At the time I started writing this, it was the middle of the 2014 World Cup. There has recently been talk about expanding the World Cup to 40 teams as early as the next World Cup in Russia in 2018. A proposal has been made to add a team from the OFC (the champion currently has to win a spot in a play-off), a team from the Caribbean (it currently competes with CONCACAF), and more African and Asian teams (no specific numbers were mentioned , but I am assuming three teams each). According to various articles, UEFA president, Michel Platini, would like to see new teams in the World Cup. I have a proposal that will guarantee new teams.
Before I get to it, if I was King of Sports, the OFC champion would be guaranteed a spot in the World Cup whether it expands or not. If there is no expansion, the 13th European team would be subject to a play-off for the World Cup bid. True, none of the OFC teams are of top quality, but if FIFA wanted only the best teams, then the top 32 ranked teams should just be in it. If the organization wants growth of the game all over the world, like it claims, then the OFC needs to be a part of it, too.
Now to my other proposal. If I was King of Sports, then another spot would be given to the winner of a single-elimination knockout tournament (I might consider having the first round being a home and home so fans can see their team play in it at least once). In this tournament, the only teams invited are those nations who have never had a team play in the World Cup before. If there is no expansion, then it would be taken out of the European bid. I honestly have nothing against Europe, except than it has more than twice the amount of teams as the next highest continent.
Here are some basic rules I thought of in this process:
1) Teams are only eligible for it if they would play in their continent qualification at the same time. The logistics would be figured out. I would not want teams to "put all their eggs in this basket", and I do not want any more taken away from the normal qualification than I already would have thinking of this.
2) Any necessary play-in games would be played in the United States.
3) There would be a golden-goal tie-breaker in this tournament. I hate the full overtime rule. If no one scores in the two overtimes, then there would be a normal shootout.
4) When the tournament got down to 8 teams, then there would be a loser's bracket. I would like the top-8 places decided. If the tournament champion qualified the normal way, then the runner-up would get the spot, and so-on until we went through all 8 one-by-one.
5) I would like this tournament to double as a tournament for a trophy and possibly prize money. If I did that, national teams that are a part of a continent confederation but not a part of FIFA, and UN-recognized independent nations Monaco, Micronesia, and Vatican City would be invited to play for the trophy and prize money, but not invited to the World Cup. The idea is to get these smaller nations more opportunities to play. If they would accept an invitation, then there would be a drawing for who their opponents would be in the play-in game. The eligible opponents would be those who are not ranked in the top half, and not already playing in a play-in game.
6) If I had my way, the tournament would begin a month or two after the previous World Cup with the play-in games. The seedings would just be the rankings at the time of the World Cup. For example, Panama is the #31 team in the world currently, and the top-ranked team of those who have never played in the World Cup, so it would get the #1 overall seed, and as long as it kept on winning, they would always host its games (except if the 1st round is home and home).
Here is a link to what the first round of my tournament would look like if you are interested: http://groomy95361.blogspot.com/2014/07/my-qualification-tournament-for-world.html
If somehow this were to even happen, I am sure FIFA would want to have a group stage. I would be ok with that. I would like the smaller teams get more chances to play.
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