So with this whole expansion to 48 teams, I thought "**** it, just make it 211* teams". Would make the whole thing a bit more like the Olympics, and you could ditch the ~900 qualifying matches as well. Can still hold the tournament in six weeks if there are enough stadiums, which shouldn't be a problem with multiple hosts.
8 matches a day for Round 1 to 3 (two concurrent matches three hours apart, like 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm)
Round 1 (Day 1-11, Match 1-83): Bottom 166 teams play a knock-out round. 83 winners advance to the 128-team-bracket with the top 45.
Round 2 (Day 12-19, Match 84-147)
Round 3 (Day 20-23, Match 148-179)
Round 4 (Day 24-27, Match 180-195)
Round 5 - Round of 16(Day 28-31, Match 196-203)
Round 6 - Quarter-Finals (Day 32-35, Match 204-207)
Round 7 - Semi-Finals (Day 37+38, Match 208-209)
Round 8 - Final (Day 41) (no 3rd place match, ldo)
FWIW, here's how a current bracket would look with FIFA rankings:
https://challonge.com/FIFAWCBracket
Upsides:
- Lots of football, no meaningless qualifying/group matches.
- A top 45 team still has to play 7 matches to win the title
- Top teams can ease into the tournament with their opening match
- Massive lolz if England drops out to Namibia in Round 2
- More $$$ for FIFA?
Downsides:
- Probably a lot of ****ty games, I guess?
* or however many members FIFA has at the time of the tournament.