New World Cup format criticised in Italy: ‘Europe disadvantaged’

Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport criticised the new World Cup format, suggesting that it has affected the overall quality of the play and that ‘Europe has come out disadvantaged.’

The new World Cup format, which has been expanded to include 48 teams for the first time, does not appear to have generated much enthusiasm among the Italian media, not because the Azzurri will be absent from the tournament for the third consecutive time.

“With the expansion of the tournament to 48 nations, some matchups have become noticeably unbalanced. Bigger is not always better. In the allocation of participating teams by confederation, Europe has come out disadvantaged, and we are not saying this out of resentment over Italy’s absence,” wrote Gazzetta.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino already drew criticism from Italian media and politicians last week when he joked that the World Cup could be expanded to 208 teams to allow Italy to qualify.

“Beyond the FIFA president’s jokes, the Italian national team had a duty to qualify and be here,” Gazzetta wrote.

“But it is clear that the competition’s XXL size increases the number of modest teams and lowers the overall quality of play.”

There’s one more reason for concern coming from the World Cup, according to the most popular Italian sports paper: “The time-outs, or hydration breaks, have already been exposed for what they are by observers around the world: a way to split matches into four quarters and allow for lucrative advertising slots for broadcasters who have paid equally lucrative sums for the television rights, rather than genuine support for coaches and teams except in exceptional circumstances.”