frumble wrote:No Asian or African teams into the second round. Same as in 2019 (the first World Cup with this format).
Was just noting the same. Just shows how far away those countries are in terms of development.
I know it's in the spirit of the Olympics to have representation from every continent but it really does suck that 2 spots are going to be awarded to teams that don't even finish in the Top 16 of this tourney. Even worse, as a result of this, there are going to be two decent European/American teams that are not going to be able to pick-up points in the Olympics by simply not qualifying.