My issue with this

(from the article I read on it)

His proposal was to have a first round that immediately cuts it back down to 32. I really can't see teams wanting to go through all that prep and get fans over, etc. for one game and then potentially go home. Seems pointless. If you are going to do that, just have a play off round at the end of qualifying that merges all the global regions, similar to the Oceania/South America playoff. There is no need for it to be a part of the World Cup finals and make it even more costly to host.

I think it is fine how it is but if they want to expand it, I think it would make sense to have a preliminary tournament in a smaller country (say the summer before) that is akin to one level down, that is also easier for the smaller countries to qualify for and easier to host (thus allowing FIFA to spread the World Cup around the globe, per their mission statement). You can have a winner of that competition in their own right but have all semi finalists or quarter finalists also getting passes into the real thing.

Whether confederations want to split qualifying based on their member rankings or allow runners up to have a second chance in the pre-tournament could be up to them. Oceania could choose to put all their members into the lower competition, for example.

Not ideal but it's an alternative.

Posted By: Jester, Oct 6, 18:42:18