One of the leaders of the 2026 World Cup has admitted that Fifa is wrestling with the thorny issue of how to organise the group stage for the first 48-team tournament to ensure that there will be no collusion between the teams in the final group match.
The agreed plan for the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico is to have 16 groups of three teams, with the top two in each advancing to a round of 32. But that means one team in each group will not be involved in the final match of the phase. It may therefore suit the teams who are playing to contrive a result that would allow them both to qualify — as happened infamously with West
