Kanchelskis: The large number of teams in the 2026 World Cup will harm quality

Former Russia national team forward Andrey Kanchelskis shared his thoughts on the 2026 World Cup, emphasizing that the increase in the number of teams could negatively affect the quality of the tournament. This was reported by Zamin.uz.

He mentioned this in an interview with the publication "Euro-Football.Ru." The information was published on the euro-football.ru website.

According to Kanchelskis, the increase in the number of teams in the World Cup will reduce the excitement of some matches. For example, strong national teams like Spain or Germany are likely to defeat relatively weaker opponents such as Curaçao by a large margin.

Such matches may not be very interesting for spectators. The former footballer added that the main attraction of the tournament lies in unexpected results and upsets, and increasing the number of teams will reduce this intrigue and intensity.

It is worth noting that the 2026 World Cup will be hosted by the USA, Mexico, and Canada. The tournament will take place from June 11 to July 19 and will feature 48 national teams for the first time.

This number is the highest in the history of the World Cup.