Nadajmo se opet ovakvim vremenima
Da se razumijemo, Tata mi ne fali, ali kad ovo vidim nije mi svejedno
Detalji:
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2024629--gnk-dinamo-vs-h-beer-sheva/
The World Cup has already expanded from 32 to 48 teams, and there is now discussion about increasing it to 64.
Instead of making the tournament even larger, why not return to 32 teams and introduce a 2nd group stage?
1st group stage
32 teams
8 groups of 4
3 matches per team
Top 2 teams from each group advance
16 teams remain
2nd group stage
16 teams
4 new groups of 4
3 matches per team
No team can face an opponent from its original group.
For example:
Group I: A1, B2, C1, D2
Group J: A2, B1, C2, D1
Each team plays 3 completely new opponents.
Knockout stage
Top 2 teams from each 2nd stage group advance.
8 teams reach the quarterfinals.
Every quarterfinalist has therefore played 6 matches against 6 different opponents.
The full tournament would have 80 matches, including the 3rd place match.
The 48 team format has 104 matches, so this version would be 24 matches shorter.
A 64 team format would be even longer.
More importantly, the average quality of the tournament would improve.
Qualification would remain difficult.
Reaching the World Cup would still feel significant.
There would be fewer weak teams, fewer one sided matches and more competitive group games.
The 2nd group stage would also reward consistency over 6 matches instead of allowing 1 bad result or 1 easy group to have such a large influence.
So the tournament would be shorter, more selective and likely higher in quality.
Would this be a better alternative to continuing the expansion from 48 to 64 teams?
As some maybe know, Zlatko Dalić is no longer Croatian football team manager, after 3 World Cups (silver in 2018, bronze in 2022, round of 32 in 2026 with some questionable referee calls), 2 European championships, few Nations League runs (one silver) and 8,5 years he wanted a break, and will be replaced soon.
There are mixed feeling and feedbacks from Croatian reddit subs, so I was hoping to get some outside feedback.
