PHOTO: Bildbyrån
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is over, and it was finally Argentina who got to celebrate a World Cup gold.
In four years it will be time again, but then the championship will contain 48 teams instead of 32.
Something that has not been well received by everyone – and not by Kim Källström either which saws the format completely.
Sunday’s World Cup final in Qatar was perhaps the most dramatic final ever. Argentina with Lionel Messi in the end emerged victorious in a match that cannot be described in any other way than that it was a complete emotional rollercoaster. Argentina thus won their first World Cup title since 1986, and it was also Messi’s very first in his career.
The new format in the WC
Now, as usual, there is a four-year break before the next World Cup in football starts. In 2026, the USA, Canada and Mexico will host the World Cup, and they will do so in a completely new format. Because instead of 32 participating countries as it used to be, in 2026 it will include 48 nations.
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The plan from Fifa has previously been to let the countries meet each other in groups of three with the best two going to the playoffs, but after the enormous drama that unfolded during this year’s World Cup, Fifa and the president Gianni Infantino announced that the format will be reviewed again.
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“Will throw up”
But the new 48-team format is not being welcomed with open arms everywhere, and the former big player and later TV4 pundit Kim Kallstrom is strongly critical of the idea.
– That’s why I will vomit on 48 teams, says Källström in the broadcast after the final, referring to the drama that took place in the group stage.
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Källström adds:
– Before the last round, everything was alive. It was goals and goal difference, like when South Korea stood in the center circle and waited. My sense is that there has been tension all along. They waited until the finish line. I’ll take that with me, he says.
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