One final thought on the World Cup. Is it me getting old, or its it just too elongated and full of dreary meaningless matches?

FIFA in their infinite wisdom are trying to spread the word by taking football to all corners of the globe. We’re left with a bloated World Cup, the majority of teams turn up to make up numbers but ensure equal representation for each continent.

How about a 16 team World Cup but introduce an additional qualifying phase. Use continental qualifying to reduce the world to the best 60 teams. In the summer before the World Cup finals, stage an extra qualification phase. 15 countries each host a 4 team tournament. Each continent would stage tournaments in 2 or 3 countries. Teams would be placed into groups through a random draw. So in theory, in England, we could host Austria, Poland and Togo. Nigeria could host Argentina, Japan and France. Only the winner from each tournament, plus the host nation, would go through to the following year’s 16 team finals.

The upside, a more intense, shorter World Cup finals with just 16 teams, but fewer meaningless games. Meanwhile, around the globe, 15 nations get to host world football. Surely for the likes of say Gabon, Algeria, Thailand or Canada, a much easier and more available way into hosting world football. Also, it takes world stars around the globe to play competitive games.