What happens when you shrink the World Cup to 16 teams
6Football is greedy and expansionist, greedy for the coin just as we, the consumer, are greedy for more football: so UEFA and FIFA think.
What was once a four-team tournament at the start of summer in the European Championships has exploded into a 24-team extravaganza that had only been replicated in the world stage since 1982.
In 1982, the World Cup finally made the leap from 16 teams after 52 years. Forty years on, we are about witness the final 32-team World Cup before it balloons into a messy 48-team feast.
What if we stood still, and what if FIFA kept the World Cup as it was—a 16-team tournament, would football be that different?
#FIFAWorldCup
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Voice: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Words: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
Edit: Jake Doyle (@jakedoyle93)
What If Football is a form of footballing storytelling that takes the audience down a different path to our current reality.
What If Football covers football in all forms, from the Premier League to the Champions League, European football and the EFL as well as international tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championships.
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