Should the World Cup have a ‘rest of the world team’?

Port Vale Devil

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Thinking about all the players who are missing from this World Cup like Salah, Haaland etc and other players from the past like Best, Giggs and Di Stefano who could have lit up the tournament.

Wouldn’t be the same as winning it for your country but to be involved nonetheless and be called a World Cup winner. Would be quite a wild card entry.
 

FiiiiveTenHaaags

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No. Nice idea for FIFA (the game) but in actual life it would take away the whole point of qualifying etc
 

TheRedHearted

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Thinking about all the players who are missing from this World Cup like Salah, Haaland etc and other players from the past like Best, Giggs and Di Stefano who could have lit up the tournament.

Wouldn’t be the same as winning it for your country but to be involved nonetheless and be called a World Cup winner. Would be quite a wild card entry.
How many puffs did it take to get to the center of this one?
 

NoPace

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Obviously no is the answer, but I could see relaxing things a bit in qualifying and letting some countries with few people or monies banding together if it was seen as improving relations and not leading to a war after somebody misses a penalty.

Or countries with historical ties. I'd have no problem with the Czechs and Slovaks agreeing to play together but I can't imagine they want to. Might be an example of that somewhere though. Also Putin would probably invade Georgia to get Kvacha.
 

foolsgold

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I like this idea, I don't think it takes away anything from qualifying at all as at most only 1 or 2 players from any association would make the team. In fact, limit it to 1 player per team and give any winnings they make to a designated charity.
 

The Boy

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I've tried to put together a team of the best of the rest, there's some pretty good players there!

Oblak

Lamptey Bonucci Demiral Robertson

Odegaard Verrati Chiesa

Luis Diaz Haaland Salah



Subs: Zaha, Osimhen, Ibrahimovic, Mahrez, Donnarumma, Alaba, Jorginho, Kessie, Cuadrado​
 

Arlo

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Nope. A lot of those big names play for countries that are capable of qualifying for the World Cup. Why should they be rewarded for failure?
 
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rcoobc

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Thinking about all the players who are missing from this World Cup like Salah, Haaland etc and other players from the past like Best, Giggs and Di Stefano who could have lit up the tournament.

Wouldn’t be the same as winning it for your country but to be involved nonetheless and be called a World Cup winner. Would be quite a wild card entry.
Interesting.

How about instead all 32 teams get to pick a wild card
 

V.O.

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Oblak

Lamptey Bonucci Demiral Robertson

Odegaard Verrati Chiesa

Luis Diaz Haaland Salah



Lamptey is at the World Cup with Ghana. Might be a bit more like this:

--------------------Donnarumma
Di Lorenzo-Bonucci-Alaba--Robertson
------------------Verratti--Barella
----------------------Ødegaard
Salah--------------Haaland-----Kvaratskhelia

But yeah, fancy struggling through a qualifying campaign and getting to your country's first World Cup in forever and finding the fecking Harlem Globetrotters in your group.
 

Rake

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It is an interesting idea. It would be engaging in fans got to vote for players from teams that failed to qualify. That being said, I can't see this happening beyond some exhibition game (for example vs the WC winners).
 

KeanoMagicHat

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Not for the World Cup…

But the World Cup winners could play that team in a one-off exhibition later that year (or next year if in the Winter). Would be cool to watch.
 

Ramos

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I've tried to put together a team of the best of the rest, there's some pretty good players there!

Oblak

Lamptey Bonucci Demiral Robertson

Odegaard Verrati Chiesa

Luis Diaz Haaland Salah



Subs: Zaha, Osimhen, Ibrahimovic, Mahrez, Donnarumma, Alaba, Jorginho, Kessie, Cuadrado​
Some extra options or alternatives:

Bastoni, Skriniar, Zinchenko, Barella, Odegaard, Kulusevski and Khvicha.
 

Rood

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Think it’s called expanding to 48 team format :lol:
Was just going to say exactly that !

There will some real dross at the next World Cup but will also be nice to see some new countries - bar the hosts I don't think there are any WC debutants this year
 

FriedClams

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A cool exhibition game would be the team of the tournament versus the team of the didn’t go to the tournament.
 

Duane Dibley

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Good in theory, not so good in practice.

Enough top players cry off from qualifiers as it is, where would the incentive be for them to play if they were guaranteed a place anyway. If they want to play in the World Cup then they need to make sure they qualify, it's not like they don't have plenty of opportunity, there's enough countries qualify as it is.

And which of the qualified countries would this Rest of the World team replace, or would we have a pre-World Cup World Cup to see which 31 (or 47) of the 32 (or 48) teams get to play with this Rest of the World team?
 

Sky1981

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What I think is that Europe should get more places, at least 3-4 more, if not directly then playing against sides from South America, Africa or Asia as a play-off would be a good idea.
You know how hard it is for Indonesian to get into the World Cup..how many layers and layers we have to fight for a few precious spot?

But hey... 4 more for the European minnows.
 

Raees

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Sounds fun... but imagine being the fan of a nation who loses to these guys... and even as a player winning it but having no nation to root for you, kind of takes away from the romance of the occasion. I'd love to see a contintental cup though, best players from each continent face each other in a 6 team tournament - play it in the years in between World Cup/Euros/Copa.
 

norm87cro

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This is not fantasy football. Its national football with players like Bale, Ronaldo, Drogba (former obviously) and others pushing it for the national side despite not having the best players in their national team. We could argue about Giggs or Best but in reality it would never be nsync
 

Chief123

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Thinking about all the players who are missing from this World Cup like Salah, Haaland etc and other players from the past like Best, Giggs and Di Stefano who could have lit up the tournament.

Wouldn’t be the same as winning it for your country but to be involved nonetheless and be called a World Cup winner. Would be quite a wild card entry.
No. The qualification process would lose all integrity and would also be a middle finger to the teammates of those players. Salah knowing he’ll play in World Cup no matter what happens with Egypt is not good.
 

Dirty Schwein

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Maybe there's an "other xi" and the winner of the WC plays them. If they beat the other xi, they get two world cups... If they lose, they have to put back the trophy for a null and void tournament.
 

Big Ben Foster

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A cool exhibition game would be the team of the tournament versus the team of the didn’t go to the tournament.
I'd imagine most clubs wouldn't want to release their players for this, but I agree that it would be a cool idea.
 

Port Vale Devil

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No. The qualification process would lose all integrity and would also be a middle finger to the teammates of those players. Salah knowing he’ll play in World Cup no matter what happens with Egypt is not good.

Valid point in fairness
 

fergiewherearethou

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Try research how many teams there are in Asia. And how many tickets we got.

How many qualifying we have to top before we get a ticket to the final.

And add Australia taking one spot.
I'm not arguing about that and I totally understand the difficulty to reach the World Cup, I'm just saying as a neutral that I want a high-level competition with the best teams possible. It would have been a better World Cup with teams like Italy, Sweden, Turkey or Norway.
 

Revan

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Try research how many teams there are in Asia. And how many tickets we got.

How many qualifying we have to top before we get a ticket to the final.

And add Australia taking one spot.
But you are a bit shit at football.
 

Red00012

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Thinking about all the players who are missing from this World Cup like Salah, Haaland etc and other players from the past like Best, Giggs and Di Stefano who could have lit up the tournament.

Wouldn’t be the same as winning it for your country but to be involved nonetheless and be called a World Cup winner. Would be quite a wild card entry.
48 teams in the next WC so basically they are trying their best to get everyone into the WC