 |
TLDR: Autism, ADHD, Flags, Football, Australia.
The FIFA World Cup is expanding to 48 teams. Prior to the final structure being confirmed, I had my own ideas of how to structure the tournament, but with some rules in place around player welfare.
In this scenario there is going to be a lot of hand waving of some reality.
- Australia and New Zealand are co-hosting the 2026 Men's FIFA World Cup.
- I know this is a long shot, but let us just pretend.
- I wish the actual hosts the 2026 Men's FWC the best of luck next year. I just want to dream for a moment.
- Australia is taxing fossil fuel exports at a similar rate to Qatar and Norway, so can pay for a lot of upgrades. We can also pay for a lot of grass roots investment into FIFA and the football game worldwide.
- The AFL are happy to let us use Docklands because of investment into their game. The NRL doesn't have as much of a choice as all of their grounds that are selected are owned by state or city governments… but some investment into grassroots NRL could not hurt. I also made a schedule for the ALF and NRL for where they can play during the 8 week blackout period that can be found at r/nrl and r/AFL . In this there is a new Light Rail being built in Albury-Wodonga to accommodate St Kilda playing in Albury.
Tournament:
- 48 teams in eight groups of six
- Group Stage: 20 days, 120 games. This allows for 2 days between games for each stadium, and 3 days between games for each team.
- Knock out: 20 days, 20 games (allowing for teams to have 3 days of rest between games (except for the Bronze game that is 2 days after Semi Final 2).
- Each squad has 26 players
- Every player has to start in at least one group stage game. No player may start in more than 3 group stage games. This means managers have to be strategic about who they choose for which games.
- 4 Subs per regular game. 5th and 6th sub can be applied if game goes to overtime.
- For every player who fails to start, or starts more than 3 group stage games, that is a point deduction. (highly inspiring to spread the playtime)
- The knockout phase is based on the Australian finals system. So the top teams in each pool get a second chance if they lose their first knock out game. All second-place teams are in sudden death from the beginning.
- Minium 5 group stage games. 4 or 5 knock out phase games to reach the final (if you win in the round of 16 you go straight to the quarter finals). Group stage winners who lose in the R16 play off against the winners of runner up elimination games.
How I picked these teams
- I wanted to keep as close to current.
- Everyone who has already qualified was in (including US/MX/CA).
- Two Hosts automatically get in. This meant
- Concacaf was an issue as it currently the existing 3 spots from 2022, and three hosts. To maintain fairness, 4 spots and 2 playoff spots. As the US, Mexico, and Canada have already qualified, it is fair to keep them in. Also if they were to play in qualifiers, based on their ranking there is a good chance they would get in. The fourth spot to Costa Rica was based on how well they are doing in qualifiers. Curaçao and Honduras were the next best teams.
- AFC. The five who are already in (minus Australia), and then the next three best teams (UAE, Iraq, Qatar). Saudi Arabia and Indonesia to the play-offs
- CAF. I went off the current qualifiers. I know that there are still some rounds to go, but it looked mature enough to make a call purely for this fantasy. Gabon and Cameroon into playoffs.
- OFC. As New Zealand is already in, New Caledonia took their spot.
- Conmebol (outside of top 14), Concacaf, and OFC were merged into a pot.
- UEFA. As the qualifiers have barely started, I went purely off ranking. Cameroon as the intercontinental winner was put in as there are 7 European teams outside of the top 14.
- Eight teams in inter-continental qualifiers. I split each pair into a group, flipping a coin. Seeded based on rankings, then rolled dice to see how each game went. Cameroon and Venezuela got in.
- Pot 1 is based purely on hosts and top 6 ranked, with Pot 2 representing 7 to 12.
- Pots 3 to 6 are split by confederation. The order of 3 to 6 is in no particular order.
- Australia in A1, New Zealand in E1.
- All the other pools were drawn from each pot at random (I rolled dice).
I then had a lot of fun rebuilding the flags in Adobe Illustrator.
- Some countries I redesigned flags (Australia and New Zealand). Others I did minor edits or used their State Flag (congratulations America on 4 new states: DC, PR/VI, GU/MP, and AS).
- I am very proud of Brazil, Iran, Iraq, New Caledonia, and Canada being 100% vector.
- I am disappointed that Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Mali didn't make it in as I have 100% vector versions of Saudi Arabia, and had fun redesigning Nigeria, and Mali.
- Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Wales, Austria, Egypt, and Ecuador, I am sorry that I didn't rebuild the whole flag from scratch. Most of the flag is vector, but the arms are not.
- As tempting as it was to combine the current daker Blue from the Dutch flag with the Orange from the Princes Flag as it looks good, I couldn't bring myself to do due to the current connotations of the Prince's Flag
- Yes, I recycled the US/MX/CA 26 logo
Stadia
*Some stadia may be reduced to legacy capacity after the tournament.
- FWC Ready today:
- MCG – Melbourne
- Stadium Australia – Sydney
- Perth Stadium
- Eden Park – Auckland
- Adelaide Oval
- Docklands – Melbourne
- Lang Park – Brisbane
- SFS – Sydney
- Kardinia Park – Geelong
- Minor Upgrades
- Wellington Regional
- Hunter Stadium – Newcastle
- Bigger Upgrades or Rebuild
- Forsyth Barr – Dunedin*
- Robina – Gold Coast*
- Bruce Stadium – Canberra*
- North Queensland Stadium – Townsville*
- New Build or Rebuild
- New Waikato Stadium – Hamilton*
- New Lancaster Park – Christchurch (I know they are working on it)*
- Macquarie Point – Hobart (but a lot bigger)*
Infrastructure:
- Airport Railway
- Melbourne Tullamarine Airport
- Melbourne Avalon
- Newcastle Williamstown
- Gold Coast Coolangatta
- Auckland
- Wellington
- Light Rail to Airport
- Adelaide
- Albury
- Canberra
- Townsville
- Gold Coast Coolangatta
- Christchurch
- Dunedin
- Hobart
- Improved intercity rail services from Auckland to Hamilton and Wellington
- Improved intercity rail (basically rebuilding) Christchurch to Dunedin
submitted by /u/ScoutyDave
[comments] |
