Underdog stories of Euro 2024 suggest 2026 World Cup expansion is not a bad idea after all

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I get it. You've ripped down the wallchart, rewatched Cole Palmer's equaliser in the final with tears stinging your eyes and that England Euro 2024 winners tattoo was both painful and costly to remove. The last thing you want to read about is international football. I get it.

But hear me out because, while the EFL and Premier League seasons are fast approaching, it might be worth looking back at Euro 2024 one more time to see what we have learned about the future of international football.

And unless you are among a tiny percentage of fans eagerly awaiting the start of the Uefa Nations League, the next big international tournament in men's football is the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

The 2026 World Cup will be a tournament of firsts. It will be the first to be hosted by three countries. It will be the first since 1994 to take place in North America. And, most crucially, it will be the first to feature 48 teams.

That is an increase of 16 teams from the previous World Cup in Qatar and there is no getting away from the size of the tournament - it will feature just shy of 23 per cent of the nations in Fifa's official men's rankings.

The number of games is set to balloon from 64 to 104 and it is a move which has riled fans and players.

And that is understandable. The tournament expansion could well have a detrimental effect on player welfare.

More games also means more revenue and I doubt many have bought into Gianni Infantino's claims that the expansion was implemented by Fifa to help expand football's global reach.

But that does not mean the new format is wholly negative and Euro 2024 showed exactly why it could be a step in the right direction.

There will be 12 groups of four teams with the top two from each section as well as the best eight third-placed teams progressing to the round of 32.

Indeed, while the increase of matches overall is eyewatering, the number of games played by teams reaching the semi-finals will only increase from seven to eight.

Therefore this new format allows for new countries to make their mark on the biggest of stages without hindering or overexerting the more established footballing nations.

This brings me onto Euro 2024, which it is fair to say was good but not great.

And where the tournament largely lost marks was with bigger nations such as France, Belgium, Portugal and England playing sterile, reactive and uninventive football.

It was indeed the smaller nations who supplied some of the most compelling moments.

The Group F opener between Turkey and Georgia was undoubtedly the game of the group stage, perhaps even the tournament. Georgia especially were a breath of fresh air, playing daring football throughout and taking the lead against champions Spain in the last 16.

Romania, who are 45th in the Fifa world rankings, put in a stunning performance to shock Ukraine 3-0 in Group E, while minnows Slovakia beat Belgium in the group stage and were minutes away from dumping out finalists England in the first knockout round.

But those storylines would probably not have unfolded had the European Championship not been expanded from 16 teams to 24 eight years ago.

Many of the most exciting teams to watch in the tournament might not have even qualified. Georgia relied on the playoff route while Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands all finished second in their qualifying groups.

A quick glance at the Copa America tells a similar story. They added six teams to the tournament this year and Canada booked their spot via the play-in stage, yet they went on to make the semi-finals.

I appreciate less is often more but the expansion to 48 teams is not the cataclysmic reshaping of the world's most popular football competition many say it is.

The bottom line of the reformatting is that teams will play through an extra knockout stage and sides finishing third in their sections could still progress.

An extra knockout clash only opens the door to more upsets and it could even encourage bigger nations to use their squads more effectively.

As for third-placed teams advancing, this surely only adds to the drama of the group stage? Yes, it will take less to qualify for the knockouts but it also means there will be more to play for right up to matchday three, which in turn means fewer dead-rubbers.

Club football is what provides us with tactical innovation and the evolution of philosophies but international football is all about spectacle and stories, and that was the case with Euro 2024.

So no, it didn't come home, but how excited are you to see the industrious Papua New Guinea square up against free-flowing Uzbekistan in scorching Texas just two years from now? I for one can't wait.

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