Most of the teams competing in the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be known by the end of this international break, and some of the game's biggest names will be absent.
The competition is starting to take form with less than eight months left before football's showpiece event kicks off in Qatar.
With the playoff rounds to determine the five African qualifiers, the majority of the final qualifiers in the European division will take place this international break. The final round of the group stages of the Asian and South American preliminaries will all also take place during this latest international break.
What is most startling at this point, though, is not who will get a spot in Qatar, but who will be left out.
Top players and teams set to miss out on the 2022 World Cup
In Africa, Sadio Mane's Senegal will compete with Mohamed Salah's Egypt for a finals berth.
Meaning one vital member of Liverpool's lethal attack will miss out on the world's most prestigious football competition.
Cameroon will face Algeria, and Ghana will face Nigeria, so we're certain to lose at least two more great nations.
The European playoffs are a similar story, with Italy missing out on a World Cup finals spot for the second time running. The European champions bowed out of the playoffs following their shocking loss to North Macedonia on Thursday. Euro 2016 winners Portugal, placed in the same playoff bracket as the Azzurri, will now play Macedonia in the playoff final for a World Cup berth.
Football fans had to choose between supporting Roberto Mancini's Azzurri, who wowed neutrals with their offensive style at Euro 2020, or supporting Portugal legend Cristiano Ronaldo, who, at 37, may never play in another World Cup.
In Qatar, you can only have one, not both.
Meanwhile, in the CONMEBOL confederation's fantastically tight competition for qualification berths, Ecuador, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, and Colombia are battling for two automatic spots and one play-off spot.
Whatever team is chosen, a dedicated group of fans will be unhappy, and the World Cup will be a little less colorful.
The need for Expansion
The issue is that the current allocation of World Cup qualification spots is depriving fans of one of the tournament's primary selling points.
The World Cup should be a gathering of the best talent from all four corners of the football world.
It's an issue that only adds to the case for expanding the World Cup — one of the most divisive propositions in modern sports history. The idea of adding more teams – or holding the tournament every two years – is unpopular with many in the game. However, a format change will solve the problem of so many great teams missing out on the competition.
This fact has been illustrated by the current playoff situation.
Indeed, the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, will feature 48 teams, including 16 European representatives, up from 13 in 2022.
This enlargement did not meet with universal approval in European football.If the 2022 World Cup was enlarged to 48 teams, Italy and Portugal would almost certainly have already secured a spot as one of the top runners-up.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino considered the concept at one point. It was shelved when a feasibility analysis revealed that it would have necessitated additional nations being invited to assist Qatar in staging the expanded event.
However, even with the expansion to 48 teams, federations from outside Europe and South America remain underrepresented.
Which is why there is momentum, particularly in Africa, for a World Cup every two years.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will have nine qualifiers in 2026. The continent has 54 member nations, indicating 17% of participants will qualify — the same percentage as the AFC (eight qualifiers from 46 countries) and CONCACAF (six qualifiers from 35 teams).
If you compare this to UEFA's 16 spots for 55 nations (29 percent) and CONMEBOL's six spots for ten teams (60 percent), there is a need for more World Cups for African federations.
For many fans, it's difficult to fathom the football environment in which the World Cup is held every two years. But it's even harder to picture a tournament without Ronaldo and Salah.
If enlarging the World Cup or playing it more frequently will ensure that the top men's players are always present, then those FIFA plans may have some merit.
jezabdnpyz
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NONSENSE! Big Names Missing The World Cup Is Just Part Of The Fun.., Excitement.., Attraction And Agony Of It. If You Want To Please Everyone.., It's Not The Real World Cup Anymore. Bottom-line~~~ You Got To Earn It.., Not Given.