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Auld Mug in Barca, 48-team World Cups and other dumb ideas
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Auld Mug in Barca, 48-team World Cups and other dumb ideas

PLUS: Plenty of podcast action and Greg Chappell features in the MBC.

Dylan Cleaver's avatar
Dylan Cleaver
Mar 29, 2022
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Auld Mug in Barca, 48-team World Cups and other dumb ideas
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A 48-team World Cup is enough to make you wince. Photo / Getty Images.

A remarkable thing happened late last week that I ignored at the time.

Italy, current European champions, were beaten at football by North Macedonia, a country that has existed as a sovereign state since 1991.

The loss, in Palermo, condemned Italy to missing its second World Cup in succession. 

It might be the last time such a shock is allowed to occur.

When it was initially raised, the idea of a 48-team World Cup just seemed like a silly joke - a drunk-uncle kind of suggestion made by the drunk uncles at Fifa to give themselves reasons to fly to Zurich, stay at the Baur au Lac, eat fondue, get stress-relieving massages and come up with other craven ideas.

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