QATAR (Dec. 19, 2022) -

Doha had a hard time recovering from the World Cup final yesterday. The Argentinian fans continued to celebrate in the frenzy of the match, and they did not miss the city's international airport as well, with intense singing of "Muchachos" – the tournament song of the Albiceleste fans, and Argentina's new unofficial anthem.

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Celebrations lasted through the night. Broadcasts to Israel have ended, but the streets of Qatar have only just begun celebrating. Hundreds of thousands of fans poured into the streets of Lusail, for the big party that was planned. Police cleared the roads, which were packed with bands, magicians, clowns, drummers, stilt walkers, bikers, and more. Anything imaginable was there at this greatest party anyone could produce.

The cherry on the top was the winning team: the players left the field in a bus wrapped in Argentinian flags, standing on the roof, holding the trophy and waving to the crowds.

Usually, the victory lap with the trophy is held only when coming home. But Qatar – just like with the cloak placed on Messi, and just like every other moment during the World Cup – did what they wanted. The Argentineans cooperated and drove the fans crazy, against the backdrop of a grandiose display of fireworks over the bay.

It was a glorious ending to a magnificent game that everyone who was in the stadium (and even those who just watched it on television) will never forget. A grand finale that had it all: drama and tragedy, happy and sad, and all this in a script that exceeded all imagination, while, inevitably, as fairy tales go, the best man won.

Yes, Kylian Mbappé gave the best game of his life. He scored a hat trick and finally proved that he belongs among the greatest. Agreed that the refereeing was more supportive towards the Argentines. And despite that – Argentina deserved to win, and Messi crowned himself king of the world, as everyone hoped he would.

A little more of the magic

Argentina and France have already flown home, together with their swarms of fans, journalists, interested parties, and everyone else who played a part in the World Cup. The players (except the English players, where the league resumes next week) went on a short break and will return to play only at the start of the new year.

The two great heroes of the tournament and the final, Messi and Mbappé, will meet again in Paris – this time as partners in their Qatari sponsor's next effort, to bring the Champions League to its protégé, Paris Saint-Germain. En route, they will play in different stadiums in Toulouse and Auxerre, as far away as possible from the record position they shared only two days ago.

Qatar, along with Argentina, is the greatest winner of this World Cup. It has proven that it is not only capable of hosting the biggest event in the world, but it can also do it with great success.

And yet, Qatar is wrong if it thinks that the World Cup will dramatically change its image around the world. It didn't work for Russia after the World Cup in 2018 – and it won't work now either, because Qatar will go back to being the closed-up and conservative country it has always been.

But none of this is of any interest to Argentina, which is now reveling in its mammoth achievement that Messi and his buddies have arranged for it. This is pure joy, so worthy of a country that truly loves football and knows how to celebrate it in the most authentic way possible.

Argentina will come to the next World Cup in 2026 as the cup holder. Messi did announce that he will continue playing for the national team, but it is not guaranteed that he will be there. The organizers – a political triangle of the USA, Canada, and Mexico – are most definitely praying that this will happen so that they can also bask in a little more of the magic that has enveloped Qatar in the last month, and spread through the entire world.

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Now that the final curtain has come down on the 2022 World Cup, at FIFA the countdown to the next tournament scheduled for summer 2026 is already underway. Five years ago, the decision was made that the 2026 World Cup would take place for the first time in three different countries – the US, Mexico and Canada – and for the first time 48 national teams would take part in it.

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FIFA President Gianni Infantino is the man responsible for increasing the size of the tournament by 50%, and the motives for this are crystal clear: increasing the revenues of the international football association and bolstering his own political status as head of the organization. More national teams mean more votes in the upcoming FIFA presidential elections.

But there is one issue that Infantino and his board of advisers have not addressed: how exactly is this monster-sized World Cup tournament going to work? Until very recently the idea was to divide up the 48 national teams into 16 groups with only three teams in each one. The top two teams in each group will then qualify and advance to the knockout stage. According to this method, there will be 80 games (instead of 64 under the current system), and the tournament, as it is now, will last for four weeks.

Apart from the fact that there will be 16 teams that will play only two matches before returning home, at first glance it doesn't appear to be such a bad solution. But the wise men of FIFA have not taken into account the fact that in a 3-team group, in each round there will always be one national team not playing a match, which will inevitably lead to a situation in which the two teams competing in the last group stage match will know precisely what outcome suits them in order to advance – and to send the third team home.

The infamous "Disgrace of Gijón" match held in Spain during the 1982 World Cup is still fresh in the memories of many football fans. West Germany and Austria colluded to secure a 1:0 win for the Germans, leading to the elimination of Algeria from the tournament, who had already finished their group stage matches at that point.

This incident led to a change being introduced in 1986, and the third and final group stage round would now be held with both matches taking place simultaneously to prevent similar acts of non-sporting behavior.

This welcome change has led to intensely dramatic scenes unfolding over the years, such as what happened now in Qatar in Group E, when the group table standings were repeatedly turned on their head before it was finally decided that Japan and Spain would proceed to the Final 16, while Germany and Costa Rica were eliminated.

104 games in five weeks                                                          

The most amazing fact is that FIFA has not commented on this issue, though a fair number of commentators have written about it. Former Arsenal manager and FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development, Arsene Wenger, referred to this only last weekend.

He did not rule out the original idea of the 16 three-team group format but added that an additional two alternatives are currently being examined. One idea is to have 12 four-team groups, with the first and second-place teams qualifying automatically for the knockout stage, while the eight best third-place finishers would also advance to the Final 16 stage.

The second idea is slightly more complicated: the 48 national teams competing in the World Cup will be divided into two separate tournaments. Each 24-team tournament will comprise six groups of four teams.

In each tournament, the six group winners will advance to the knockout stage along with the two best second-place teams. Following the quarterfinals and semifinals in each individual tournament, the last four teams (the two winners of the semifinal matches in each tournament) will then compete for the title based on the "Final Four" system.

In both of these proposed formats, the tournament would involve 104 soccer matches, lasting for five weeks, and this is where the genuine problem lies. The football clubs – who pay the players' wages – will clearly be adamantly opposed to this, and we should not forget the fans and the media too, for whom this would be an unprecedented, exorbitantly expensive and fatiguing event.

But that's not all: since the World Cup shifted from a format of 24 to 32 national teams, the need for internal rating of the best second-place teams in each group has been abandoned.

A shift to a 48-team competition would take us back to this most unhealthy state of affairs, as then the decision as to who advances would be based on goal difference, and there are always differences between the various groups in terms of the quality of the national teams. Once again, those teams playing last in the group stage schedule will know precisely what result they need to progress.

Wenger said that a decision on the competition format will be made only next year, but it is already clear that the move to a 48-team World Cup is extremely problematic, and will face considerable, severe criticism.

All the way to New York                                                                  

In the meantime, FIFA has already decided on the distribution of tickets for the next World Cup according to continents. Europe will send 16 teams (instead of 13); South America will send six teams, with the option of one more in a playoff (instead of 4+1); Africa will be represented by nine teams with the option of an additional one (instead of five); and Asia will be able to send eight teams with the option of an additional team too (instead of 4+1). The three host nations will of course qualify automatically.

An additional three national teams will qualify from North America and Central America with the option of two teams qualifying from the playoff, while Oceania will have one guaranteed place and an additional team to qualify from the playoff. Six teams will take part in the playoff tournament (from all the continents apart from Europe), and the top two sides will complete the puzzle of the 48 participating nations.

The final dates of the World Cup will be determined only after the format has been decided, in summer 2023. The host cities of the various matches and the division between the host countries have already been decided. There are to be 11 in the USA, three in Mexico and two in Canada.

The venue for the final has yet to be published, but it appears to be patently clear that this will take place at the MetLife Stadium in New York – the home of New York's two famous football teams, the New York Giants and the New York Jets.

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The current World Cup tournament that kicked off in Qatar on Sunday has provided a golden opportunity for the rulers of the emirate to flaunt their power and wealth as befits a country that perceives itself to enjoy the privileged status of a prestigious regional power.

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Having said that, the multicolored masquerade Qatar organized has not achieved its ultimate objective of 'sportswashing' a tarnished reputation, and despite the vast sums of money poured into the competition, waves of harsh criticism have been leveled against the emirate and its rulers, mainly due to the manner in which they persuaded – or more accurately, and without beating about the bush, bribed – FIFA's patriarchs to hold this most illustrious of all sporting competitions in Qatar.

Of course, strong criticism has also been voiced against the violation of human rights in Qatar and the exploitation of the expatriate workers there, who comprise 77% of its population of 3 million, and on whose blood, let alone their sweat, the impressive facilities housing the World Cup soccer games were built.

The colorful masquerade organized by Qatar has not achieved its objective. The World Cup Opening Ceremony.

But the Qataris have managed to score a winning goal in one specific area. Many of the region's leaders have come there specially to participate in the competition's opening ceremony and to get a first-hand look at the impressive phenomenon of regional unity, in parallel to the lavish spectacle held on the turf. It appears that the regional leaders are slightly less inclined to be easily fazed by the international criticism of human rights violations or corruption.

The first of these is Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar's close ally, who even dispatched police and security units there to help maintain law and order during the soccer matches. Now, of course, it is time for him to come and reap the benefits for providing such staunch support and allegiance to the Qataris.

The Turkish soccer squad might not have made it to the finals, but a photo op from the soccer pitch could well be worth its weight in gold for Erdogan, currently seeking to safeguard his seat in the upcoming presidential elections due to take place midway through the coming year. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi has also chosen to attend the tournament for similar reasons, and at the opening ceremony, he even shook hands with Turkey's president – marking the first meeting between these two men since al-Sisi seized power in a military coup in July 2013, earning him a vociferous response from Ankara.

King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan was also visibly present on the VIP podium as well as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. Though the latter might have chiefly come to cheer on the Saudi Arabian national team, his arrival has essentially granted a seal of legitimacy to the emirate of Qatar, which until recently had been considered an enemy both by the Saudis and the Egyptians.

It is difficult to imagine that these brief meetings and handshakes will really make any significant difference to the complex relationships between Turkey and Qatar, or Cairo and Riyadh, but today's regional reality requires people to try to forgive and forget the past, and above all to seek cooperation in order to contend with tomorrow's challenges.

The winds of change blowing through the stadium in Doha have however been overclouded by Iran – not the Iranian national soccer team taking part in the competition of course, but the rulers of the Islamic state and its Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, who have cast a dark and threatening shadow over the entire region. The World Cup will soon be forgotten, but the Iranian threat is here to stay, and facing this, on the other side, so too are Erdogan, Al-Sissi and bin-Salman, who are more than ready to step up and pose for a joint photo and shake hands.

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Israelis will be able to attend 2022 World Cup games in Qatar, Israeli ministers said on Thursday, in a move they said would open "a new door" to a country with which Israel does not currently have formal diplomatic relations.

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The agreement, which came after months of talks with FIFA, was announced by Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Sports Minister Chili Tropper.

"Love of football and sport connects people and states, and the World Cup in November opens a new door for us to warm ties," the statement quoted Lapid as saying. The Israel team failed to qualify for the tournament.

Qatar, a small but wealthy Gulf Arab state, will host the first World Cup in the Middle East, starting in late November. Qatar World Cup officials have repeatedly said that all nationalities are welcome during the tournament. All ticketholders must apply for the Hayya card, a fan identification, which doubles as their entry visa to Qatar.

Unlike its Gulf Arab neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which recently signed historic agreements with Israel, Qatar has conditioned normalizing relations on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

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