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That is a good idea for revenue, but would the teams still have the same attitude about the game if they wern't going to the top 4?

Interesting idea, but I am against it, for the following reasons:

1. Nobody is particularly passionate about knowing who will be 5th, 6th, etc. Only the top 3 places count, and even so nobody really remembers the match for 3rd and 4th place.

2. The players would not play hard because the risk of getting an injury (thus jeopardising their next upcoming season) just for the honour of 5th place is not worth it. This would lead to dull games.

3. We must not let the World Cup get saturated with too much unnecessary football. There must be a gradual build-up to the final, with fewer and fewer games to highlight the climax. A flurry of additional matches at this point would be distracting. It's comparable to a Hollywood movie where the ending occurs right after a bunch of new and pointless sub-plots.

4. Like Todd says, the players would probably lack motivation, and their supporters too. Have you seen how disappointed the England, Argentina and Brazilian teams are right now? Knowing whether they can make top 5th is probably not what is on their mind right now, nor of their supporters.

All in all, it may raise some revenue for FIFA, but not by a huge amount (just 4 extra games in addition to the existing 64 matches at the moment). And I think it would do more harm than good as it would dilute the quality of the tournament overall.

so, where exactly is is that you prove south america, asia and england don't care about the semi-finals and finals of the world cup anymore? will that be after the tv ratings come out and prove that they watched it nonetheless, or just never?

It seems a very good idea for the fans and also for the FIfa. All the four loosing teams are in distress and if Fifa follow the idea then fans have some anicipation to watch the match of their teams and they will stay in the host countryeven after loosing in the quarterfinal to watch the matches and if they do this then they will not definately miss the semi-final and final match and the nost country will get some extra profit from the fans of the loosing teams. The world cup will then become more colorfull till the end.
Thank you for yourexcellent idea and I wish Fifa will consider it.

At last I would like to say something in response to the commnet by Mr. Ian. There is no reason that may make the fans less interested if the match is between England and Brazil or Brazil and Argentina or England and Argentina. How do you think that Messi will not play his best against England just because of being feared of injury as it is a prestige issue. People will not only interested to their teams but also interested to the players individual performence. For example after this shocking defeat will there any Brazilian fan who does not want to watch another goal by ROnaldo as it would be a chance to make his record higher so ROnaldo would also be hungry. At this moment, there is no question that if everything goes well then Klose is going to take the Golden boot while some world class footballer are deprieved of taking this chacne just because of the failure of their team. I want to mention here the name of Crespo and Ronaldo who have to go to home in spite of having a good chance to be the highest scorer. So, there are lot of things that would definately attract the palyers and also the fans that would be full of enthusiasm. The word "Unnecessary football" can not be applicable in the world cup match.

"The word "Unnecessary football" can not be applicable in the world cup match."

I agree but the author's plan seems to suggest that the games currently left in the world cup are unnecessary to anyone but the Europeans and we need to add more games to keep the interest up. This is patently absurd.

I'm not an avid football fan, just joining in the craze actually. Maybe it's really meant that way. To have all those favorite teams vanish early before the final finals. Your idea about making additional matches for losing teams is a good idea but I don't think the fans will be that interested to watch their teams battle their guts out for just some left over places in the match. What more if the players who'll be playing are not popular enough? Maybe it will cost more rather than earn more. But then again, we cannot say. It's often the unexpected that prevails.

If just for the money, then FIFA would have made this tournament every two years or so, and the TV rights are negotiated upfront before the games begin and they get about $1.3Billion . Lets the most respected sports organisation do what they are doing now, we love it the way it is.

Do you actually watch football on a regular basis Razib? I seriously doubt it.

No-one could care less about 5th, 6th or whatever place. Even in the current format, the 3rd place match has been a joke for far too long - it should be abolished.

Football should be about enjoyment - not cash.

Don't give up your day job.