Tariq Panja

So that's a lot of places.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is the other great innovation of this tournament.

This is the first time we're going to have 48 teams at a FIFA World Cup.

It has been 32 since that first World Cup that I went to in 98 in France.

And now we've added more teams, 48 teams.

It's arguably the easiest World Cup to qualify for as well because you have more teams.

However, unfortunately for them, we're not going to see Italy again.

We're going to have 72 group stage games.

So that's the start of the tournament.

The teams are divided into blocks of four, 12 of these.

And it's going to take a huge amount of time to eliminate 12 teams.

Four games a day for 24 straight days.

Is that too much?

I guess we're going to find out.

Well, you know, if you're an employer, I guess it's not what you want.

You're going to have a few people either being bleary-eyed in the morning or not showing up to work because of football.

Well, one of the reasons is pure football politics.

FIFA is a membership organization of 211 nations.

Every four years, they gather to elect or reelect the president.