In 2017, through a Council meeting, FIFA announced that it would increase the number of participants in the 2026 World Cup to 48 countries. The idea to increase the number of participants was the idea of FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
The 2026 World Cup will be held in three countries, namely Canada, Mexico and the United States. This is also a new history where it is the first time the World Cup has been held in three countries. Mexico and Canada will each host 10 matches and another 60 will be held in the Americas using 11 stadiums.
There will only be two cities in Canada to host, namely Toronto and Vancouver. Mexico will use three cities, namely Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City. Meanwhile, eleven cities will be provided in America, namely Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Arena, and Seattle.
Mexico and Canada will each host seven group matches, two matches in the last 32 and one match in the last 16. Every game from the quarter-finals, semifinals and final will be held in the US.
The addition of the number of participants to the 2026 World Cup means that the Oceania federation, which has never sent representatives before, will get an automatic place to compete in the World Cup. Asia will be given a quota of 8 countries, Africa 9 countries, Concacaf 6 countries, Conmebol 6 countries, and Europe 16 countries. The remaining two teams will be determined through rounds play-off.
Half play-off will be joined by all federations (except Europe), plus one additional country from the host confederation (Concacaf). So, there will be six countries fighting over the remaining two slots. The two seeded teams (calculated based on the highest ranking), will face off against the winners of the remaining four teams to determine who passes.
The 48 countries participating in the 2026 World Cup are divided into 16 groups, where each group has three teams. The top two teams will advance to the round of 32 which is played by the system knock out. With this system, the opportunity to qualify for the round of 32 has been seen since the first game. If a team wins the first match, automatically that team only needs a draw in the second match. In the round of 32, the system used is a knockout system.
The addition of 16 teams will also increase the duration of the tournament, although the number of matches will only increase by 16. On the other hand, this is also an indication that FIFA wants to make more profits. The more matches, the more money you can get.
In the document for the 2026 World Cup host bidding process, FIFA stated that the increase in the number of participants took into account several factors such as the distribution of sports, the quality of competition, the impact on the development of football, infrastructure, projections on the financial position and the consequences for delivering the event.
“This means more participation, more opportunities for footballers around the world
world and more joy on the pitch,” wrote FIFA. However, it cannot be denied that FIFA will receive a lot of money from holding the 2026 World Cup. Quoted from ESPNFIFA is targeting to get a profit of 13.8 trillion from sponsors and tickets.
The last time the number of participants for the World Cup was increased was in 1998, from 24 to 32 participants. This was decided in 1994, when Joao Havelange was re-elected as FIFA President.
Opportunities for Asian Countries and What are the Opportunities for Indonesia?
The addition of the number of World Cup participants will certainly open up opportunities for countries that have never played in the World Cup. Japan, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia are World Cup subscription countries from the Asian continent.
Opportunities for other countries such as Oman, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, will be wide open. At the 2022 World Cup, Australia qualified through the play-off round, by beating the United Arab Emirates and Peru.
Because the quota increased, the qualification system was changed. Previously, in the third round of the Asian Zone World Cup Qualification, the top two teams from the two groups automatically qualified. For the 2026 World Cup, there will be four qualifying rounds.
In the first round, countries ranked 26-47 (based on FIFA rankings) will compete over two legs to fight for tickets to the second round. In the second round, the 36 selected countries will be divided into nine groups with each group consisting of four countries. The top two countries will advance to the third round and ensure qualification for the 2027 Asian Cup.
The 18 clubs that entered the third round were then divided into three groups of six teams. The top two teams will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup. The third and fourth places will play in the fourth round.
In the fourth round, six teams will be divided into two groups, where the group winners will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup, while the group runners up will compete for one position. play-off inter-confederation.
Indonesia, if it manages to advance to the third qualifying round, will have an open opportunity. However, do we hope that the national team that beat Thailand and Vietnam is still having a lot of trouble?
