Seems excessive. Men’s tournament is fine at 32. Can’t imagine the drop of quality will do it much good.

I love this. Regardless of how good some teams will be compared to the big 7 or 8, this will encourage more countries to develop the women’s game within their country. Yeah, there will be some huge losses, but that doesn’t matter as much as the growth in opportunities.

I don’t think there are 48 good teams in women’s soccer. But I think this will hasten the development of the game in many countries since so many can now qualify and countries will be investing in it to qualify for the games in 6 year’s time.