FIFA World Cup 2026: More the merrier, or bigger the blander? Is this a World Cup for the ages, or a spectacular overkill?

As a supersized World Cup is set to unleash a unique summer of many firsts, the biggest stage of the world’s most popular game is facing its moment of truth. Forty-eight teams, 104 games, 39 days, 16 venues and three host nations — FIFA, the game’s global governing body, has doubtless played the numbers game in a staggering fashion.Take for example this piece of data. Every World Cup from 1998 to 2022 had 64 games. But this time around, 72 games alone — eight games more than an entire 32-team World Cup — will be required for the organisers to reach the roundof-32 stage, the first knockouts. Quite an XL version of the previous format you may say.In Feb 2016, for a 46-yearold who had just become the most powerful man in world football and presiding over an organization damaged by Sepp Blatter’s controversy-ridden reign, standing still was out of the question.Infantino’s brainchildSo, nine years ago when the FIFA Council put a seal of approval on Gianni Infantino’s brainchild, a delighted FIFA president said, “This is a historic decision to shape the World Cup of the 21st century. Football is more than Europe and South America and it should give more countries the chance to dream,” he further noted after that Jan 2017 meeting in Zurich.The move has since come to divide opinion.Juergen Klopp had feared at that it would “dilute” the competitive balance. Former US forward Clint Dempsey in a recent interview echoed the sentiment saying that “it’s almost like it doesn’t start until the round of 32”.For others it’s ‘a natural evolution’. Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger — now serving as FIFA chief of global football development — has insisted that it’s “the right number” for the game’s biggest show.FIFA’S ‘golden goose’What we are going to witness in the US, Canada and Mexico a week from now is a far cry from the inaugural event in 1930 in Uruguay where only three stadiums in Montevideo were used for 13 teams and the 18 games played over 17 days.The number of participating teams has since grown from strength to strength: 16 in 1934 (briefly decreased to 15 in 1938 and further back to 13 in 1950); 24 from 1982 and 32 from 1998, and now 48 in 2026.This move to aggrandize FIFA’s ‘golden goose’ is aimed at making the game ‘truly global.’ Infantino’s theory here is simple: with a greater chance to qualify and more berths up for grabs, more nations — particularly from Africa and Asia — will be involved and boost FIFA’s revenues along the way.Curaçao, the smallest country by population ever to qualify for the World Cup, will join Jordan, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan and land in North America as four debutants.In Qatar four years ago, there were only five African nations while 13 came from Europe. The expansion now illustrates a relatively even share — 16 from Europe, 10 from Africa, nine from Asia and six each from South America and CONCACAF plus New Zealand.No Group of Death?Yet, many fear that one of the collateral damages in FIFA’s expansion venture could be elimination of the World Cup’s traditional ‘Group of Death’ spectacle.Sure, we can expect some sparks to fly in Group I with France taking on their 2002 nemesis Senegal, Erling Haaland’s Norway and Iraq or in Group L with England having their task cut out against Croatia and Ghana. But these are nothing quite like those group-stage match-ups from the past where more than two teams came squaring off against each other sprinkling pure footballing stardust on the tournament early on. The mind goes back to 1982 when Italy had to beat Brazil and Argentina in Group C on way to winning the title, or in 2018 when defending champions Germany crashed out without a win after finishing last in a group which also had Sweden, Mexico and South Korea.Moreover, with eight of the 12 nations finishing third in their groups having a chance to make the round of 32, this expanded format is also offering a route to staying alive that was not previously available.The naysayers have also pointed out that FIFA’s morematches-more-money mantra is bordering on overkill, giving players little time to recover before the next season comes knocking and lamenting how an essentially working-class sport is being usurped by corporate packages, ticketing drama and Donald Trump’s foreign policy.A guessing gameWhen Infantino mooted the idea of an expanded World Cup, the Euro 2016 was already there as a case study. UEFA took the gamble of increasing the number of teams from 16 to 24 for the first time, along with the introduction of a convoluted third-placed qualifier system.The weaker team entered the competition knowing that a win was no longer crucial to qualification.True that the story of an Iceland sending England packing to reach quarterfinals came out of the pages of the Euro 2016, but the same tournament would also be remembered for how Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal limped towards the title after finishing third in the group stage and winning only one game at the tournament within 90 minutes.Beautiful or boring game? The choice is yours.This eventually takes us to the Red Queen Effect and what the Red Queen told little Alice in Carroll’s masterpiece: “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!