Yes we have the group primers on the way over the next week or so, but I wanted to put this together too.
Mostly to gripe about what I think are a pitifully few amount of teams from CONCACAF at the World Cup. Six guaranteed spots out of forty-eight? Really FIFA? We couldn't figure out a way to get the host region another two spots?
I firmly believe that North America should host the World Cup every 20 years or so...this bidding nonsense and cycling of the regions is likely to become increasingly difficult with tournament expansion and the all but guaranteed joint bids on the way in the future. The USA-Canada-Mexico trio will always be doing the heavy lifting but I think it would be really cool for FIFA to allow one true home game for future qualified sides.
FIFA is already planning this in 2030, with three Centennial Anniversary games in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (who hosted the first World Cup in 1930) despite Spain, Morocco, and Portugal hosting... instead of ARG/PAR/URU hosting the darn thing outright because FIFA logic.
Yes I know FIFA has a silly rule about venue size normally, but how cool would it be to play a World Cup group match at Curacao's Ergilo Hato Stadium or Haiti's Stade Sylvio Cator. There would probably have to be special ticket restrictions for these games but most of us don't spend all of our time thinking about how to make all the money in the world like FIFA does.
Regardless, FIFA expanding the field to 48 is great for first time participants like Curacao, Jordan, Uzbekistan, and Cape Verde, but the lack of emphasis for the home region irks me. Europe doesn't need 16 spots, a whole third of the field, and you could reallocate one or two spots from Asia and/or Africa to fit in another two guaranteed CONCACAF spots. Or just do away with the intercontinental playoff spots which are becoming increasingly unnecessary and just bloat the fixture list late in the qualifying cycle.
This is not to cover up the qualifying failures of Jamaica, Honduras, and Costa Rica as the three regional powers stumbled in the quests to return to the World Cup. It's just something that I think makes sense.
When South America hosts, I have no problem with all 10 CONEMBOL countries being in the field and maybe seeding their groups based on the qualifying standings. Give the defending world champs and the highest ranked team the other Pot 1 spots.
Ditto for Africa and Asia, they're big enough to have tri-hosts and nine qualifying spots. South Korea-Japan was great in 2002 and I could see them hosting with China. Likewise I think a dream host tandem of Australia-New Zealand should occur in my lifetime, get one of Indonesia, Thailand, or Vietnam to round out the trio.
Maybe it's me, but it feels weird to have a World Cup where the host confederation has the lowest number of automatic bids and only have 12 total teams representing the Americas as a whole.
