2014 World Cup to be the last
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2014 World Cup to be the last
...The last with 16 teams, that is!
The FMF Executives have just passed a proposal to reorganise the structuring of the FMF World Cup and the regional championships, which sees the most drastic changes to the tournaments' staging since the organisation's founding.
It has been agreed by a majority vote that in 2015, to coincide with its tenth edition, the World Cup shall be expanded from the usual 16 teams up to twenty. As such, the accepted format will see four groups of five teams contest the first round of the competition, with an increase in the number of knock-out rounds played as well. As an added incentive to win each group, the teams that finish top shall be granted a bye straight to the quarter-finals, while all eight teams which finish in second and third place will advance to a "play-off" style round, where they will be drawn against one another to fight for the right to progress to the quarters. For those of a more visual inclination, the Wikipedia template found here portrays the structure of the knock-out stages of the tournament.
With the expansion of the World Cup, this clearly creates the need for an extra two rounds of matches per tournament. Due to the already-busy schedule of the FMF's calendar - currently holding all four regional competitions (Copa Apollonia, CiboTap, EMU and Benacia Cup) annually alongside the World Cup - it has additionally been agreed that the hosting of tournaments shall occur on alternate years. Starting from 2015, when these format changes are first implemented, the World Cup will be held on odd-numbered years, while the confederations' own tournaments will take place on even-numbered years. This biennial approach may also allow for the regional competitions to modify their tournament formats as they wish to further suit every-other-year editions.
Lastly, switching to alternating, biennial staging for both the World Cup and confederational tournaments will mean a restructuring for the qualification tournaments that the FMF currently holds on an annual cycle. It has been approved that in "World Cup years", qualifiers shall be run to decide places for that year's World Cup only, with "regional years" seeing the scheduling of the first qualification matches purely to decide the teams which will compete in the confederations' competitions.
In the most simplistic explanation, this is how the next four years' general schedule will look once these changes are applied:
2015: World Cup qualifying; 2015 World Cup
2016: confederational qualifying; 2016 Copa Apollonia/CiboTap/EMU/Benacia Cup
2017: World Cup qualifying; 2017 World Cup
2018: confederational qualifying; 2018 Copa Apollonia/CiboTap/EMU/Benacia Cup
All comments are, of course, welcome!
The FMF Executives have just passed a proposal to reorganise the structuring of the FMF World Cup and the regional championships, which sees the most drastic changes to the tournaments' staging since the organisation's founding.
It has been agreed by a majority vote that in 2015, to coincide with its tenth edition, the World Cup shall be expanded from the usual 16 teams up to twenty. As such, the accepted format will see four groups of five teams contest the first round of the competition, with an increase in the number of knock-out rounds played as well. As an added incentive to win each group, the teams that finish top shall be granted a bye straight to the quarter-finals, while all eight teams which finish in second and third place will advance to a "play-off" style round, where they will be drawn against one another to fight for the right to progress to the quarters. For those of a more visual inclination, the Wikipedia template found here portrays the structure of the knock-out stages of the tournament.
With the expansion of the World Cup, this clearly creates the need for an extra two rounds of matches per tournament. Due to the already-busy schedule of the FMF's calendar - currently holding all four regional competitions (Copa Apollonia, CiboTap, EMU and Benacia Cup) annually alongside the World Cup - it has additionally been agreed that the hosting of tournaments shall occur on alternate years. Starting from 2015, when these format changes are first implemented, the World Cup will be held on odd-numbered years, while the confederations' own tournaments will take place on even-numbered years. This biennial approach may also allow for the regional competitions to modify their tournament formats as they wish to further suit every-other-year editions.
Lastly, switching to alternating, biennial staging for both the World Cup and confederational tournaments will mean a restructuring for the qualification tournaments that the FMF currently holds on an annual cycle. It has been approved that in "World Cup years", qualifiers shall be run to decide places for that year's World Cup only, with "regional years" seeing the scheduling of the first qualification matches purely to decide the teams which will compete in the confederations' competitions.
In the most simplistic explanation, this is how the next four years' general schedule will look once these changes are applied:
2015: World Cup qualifying; 2015 World Cup
2016: confederational qualifying; 2016 Copa Apollonia/CiboTap/EMU/Benacia Cup
2017: World Cup qualifying; 2017 World Cup
2018: confederational qualifying; 2018 Copa Apollonia/CiboTap/EMU/Benacia Cup
All comments are, of course, welcome!
Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
I whole-heartidly support this motion, though my first question will be does this mean the continental tournaments will expand, and how will the places change for the WC allocation (hopefully more spaces for the AEFA).
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Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
It's probable we'll also increase the size of the regional tournaments as well, although that depends on the number of members in each confederation at the time - got two years to sort that out yet
Again, with World Cup spots, it changes on a yearly basis as the confederations' sizes and strengths also change, but I'd think a bog-standard increase would be an extra place per confederation (given that there will be four extra teams)
Again, with World Cup spots, it changes on a yearly basis as the confederations' sizes and strengths also change, but I'd think a bog-standard increase would be an extra place per confederation (given that there will be four extra teams)
Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
I hope that there'll also be an abolition of continental rotation of hosting, as that would mean continents would have to wait eight years between World Cups ;-;
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Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
Continental championships may also be expanded, meaning that continents can host major tournaments in 5 out of 8 years.
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Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
That's not something we've officially discussed yet, but I think we can maybe lax that cycle. I'd maybe suggest not having back-to-back World Cups in the same confederation though...Carl wrote:I hope that there'll also be an abolition of continental rotation of hosting, as that would mean continents would have to wait eight years between World Cups ;-;
Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
That's fine, so long as Safiria don't have to wait until 2019 to get another chance to bid for hosting
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Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
What's wrong with 2015?
Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
Wait, AEFA gets to host in 2015?
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Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
If we were to scrap the cycling, then anyone bar EMUFA nations would be good to bid
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Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
Antica were the last AEFA members to host in 2012, so AEFA would be eligible again in 2015. If AEFA got it in 2015 then WMFA would definitely get it in 2017 if the cycling continues.
Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
Pretty much.joefoxon wrote:Antica were the last AEFA members to host in 2012, so AEFA would be eligible again in 2015. If AEFA got it in 2015 then Tellia would definitely get it in 2017 if the cycling continues.
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Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
Isn't there some small-time amateur team that's about to move there?
Re: 2014 World Cup to be the last
Yeah, I heard of them, I don't think they'll do anything too special thoughjoefoxon wrote:Isn't there some small-time amateur team that's about to move there?