem number one is that the move is very clearly one of political cowardice rather than a calculated concession. There is an argument for giving more teams to the African and Asian Confederations for the World Cup and creative a more diverse and inclusive tournament. The problem is that it will be politically possible to take teams away from UEFA sometime after Judgement Day. And absent of a big shake up that’s probably not going to happen.

Problem number two is that the quality of football will most likely drop. We saw this with the Euros this past summer when they expanded. The group stages were wretched. The big part of that is that you get fewer groups of death and fewer matches between good teams.

Serge: That’s what I mean, you get teams where it’s kind of like “cool, you have Alaba, who else now?” People keep forgetting that the saturation of talent is not equally spread out across the globe.

Cam: To me, problem number three and perhaps the biggest problem is that that’s four more groups that you have to run. That’s eighteen more group games that you now have to find venues for and the infrastructure for. That means that all the exorbitant costs of hosting a World Cup will go up. It’s already economically ruinous to every country that’s hosted it in the last 20 years that wasn’t Germany in 2006. And that cost just continues to go up every time.

Serge: They’re still going with it. So…

Cam: Certainly. None of that will stop them.

Serge: You mean that economic well being of people in certain countries that they’ll never go back to again…?

It’s an interesting approach where I think where you nail it in stating that it’s quick patchwork. There are valid arguments as to why they’re doing it, but they’re not the best solutions. They’re the most money-plus solutions for you, but definitely not for anyone else involved including the players, the hosts, the fans… anyone else really.

Cam: It’s one of those things that again, is often like “If this was done well I could see an argument for it.” List of people I trust to do something like this well, football officials are very very very far below that threshold.

Serge: Especially given some of the more recent changes inside of FIFA.

Cam: When American law enforcement is using laws reserved for breaking the mob to deal with your financial crimes, that’s probably a bad thing.

Serge: That’s the biggest thing. I understand the financial arguments such as “more fans will theoretically travel to your country,” but then again, will they? If you’re letting teams in that are on the fringes… Let’s say, Ukraine makes it in the expanded version. I guarantee you more Ukrainians will not travel because they can’t afford to.

Cam: And ticket prices are ridiculous now. It’s unclear to me that any of the supposed benefits that FIFA says… This is a cash grab and a means to avoid a difficult political decision about taking teams away from UEFA.