Luis Figo wants to let 40 teams participate in the World Cup!

[Kiarash]

Luis Figo is proposing an expansion of the World Cup finals as part of his FIFA presidential manifesto which launched at Wembley Stadium on Thursday.

The tournament's current format involves 32 teams but Figo wants to add eight or 16 more, with a focus on more teams from outside of Europe getting to the finals stage.

The former Portugal international also said a greater percentage of FIFA's income should be spent on grassroots development.

'I believe we should consider proposals to expand the competition to a 40 or even 48 team World Cup,' Figo told the press conference at Wembley.

'Both these options are feasible with an extra three to four days of tournament play. If this expansion were to take place I believe that additional teams should come from non-European nations.'

Figo, who played in two World Cup finals with Portugal, also offered up the option of the tournament being played on more than one continent in future.

The former Barcelona and Real Madrid star suggested that FIFA could even stage two 24-team group competitions simultaneously on the two continents before the knockout stages would be held in one country.

Blatter remains the odds-on favourite to keep hold of the role at the head of world football's governing body, but Figo believes the desire for change after investigations into corruption will help swing opinion his way.

'This image we are aware of this organisation that leads football is not the appropriate image,' he said. 'I trust that most want change and are ready for change, a democratic change, a change so that we achieve transparency and a change that goes back to football itself.'

Blatter is yet to launch any campaign manifesto ahead of the election but already has the support of the federations of Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania.

The election takes place at the FIFA congress in Zurich on May 29.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...to-launch.html

[Abtin]

I smell Arab Money..

[persianallstars]

I smell a starting spot for Iran :-)

[AminGP]

It's not a bad idea. That will guarantee a spot for Iran in every world cup but it will make it harder to qualify to the round of 16.

[IranPowned]

Stupid idea, the quality of the world cup will become lower. It's only for $$$

[Bi-honar]

If they go to 40 teams with the existing format for the round of 16 (i.e. top two teams of 8 groups of 5 will qualify), it's actually not a bad idea. Otherwise, if they're going to make it 10 groups of 4 teams and do some weird stuff to come off with the playoff spots, it's pretty retarded.

At the end of the day, we could have had 8 more teams deserving of being in the WC from the 4 Euro play-off losers, 5 African playoff losers, 2 North & Central America final group finalists, 2 from Asia, 1 from Oceania and two more from S. America.

That's a total of 16 teams who could have played home and away matches (regardless of their continents) and we could have had 8 more decent quality teams in the WC. Under this scenario, it would have likely been Sweden, Ukraine, Romania, Senegal, Egypt, Venezuela, Peru and Uzbekistan.

I think that would actually increase the competition for the 2nd place finish with teams having to show more consistency to finish in the top 2. It will also give much needed experience to the bottom placed teams and get more countries and fans involved - not to mention that the inter-continental playoffs themselves will be like a mini-WC and put teams of different continents up against one another in a competitive setting.

It would of course make the cup last longer as well, which is not bad thing.

[Nokhodi]

These FIFA candidates are all jokes.
Basically you have Blatter who is running a corrupt organization and you have the anti-Blatter candidates who are supported by Platini who is actually a frontman for the Qataris.

Either way Qatar wins.

[BacheLot]

[saeed_noro]

48 Teams would be nice. The World Cup could be always hosted by three "neighbor nations of one region" (3x16=48) means 4 groups of 4 teams in one host nation and 12 groups in total....i think this is great. It is so or so unbelievable and crazy that in future always only one nation host a world cup, we have over 200 countries in this world, and every nation or at least 70% should be able to host it (together). I see also problems in future when always only one nation will get the right to host a Tournament...

Iran could host together with Aserbaidschan and Turkey or even Iraq one day. who knows, even with arab countries of persian gulf...a regional world cup.

12 groups, the first and second (24 teams) and the 8-best out of 12 third placed teams will play 1/16-final (Stage 2) before of 1/8-final. Even a draw instead of the "best 8-out-of-12" teams could be another option to choose the 8 teams which join the 24 teams, to make it 32 Teams in Stage 2 (1/16-final).

[Kiarash]

Qatar and UAE would do anything to make this happen. Having 40 teams in a WC obviously increases their chance to every qualify to a WC.

Horrible idea IMO.

[O-ZoNe]

If they go to 40 teams with the existing format for the round of 16 (i.e. top two teams of 8 groups of 5 will qualify), it's actually not a bad idea.

Ya except, how long of a WC did you want? If you have to play 4 times instead of 3 in round 1, do we continue giving the same length breaks or do we cut it shorter risking greater injuries and more fatigue? What about the challenge of final critical matches playing simultaneously? Chances of final games being meaningless increase and teams will not start their strongest lineup to protect against injury and fatigue. What about the difficulty of maintaining pitch quality?

This really needs to be thought out before any serious discussion about implementation can take place. Particularly since more likely than not, you will see nations like Qatar and UAE make it to the WC while countries like Serbia, Venezuela, Ukraine, Romania, Egypt, and Morocco will still have a tough time making it in.

[Z Joon]

The less Arab teams at the WC, the better

[zzgloo]

Blatter , is not a football person..he has brought nothing new .
Playing the world cup on two different continent , is a very good Idea...long travels,bad timings, summer winter ,etc,etc,will be avoided to a large extend.
Adding to 32 teams, will eliminate , existing conditions ,where many lower rank teams qualify and many higher rank teams do not .....luck,will be a less of a factor.
The goal, of making the games,more internationalized,and more world inclusive is a good idea.

[persepolisfan]

Terrible idea

[khodam]

Not a bad idea. Some 2nd, and 3rd tier countries in Asia/Africa and NA only fight for the last spot or the play-off. Their real chances are next to nothing. Having a better chance will definitely improve the condition in those countries.

I just hope that Asia is split into two or three federations based on style and geography. The current 8 hours time difference difference between east and west Asia and 4.4 billion population are just impractical for a realistic competition.