FIFA World Cup: Qatar 2022 • Page 24

My biggest issue here is that the two play off winners from AFC and CONCACAF got destroyed. Albeit against two of the top teams in the world. I think 32 is fine, and preferable. But the play-offs should be extended. Unfortunately none of the other confederations have the depth that UEFA does. Like you could conceivably add the 4 playoff teams to the 12 UEFA second round playoffs, but then you run the chance of every 'extra' place goes to Europe.

 

I think it comes down to whether or not you want more global representation (for more chances at advancing) vs another European team that loses in the Round of 16 ie the Polands and Serbias. 2014 had three CONCACAF teams reach the round of 16 against huge odds, one of whom was the playoff winner. So this year’s may be bad, but that year reached the quarters IIRC. Ghana in 2010, etc.

 

I don't disagree with that, but I actually think the current set up is nearly as good as they can get with 32. Maybe take out two UEFA spots and add one to CONMEBOL, and one as an additional inter-continental play-off. Europe v Africa maybe.

Saying that as African teams haven't scored yet this tournament lol

 

Yeah. But oh well, 48 teams here we come!

Egypt and Senegal drawing each other really did that confederation dirty, and Mane getting injured sure didn’t help after that, haha.

 

Pretty rude of Portugal to not let us make (as many) hair gel jokes this go around.

 

I like the move to 48 as it gives Ireland a better chance (to break my heart and not qualify) but I don’t like the move to 48 because there will be even more teams completely out of their depth, like Ireland would be haha.

 

this is the craziest part. I had four seats open next to me today on the 50 yard line, 12 rows off the field. Prime, in demand location. opposite side had a huge swath of seats open.

All of this, and it’s impossible to acquire tickets for anything reasonable. Even the Tunisia/Australia game Saturday is $230+.

I would happily pay 125/150 to fill any of these seats that would otherwise be empty.

 

do you feel like fans are protesting the location by not buying them? or that scalpers got into the sale? or that they’re just simply too expensive for most people due to the organizers not understanding the market?

 

Would love to know the real number of fans in Qatar vs the last few WC’s

 

I think FIFA has made ticket transfers near impossible to do. Tickets are assigned to an individual and can be transferred once. In order to be transferred again, they need to be sent back to the original owner who can then send to a new recipient. So if I bought a ticket, I’d have to go thru the hassle of sending back to the original owner, trying to get a refund, etc.

Meanwhile, other tickets are non-transferable. Mine were bought as part of a package, so I can’t transfer mine at all. If I wanted to sell, I’d have to send a screenshot of the QR code, which as a buyer, I would never accept because it’s just sketchy.

I’d say it’s 90% fifa bullshit and then some combination of what you mentioned.

 

I loathe the idea of 48 teams from a competition standpoint as much as anybody else but as time passes im warming up to the idea of 48 (in a way I will never warm up to expanding the playoffs in the NFL, for example). Thats almost entirely because I just simply love seeing smaller or less successful teams on TV. A lot of them will get rocked but I’ll die a little happier knowing my Macedonians actually got to play for the world and realistically it’ll almost never happen “the right way.”. It’s easy enough for me to just pretend they’re televising more qualifiers lol.

my main gripe is how convoluted and silly the tournament format is, if I’m remembering it correctly. Maybe I’m not.

also, these Portugal kits are fantastic imo. Simple and elegant.

 

if you qualify for 26, you gotta come over

 

ha haha hahahahah we won't. we're simultaneously in our most exciting period in terms of decent youngsters but also have probably our worst squad ever.

 

the groups of 3, top 2 advance format is quite stupid, yes

 

for some reason I thought they changed it to 12 groups of 4 with top 2 and best 8 3rd places going through to a round of 32

 

maybe it’s between the two and not finalized yet? I just remember what there being extreme match fixing possibilities with the format

 

Portugal play a lot like Leeds.

 

The Portuguese always unravel so quickly.

 

uh that's surely a red card for Seidu, no?

 

sooooooooooft fuck off you rapist

 

How the fuck is that a penalty?

 

because of who it is and only that

 

Fuck ooooooofffffffff

 

Cometh the man.

 

Why do they have VAR if they don't use it?