FIFA are set to expand the World Cup with a changed format for the 2026 tournament in USA, Mexico and Canada. After initial discussions were held over a possible three-team group stage for the games, that has now been changed.
The Athletic write that the decision is set to be confirmed later on Tuesday by the FIFA Council. The tournament is already going up from 32 teams to a 48-team competition and how that fits into the schedule and what it will look like is getting increasingly clear.
The Qatar edition involved the now standard eight groups of four teams with the top two sides progressing to the knockout stages from last-16 to the final. It covers 64 games across four weeks. The new format is set to look very different though.
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Despite agreeing to using a '16 groups of three' format when the tournament expansion was agreed in 2017, the new format will be back to 12 groups of four. This then leaves room for eight best-placed third-place sides to join the top two in the knockout rounds.
The aim is to reduce dead rubbers in the group stage. There is still set to be 39 days of competition with seven days less of preparation, now down to a 16-day release period, but that still remains two times as much as was allowed in Qatar.
This is also set to alter how many games each other host country has. The original format was set to be USA with 60, Canada and Mexico getting 10 each.
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