u/FunPainting8107

Here are the 'preliminary' details of AFC Nations League:

1. There will be three leagues just as with UEFA Nations League 2028-29. They will have 18, 18 and 11 teams each (AFC has only 47 members). They will be called League A, League B and League C here for familiarity.
2. The 'Swiss model' used in Champions League and 2028-29 UEFA Nations League will be employed in AFC Nations League as well.
3. The tournament will be biennial and will also be used as qualifiers to AFC Asian cup (which will shift to even years from 2032 onwards) and the WC.
4. Teams will play 3 home and 3 away matches in 2030 NL, and 6 home and 6 away matches in 2032 NL. (There will be fewer matches in League C due to fewer teams.)
5. Teams that finish first and second will be promoted to upper leagues from B and C, teams that finish in the bottom two will be relegated from A and B.
6. Teams that finish 3-6 will play promotion playoffs with teams that finish 13-16 in the upper leagues wherever possible.
7. All 18 teams from League A and 6 top teams from League B in the 2030 edition will qualify for AFC Asian cup 2032.
8. Top 6 teams from League A in the 2032 edition will qualify directly for 2036 WC. Teams ranked 7-10 from the same league will participate in playoffs for the remaining spots.
9. A 'pilot' tournament in 2028-29 season will determine placements into leagues in the first season.
10. Matches will be mostly or entirely played during international breaks.
11. Top 8 teams from League A will play the knockouts for the trophy. The format will be identical to UEFA Nations League with two-legged playoffs for the QFs followed by single legged SFs and final.

UEFA nations have decided to boycott the world cup if Gianni Infantino goes ahead with his Kushner backed plan. This brings up a question: Would it be better for UEFA and it's member countries to leave FIFA entirely? Here are a few benefits:

No more international breaks - club season can run from start to end without interruption. This will lead to greater rest for players if the season finishes early.

Dedicated space for international matches - instead of international breaks, matches can be played at a dedicated time on the calendar say in June/July.

No more qualifiers - world cup qualifiers are generally some of the most boring matches as far as UEFA teams are concerned. Getting rid of them would mean organizing better matches, such as the Nations League.

Increased importance for European international competitions - the significance of Euros will grow.

Drawbacks include no matches with teams of other confederations (if FIFA bars them from playing European teams), no participation at the most prestigious footballing event and a possible loss of foreign players at European club competitions (if some players are willing to put their countries over clubs).

What do you think?

FIFA countries will opt for the decision of boycotting all FIFA competitions including the 2030 world cup if President Gianni Infantino goes ahead with this Kushner-backed private investment scheme. The decision was taken today in the emergency meeting.

The rebellion has begun... or has it?

Uefa to boycott World Cup in protest against Fifa sell-off

It was a common sight prior to the start of the world cup and especially after the group stage to see African fans claim that 'the gap between CAF and UEFA is closing'. With France eliminating Morocco, there are no more African teams left in this WC after just one game in the quarterfinals. Let us compare African teams' performance in 2026 WC to the previous edition (Qatar 2022). Remember, only African five teams participated in 2022 as compared to ten this time.

1. No African team could top any of the groups in 2026: In contrast, Morocco topped group F in 2022.

2. None of the African teams would finish higher this time: Of the five teams that qualified for the 2022 WC, the performances of those teams in this edition are as follows:

Morocco: SF -> QF

Senegal R16 -> R32

Cameroon GS -> DNQ

Tunisia 3rd in group -> 4th in group

Ghana 4th in group -> R32

Ghana did make out of their group, but since the last WC was a 32-team tournament, there is virtually no improvement here.

3. Same number of teams in R16: One of the claimed 'success stories' of CAF was that 9/10 teams qualified from the group stage. But since the WC was expanded, this simply meant that nine African teams played in the final 32. And only 2 out of these 9 reached the final 16. This is worse than last time when only 5 teams played the 32-team cup and two teams still made through.

4. Poor quality of teams beaten by African teams: Teams beaten by African countries (before penalties) in 2026 were: South Korea, Panama, Scotland, Haiti, New Zealand, Ecuador, Curacao, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Jordan. There is not even a single good team in this list. Only one of these teams is from Europe (Scotland) and one from South America (Ecuador). In contrast, African Nations beat Belgium, Portugal, France and Brazil in addition to Ecuador, Qatar and Canada in 2022.

It is clear therefore that African countries actually underperformed in this edition of the FIFA world cup. This underperformance was masked by far worse performances that came from countries from CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, OFC and AFC. There were many close runs for sure, but when you have taken down big teams in the previous edition, you cannot use 'coming close' as an excuse to justify your drop in performance.

The gap between Europe and Africa (or the rest of the world) is increasing!