After successfully hosting the most compact World Cup in history in Qatar, FIFA has been preparing for the next one.
In 2026, 48 teams will participate in the World Cup, which will be jointly organized by the United States, Mexico and Canada. Asia's quota has been increased once again, and the Chinese men's soccer team seems to be seeing the light of day in terms of promotion. Of course, the first priority for them is to finalize their coaching candidates as soon as possible if they want to go through to the Asian World Qualifiers starting next year.
From 32 to 48
The Qatar World Cup will be the last time in history that 32 teams will participate in the World Cup. Starting with the next World Cup, the number of teams will increase to 48, all by 16.
Looking back at the history of the World Cup, from the schedule to the various rules, there have been changes. From 1954 to 1982, 16 teams participated in the World Cup. in 1986, the World Cup was expanded to 24 teams for the first time. From 1998 to the current session, 32 teams were maintained. Whether it is the team score the World Cup has gradually expanded from Europe and South America to other parts of the world.
The expansion of the World Cup means an increase in the number of matches. Under the original plan of 16 groups (3 teams per group), the number of matches would have increased from 64 to 80. However, after the Qatar World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said they were revisiting the group stage plan and could take 12 groups (4 teams per group) with the top 2 and 8 third place finishers from each group, for a total of 32 teams advancing to the knockout stage. This plan would mean that there would be 104 matches in the World Cup.
Expansion of the World Cup means change. With the addition of 16 teams, it is inevitable that some weaker teams will be included, which may affect the viewing of the group stage. In response, FIFA plans to have extra time and penalties in the group stage of the next World Cup to add to the enjoyment of the tournament. Of course, this proposal can only be determined after FIFA finalizes the tournament system.
From 4.5 to 8.5
The expansion of the World Cup as a whole is certainly good news for Asian teams, which means an increase in the number of places in the final stages.
Asian teams have performed surprisingly well in this World Cup. Just from the promotion results, compared with the 2018 World Cup in Russia, only Japan advanced to the top 16, and a total of three teams in Asia completed the promotion. Among them, the Japanese team has begun frequent exchanges with European and South American teams with a well-established domestic soccer system. The Japan Football Association has begun to invest a lot of money in Germany to establish a national team training base to facilitate foreign players to participate in national team training and other related activities. This is also a strong signal for Japanese soccer to actively participate and integrate into European soccer.
South Korea, which belongs to East Asia, also advanced to the top 16 in this World Cup. They broke through in the group stage surrounded by formidable foes. Uruguay drew, won against Portugal and advanced to second place in the group in an upset. Australia also won two in a row and caused a lot of trouble for Argentina in the first round of the knockout stage. As for the West Asian teams, none of them advanced to the knockout rounds, but Saudi Arabia overthrew Argentina and got rid of the "fishbowl" label, while Iran won the respect of the world with its tenacity and irony.
With this surprising performance, the Asian teams have more to look forward to in the next World Cup. The Asian qualifiers for the next World Cup will also see major changes under the rules currently set by the AFC. Firstly, the number of stages has increased, from three to four. Secondly, the quota has also increased from 4.5 to 8.5.
Specifically, the first stage of the World Qualifying Tournament is for teams ranked 26-47 in Asia, with 11 teams chosen to advance to the second stage. In the second stage, the teams ranked 1-25 in Asia and the 11 teams that broke through in the first stage will be divided into nine groups of four teams each, with the top two teams in the group advancing to the third stage. In the third stage, there will be 18 teams. They will be divided into three groups of six teams each, with the top two teams in each group advancing directly to the World Cup. The third and fourth place teams in each group qualify for the top six in the fourth stage. In the fourth stage, the six teams are divided into two groups, with the first place team in each group advancing. In Stage 4, the second-placed team in each group will play a home-and-away knockout tournament, with the winners qualifying for the Continental Play-Offs.
From 11th to ......
However, the increase in the number of places in Asia to 8.5 does not mean that the national soccer team's hopes of making it to the World Cup have increased, as the national soccer team is currently ranked 11th in Asia.
In the latter part of the golden dollar soccer, Chinese soccer is in a period of turmoil, and the current situation can be said to be not optimistic. On the one hand, the level of the league has dropped dramatically, and so has the level of the national soccer team. On the other hand, Southeast Asian teams have risen rapidly in recent years. With Thailand and Vietnam chanting slogans for the 2026 World Cup, the national soccer team is becoming less and less competitive in Asia.
How to make the national soccer team revitalized, as soon as possible to make up the gap with the Asian powerhouse, is the current focus of the CFA. Two weeks ago, during the Chinese Super League, the CFA held a national team working meeting in Haikou, which was attended by Li Xiaopeng, the current head coach of the national soccer team. However, it is uncertain whether he will stay or not, as Li's retention is only one of the three work plans of the CFA regarding the selection of national soccer coaches. As for the other two plans, they opted for a new coach to be part-time National Olympic Team coach Jankovic.
Preparing for this was actually a very awkward thing to do. The national team's coaches are uncertain, and they haven't trained for nine months. What kind of shape can they be in going into the next World Cup finals?
Currently, the biggest problem facing the selection of national soccer coaches is trust. In the second half of the first 12 matches, Li Xiaopeng took over from Li Tie. In the past four games, he played 1 draw and 3 losses, including a 1-3 loss to Vietnam, which made fans heartbroken. In this situation, if Li Xiaopeng stays, the biggest problem he faces is how to make the players believe in him and how to withstand external pressure, which are not easy to do.
As for making Yankovic, who currently coaches the national Olympic team, the head coach of the national soccer team, the point of convenience is that both the national soccer team and the national Olympic team have important tasks next year. With the general trend of rejuvenation, there will be a high degree of overlap between the two teams. But the problem is, in 2000, Horton and 2008, Duyi, foreign teachers twice part-time "national football" and "national Olympic" all the coaches of the results are "fiasco" ended. It can be said that even if the personnel overlap again, the "national soccer team" and the "national Olympic team" are essentially two different teams.
Of course, the selection of new coaches faces many problems. Of course, the national soccer team has had success in choosing foreign coaches, but the premise is basically backed by high salaries. As far as the current situation of Chinese soccer is concerned, I am afraid it cannot open the way with golden dollar soccer as it did a few years ago. Under this premise, choosing coaches will definitely become more difficult.
Whether it's a new manager, Li staying on, or the CFA finally deciding that Jankovic is "part-time", the question of identifying a coach for the national soccer team looms large. If there are no major incidents, this season's Chinese Super League will end at the end of December, and the FA Cup final will be held on January 15, 2023. This would put the assembly of the new national soccer team almost at the end of January after the Chinese New Year holiday. It is safe to say that the CFA and the Chinese men's soccer team have just over a month left.
