Under 17/20 World Cup Expansion

[Soccerkid999]

What do you all think about U17 and U20 WC having 32 teams from 2023, i am not convinced TBH. But FIFA like to take everything 1 step too far

[ultra2013]

32 is much better than 24. With 24 teams tournament you can produce abominations like a third place champion.

[Soccerkid999]

32 is much better than 24. With 24 teams tournament you can produce abominations like a third place champion.

What you mean ‘third place champion’?

[EarlofBug]

32 is much better than 24. With 24 teams tournament you can produce abominations like a third place champion.

What you mean ‘third place champion’?

Third place in the group can go all the way and become the champion.
On the other hand, a second place can become a champion in 'regular' tournaments, what's the difference?

[Soccerkid999]

32 is much better than 24. With 24 teams tournament you can produce abominations like a third place champion.

What you mean ‘third place champion’?

Third place in the group can go all the way and become the champion.
On the other hand, a second place can become a champion in 'regular' tournaments, what's the difference?

or 4 best 3rds get in dont they in 24

[EarlofBug]

What you mean ‘third place champion’?

Third place in the group can go all the way and become the champion.
On the other hand, a second place can become a champion in 'regular' tournaments, what's the difference?

or 4 best 3rds get in dont they in 24

Yes, that's what he meant.

[Soccerkid999]

Third place in the group can go all the way and become the champion.
On the other hand, a second place can become a champion in 'regular' tournaments, what's the difference?

or 4 best 3rds get in dont they in 24

Yes, that's what he meant.

Why do they not have 8 groups of 3 in 24 team tourney?

[Kjello]

Because that would open up for the possibility of match fixing. One could get a situation where the two teams meeting in the last match. Both could advance given a certain result.

[Korgutt]

Because that would open up for the possibility of match fixing. One could get a situation where the two teams meeting in the last match. Both could advance given a certain result.

How will they fix this in FIFA World Cup 2026 when 48 Nations will be split into 16 groups?

[Kjello]

They haven't come up with a solution yet. Van Basten suggested to have a penalty shootout to decide the winner of draws. With the winner getting 2 points. While it will reduce the chances of such situations, it will not reduce it by much.

[Soccerkid999]

They haven't come up with a solution yet. Van Basten suggested to have a penalty shootout to decide the winner of draws. With the winner getting 2 points. While it will reduce the chances of such situations, it will not reduce it by much.

Not everyone is that corrupt.

[amirbachar]

They haven't come up with a solution yet. Van Basten suggested to have a penalty shootout to decide the winner of draws. With the winner getting 2 points. While it will reduce the chances of such situations, it will not reduce it by much.

Not everyone is that corrupt.

It's not necessary corruption - if the current score is good for both teams, why risk it and push for more? The 1st place lose all importance with 32 teams in the knockout stages...

[amirbachar]

Because that would open up for the possibility of match fixing. One could get a situation where the two teams meeting in the last match. Both could advance given a certain result.

How will they fix this in FIFA World Cup 2026 when 48 Nations will be split into 16 groups?

They ruined WC. I will only watch the knockout stages.

[Soccerkid888]

Because that would open up for the possibility of match fixing. One could get a situation where the two teams meeting in the last match. Both could advance given a certain result.

How will they fix this in FIFA World Cup 2026 when 48 Nations will be split into 16 groups?

They ruined WC. I will only watch the knockout stages.

32 teams is enough for WC IMHO

[Friesland]

They haven't come up with a solution yet. Van Basten suggested to have a penalty shootout to decide the winner of draws. With the winner getting 2 points. While it will reduce the chances of such situations, it will not reduce it by much.

With the top-2 advancing, the order of matches must be:
Match 1: Team A v. Team B
Match 2: Team C v. winner match 1 (let's say it's Team A)
Match 3: loser match 1 v. Team C
Note: if only the group winner qualifies, match 2 and 3 must be played in reversed order. The order of the matches matters in group of three formats, you don't want match 3 to be a match between two teams already qualified or two teams already eliminated.

There a three specific scenarios in which Team B and C can screw Team A in match 3.

Scenario 1: Team A wins match 1 outright, but loses match 2 outright and ends up with a non-positive goal difference.
Standings prior to match: 1. Team C 3 points, 2. Team A 3 points, 3. Team B 0 points.
To shut out team A, team B has to win match 3 outright. There are multiple scorelines that qualifies both Team B and Team C and screw Team A.
Note: if Team A ends up with a positive goal difference, they're qualified, since either team B or Team C (or both) will have a negative goal difference in the end.
A realisation of this scenario occurred in Group A at the 2001 under-17 EC. Belgium won against Germany (2-1), but lost against Spain (5-0) and ended up with a GD of -4. Any German win over Spain by up to 9 goals would shut out Belgium. Germany won by two and Belgium was screwed.

Scenario 2: Match 1 and 2 end in a draw with Team A losing the PSO in match 2.
Standings prior to match 3: 1. Team A 3 points, 2. Team C 2 points, 3. Team B 1 point
This scenario is far-fetched. It requires a (high-scoring) draw and Team 2 winning the PSO, such that Team B and Team C qualify on the number of goals scored.
This probably gives you Sweden - Denmark 2004 vibes. Any draw with both teams scoring at least 2 goals would shut out Italy. The match ended in a 2-2 draw and Italy was screwed.

Scenario 3: Match 1 ends in a draw and Team C wins match 2 outright.
Standings prior to match 3: 1. Team C 3 points, 2.Team A 2 points, 3. Team B 1 point
In this scenario Team C is already qualified in advance to match 3. So, if team C throws match 3, Team A is screwed.
This probably gives you Austria - Germany 1982 vibes. Austria was already qualified and any German win would shut out Algeria. Germany won and Algeria was screwed.

In all possible scenarios, Both Team B and Team C still have a chance to qualify. In most of those scenarios match 3 is basically a knock-out match in which the winning side qualifies and the losing side is eliminated.

In the format that only allows one team to advance, there is only one scenario which doesn't leave both match 3 teams with a fighting chance. It's basically the reverse of what is described in scenario 3 above: match 1 ends in a draw, Team B wins match 2 and so Team C is eliminated before they face Team A. This happened in Group B of the second group stage at the 1982 World Cup. England - Germany ended in a draw, Germany beat Spain, which meant Spain was eliminated. However, England couldn't take advantage of these circumstances. In most scenarios in this format Team B is eliminated and thus match 3 decides which team advances.