Well at least the US MNT won’t get knocked out of qualifying by Trinidad and Tobago again.
i am embarassed to say i don't know how automatic qualifications work when there is more than one hosting nation... Do all 3 NTs get a free pass ?
BTW 48 teams tournament..... OMG ..... they are killing the event
Don't blame them for trying to milk it. It makes them billions.
honestly I don't think the quality will go down all that much.
Here is how the 48 will be determined with the current in ()
Europe - 16 (13)
Africa - 9 (5)
Asia - 8.5 (4.5)
South America - 6 (4.5)
Concacaf 6.5 (3.5)
Oceania 1 (.5)
Host 1 (1)
Assuming US, Mexico, and Canada all get auto bids that still leave 4 slots for the rest of North America. Asia and Africa have been growing soccer countries for awhile and them getting more teams is probably a good thing, plus you get an extra 3 from Europe and an extra 1.5 from South America.
They are going to do 16, 3 team groups with the top 2 advancing to the knockout stage for a 32 team knockout field. The thought is that by only having 3 team groups, there will be a lot of crap games that aren't played (where teams are fine with a 0-0 draw), though it does make scheduling a bit strange since there will always be a team with a day off. But even in the scenario where both teams playing have already beaten the other, the game still matters for who wins the group so the boring draws will hopefully not happen.