The 2026 World Cup, which will be played in the United States, Mexico and Canada, will be played for the first time with 48 teams. This will increase the quota of Conmebol teams in that tournament.
South America had four direct places and one playoff game in the final qualifiers. which was almost always favorable for teams from this part of the continent. They’ve only lost the playoffs twice from Conmebol: Uruguay, Germany 2006, and Peru’s recent defeat against Australia put them out of Qatar 2022.
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The idea is to have a new format that gives more excitement to the World Cup route. Everyone would go against everyone else, curiously, into one of two groups of five teams. they do not play each other, instead each team must play against the five teams in the other region.
Thus, each team would play 10 matches and there would be no rest days for either team, as when the number of teams is odd.
In the proposed format, the top two of each group will have a direct quota for the World Cup. But the idea is that these four teams play a league with round-trip semi-finals and a final. The last of each group would be eliminated.
The way the remaining two direct quotas and playoff slots are distributed will also be very innovative. The third in each group will face the fourth in the round-trip matches. The winners of these duels qualify directly for the World Cup, and the losers will play another round-trip series to determine who will make it to the playoffs.
(In other news: Egan Bernal talks about Gustavo Petro’s victory: ‘This is democracy’)
The number of quotas Fifa will provide to South America clearly benefits Conmebol, which could have seven teams in the 2026 World Cup.
SPORTS
with Footballred
Source: Exame
