What if the World Cup was played like the F.A. Cup?

After news broke earlier that FIFA are going to discuss whether to extend the World Cup to 40 teams, it got me thinking what if it was expanded further and it was done as a straight knockout tournament.

For this to happen the top 47 FIFA ranked nations would get a bye into the Second Round, they would be:

Belguim

Argentina

Spain

Germany

Chile

Brazil

Portugal

Colombia

England

Austria

Uruguay

Switzerland

Ecuador

Netherlands

Italy

Romania

Wales

Croatia

Ivory Coast

Hungary

Turkey

Bosnia

Mexico

Russia

France

Slovakia

Czech Republic

Algeria

Ukraine

Northern Ireland

Republic Of Ireland

USA

Ghana

Poland

Sweden

Iceland

Costa Rica

Albania

Cape Verde Islands

Tunisia

Greece

Denmark

Finland

Senegal

Iran

Paraguay

Peru

Then there would have to be 81 first round ties of which these winners would then go into the hat with the 47 top nations to give us a straight knockout format of 128 sides. Then the draw would have to take place, the nations would be ranked still in FIFA order but Congo the 48th ranked side would then become Number 1 in the draw. (I have used a random number generator for this)

Here is what the First Round Draw could look like:

	1ST	ROUND	DRAW
59	Angola	vs	136	Chinese Taipei
98	Barbados	vs	162	Tonga
91	South Sudan	vs	146	Vanuatu
69	Mauritania	vs	97	St Lucia
48	Botswana	vs	158	Bahamas
143	Tahiti	vs	77	Bahrain
67	Chad	vs	10	Australia
145	Nepal	vs	62	Malawi
14	Slovenia	vs	60	Liberia
128	Mauritis	vs	133	Cambodia
135	Bangladesh	vs	153	Solomon Islands
64	Mozambique	vs	19	Nigeria
32	Cyprus	vs	13	Congo DR
86	Thailand	vs	70	Azerbaijan
124	Timor-Leste	vs	8	Jamaica
132	Indonesia	vs	52	El Salvador
111	Myanmar	vs	2	Trinidad & Tobago
43	Iraq	vs	134	New Caledonia
82	Kazakhstan	vs	20	Belarus
35	Antigua	vs	36	Venezuela
39	Qatar	vs	29	Gabon
99	Guinea-Bissau	vs	157	Anguilla
109	Sao Tome e Principe	vs	101	Tajikstan
79	Lithuania	vs	90	Hong Kong
83	Namibia	vs	116	Grenada
17	Panama	vs	74	St Kitts & Nevis
31	Benin	vs	147	Sri Lanka
44	Cuba	vs	96	St Vincent
141	Bhutan	vs	140	Monserrat
100	Vietnam	vs	9	Serbia
40	Jordan	vs	4	South Korea
46	Estonia	vs	155	Andorra
150	Turks & Caicos	vs	108	Moldova
102	Singapore	vs	115	Malta
7	Norway	vs	88	Palestine
126	Puerto Rico	vs	22	Israel
53	Niger	vs	87	Sudan
6	Japan	vs	78	Syria
42	Burkina Faso	vs	45	Nicaragua
152	British Virgin Islands	vs	37	China
142	Seychelles	vs	71	Sierra Leone
131	Laos	vs	25	South Africa
156	Papua New Guinea	vs	151	San Marino
55	Latvia	vs	50	Faroe Islands
56	Honduras	vs	5	Scotland
12	Cameroon	vs	160	Somalia
73	Ethopia	vs	122	Samoa
125	Comoros	vs	24	Bulgaria
161	Eritrea	vs	113	Maldives
58	North Korea	vs	94	Lebanon
121	American Samoa	vs	107	Dominican Republic
103	Afghanistan	vs	92	Kuwait
15	Mali	vs	30	Haiti
33	Saudi Arabia	vs	41	Canada
72	Turkmenistan	vs	159	Dijibouti
139	Fiji	vs	118	Liechtenstein
66	Central African Republic	vs	138	Brunei
68	Aruba	vs	3	Guinea
57	Oman	vs	76	Armenia
149	Cayman Islands	vs	81	Madagascar
26	Zambia	vs	84	Swaziland
89	Macedonia	vs	34	Libya
1	Congo	vs	63	Zimbabwe
49	Togo	vs	112	Bermuda
105	New Zealand	vs	127	Yemen
23	Equitorial Guinea	vs	110	Guam
27	Uzbekistan	vs	93	Philippines
104	Curacao	vs	144	Suriname
123	Malaysia	vs	95	Luxembourg
129	Dominica	vs	18	U.A.E
85	Tanzania	vs	28	Morocco
114	Guyana	vs	154	Mongolia
65	Burundi	vs	54	Rwanda
38	Montenegro	vs	75	Georgia
61	Krygyztan	vs	47	Guatemala
16	Uganda	vs	137	Pakistan
21	Bolivia	vs	148	Macau
119	India	vs	120	Cook Islands
11	Egypt	vs	117	Gambia
51	Kenya	vs	80	Belize
106	Lesotho	vs	130	US Virgin Islands

81 winners would then progress to the 2nd Round. Scotland take a trip to Honduras while top ranked side Congo entertain Zimbabwe. Lowest ranked side Tonga go away to Barbados while hot topic Syria travel to Japan.

Logistically this could be a bit of a nightmare with some of the travel involved but you could eliminate World Cup Qualifiers and simplify International Football to a much streamlined tournament. Is your country in the hat, do you like your draw and confident of getting to the 2nd round.

If I can engineer a way to play these fixtures I might be able to do the whole tournament. So there you go FIFA here is a much better idea, I’ll be waiting for your people to drop me an e-mail