World Cups - Every 2 years or 4 years?

[Doctor DOOM]

^ But how are those two related? As if we would advance to 2nd round only if we omit asia cup tournaments!!!

The prestige of continental cup for a lot of fans is high enough. But that being there or not, does NOT guarantee advancing to 2nd round of WC. How did you connect the two??

[PSGman#19]

I dont understand why some of you dis Asia cup. especially when you all say we scrap asia cup for the WC ... where we usually play 3 games and go home!!!
Being the continental champion is a big deal.
aside from rise in ranking, it's the TITLE that carries a lot of prestige too.
being the 4 time or 5 time champion IS a big deal.
at least for ME, the title weighs heavily since we have struggled to advance from WC group stage or even if we do, it'd be maximum Pre-quarters.
I can understand teams like Italy, brazil, germany .... focus on the WC as they vie for the title. And they might take it slightly easy for their continental cups.
But teams like us who (lets be honest) have NO HOPE of reaching decent levels like Semifinalists in the WC, can look for titles and trophies in their own continents at least

IMO Continental title has few prestige and very few importance. I rather see Iran go to second round, quarter final or semi final of WC than winning every asian cup.
Qatar won AC, iraq won AC, did that improve their level and prestige? No! Japan won asian cup but their level and prestige came from their performance at WC. SK didn't win AC recently but their level & prestige came grom their performance at WC.

The only importance I saw from Asian cup is the qualification for Confederation Cup (could have help our lack of friendlies). But now the confed cup doesn't exist anymore and the asian cup is now full of additional weak teams.

[Ali Doust]

WC Every 4
AC Every 2

[Doctor DOOM]

I'd personally prefer every 2 year but that the Asian Cup. Africa Cup, Euro Cup etc be abolished. I much rather prefer TM competes with countries from Africa, Europe, South America etc in tournaments than with Asian countries. We would still compete with Asian countries in order to qualify ofcourse. It would be much better for Iranian football, take us to a higher level. Everybody knows that competing with better opponents improves your level.

I dont understand why some of you dis Asia cup. especially when you all say we scrap asia cup for the WC ... where we usually play 3 games and go home!!!
Being the continental champion is a big deal.
aside from rise in ranking, it's the TITLE that carries a lot of prestige too.
being the 4 time or 5 time champion IS a big deal.


at least for ME, the title weighs heavily since we have struggled to advance from WC group stage or even if we do, it'd be maximum Pre-quarters.
I can understand teams like Italy, brazil, germany .... focus on the WC as they vie for the title. And they might take it slightly easy for their continental cups.

But teams like us who (lets be honest) have NO HOPE of reaching decent levels like Semifinalists in the WC, can look for titles and trophies in their own continents at least

[tooleh khers]

I prefer we keep every 4 years for the World Cup (same format), keep the continental tournaments, cancel regional, and expand the Nations League to the whole world. This will still be difficult to fit in a schedule but if Europe can fit Nations League in their calendar so can the other continents. This will give weaker teams a chance to compete on a world stage against better opposition and remove the need for friendlies as well. Removing friendlies from the calendar can also help fit the expanded nation's league and maybe the World Cup qualifiers can be reduced as well by granting automatic qualification to World Cup based on Nations League results making it more important at the same time.

[Doctor DOOM]

I even forgot that the world cup group will only be 2 games!

Best solution imo :
- wc every 3 years. 32 teams like the current format
- euro, asian cup etc.. : the year before world cup (I would like to cancel them and replace them by a world league)
- the year before euro, asian cup etc.. : each zone will play the wcq qualifiers (that would also be euro, asian cup etc.. Qualifiers). For qualifiers, weakers teams play preliminary round or play off, to reduce the number of qualifiers games.
- cancel nation league and replace it by friendlies. In order the world to progress and as Euro teams get the most wc qualified teams, why not force the best euro teams (based on ranking and world cup results) to play at least X teams from asia/oceania, X teams from africa, X teams from central America from their total number of fifa date available for friendlies during 2 WC. In order to avoid having everybody to play japan/sk, quota could be put in place. Also outside quotas, avoir the same team to play the same friendlies too often (france Germany happens every 6 months at a time)

I can work with this.

32 teams is the absolute best. anything lower or higher is rubbish.
WC - every 3 years (is not as bad as 2 yrs. and it might leave enough hope for those who miss it)
Continental cups remain. But also serve as WCQ's. (2 birds wt 1 stone) ( and yes, I still value winning the asia cup. Definitely)

Then we use Nokhodi's ranking/tier system for friendlies and cross continental games for teams to rise in tiers.


"hello .... Bonjour Arsen. are you reading this stuff or not?"

[Sepehr9]

I'd personally prefer every 2 year but that the Asian Cup. Africa Cup, Euro Cup etc be abolished. I much rather prefer TM competes with countries from Africa, Europe, South America etc in tournaments than with Asian countries. We would still compete with Asian countries in order to qualify ofcourse. It would be much better for Iranian football, take us to a higher level. Everybody knows that competing with better opponents improves your level.

[Doctor DOOM]

Don’t forget starting 2026 World Cup is groups of 3, so for example if Iran finishes last in group play they only play 2 games total. 3-4 years of qualification effort just to see 2 measly games is not worth it. I hope for World Cup every 3 years and
Asian cup every 2. Shorten the needlessly lengthy qualification round

this is bcoz some ass hole decided to make it a 48 team tourny.
has nothing to do with 4 yr period

[KC McElroy]

The small teams generally don't feature at euro or world cup. The preliminary round could take place during or just before/after this big competition.

It could but it still makes for a very compressed schedule.

[PSGman#19]

Even if the big teams aren't playing a preliminary round the small teams are. And until they are done the next round can't begin. It will be less games for the big teams but the qualification timeframe will be the same.

The small teams generally don't feature at euro or world cup. The preliminary round could take place during or just before/after this big competition.

[KC McElroy]

The qualifying campaign has to be shorter :
Asia : WCQ and asian cup are already merged. The best Asian teams shouldn't play the preliminary round (the round we played hong kong, Cambodia etc..)=> shorter campaign
Europe : euro qualifiers and wcq should be merged like asia. The small teams (san marino, gibraltar, andorra, etc..) plays a preliminary round to decide which ones will play the main wcq round => shorter campaign
Africa : same than Europe.

Even if the big teams aren't playing a preliminary round the small teams are. And until they are done the next round can't begin. It will be less games for the big teams but the qualification timeframe will be the same.

[Iran_19]

First every two years with all the competitions going on will not be possible for clubs to release their players, plus WC will not have the same quality as it was before(already the quality is not like before with 32 teams),

[PSGman#19]

I agree that Nations League is stupid and has to go but even without it there is too much to fit in 3 years. Just look at how long a qualifying campaign is. It will definitely interfere with other tournaments in a 3 year window.

The qualifying campaign has to be shorter :
Asia : WCQ and asian cup are already merged. The best Asian teams shouldn't play the preliminary round (the round we played hong kong, Cambodia etc..)=> shorter campaign
Europe : euro qualifiers and wcq should be merged like asia. The small teams (san marino, gibraltar, andorra, etc..) plays a preliminary round to decide which ones will play the main wcq round => shorter campaign
Africa : same than Europe.

[Doctor DOOM]

You’re spot on, but isn’t that the whole point? We’d play better teams and improve. Even if we were playing 2nd and 3rd tier European nations or South American nations it would be better than playing the football destroying teams of Asia.

So we'd be ok to almost NEVER face the lkes of argentina, holland, brazil, germany , Italy, ... ?
still a very interesting format I have to admit.

let me text Arsen & let him know of yet another viable alternative.

[KC McElroy]

In my proposal, nation league is crossed off, several copa America or africacup between 2 world cup are reduced to only one edition between 2 world cup.
Euro, africacup qualification is merged with wcq. Also I propose preliminary round for weaker teams to reduced the number of teams playing the wcq main round

I agree that Nations League is stupid and has to go but even without it there is too much to fit in 3 years. Just look at how long a qualifying campaign is. It will definitely interfere with other tournaments in a 3 year window.