16 groups of 3 make so little sense. It would be a return to the disaster that happened before the field of 32 took place, when it was just 24 teams, and teams would collude in the 3rd game to help each other out while leaving someone else out (Germany/Austria did it to leave out Algeria as the most famous example).
Just make it 12 groups of 4. Top 2 teams in each group advance and the 8 best 3rd place teams for 32. Or, just have the 12 first-place teams and the 4 best 2nd place for 16.
I mean, 48 will be watered down even more than what we have now. Just look at that 6-1 beatdown yesterday (Switzerland v Portugal or Spain beating Costa Rica 7-1 or Brazil/S. Korea) and adding 16 more teams is just going to make those more frequent. In most years, is the next best Asian, Oceania, or Concaf team really going to do anything of interest or perform better than the Asian, Oceania, or Concaf teams already playing? I mean other than just being punching bags? Yes, those extra 16 will sometimes include good teams that were left out like Italy, Chile, Colombia, and Nigeria, and a few others who may very well have done something this year had it been made of 48 teams, but you are also including a lot of lesser-quality teams and I am not sure adding 10-12 extra bad teams makes up for the fact that 4-6 might be legit good.
