The last time a World Cup was staged in the USA, nothing could begin until Diana Ross had taken her penalty at the opening ceremony. In she ran at Chicago’s Soldier Field and hoof, wide of the post went the ball. Cue the giggles as the goal fell apart all the same.
Organisers of the 2026 World Cup might have learned their lessons from 1994 when it comes to building up the hype but penalties being taken ahead of games is not such a laughing matter anymore.
As reported by The Athletic, there is support to ensure draws mean more in 2026.
Diana Ross' penalty miss during the 1994 World Cup opening ceremony. pic.twitter.com/2CM74dWGyN
— 90s Football (@90sfootball) March 21, 2019
Whether it is on the basis of a penalty shootout staged before or after drawn games, FIFA, among lots of other options, is considering awarding bonus points to the winners as it plans for a 48-team extravaganza across the US, Canada and Mexico.
The problem, you see, is the likelihood of 2026 being a tournament that begins with 16 three-team groups. The top two in each group would proceed to an extended 32-team knockout phase, but on the way there would be an increased threat of collusion within the new format.
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Three-team groups are bound to be tight. How can they not be when just two opponents are faced? And when two of the sides are left to play their final fixture while the other watches on helplessly, morals might be left at the stadium doors if a certain result suits both.
The introduction of bonus points in the event of drawn games cannot hope to eradicate those dangers but it would be one potential way of negating them. So said FIFA’s chief officer for technical development Marco van Basten. “Shootouts could indeed be an option for tournaments with groups of three in which you play against two opponents,” Van Basten told Sport Bild in 2017.
That penalties could follow drawn games would be radical enough but the prospect of a shootout taking place before the fixture begins jars all the more. How many of them would even matter? The majority would end up pointless, time-consuming exercises the moment a game does not end all square. These World Cup games, with their additional stoppage time, are lasting long enough as it is.
Perhaps it might bring an added dimension of drama we did not think we needed, forcing the team that has lost a penalty shootout to avoid a draw that would mean more to their opponents. Or perhaps we should avoid attempting to reinvent the wheel. The latter feels more compelling.
Bonus points for drawn matches all feels a bit EFL Trophy, too. And that cannot be a good thing.
The much-maligned competition for English football’s lower league clubs has taken its drawn group games to penalty shootouts after 90 minutes for the last few seasons. At times, they are almost comical to behold. Teams that already have fates decided going through the motions for the sake of a bonus point that does not matter. FIFA would struggle to find endorsements for the format there.
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To be having a discussion on how best to iron out the threat of sporting injustice in 2026 is as much to expose the flaws of three-team groups. Not since 1930, the inaugural competition in Uruguay, have we seen anything but four-team groups and in every tournament since 1986, a change prompted by the “Disgrace of Gijon” in 1982, the final group games have kicked off at the same time.
That has made qualification from the groups as fair and just as it possibly can be, affording every team control of their own destiny. Fail to progress and no other factors can be blamed.
Yet here we are, less than four years out from the next World Cup, with self-inflicted headaches for FIFA to address. The insistence that this would be a tournament of 48 nations has forced a remodelling of how it all unfolds and there is no easy solution. All options remain on the table, with no final decision yet made on how the opening stages will unfold.
Sixteen three-team groups would bring greater simplicity, with two from each progressing, but this might also require the introduction of penalty shootouts in the event of games being drawn.
Retaining groups of four — albeit rising from the current eight to 12 — would help guard against any two teams colluding to qualify but then would come the complication of who joined the winners of each quartet. The four best runners-up in the 12 groups would head into the last-16 but that is a far cry from the clean, crisp certainty of the current format. It would also leave open the prospect of groups that play first being disadvantaged.
FIFA has painted itself into the same corner that UEFA did when increasing teams participating at the European Championships in time for 2016. A rise from 16 to 24 nations now ensures that the four best third-placed teams join the last-16, a reward for mediocrity. Ukraine lost two of their three group games at Euro 2020 and still found a way through.
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These international competitions continue to grow against our better judgement, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino justifying the rise in time for 2026 as offering smaller nations the “chance to dream” of reaching a World Cup.
Maybe so but less can still be more. The complications that come with 48 teams participating underlines as much.
(Top photo: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)