PhillippaT

Seeding in tournaments pretty much always works in a similar fashion.

Boooo

5 second penalty for Kimi? LOL

Kimi! Noooo

Not as much as that cheap pit stop...

Helmet colour.

#TeamYellowUmbrella

"Quality Teams" But what about the ref?

Paraguay are making it really easy to support France right now, which is a bad thing

Yep. It's fair to say there were probably 8 teams at this World Cup that weren't really up to it, yet. If people think that's bad, then 64... Yeesh. Maybe they think not enough 9-0's are breaking with tradition? EDIT: I thought France were supposed to be good /s That's gotta be a pen, right?

As I've said, that one is obviously the greed talking, even if it would make the format simpler. This one, however, nowhere near as much as some seem to think/want/seemingly need it to be. It should be obvious to everyone now that >32 teams are good enough, and FIFA chose 48 for a reason. Denying that there are more than 32 decent teams to make it worthwhile expanding the tournament is where people run into failing to understand what FIFA wants the World Cup to be - (for both football/sporting and entertainment reasons). (EDIT: Of course, the BIGGEST issue is that people have their own subjective opinions of what THEY want the World Cup to be, even if it's deliberately NOT what FIFA wants.)

Then you're not a football fan, and will be in a minority now, given the quality of the matches in R32. Football wise I think this is giving FIFA everything they could have asked for. EDIT: Bearing in mind that this is now after one of the best World Cup matches ever between Cape Verde and Argentina, which wouldn't exist at this time in any other previous format. That match alone has proven this format for this World Cup.

*Puts scarf away until next sporting event featuring England/GB and Canada*

They didn't have to rub it in

BOOOOO! X2 Game over then...?

I don't have any, sorry - I'm only a part-timer Canuck atm

I'm not sure my scarf is helping

BOOOOO

*Waves scarf*

WTF was that Russell? (Car issue?) Lucky it was at the start of Q1... EDIT: Antonelli

It's possible for multiple things to be true... That 32 teams isn't enough for the state of World football right now, yet 48 teams isn't perfect can both be true. An increase to more than 32 can be explained by footballing reasons without any issues - it's the planned increase to 64 that's the real cash grab, even if it has 'tournament' reasons to do so (because of the issues a non ^2 amount has). Having said all that, as a matter of ENTERTAINMENT, I think the 48 team format has proven it's worth over the 32, and that's precisely because the standard of football HAS increased in general, like FIFA want, regardless of perceived 'jeopardy'. There were still 16 teams that didn't make it to the round of 32 - 1/3 of all teams that entered, so the only reason for complaint is that a lot of these 16 teams weren't quite up to it - but there were still some upsets! I don't think people realise how bad MOST group stages have really been in previous World Cups! I also think this additional round of 32 has proven itself worthy, which is what REALLY matters. At the end of the day, most of this griping sounds like people complaining that there's too much football, which merely tells me they CANNOT be true FOOTBALL fans. (One extra game for players/teams shouldn't be that much of an issue for them, so...)

No. This argument is based on a foundation that happens to be WRONG/INCORRECT/INACCURATE, and that's a problem, considering how common it is, from many people, including some football players and managers that should know better. The Football World Cup does NOT exist to be the limited elite of the elite tournament for football according to, and on behalf of, FIFA itself. It was created specifically to be a greater, more inclusive tournament from the original that WAS such a thing, and is still considered by FIFA to be so: The Olympics. As such, the MAIN goal of the football world cup for FIFA, is to increase the level and amount of professionalism of world football, and give more opportunites for such players at national level. David vs Goliath matches are SPECIFICALLY the type of thing FIFA is after. As such, increasing the number of teams at the Football World Cup has always been a goal of theirs once enough professional players and teams are ready for it, unlike the Olympics. As such, the only things FIFA has ever taken into account for zise and scope of the tournmanet has been the professionalism of the teams and logistics. EDIT: Of course, problems caused by having multiple host countries that then automatically qualify is a matter all to itself.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

TAKE THAT!

BOOOO!