So FIFA has decided to use the format of 12 groups of 4 top 2 go through plus the top 8 3rd place teams. This makes the group stage almost meaningless and not very exiting, it allows teams to put in less effort and still make it to a bloated round of 32.

Having 8 groups of 6 with the top 2 teams going though would make for an extremely intense group stage, give us more games, give us better games, and just be an over all better product.

-Math for 12 group format- 12 groups of 4 = 6 x 12 = 72 games 72 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 2 = 104

-Math for 8 group format- 8 groups of 6 = 15 x 8 = 120 games 120 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 2 = 136

Now I know what y’all are thinking. What about the players how many games would the final 4 teams play?

-Math for the 12 group format- 3 (group Games) + 5 (Knockout Games) = 8 games

-Math for the 8 group format- 5 (Group Games) + 4 (Knockout Games = 9 games

So overall FIFA and the fans and even the players (more merciful on the bad teams, more bragging rights for the good teams to make it out of the group stage) benefit from the 8 group format.