Reforming FIFA's confederations

[HonestSpursFan]

My plan for a reformed FIFA confederation map:



Any thoughts?

 

[HonestSpursFan]

Most of the map is just AFC reform but I’ve also adjusted some other minor things (e.g. Kazakhstan in the WAFC, smaller nations yet to join confederations and/or FIFA to do so).

 

[NicCarBel]

Have mine covered here - no map yet though

Thread 'Restructuring FIFA (World Cup Qualifiers and Confederation Members)'

Apr 3, 2025

I've had across a few of the qualification threads referring to how, if I had my way, would restructure FIFA (in terms of member make up and confederation structures) in relation to the World Cup and it's qualifiers. So figured having a central spot for all of this would be better (plus, it allows me to have more of a back up then my word doc, that I can access on my phone if I ever want to discuss with anyone).

I've essentially narrowed down to two options, where I've gone into a bit of detail about the members, qualification make up, etc below. But, the TLDR of the two options are...

• NicCarBel

• 

 

[NicCarBel]

Have mine covered here - no map yet though

Thread 'Restructuring FIFA (World Cup Qualifiers and Confederation Members)'

Apr 3, 2025

I've had across a few of the qualification threads referring to how, if I had my way, would restructure FIFA (in terms of member make up and confederation structures) in relation to the World Cup and it's qualifiers. So figured having a central spot for all of this would be better (plus, it allows me to have more of a back up then my word doc, that I can access on my phone if I ever want to discuss with anyone).

I've essentially narrowed down to two options, where I've gone into a bit of detail about the members, qualification make up, etc below. But, the TLDR of the two options are...

• NicCarBel

• 

I might have missed selecting a few of the smaller nations in this - but this covers the gist of Option 1 in the old thread. I'm almost tempted to move Turkey to the CWFC/AFC now tbh.

 

[HonestSpursFan]

I might have missed selecting a few of the smaller nations in this - but this covers the gist of Option 1 in the old thread. I'm almost tempted to move Turkey to the CWFC/AFC now tbh.View attachment 8007

Looks pretty similar to mine except a few things:

• You put Russia in the WAFC. I left it in UEFA but I tossed up whether it should be in the WAFC. You also put Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the WAFC, while I left them in UEFA.
• You’ve included Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama and Suriname in CONMEBOL. I left them in CONCACAF, since the Guyanas (French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname) have strong Caribbean connections (e.g. Guyanese players play for the West Indies in cricket) while the others are with the rest of Central America.
• You put Israel in the WAFC. I left them in UEFA because of the fact that certain WAFC countries would refuse to play Israel.
• You’ve proposed that Greenland joins UEFA, while I said they should join CONCACAF. It’s worth noting that UEFA rejected Greenland on the basis that they weren’t an independent nation, a requirement for new member applicants.
• You merged the east of the AFC and the OFC to form the EAFC, while I kept them both separate. I assume the Falklands being light blue is a mistake?

 

[NicCarBel]

Looks pretty similar to mine except a few things:

• You put Russia in the WAFC. I left it in UEFA but I tossed up whether it should be in the WAFC. You also put Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the WAFC, while I left them in UEFA.

Yep, have done a bit of trying to expand WAFC because the East/West split as it is (but also incorporating OFC) leaves it a bit lopsided numbers wise

• You’ve included Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama and Suriname in CONMEBOL. I left them in CONCACAF, since the Guyanas (French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname) have strong Caribbean connections (e.g. Guyanese players play for the West Indies in cricket) while the others are with the rest of Central America.

Yes - the plan for me on this one is to split the two evenly numbers wise (and I believe it splits the travel a bit more evenly as well)

• You put Israel in the WAFC. I left them in UEFA because of the fact that certain WAFC countries would refuse to play Israel.

In my world - politics is be damned - if those countries refuse to play Israel while it's not suspended, then that's on those countries and they can forfeit. Essentially this is a fantasy kum-ba-ya world that will never happen, but it is what it is.

• You’ve proposed that Greenland joins UEFA, while I said they should join CONCACAF. It’s worth noting that UEFA rejected Greenland on the basis that they weren’t an independent nation, a requirement for new member applicants.

This one is a little different - the map I was using had Greenland as part of Denmark, so selecting one meant it selected that

• You merged the east of the AFC and the OFC to form the EAFC, while I kept them both separate. I assume the Falklands being light blue is a mistake?

Falklands I don't think I selected, so is white, rather than sky blue.

 

[HonestSpursFan]

This one is a little different - the map I was using had Greenland as part of Denmark, so selecting one meant it selected that

Yeah, I just realised this was a generic world map rather than a FIFA map since the UK isn’t split. Weird that, say, French Guiana could be selected separately then given it has less autonomy than Greenland (French Guiana is an overseas region and overseas department of France, while Greenland is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark alongside Denmark itself and the Faroe Islands).

 

[NicCarBel]

Putting these here because I'm going to continue this here rather than in the Infanculo thread:

Post in thread 'Gianni Infanculo aims to sell World Cup commercial rights'

Aug 11, 2026

I think they are in for a rude awakening if a comnebol qualification route ever comes to pass.

I'm going to try a little FIFA simulation (using an FC26 mod that has every national team) tonight/this weekend on a combined qualification route for CONCACAF/CONMEBOL and see how that goes to be honest.

One run as for 2026 (which means Mexico is already qualified - so 42 nations competing for 9 direct spots and 3 playoff spots), and then a run as if there was no American hosts (45 nations competing for 12 direct spots and 2 playoff spots)

Format for the former will likely be:

• 9...

• NicCarBel

• 

Post in thread 'Gianni Infanculo aims to sell World Cup commercial rights'

Aug 11, 2026

I'm going to try a little FIFA simulation (using an FC26 mod that has every national team) tonight/this weekend on a combined qualification route for CONCACAF/CONMEBOL and see how that goes to be honest.

One run as for 2026 (which means Mexico is already qualified - so 42 nations competing for 9 direct spots and 3 playoff spots), and then a run as if there was no American hosts (45 nations competing for 12 direct spots and 2 playoff spots)

Format for the former will likely be:

• 9 groups (6 groups of 5, and 3 groups of 4)
• Winner of each group qualifies directly
• 9x runners...

• NicCarBel

• 

As for Asia/OFC, I'm going to do something similar for 2026 World Cup (so, using July 2023 rankings as well). This will be split qualifying, where West Asia (as currently defined by the AFC) has their own qualifying groups, and East Asia is combined with Oceania (to form Pacific World Cup Qualifying groups)

West Asia - 25 countries competing for 4 direct spots, and 1 playoff spot
Pacific - 32 countries competing for 5 direct spots and 1 playoff spot

This means 4 groups for West Asia (3x groups of 6, and 1x Group of 7), and 5 for the Pacific (3x groups of 6, and 2x groups of 7), with the winners of each group qualifying, and then... as for determining the playoff participant for each confederation, I'll do the old UEFA style thing of removing the results against the lowest placed team for the 2x groups of 7 for Pacific, and then:

West Asia - The four runners up playoff until 1 remains (single leg, random draw, one FIFA window), winner goes to Intercontinental Playoffs
Pacific - The lowest ranked of the 5 runners up is eliminated, with the remaining four playing off until 1 remains (same as above), winner goes to Intercontinental playoffs

POTS
West Asia

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6	Pot 7
Iran	UAE	Bahrain	India	Turkmenistan	Nepal	Sri Lanka
Saudi Arabia	Oman	Syria	Lebanon	Maldives	Bhutan
Qatar	Uzbekistan	Palestine	Tajikistan	Yemen	Bangladesh
Iraq	Jordan	Kygyrzstan	Kuwait	Afghanistan	Pakistan

Pacific

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6	Pot 7
Japan	New Zealand	Malaysia	Papua New Guinea	Fiji	Cook Islands	Samoa
Australia	Thailand	Hong Kong	Myanmar	Cambodia	Brunei	Tonga
Korea Republic	Korea DPR	Indonesia	New Caledonia	Macau	Timor-Leste
China	Solomon Islands	Chinese Taipei	Tahiti	Mongolia	Guam
Vietnam	Philippines	Singapore	Vanuatu	Laos	American Samoa

Same as before - the nations highlighted green may do a first round play off so that we have even groups instead - I'm yet to decide

 

[NicCarBel]

Fuck, while I’m at it, let’s do UEFA the proper way:

8 groups, top 2 of each group qualify. Fuck the nations league inclusions off. Russia is now also allowed back in for the purposes of this experiment.

Based off this, qualifying should have begun directly after Euro 2024, so we will be using the July 2024 FIFA Rankings (for qualifying to begin in September 2024

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6	Pot 7
France	Germany	Wales	Norway	North Macedonia	Belarus	Faroe Islands
Spain	Switzerland	Hungary	Slovenia	Montenegro	Kosovo	Moldova
England	Denmark	Serbia	Greece	Northern Ireland	Kazakhstan	Andorra
Belgium	Austria	Russia	Ireland	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Azerbaijan	Malta
Netherlands	Ukraine	Slovakia	Finland	Israel	Estonia	Gibraltar
Portugal	Turkey	Romania	Albania	Bulgaria	Cyprus	Liechtenstein
Italy	Poland	Czechia	Georgia	Luxembourg	Lithuania	San Marino
Croatia	Sweden	Scotland	Iceland	Armenia	Latvia

 

[dr. bellows]

In my shuffling, I ended up with 48 member UEFA, 26 West Asia and 41 East Asia and Oceania. UEFA 6x8, West Asia 6x4 plus 2. East Asia and Oceania 5x8 plus 1.

 

[NicCarBel]

In my shuffling, I ended up with 48 member UEFA, 26 West Asia and 41 East Asia and Oceania. UEFA 6x8, West Asia 6x4 plus 2. East Asia and Oceania 5x8 plus 1.

Did you also do some shuffling around of uefa out? (Like Kazakhstan)

That’s one of my ultimate ideas too

 

[dr. bellows]

Did you also do some shuffling around of uefa out? (Like Kazakhstan)

That’s one of my ultimate ideas too

Yes, 7 across from UEFA into W Asia. Here's the list:

1.Turkmenistan
2. Afghanistan
3. Kyrgyzstan
4. Tajikistan
5. Uzbekistan
6. S. Arabia
7. Iran
8. Qatar
9. Iraq
10. UAE
11. Oman
12. Jordan
13. Bahrain
14. Syria
15. Palestine
16. Lebanon
17. Kuwait
18. Pakistan
19. Yemen
20. Russia
21.Kazakhstan
22. Georgia
23. Azerbaijan
24. Armenia
25. Cyprus
26. Turkiya

East Asia and Oceania:

1. New Caledonia
2. Am Samoa
3. Papua N G
4. Cook Islands
5. Solomon Is
6. N Zealand
7. Fiji
8. Kiribati
9. Samoa
10. Tahiti
11. Tonga
12. Tuvalu
13. Vanuatu
14. Japan
15. Australia
16. Sth Korea
17.Bangladesh
18. China
19. Nth Korea
20. India
21. Thailand
22. Phillipines
23. Malaysia
24. Indonesia
25.Hong Kong
26. Mongolia
27. Bhutan
28. Laos
29. Vietnam
30. Brunei
31.Timor Leste
32. Guam
33. Sri Lanka
34. Macau
35. Ch Taipei
36. Maldives
37. Singapore
38. Myanmar
39. Nepal
40. Cambodia
41.Nth Marianas

 

[NicCarBel]

Yes, 7 across from UEFA into W Asia. Here's the list:

1.Turkmenistan
2. Afghanistan
3. Kyrgyzstan
4. Tajikistan
5. Uzbekistan
6. S. Arabia
7. Iran
8. Qatar
9. Iraq
10. UAE
11. Oman
12. Jordan
13. Bahrain
14. Syria
15. Palestine
16. Lebanon
17. Kuwait
18. Pakistan
19. Yemen
20. Russia
21.Kazakhstan
22. Georgia
23. Azerbaijan
24. Armenia
25. Cyprus
26. Turkiya

East Asia and Oceania:

1. New Caledonia
2. Am Samoa
3. Papua N G
4. Cook Islands
5. Solomon Is
6. N Zealand
7. Fiji
8. Kiribati
9. Samoa
10. Tahiti
11. Tonga
12. Tuvalu
13. Vanuatu
14. Japan
15. Australia
16. Sth Korea
17.Bangladesh
18. China
19. Nth Korea
20. India
21. Thailand
22. Phillipines
23. Malaysia
24. Indonesia
25.Hong Kong
26. Mongolia
27. Bhutan
28. Laos
29. Vietnam
30. Brunei
31.Timor Leste
32. Guam
33. Sri Lanka
34. Macau
35. Ch Taipei
36. Maldives
37. Singapore
38. Myanmar
39. Nepal
40. Cambodia
41.Nth Marianas

Yep I agree with those UEFA switches. Suprised you kept that much in East Asia though, considering there already is an arbitrary East/West line in Asia (Kiribati and Tuvalu are non FIFA members, so that's why I didn't include them, but otherwise they'd be in Pacific/East as well)

 

[NicCarBel]

OK so I've done a draw for these 4 confederations for the 2026 World Cup using the above pots, and here's the groups.
Note - For the Americas, Pacific, and West Asia, I did end up settling on playoffs (which will be seeded, not a random draw) in the opening round to make even groups

AMERICAS
Playoff round

1. Grenada v Anguilla
2. Belize v British Virgin Islands
3. St Vincent & the Grenadines v US Virgin Islands
4. Montserrat v Turks & Caicos Islands
5. Dominica v Aruba
6. Cayman Islands v Bahamas

Qualification Round - Winner of each group directly qualifies for 2026 FIFA World Cup

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H	Group I
Costa Rica	Ecuador	Argentina	Chile	Uruguay	Peru	Colombia	Panama	Brazil
Venezuela	Trinidad & Tobago	El Salvador	Haiti	Bolivia	Curacao	Jamaica	Honduras	Paraguay
Suriname	St Kitts & Nevis	Puerto Rico	Barbados	Antigua & Barbuda	Guatemala	Dominican Republic	Nicaragua	Guyana
Winner Match 5	Winner Match 2	Winner Match 3	Winner Match 6	Cuba	St Lucia	Bermuda	Winner Match 4	Winner Match 1

Second round - Runners Up of each group progress to play-off group - winners of each group progress to Intercontinental Playoffs

Group A	Group B	Group C
Runner Up G	Runner Up I	Runner Up B
Runner Up H	Runner Up D	Runner Up F
Runner Up A	Runner Up E	Runner Up C

WEST ASIA
Playoff round

1. Pakistan v Sri Lanka

Qualification Round - Winner of each group directly qualifies for 2026 FIFA World Cup

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Iran	Qatar	Iraq	Saudi Arabia
Oman	Uzbekistan	Jordan	UAE
Bahrain	Syria	Kyrgyzstan	Palestine
Kuwait	India	Tajikistan	Lebanon
Yemen	Maldives	Turkmenistan	Afghanistan
Playoff Winner	Bhutan	Nepal	Bangladesh

West Asian Playoffs - single leg playoff bracket at neutral venue, winner qualifies for Intercontinental Playoff

1. Runner Up B v Runner Up D
2. Runner Up C v Runner Up A
3. Winner Match 1 v Winner Match 2

PACIFIC
Playoff round

1. Guam v Tonga
2. American Samoa v Samoa

Qualification Round - Winner of each group directly qualifies for 2026 FIFA World Cup

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E
Korea Republic	China	Australia	Japan	Vietnam
Thailand	Korea DPR	New Zealand	Philippines	Solomon Islands
Chinese Taipei	Hong Kong	Indonesia	Singapore	Malaysia
Tahiti	Papua New Guinea	New Caledonia	Myanmar	Vanuatu
Fiji	Mongolia	Laos	Cambodia	Macau
Timor-Leste	Winner Match 1	Winner Match 2	Cook Islands	Brunei

Pacific Playoffs - single leg playoff bracket at neutral venue, winner qualifies for Intercontinental Playoff
- A random draw will be held once the four participants have been determined. The four nations that finished second in their group with the best record will advance to the Pacific Playoffs

1. A v B
2. C v D
3. Winner Match 1 v Winner Match 2

EUROPE
Qualification Round - Top 2 of each group directly qualifies for the 2026 FIFA World Cup
- Note, prohibited matches as identified by UEFA have been taken into consideration

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
Italy	England	France	Netherlands	Portugal	Belgium	Spain	Croatia
Switzerland	Sweden	Denmark	Poland	Turkey	Ukraine	Austria	Germany
Russia	Serbia	Scotland	Slovakia	Czechia	Wales	Romania	Hungary
Greece	Iceland	Norway	Republic of Ireland	Albania	Georgia	Slovenia	Finland
Luxembourg	Montenegro	Bulgaria	North Macedonia	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Armenia	Israel	Northern Ireland
Belarus	Azerbaijan	Latvia	Kosovo	Kazakhstan	Estonia	Cyprus	Lithuania
Moldova	Liechtenstein	Faroe Islands	Malta	San Marino	Gibraltar		Andorra

 

[JS96]

Teams 1-26 would be an interesting combined 11. I have to look into USSR football to see how many non Russians and certainly silk road nationalities ever made their team.

 

[NicCarBel]

Teams 1-26 would be an interesting combined 11. I have to look into USSR football to see how many non Russians and certainly silk road nationalities ever made their team.

Time gone by, I had downloaded a mod for PES 2021, that had an historical "Best 23" for a lot of national teams, but set into clubs, with players from Soviet, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia all set to what their nationality would theoretically be now - I can't remember if I wrote that down how many of each made it though. From memory Czechoslovakia was pretty 50/50. I think it was about 2/3 Russian in the Soviets, but a smattering of a few of the silk road nations in there




and here's Australia for shits and gigs

 

[dr. bellows]

Yep I agree with those UEFA switches. Suprised you kept that much in East Asia though, considering there already is an arbitrary East/West line in Asia (Kiribati and Tuvalu are non FIFA members, so that's why I didn't include them, but otherwise they'd be in Pacific/East as well)

Oh you're right. Kiribati and Tuvalu should be deleted which brings it back to 39. I wanted to include India in EA&O to add a bit more strength and potential growth to that Confed, which needs it imo. Also to separate India and Pakistan. That shifted the line and dragged a few other members across as well.

 

[dr. bellows]

I wonder why Kiribati is excluded? Were they rejected by FIFA or did they self-exclude? I can only think it must be for financial reasons as they have a much larger population than Northern Mariana Islands but NMI are far wealthier.

 

[rebelliousfeminist974]

I wonder why Kiribati is excluded? Were they rejected by FIFA or did they self-exclude? I can only think it must be for financial reasons as they have a much larger population than Northern Mariana Islands but NMI are far wealthier.

Kiribati is only an associate member of the OFC and is still unaffiliated with FIFA though.

 

[dr. bellows]

For a 64 team WC finals, I'd propose 16 groups of 4 with each group winner going into R16 knockout. Second place in each group goes into Nations Cup R16, a second tier international competition with parallels to Europa League. No team plays more than 7 matches in the finals in either WC or NC.