Big Question: How can the World Cup be Improved?

I will suggest having more teams from other continents. At the moment Europe has far too many teams compared to other continents.

Posted from  Singapore

Wow, Gus, I think you are right.

About Bob’s opinions:

I just hate penalty kicks. You can toss a coin instead. I would rather see players crumble under physical stress until someone score (golden goal) than watch any penalty lottery.

A final is a final, as Gus said. We can’t wait for the sevond match. Here in Brazil the country stops at every game we are invlolved, can you imagine the damage to our economy if there were a second final? If it was to be a second final, we would need a second quarter final, e second semi final… no thanks. The format is perfect.

More qualifying among federations? I disagree. Each continent will fight to represent the best among their neighbors, and the last hopes are in the inter-continental matches. Don’t mess with that! You want to see Africans and Europeans fight, let them be worthy of their spot in the World Cup.

Another disagreement! Hosts MUST play!!! Imagine the host country hating to host other countries!!! I can’t even begin to imagine such scenary. Your country spends billions of dollars to host the competition but you can’t root for your own country? I would become a mad man if Brazil hosted a World Cup for others. I would bomb the Maracana Stadium!!!

I agree with Gus again, seeding is a cool reward for teams that did well at the previous competition. It’s like in Formula 1. The starting grid rewards the best pilots. Imagine those Japanese pilots and Japanese teams starting at the front! It would be an utter mess, and completely unfair to the good drivers.

Gus thinks like me, when he says that “referees should add more time if there was deliberate time wasting”. I would like to see a ref giving 9 more minutes to punish the anti-game. To punish that coward that falls on the ground like he was shot at his pennis and keep rolling for 4 minutes until the medic comes to spray that magic potion that makes the guy jump up and start running again.

No games should be replayed. Keep them playing until people start to fall. Imagine the 2 goalkeepers trying to drible one another, shooting from far away. In a sporting arena you can’t just flip a coin (penalty shootout) you must be brave and fight to the end. The coach should be allowed as many substitutions as he want, even returning players that were in the game previously, as Gus said.

I like the way Gus thinks!

[...] Bob’s proposals are italicised (you can check out his reasoning over here). My responses follow. [...]

Posted from  United States

Right now, the best teams aren’t in the WC.

If the best teams would be there, we might end winding up with 26 teams from Europe.

On the one hand, it’s supposed to be a World Cup. On the other hand, that’s not too fair, too.

And about a qualification for the host: Whatever you took buddy, I want some, too. Given the fact that a tournament lives (at least for 2 weeks) from the athmosphere, the home team must at least be IN for it.

Posted from  United States

“Right now, the best teams aren’t in the WC.”

Really? There are probably about 10-12 teams with a reasonable chance of contending for the Cup. The rest simply rounds out the field. Considering that, European teams that couldn’t make it past qualifying aren’t significantly better than the finalists from other regions. Sure, I get that Norway’s probably better than Trinidad & Tobago, but not enough to lose any sleep over it. If a “deserving” (i.e. underachieving) European team doesn’t make it, it has more to do with the qualifying format than not having enough spots.

Penalty kicks? A necessary evil. It’s easy for us to say “Play till their legs fall off” when we don’t have millions of euros invested in said legs, or don’t need them for walking. Players start to hit the wall around the 75th minute and risk of injury increases wit every minute – 120 minutes is the absolute limit. And if the score is even after 120, the two teams are pretty even – whatever happens in the shootout isn’t great injustice.

We all want matches decided in the run of the game, but there’s little excitement in two exhausted teams walking the ball up the field. And like Bob himself says, shootouts are great drama.

I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple more play-in matches too. Otherwise, why fix something that ain’t broke?

Posted from  United States

“Sure, I get that Norway’s probably better than Trinidad & Tobago, but not enough to lose any sleep over it. If a “deserving” (i.e. underachieving) European team doesn’t make it, it has more to do with the qualifying format than not having enough spots.”

Norway’s better than T&T? On what grounds? Just don’t say the FIFA rankings.

As for European teams – can anyone name 26 world class European teams? Currently UEFA, with 52 national teams, has 13 (.5) of the 32 slots – the most in the tournament. CAF – with 52 countries – has 5. Hmm.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Grr. CAF has 54 countries. I’ll wear my glasses next time.

Posted from  United Kingdom

stacy-marie –

heh, I stand corrected re: Norway. But the perception is there, I think.

As for CAF, I think they have the right number of slots given their performance and size (that sounds much dirtier than it should), but they really need to fix the qualifying format. The current winner-take-all format leaves too much to fluke results and teams like Nigeria and Cameroon end up staying home.

Posted from  United States

i have to disagree with the unlimited substitutions idea, if it were really the case, games might go on for 5-6 hours… now think in a world cup… 100000 people at least sitting in the stadium watching… for 5-6 hours… its just not appropriate,

i agree somewhat witht he idea of no penalties though, however with limited subsitutions as is the current situation… all is needed is for the golden goal time to be longer, and eventualy one team would be too worn out to defend againts the other and the glory would be to the golden scorer… it would add competition to having better stamina

Posted from  Australia

If anyone remembers the first couple of seasons from MLS, they had an interesting alternative to the shoot-out.

Instead of spot-kicks, each offensive player had a 1-v-1 with the keeper. You started at about 30 yards out (while the keeper started on his line), and when the whistle blew, you could move in for a better shot, while the GK could rush out and cut off the angle… and you had to take your shot within (I think) 5 seconds.

Each team would do this 5 times, taking turns.

In my opinion, it was more entertining than a shoot-out, and it also displayed more skills.

Posted from  United States

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Posted from  United States

I would change the rules in xtratime like that.

If it is a 0-0, every team needs to take a player of the field, so they start with 10 vs 10 in extratime. Then, every 10 minute, another player has to leave the pitch, so if it is 30min XT, in the end there will be 7 vs 7 for the penaltys.

If it is not 0-0 after 90min, the team, that had not shot the first goal would need to have his second player of not after 10 minutes, but after 5 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 25 minutes.
They would be a player less, for every 5 of ten minutes then, as a penalty for NOT SCORING THE FIRST GOAL.

This would make sure:
a) each team trying to score first in a k.o. game
b) avoiding red cards, as they count bitter in the XT
c) more goals scored in XT
d) interesting tactics on which player would be withdrawn by the trainer.

Posted from  Germany

can anyoneone name 26 good soccer countries in Europe. I can only count 10 or 11 tops. (Please don’t say that Spain or Poland are good teams).

Posted from  Mexico

World Cup Improvements (Or Not)

The World Cup Blog asks an interesting question – how would you change the World Cup to make it better?…

Posted from  United States

England
Germany
France
Italy
Czech Rep
Spain
Holland
Denmark
Sweeden
Norway
Swiss
Austria
Turkey
Greece
Serbia
Poland
Russia
Wales
Belgium
Croatia
Romania
Bulgaria
Hungary
Portugal
Ukraine
Ireland
Thats 26, all of these would be worthy of the World Cup finals.
Maybe the final 6 could be made up of:
Brazil
Argentina
Mexico
Iran
South Korea
Ivory Coast

Posted from  United Kingdom

Australia has been drawn in Group F with Brazil, Croatia and Japan. How many matches will Australia play in
elimination round?

Someone plz help me with this question ASAP….
Thankx

Posted from  Australia

monika,
Australia will play 3 matches 1 against each Brazil, Croatia and Japan, if it gets 2 wins or more (by some god luck charm, in my opinion) then it will enter the knockout round.

Posted from  Australia

I like team Brazil…2006 brazil is win world cup in germany…brazil win

Posted from  Malaysia

I think that there should be 8 more spots added to the cup. Add one to each group. As far as where those spots come from, I would give 2 spots to Africa, another 2 spots to Asia, then give Europe 1 spot and the Americas another 1 spot. The last two spots could be an at large bids, that way a team that most likely would get in but for some reason or another did not make it could compete for that spot. You can keep the same format for advancement where you have 16 teams in the second round. Or you can move to an alternate format where you could give the top 4-6 teams (determined by goal differential) would have byes the first round (kind of what the NFL used to do). You would see alot more offense in the first round. Also I would make the world cup every three years instead of four. It sucks waiting four years for the Cup, though it that long time frame makes the Cup more valuable.
The time thing is a problem. The referee should maybe use a stop watch and stop it when there is a delay, or have an official time keeper, maybe do a countdown rather than go to 45 and 90. Also I would add another referee to the pitch. A back judge perhaps. The referee can’t catch everything.
Well that’s my two cents.

Posted from  United States

FIFA should implement a rule that effects players who fake injuries and call for treatment to stymie attacking opportunities for rival teams.

I believe that if a player goes down and a stretcher is called onto to the field they should have to leave the playing feel for 5 minutes before being allowed to reenter the game.

Anybody know how we make this suggestion to FIFA

Posted from  United States

Has anyone ever thought like this?:

Think of the world cup as a 2 year tournament that begins with Regional qualifiers as the first round. The world cup we have been watching are merely the 32 teams remaining from the 200 or so that began in qualifying.

In many ways all nations have already competed in this world cup because qualifiers pitted all of them against other teams and the thinning of the herd was acheived. If you cant qualify in your regional group, you cant win the world cup. So basically this month long tournament is the end of a really long tournament that started with all nations. These are the 32 teams that survived. And Italy and France survived out of the 32.

Even though there are some good countries that are not in the world cup, none of them would have won.

*****
Also if FIFA corrected its rankings: what if the top 32 ranked teams made it to the world cup, that would really stir things up

Posted from  United States

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Posted from  Nigeria

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Posted from  United States