Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Thanks FIFA: An Idea Even Dumber Than MLS


If you thought the expansion plans of MLS to 28 teams was the worst idea in the football world, the brains over at FIFA have surpassed it with the new 48-team World Cup with full credit going to FIFA head man Gianni Infantino.  The turn of events had the Twitterverse thinking the unthinkable:

Yes the corrupt Blatter is gone but did you really think the stooge that would replace him wouldn't be excited to cash in on a major payday as soon as possible? Infantino essentially treated the public as if we have the minds of infants by declaring that "sporting merit" was his purpose for the expanded field.

The 2026 World Cup may be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada but it is a broken event. Having sixteen groups feeding into a knockout round of 32 is too much of a lottery and you can expect about five or six teams to advance with one point or two, meaning not winning a match. We already saw what a diluted field does at Euro 2016, where a team that failed to win a group-stage match won the trophy; in fact, Portugal posted a victory within 90 minutes on just one occasion in an utter embarrassment to football. Though not as shameful as a club winning a Cup final and league title without a single shot on target.

Yes, that was your 2016 MLS season and now the Euros and World Cup will resemble the mediocrity and randomness of Don Garber's monstrosity. Sadly, maybe only Copa America and Asian Cup tournaments offer the best in national team football; we know the Gold Cup is always corrupt. 

In all honesty, 48 teams may not be enough since it won't get the record seven times South Asian Cup champion India into the World Cup.  That's why the IMOTGP blog suggests a 96-team tournament with each federation getting one wild card to help faltering nations who still can't qualify despite having obvious appeal.  The entrants should be the following:

Asia: India (Never played a World Cup match and current top-ranked test cricket team in the world)
South America: Venezuela (Never played a World Cup match; known for baseball and beauty queens)
North America: Canada (Dead last in only appearance in 1986; used to wearing skates)
Europe: Israel (Outscored 3-1 and finished with 1 point in only appearance in 1970)
Africa: Sudan (Never played a World Cup match, ranked in top 7 in GDP in Africa thanks to oil)
Oceania: American Samoa (Imagine a group with them and the United States!)

The IMOTGP 96-team World Cup will feature 32 byes for the top 32 teams in the world or the top 31 plus the United States if we are below that ranking. The remaining 64 teams will be drawn into one-game knockout matches and the 32 that survive that will face off for two-legged ties to determine the 16 who advance to the 48-team group stage - just like Infantino proposed.  Our proposal wouldn't affect the top European club teams since none of these crap countries have players good enough to play for Europe's elite! The extra 64 matches will add to the pageantry of the World Cup with the additional revenue going right to FIFA and IMOTGP. You can trust that FIFA will put that extra dough to good use. Here at IMOTGP we will enhance the blog with more content so you the football fan will get even more IMOTGP insight!

Of course, 96 teams would work only for 2026 because in 2030 in order to celebrate a century of the World Cup, we will add four teams to make it an even 100!  By then, the world footballing product will be even better since MLS will have about 42 teams. There is no doubt that expansion teams like the Boise Spudmuffins, Saginaw Shinguards, Fresno Freekicks and Honolulu Obamas will have full-fledged internationals as designated players as football soars to new heights!

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