What can unite a continent? The World Cup.

Finally I am back from China and Colombia. It's time to come back from the long hiatus.

The lackluster World Cup has occupied the headlines these days. 32 countries have the honor to compete in this competition, but people from other countries also focus on the results. Many of them also have their teams to cheer on, not only for their favored stars, but the teams from their own continent.

You can see that the African fans cheering for all the African teams, and even Chinese fans cheering for Japan and South Korea. We all know there is no chemistry among China, Japan and Korea. Nor do Chinese fans care about Australia. Very few African fans would regard Algeria as African. These support is not selfless. This is due to that FIFA distributes the slots of next World Cup to different continent confederations according to their performance.

Let's see what can happen. Africa used to have 5 slots and this time 6 because South Africa is holding. There hasn't been a inter-continent playoff involving Africa because the distinct system in Africa (in which 20 teams in 5 groups play for the first place in each group to qualify) makes it impossible to find a team to take part in the playoff. Considering their below-par showing, they will definitely lose 1 slot and have only 1 slot.

For South America, Brazil will host the game next time. Therefore, only 9 teams will take part in the qualifying rounds and giving them another 4 slots will be the maximum accepted by the other continents. As a result of the changes in Africa and South America, a half slot will be available to the other continents.

For Oceania, they will never get a full slot because this will mean an automatic seat for New Zealand, which was impossible even when Australia was in that confederation. But anything less than a half seat is also not viable. You need to give every team some chance to qualify, however remote it is.

Europe can also lose half a seat if the FIFA finds it necessary. This all means that Asia and CONCACAF (Confederation of North-Central Americas and Caribbean Associations of Football) will compete for the increase of slots. South Korea and Japan are doing well this time and a draw will be suffice for both of them to get to the knockout stage, although it is still too early to say. Mexico is also doing well and the United States looks having a good chance to qualify by beating Algeria. The other teams from these two continents are struggling, although Australia still has a slim chance.

This means that the result of those teams, which will tell us which continent will outperform the other, will be vital. Enough for fans in those two continents to cheer, right? Not necessarily. Your country at least, shoud have a chance to benefit from the increase. For me, I optimistically consider China as a potential benefector. Therefore, I am crossing my fingers for Japan and South Korea. Good luck!