GOM World Cup Diary #5: Do We Really Need 48 Teams?
Germany beat Curaçao 7-1 yesterday.
Which was unfortunate for Curaçao.
And, if we’re being completely honest, not especially surprising for the rest of us.
Now before anybody starts writing angry letters, I have nothing against Curaçao.
I’ve never actually been there, although I have visited Aruba and Bonaire, back in the days when they were all part of the Netherlands Antilles before politicians started moving lines around maps and changing names on official documents.
Lovely islands.
Beautiful beaches.
Friendly people.
I’m still not entirely convinced they were looking forward to playing Germany, mind you.
Football occasionally presents us with a mismatch.
And yesterday’s game felt a bit like watching a family hatchback attempt to race a Formula One car.
FIFA tells us the expanded 48-team World Cup is all about inclusion.
Which is a wonderful word.
Nobody has ever objected to inclusion.
The trouble is that football remains stubbornly attached to another concept.
Ability.
And every now and then the two collide rather dramatically.
The official line is that more countries get the opportunity to compete on the world’s biggest stage.
The cynical view is that more teams create more matches, more television rights, more sponsors and, quite coincidentally, more money.
I’m sure the two things are entirely unrelated.
After all, FIFA has never been interested in money.
At least that’s what they keep telling us.
The problem with a larger tournament is that not every match is a contest.
Sometimes it’s simply a demonstration.
For long periods yesterday Germany appeared to be conducting a football coaching session in front of a global audience.
Mind you, football has a habit of making fools of people like me.
Somewhere during this tournament a supposed minnow will beat one of the giants.
The commentators will call it a fairy tale.
The fans will celebrate.
And FIFA will point to the result as proof that expanding the tournament was a stroke of genius.
Until then, I reserve the right to wonder whether every game really needs to resemble a practical lesson in arithmetic.
Still, perhaps I’m old-fashioned.
I grew up when the World Cup contained fewer teams, fewer groups and considerably fewer opportunities to lose 7-1 on international television.
Maybe this is progress.
Or maybe it’s just more football.
And more football, as FIFA has discovered, usually means more money.
Anyway, what do I know?
I’m just a grumpy old man.
What do you think about the number of sides? Is it too many teams now? Too many games in the off season for players?
Tell me in the comments — the Grumpy Old Man can take it.
