This is fantastic news for Italy!

There's no point in having strong feeling about the 48 team WC. This was inevitable. 3rd place teams already qualify in the Euros and Copa America (depending on their format) Groups of 3 was such a dumb idea, it's amazing that it took them until 2023 to figure it out

We can agree that FIFA are not the financially upright institution everyone expects them to be (allegedly) but that does not discount the benefits of representation for smaller countries with this new opportunity. It is easy to overlook how much impact a small country being represented in the world cup will do to the development of football in that country. The truth is that it does have a huge impact, even if you don't understand it. Plus the name 'World cup' doesn't make much sense if we aren't seeing as many playable countries of the world in that tournament.

Craig’s comment at the very end nails it

Common Gab W. Rare Ale L. I want to see Erling Haaland and Kvaradona play in the World Cup. The 48-country format gives Norway and Georgia a chance, however slim. Exclusivity is the enemy of football.

New Zealand will qualify for every world cup forever. Im happy.

The three guys in the studio and this comment section just reflects european reaction to inclusivity. Even being in the world cup could do wonders for football infrastructure in India. Ps: Remember when they were saying how Qatar world cup was going to be disaster.

"FIFA The Financial Guardians Of The World"🤣 Plus Ale is right. Already there's a quite whole load of matches. To the people who are advocating for this, no one cares if North Maceonia played Norway in the WC final. The last WC was a huge success compared to the ones when Stevie was still playing and you want to go back to that. There are WC qualifying tournaments just in case if you did not know. If I did not make an effort to see Luxemborg vs Sudan then what makes you think that I want to watch that at the WC.

If Venezuela make it to the World Cup and upset a big team or put up a fight then I’m sure Ale will be proud. Poorer teams do have success stories at times and anything can happen on the day.

All these teams that Gab is talking about ALREADY get the chance to play in the tournament…it’s called qualifying

32 or 48 or 60 teams, one have to still play their best game to win the WORLD CUP & before that they have to win the qualifiers to qualify for the world cup. We are waiting for 4 years for a world cup so a little longer world cup will not create problems apart from the financial aspect of the audiences.

Am not in favour of FiFa doing this just for money but seeing as how more countries from Africa and Asia get to qualify am not against the format and I think it may be entertaining cause every team would be fighting real hard to get of the group stage too plus considering how the last world cup had lots of surprises this one may bring that too

What’s the point in having more “bad” teams in the tournament? It just lowers the quality and adds more fixtures to an already congested fixture list

It should be 64 teams with top 2 qualify. This 3rd best place teams qualify is nonsence.

Craig sees through BS real quick😂

The world cup is so popular based on the difficulty to get in and the prestige to play there. Keep it at 32 teams

I like but at the same time I don’t the one thing I like is that new teams will be in it. Atleast some fans will be happy enjoy it.

How can a world cup be an elusive tournament. At the end the best teams go far so do not worry about the third best teams going to the next round.

It should NOT be exclusive, it should have more teams for sure, we love underdog stories

Watering down the tournament… fifa wants more money that’s all that matters

More games means More Money for FIFA More isn’t always better There is a reason why A Ferrari has 2 seats and a bus has 50 Quality over Quantity

I agree with the format except Oceania getting a direct spot and a extra playoff spot which really sucks. Oceania doesn't have a team which is good enough to enter the World Cup. So they should have only given a playoff spot to Oceania.

And how many of the 16 teams are going to be from Europe

I suggest making it 48 groups of 1 team. That should be fun

2:08 i don't think Moses ever came down from Mount Olympus, Gab.

1:47 same ale

I don't like the best few third-place qualifying. Because it will bailout teams like to underperform the last two world cups and couldn't get out of the group stage

it should be 32 teams, but cross confederation qualifying, I do believe that African teams get screwed in qualifying, because they usually put the 2 best teams in the wc groups together. Because CAF doesn't do it like AFC. Egypt played in the same group as Senegal and they both deserved to go to WC. Or every team qualifies to world cup no more qualifying and have 1 crazy a** tournament.

I’m annoyed with this arguments that the World Cup would have less quality. I would argue that only 5 additional teams out of the 48 have low competition. Teams like Iran, Costa Rica and Saudi Arabia have caused upsets. Europeans teams will increase to 3 more spots which can allow Italy, Sweden or Turkey to go. You still have Austria and Hungary who are competitive who may not go. So no, you are not going to have Andorra or San Marino. Africa would add 4 more spots which can go to Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and Ivory Coast. South America would add Peru and Colombia which would still leave though teams like Chile out. North America would have Costa Rica and Jamaica who are tough teams to play. Jamaica’s problem is the process of gathering their players because they actually do have good players. I think my problem is with Asia. Outside of Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, Australia, and Japan I don’t see much competition. But is ridiculous to say India would go. North America because of the host region would have 2 playoff spots, Asia, South America, Oceania and Africa would each have 1 so it would be pretty hard beating Chile or the African team. People act like this World Cup guarantees the spot for San Marino, Guatemala, Bolivia, Kenya, Solomon Islands or India. It does not

this change is just to give halands norway a place in world so he can tap in group stage

Glad we got one last great World Cup to send us off into the dark ages

I have best format for 48 teams …. 8 groups of 6 . 2 Euro teams per group. Top 3 of each group quality . 1st , 2nd , 3rd All 2nd will cross play a 3rd for a knock out . Winners will cross play a 1st qualifier to end up with a top 16. Top 16 play off as normal. Please comment what you think .

This basically looks like the Euros with the 3rd place inclusion!! Why does this look so similar to the Euros?!

The quarterfinals will still be the same top countries. Germany, Brazil, France, Argentina etc. So the quality will still be there but let’s give the smaller countries a chance (like Jamaica 🇯🇲 😅)

Why not do 8*6 groups 5 games in group stage 2/6 teams to qualify for the R16? If you want R32 Then 4/6 teams qualify

This is gonna be the same thing as Super league.. they've managed to include VAR into football They chopped off Away goal from CL and now this. Maan football is not the same and its really sad

If Fifa intentions is to give the chance for more countries who never had the chance to play in the tournament before thn I am all in, it’s great things. But if their intentions is otherwise like trying to get more money from these countries thn fifa is only making themselves trap in the corruption.

Even if the extending World Cup format and Africa getting more slots, South Africa still won't qualify for the World Cup.

So, Ale. If Venezuela qualifies, let alone beats a team, let alone pulls off an upset, you better not say "Vamos Venezuela".

32 teams was perfect. The weird thing in expanding it now is that to get a non “gimmicky” tournament we’d honestly have to go to 64 teams simply double the current format, and of course if we did that we’d get these people in the comments talking about “diluting the tournament”, which don’t even get me started on how wrong they are.

Im with Gab on this one

I thought first it was a BS move , but i think now it's good that they've included more teams would make competition harder , and many deserving teams that were left out just slightest margins would compete in the tournament, what's wrong with it ? Just enjoy 1.5 months of extra football , qatar 2022 when over i felt so hollow after that , but thank god argentina won it that's why i was happy

I never thought I would see the day when Ale looks like a genius and Gab looks like a goof. Adding 16 teams is simply diluting the product for the sake of the almighty dollar.

As soon as Gab said, "money not going to more Glazers" I was with him. Before that I was so against this but fuq Glazers and owners like them.

I disagree with Gab 100%. There is an ideal number for a tounament in terms of format, necessary infrastructure, quality and length of tournament, and it's not 48. 32 is ideal. This change adds 40 games to the tournament! That's too much, even for me who watches every game. This adds a week to the tournament, that's just too long! If you're tarvelling to follow your team that's way more expensive when they go deeper in the tournament. The confederation qualifiers are also watered down. Argentina had to win away at Ecuador in the last game to qualify for 2018. Mexico also qualified on the last day for 2014, Italy didn't make it, England has missed out. Colombia didn't make it. Qualifying is dramatic and meaningful, this waters it down greatly. Going forward, there are very few countries which will be able to host the event by themselves. There is no upside to this expansion. None.

Yeah,gab is right at the end..at least 100 country's football will not exist without FIFA fund..

Ok think how come 8 European teams can participate but just 4 teams in Africa, 3 in Concacaf, and 4 from Asia & oceanic region.

instead of 48 teams, why not make in 64 teams? 16 groups of 4, only top team qualifies to the knockout rounds, win getting 3 points, draw getting 2 points, surely it'll be a hit. plus let 8 teams from Conmebol qualifies for the WC, and 8 teams from AFC and AFCON as well, and 8 teams from Concacaf, 2 teams from the pacific, and the rest is europe, any major euro country not qualifies for the WC are ridiculous.

A player like Haaland can have a chance to win the WC and become GOAT, no matter how slim it is. I hate the narrative people like Shaka say you need to win the WC to be a GOAT. This basically limits potential GOATs to be of certain nationalities. The parameter is so flawed.

money will always drown quality productions

If simple have 3 three world class1 have 36 team and class 2 have 72 team

48 tema play each other randomly. Top 16 teams advance . The. You do another draw with the 16 teams and you draw every round

64 teams 6 rounds

Well Ronaldo will definitely stick around till '26 after this change 🤣😂

USA and Aerope

Ale gets so Salty and offensive everytime anyone disagrees with him!

Recently more "big teams" fall short to 3rd place, like Germany latest World Cup.. thats not good for FIFA revenue

Look at the euros 💶 2016 Portugal won the euro and they were the third place team.

The crew is almost always mean to Gab

FIFA doing this and nations league but the super league isn't okay smh

Gab with the ether Europe can be so arrogant. The redistribution of revenue does alot of great work around the world (corruption aside)

I personally don't like but i can definitely see where Gab is coming from

Only format that I would have liked is 8 groups of 6, 5 group games each… first knock out has 16 teams like before.

Not perfect but way better than groups of 3

Moses and Mount Olympus in the same sentence lol

Gab has all the reasons. If you really think about it.

This change doesn't hurt anyone. Teams like Italy from this past WC would have qualified, teams that finished 3rd in their group like Germany will get a shot to make up for a bad group round, and ultimately the top 16 in this next WC will be just as exclusive as the top 16 from the previous one. It doesn't matter, the best team will still find a way to win as usual and more teams get a crack at knocking other teams out of the tournament which is what they all show up to do. Also, as fans, we get 16 more knockout games which will be fun. These old traditionalist types need to get with the times.

48? Hate it.

48 team for me, Please make it happen

Am with GAB

Teams can qualify without winning and means standard of next round not high / it’s a joke leave it as it is as world to many weak teams otherwise

Just leave it as 32 much better

Why would Moses come from Mt. Olympus?

It's not a good idea

2+2=4 Gab: but it's not, it's 5. Because times have changed, you need to evolve.

If you want to be inclusive then go ahead and do away with the qualifiers and have all member countries play straight knockout style, that would be inclusive. This expansion is just a way for FIFA to squeeze in a few more games for more TV money.

Ale should be glad, now his country Venezuela has a chance to enter the WorldCup

The change just feels to me as the competition losing some of its prestige. Like Ale, the bright side of it is my country is more likely to qualify.

Gab’s right tbf

Gab makes good points but if you don’t make it into the top two of the group then you should be eliminated

Mbappe’s licking his lips thinking about all the goals he’ll score at the next World Cup now.

Would’ve preferred 8 groups of 6 w the top 2 still to advance, but I do think this isn’t the worst possible outcome Also the WC money coming into some of those extra countries and FA structures could be huge for them (better infrastructure and pipelines to develop domestic talent) so I don’t hate it per say

It is purely for $$$$$. More teams more games more TV broadcasts more sponsorships more $$$$$. The WC was fine more competitive more prestigious more elite for decades minus the $$$$$. Craig said it 9-billion lolz 😂

MatchDay 3 of the World Cup used to be the best day in sport. Not anymore

CANADA CONFERATION and Europe and Nubia

I don't see the point now of these long winded world cup qualification matches considering South America is getting 7 spots out of 10 potentially, Asia getting 8, and North America getting at least 6.

Hahahaha Trinidad and Tobago and Ireland will finally go through

Watered down like euro 2016

Third best teams going through is rubbish. All big teams will qualify like in the Euros.

I hope Europe doesn't win another world cup for next two decades just to give them a lesson in humility.

I think it’s ok with 48 teams but to let x amount of 3rd place teams go through is just plain stupid.

This will enable teams like NORWAY to have a chance of qualifying :D

It’s weird how Ale, considering that he is from Venezuela, is against a 48 team WC.

48 is much better for the rest of the world

fifa gon do what they want... what are we gon do?? complain and then eventually accept it... it is what it is... we still gon watch it regardless

FIFA must’ve sent Gab a check or something

i’m sorry but this make concaf looks even worse

They need to make it a 64 team World Cup that would make more sense. Then take 3 months to play the tournament.

We should just have a 16 team tournament and 2 groups of 8 💪🏽

FIFA should really expand it to 64 teams. LOL