UEFA and FIFA plan to relieve the overcrowded football calendar by introducing a new qualifying format for the upcoming World Cup – says “AS”.
We are getting closer and closer to the end of the decisive qualifying phase of the European Championships. After the November break, we will have the last three spots left for the German tournament. They will be filled by play-off participants, including the Polish national team.
We hope that the White and Red team will perform well and, after disastrous results in the group, will ultimately advance to EURO 2024.
After the end of this event, the next edition of the Nations League will begin and in the meantime, the battle for tickets to the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico will begin.
For the first time, as many as 48 teams will take part in it.
The Old Continent will be represented by as many as sixteen teams, which somehow forces UEFA and FIFA to change the format of the qualifying rounds.
-“AS” journalists argue that both organizations have listened to the players’ grievances in this regard, complaining about the overcrowded calendar with club and national team matches. Therefore, they will slightly reduce the number of qualifying matches due to the distribution of teams in… twelve groups.
So far there have been ten of them, which meant eight or ten games had to be played. With the new format, there will be six or eight of them.
At the same time, it assumes that only group winners will advance directly to the World Championships. The four best runners-up and the highest-placed teams without qualifying from the Nations League will then play in the play-offs for the remaining four tickets.
Such cosmetics, including the reform of the Champions League, will not actually have a major impact on reducing the number of matches played by the best players, because in return they will have to play more times at the World Cup or take part in the new format of the Club World Cup in 2025.
