₦airaland Forum

Based on performances so far, Africa has clearly shown that they rightfully belonged in the tournament. 9 out of the 10 African teams made it out of the first round and most of those that exited in later rounds, made it very tough for their opponents.

So the next time bitter critics such as Gattuso question why Africa deserves 10 World Cup slots, the statistics speak for themselves.

In truth, even 10 places may not be enough. Traditional African heavyweights such as Nigeria and Cameroon failed to qualify for the tournament altogether. Add emerging and consistently competitive nations such as Angola, Zambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and others, and it becomes clear that the continent possesses far greater depth than many are willing to acknowledge.

Africa deserves at least 4 additional World Cup slots. If achieving that requires expanding the tournament from 48 to 64 teams, as some have proposed, then so be it. The more, the merrier.

Europe could also receive 6 additional places to accommodate strong footballing nations that missed out, such as Italy, Poland, Serbia, the Republic of Ireland, Wales, Romania, Greece, Ukraine, Denmark and Russia, whose absence stems from non-footballing reasons.

The remaining slots could then be allocated to the other confederations. Asia, in particular, should receive around four more places, not necessarily because of its current footballing strength, but because it is home to well over half of the world's population, much of which is consistently underrepresented at the World Cup. Just imagine the global interest if football giants in terms of population like China and India became regular participants. The commercial appeal and worldwide engagement would be enormous.

CONMEBOL and CONCACAF could then share the remaining two slots.

If this tournament has demonstrated anything, it is that football's competitive balance is broader than ever before. The long-held assumption that Europe and South America alone deserve the lion's share of World Cup places is becoming increasingly difficult to justify.

One of the major advantages of expanding the FIFA World Cup to 64 teams is not just that more nations would qualify, but that more countries would also have the opportunity to host the tournament.

Hosting rights are fiercely contested, and unsuccessful bids often leave deserving countries disappointed after years of planning and investment. A 64-team World Cup would require more stadiums and infrastructure, making multi-nation hosting the norm rather than the exception. This would allow more countries and cities to enjoy the economic, tourism and infrastructural benefits that come with staging the world's biggest sporting event. For example, a future UK bid could more meaningfully involve Scotland and Wales alongside England, ensuring that the benefits are shared more widely.

Importantly, expanding to 64 teams would not increase the workload for the participating teams. The eventual champions would still play the same eight matches: three group-stage games followed by the Round of 32, Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. The only structural difference would be the elimination of the current system where some third-placed teams advance to the knockout rounds. Every group would simply produce two qualifiers, making the format cleaner and easier to follow.

Neither would the quality of the competition be diluted. As already highlighted, Europe alone had at least ten strong footballing nations miss out on this edition, while Africa had at least six competitive teams fail to qualify. South America also saw Chile miss out despite its rich footballing pedigree. These are countries capable of competing at the highest level and would enhance, rather than weaken, the tournament.

The only confederation where concerns about additional places may arise is Asia. However, the best way to raise standards is through greater participation. Giving more Asian nations the opportunity to compete regularly on the biggest stage would accelerate their development, just as increased exposure has helped African and North American teams improve significantly over the years.

Ultimately, a 64-team World Cup would make football's greatest tournament more inclusive without compromising its competitiveness. It would spread the economic and cultural benefits of hosting to more nations, provide opportunities for deserving teams that narrowly miss qualification under the current format, and further strengthen the global growth of the game.

The Olympic Games cover the whole world, so, nothing unwieldy about Football taking up about a quarter of it with 64 teams..

If FIFA expands the World Cup to 64 teams, I expect Africa’s automatic slots to increase to at least 12. The Super Eagles and Italy will finally qualify for the tournament 😂

The CAF qualification tournament could feature a single group stage of all 54 teams, divided into 9 groups of 6 teams. Here, all the group winners and the best 3 group runners-up qualify directly to the World Cup. Then the 4th best runner up would advance to an intercontinental playoff.

Alternatively, I will suggest that there should be
two phases of the qualifiers, similar to the AFCON qualification format. Here, the final phase will comprise 12 groups of 4 teams. All the group winners automatically qualify for the World Cup; and the best group runner-up advancing to an intercontinental playoff.

Goke7:
This was the original Brazil we knew not the temu version these days

Roberto Carlos’s legendary free kick against France on June 3, 1997, is widely considered one of the greatest and most iconic goals in football history. pic.twitter.com/bXRRCPgHiU

— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) July 11, 2026

/video/1?s=46

As in!

andrewbaba44:
Make day break fully well

The people from the other side of the world will come and tell us how the red card was an ojoro

Lmao
No arguments for ojoro. Ref applied the law correctly 😁

tonididdy:
Na the ref deserve dragging.
He should have subbed that guy long ago

You mean the coach deserves dragging

Embolo should be forever banned from playing for Switzerland

Nemesis0147:
this is a new rule,.
The problem here is that the Argentina player was given a yellow....it is only fair if they gave the Swiss player a yellow card too

And na him complain first

FIFA conspired to give Paredes a yellow card, to ensure that Embolo would be shown a second yellow 😂😂

At this World Cup, Bellingham is clear of Pedri!

TheSuperNerd:
CAF has appointed Yemisi Akintoye as one of the match officials for the upcoming 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.

Akintoye will be making her 2nd consecutive appearance at the continent's biggest women's football tournament.

Before heading to Morocco, Akintoye will take charge of today's Nigeria Women's Federation Cup final between Heartland Queens and Nasarawa Amazons in Asaba.


Courtesy: Latifat Adebayo Ohio

Nice one!

I’m backing her to be the first ever Nigerian head (center) referee to be appointed for a senior World Cup next year.

do4luv14:
Chaiii baba weytin carry your eyes enter Franny ynash na, her ynash no be ball oooo dey komot eyes from dia biko

Lmao🤣😂

That England goal should not have stood, because the ball hit a camera cable off of the Norway goalkeeper’s goal kick.

Per the rules, the ref should have executed a drop-ball

solonnachi:
Benin 3-5 Nigeria

Is it the end of the match?

Yes

I’m surprised that Governor Soludo, being an economist, is embarking on an utterly wasteful project like the aerotropolis project 🤦🏽‍♂️

What would happen to the Chinua Achebe International Airport? Is it going to be shut down?

chrisooblog:
look out for this exceptional teenager Miracle Ezechukwu.

Heard she has a PB of 11.15 in the 100m incredible for her age.

Potential to be our next track queen.

Great that she's also going to the Commonwealth Games.

Wow. If she continues in this manner, with the right coaching/nutrition, she will definitely lower her PB to around 10.8s in two year’s time

TheSuperNerd:
A solid squad. Team is complete. Super glad to see Ihezuo and Kanu on the list. They are back from injury and firing. The attack is stacked. Best attacking depth in Africa by far.

The Only Major absentee is Plumptre no thanks to injury.

Although, I would have preferred a younger quality winger to take Ordega's slot but it's fine. I hope this is definitely the last time we call on her experience for a major tournament coz the WC list in 2027 should be stronger than this.

Even Ordega, herself, would voluntarily retire from international footie after this tournament 😁

Nneka came up clutch for the LA Sparks in that 4th quarter!

BascoVanVeli:
Elizabeth Balogun joins Valencia. The WNBA can eat their league 😔

Wow. Nice one!

KDB still got class 🤗🤗

Our Queens are clinching title 11 😎🤩

Ideally, I want our starting backline to be Alozie, Demehin, Oladipo, and Imuran.

Gutted that injury (recovery) has kept Plumptre out

BREAKING NEWS:

FIFA are considering CONMEBOL’s (South America’s confederation) suggestion of a one-off expansion of the WC to 64 teams for the 2030 edition..

Is this a good or bad idea? Maybe Nigeria and Italy may finally qualify after missing the last two world cups 😁

For me, FIFA should stick to the current 48-team format

The kick off times for this month’s WAFCON fixtures have been released. Here are the Super Falcons matches:

July 28: Nigeria v. Malawi at 9pm
August 1: Nigeria v. Zambia at 9pm
August 5: Egypt v. Nigeria at 9pm

Meanwhile, the opening match between Algeria and Senegal kicks off on July 26 at 6pm

** All times are Nigerian time

Dembele has just put France thru to the semifinals

Actually, when you include penalty shootouts, Morocco’s Bono has saved 4 penalties - the most of any keeper in World Cup history 😮‍💨🤯

spillo1:
Bono is an insane goalkeeper.

Right!
He has now saved more penalties than any other African goalie at world cups.

Napoleon55:
What will vex me is if I waste my data and France no win Morocco with at least 3 goals margin

😂🤣

SamuraiXXX:
After just 4 years?

This is one of the reasons why I always avoid buying expensive wedding aso-ebi materials

I feel ya 😂😂

Congratulations to them!

Sources say Stade Hassan II - the 115,000 capacity stadium under construction in Casablanca, Morocco, and the Santiago Bernabeu, are the only stadiums in consideration to host the 2030 World Cup final.
The Casablanca stadium is reportedly costing Morocco $500 million, and will be completed by 2028…

I bet if Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote D’Ivoire submit a bid to host a future World Cup, Nigeria alone, would need over 1.6 trillion Naira to reconstruct or build new stadia (at least 10 of them) that would meet World Cup standards 😂

TheSuperNerd:
No Mercies mehn. These young Tigers were not fed before they went on court.

The coaches shouldn’t be feeding them in subsequent games 🤣

Switzerland will now have the opportunity to avenge their 1-0 loss to Argentina at the 2014 WC round of 16

forgiveness:
Wait ooo. Nobo did Egpyt we beat easily for AFCON?

Na penalty shootout sha!!!

Another friendly reminder that the Super Eagles didn’t concede a goal to those Egyptians at the AFCON