Go straight for the knockout to give African, Asian teams a fighting chance

Despite the fact that this World Cup has produced some of the most scintillating soccer in recent memory, there is still something deeply flawed about what has come to pass for the quarterfinals.

Each of the matches will be contested by the winners of the eight groups and that’s a little saddening.

Not even Nostradamus would have predicted Costa Rica’s richly deserved progress, but that aside, we are left with not one team that won’t have filled a slot on the majority of soccer fans’ World Cup wall charts.

There are no African or Asian teams left in the tournament, and based on the deep-rooted problems that blight national teams on both continents this is not likely to change in four years, given the current format of the tournament.

FIFA has shown a willingness to try to make their showpiece tournament more exciting over the last few decades.

We had the adoption of the “next-goal-wins” that anyone who has ever played street soccer knows so well, but while that works when you have hired a five-a-side pitch and the next teams turn up on time, it was not a success in the World Cup.

Then there were the balls developed with the intention of delivering more goals for the benefit of the score-hungry global audience.

These experiments also met with mixed success, and South Africa’s Jabulani was actually accused of creating fewer goals because it was too round.

This year we have also had goal-line technology, which we can assume is an attempt to give the goals that the referees and their assistants miss rather than deny us goals that never were.

Whatever the case, it has proved pretty pointless so far.

If anything, it has been a source of confusion and consternation, as in the France vs Honduras game.

If FIFA really want the World Cup to be all that it can be then there is one answer that will guarantee that.

Change the format of the tournament so it is only knockout matches. Winner takes all, every time.

Imagine the drama if holders Spain had crashed out at as soon as the final whistle blew against the Netherlands?

There would be no second chances and as we live in a world where over 90 or 120 minutes anyone could realistically beat anyone else, every team would have to hit the ground running rather than feel their way out of the group stages.

Such a change might be pie in the sky, but it’s certainly food for thought.