A record 64 nations will be in Friday’s World Cup draw, more than 30 per cent of FIFA’s members, as soccer’s leaders insist a bigger tournament is better.

FIFA expanded the field from 32 teams to 48, and just 42 spots have been determined going into the convoluted ceremony in which balls representing nations are plucked from bowls and assigned to groups. Twenty-two teams in Friday’s draw are headed to playoffs that determine the final six berths on March 31.

There will be 104 games instead of 64 in the World Cup running from June 11 through July 19 at 16 venues throughout North America. Seventy-eight games will be at 11 NFL stadiums, including all from the quarterfinals on, and 13 each in Mexico and Canada. The final is at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where there will be a halftime show for the first time.

In addition to 12 group winners and second-place nations, eight third-place teams advance to a new round of 32. The World Cup winner will play eight games. “I’ve always thought that what FIFA should do is do it like the Final Four and do 64 teams with no groups, just a knockout,” said Alan Rothenberg, the head organiser of the 1994 World Cup in the US, comparing soccer with the NCAA basketball tournament.

Led by captain Lionel Messi, who turns 39 during the tournament, Argentina seek to become the first nation to win consecutive World Cups since Brazil in 1958 and 1962. Messi and Portugal’s 40-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo are expected to play in a record sixth World Cup.

At least four countries have qualified for the first time. Cape Verde (ranked No. 68), Curaçao (82), Jordan (66) and Uzbekistan (50) have qualified for the first time and four playoff teams could become debutantes, including Albania (63), Kosovo (80), New Caledonia (149) and Suriname (123). Curaçao, an autonomous territory of about 156,000 people within the Netherlands kingdom, is the smallest nation by population to qualify. Haiti is in for the first time since 1974 and Austria, Norway and Scotland for the first time since 1998.

“I’m a little bit worried,” said former US goalkeeper Kasey Keller, now an ESPN analyst. “We talked about it when they expanded from 24 that it was going to leave some teams that got into the World Cup that weren’t quite at the level, and now expanding it to 48 I think you’re looking at some teams that are going to really struggle.”

Meanwhile, World Cup ticket prices are setting records. FIFA has set record initial prices of up to $6,730 for a ticket, along with as much as $175 for a parking place and $73,200 for a hospitality package, up from $25 to $475 for the 1994 tournament in the U.S. Almost 2 million tickets among what is expected to be more than 6 million have been sold, the governing body said.

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