FIFA, which was trying to come up with a new group league method of tying three teams into one group for the first ’48 World Cup’, decided to stick to the existing method of tying four teams into one group. .
On the 14th (local time), FIFA announced on its homepage, “Through a council held prior to the 73rd Rwanda General Assembly, the plan to play the group stage of the 2026 North and Central America World Cup by grouping 4 teams into 12 groups was announced.”
FIFA unanimously approved the plan to operate the 2026 World Cup group stage in 12 groups of four teams instead of 16 groups of three teams after thoroughly examining various factors such as the purity and attractiveness of sports, player welfare, movement between teams, commerciality, and fans. did,” he said.
“The 24 teams ranked first and second in the group advance directly to the round of 32, and the teams ranked third in the group compete for the remaining eight spots,” he said. “This method minimizes the risk of collusion and all teams play at least three games. You can have an even break period while guaranteeing that
Four years later, the North and Central America World Cup will be held on the largest scale ever, with 48 countries participating in the finals.
As the number of participating countries increased, a change was inevitable in the existing method of tying four teams into a group and sending the first and second place in each group to the round of 16 tournament. For this reason, ‘alternative plans’ were discussed for a long time.
Initially, FIFA tried to choose a method of holding a group league with three teams of 16 groups, and the first and second place in the group advanced to the round of 32 to continue the championship competition through a tournament.
This has the advantage of being able to determine the champion by playing a relatively small number of 80 games, but the fatal disadvantage of only two group league games per team.
In addition, since the final match of the group stage cannot be held at the same time, the possibility of the two countries playing the second match later colluding and running the match in a draw was raised.
If the first and second place teams to advance to the round of 32 are decided early before the final match of the group stage, the tension in the match is likely to drop.
When voices arose that they could not enjoy the ‘last-minute tension’, which was considered the best advantage of the existing ‘four teams,’ FIFA also began to reconsider.
In particular, after favorable reviews continued for the dramatic effect, such as Bentuho dramatically advancing to the round of 16 in the final group H match at the Qatar World Cup last year, the FIFA leadership, including President Gianni Infantino, leaned back to the ‘four teams in one group’ plan. This is the analysis of foreign media such as the BBC.
Chairman Infantino admired on December 7 last year, “I watched all (group league) matches. In short, it was the best ever.”
For FIFA, more than anything else, if it is played in a 4-team 1-group system, the number of matches will increase and it will be able to reap greater profits from broadcasting rights.
Under this system, the number of games will increase to a total of 104 games, and the competition period will be extended by at least one week longer than before토토사이트.
According to Reuters, 90% of FIFA’s revenue comes from the World Cup.
In November of last year, FIFA announced that revenues related to the World Cup in Qatar over the past four years were $7.5 billion (approximately KRW 9.775 trillion) due to broadcast rights and sponsorship contracts, an increase of $1.1 billion from the 2018 Russian tournament.
The biggest weakness of this plan is the increased fatigue of the players due to the tight schedule.
In the last 2022 Qatar competition, the complaints of the participating teams were great due to the tight schedule of 64 games in a total of 29 days.
With the 2026 North and Central America World Cup final set for July 19, 2026, FIFA is expected to reduce the training period given by about 23 days prior to the opening by about a week, keeping the overall schedule at the level of the previous tournament.
Except for the case of participating in various club competitions, the plan is to make it possible to convene national teams from May 25 of the same year, and to conduct all training, rest, and competitions within 56 days until the final.
FIFA explained, “If you add up the number of days such as rest, call-up, and competitions for 56 days, it is the same as the 2010, 2014, and 2018 competitions.”
However, FIFA did not mention the burden on each country according to the distance traveled.
Unlike Qatar, which is slightly wider than Korea’s Gyeonggi-do, the North-Central America World Cup is the greatest ‘super-sized’ competition ever.
Canada, 2nd in the world in terms of total land area, the United States, 3rd, and Mexico, 13th, are co-hosts.
It will be held at 16 stadiums in 16 cities, including 11 in the US, 2 in Canada and 3 in Mexico.