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It does feel empty... even my girlfriend was shocked to find no football for two days. But, 'fear not' I said. 'Wimbledon is upon us!'

Not the same as football, but I'm sure it'll do!!

Maybe in future they could have more group stages, don't ask me how, but find a way to allow the smaller teams to stay longer, give them 5 games instead of three??
Yes I know, probably totally unworkable!

I'm dreading the next teo days, (pathetic I know). But even more i'm dreading whats going to happen to me after the world cup final. I can't even remember my life before the world cup.

At least i have wimbledon as a pleasant stop-gap for the next couple of days.

Frank, i know entirely what you mean. I've taken a months sabatical from work for the world cup. Being the boss its a luxuary i can afford, so going back on the 11th July (i know it ends on the 9th, but the 9th also happens to be my birthday so a good 2 days to recover is a must) is going to be mighty tricky! I can barely remember what i do for a living, and come the 9th of July when England lift the World Cup (Im optomistic) im sure i shall barely be able to remember my own name. So here's to another 8 TERRIFIC games of football, and if all else fails, we can always compound our misery by watching more Brits go out in the early rounds ala Wimbledon. Fabulous

Have no fear, there's barely a month after the World Cup Final until the regular football season starts again.....and during that time there'll be transfers, friendlies, etc.......football never stops!!

i dont know about you lot but the prospect of watching tennis is about as appealing as slitting my wrists im gonna do something productive with my two days off like watching highlights on the previous games

What about - similar to rugby 7 - having a trophy and plate competition for the teams finishing 3rd and 4th of the group stages?

That'd be another 14 games in total. The 4 quarter-finals of each competition could take place today and tomorrow, the semis on Sunday and Monday, finals next Friday.

I'm sure the Czech Republic or Croatia wouldn't mind leaving the tournament with say the WC Trophy.

In response to Dave's suggestion: There is a workable way of extending the tournament, allowing the lesser teams to stay longer. I am sure the business people in FIFA and the host country can see the merits of more profit to having fans remaining behind. Now here is my suggestion. Instead of four teams of eight, simply have eight teams of four, with the top two teams from each group, going through to the quarter finals. Get rid of the 2nd round. That way each time gets seven games instead of three and you get some exciting clashes of the big teams earlier in the tournament. We see more games continuously each day, instead of this thinning out of games now, also. FIFA are you listening???

Aye, its a bit naff that after 2 years of qualifying those teams get to play just 3 games.

I agree with Laurent. WC Trophy/Plate for the teams not getting out of group stages FTW

I agree with Kev in post 7.

I really can't get into tennis. I've tried and i really find it so boring.

I'm going to use this football-less time wisely and rack up the overtime in exchange for time off on Monday 10th July to recover from watching Becks lift the World Cup ;-)

That is actually a brilliant idea. Prolongs the World Cup. More football for everyone and something to watch when England get plastered by Portugal. I mean, I love England, but in light of Scolari and his dedicated team, our Crouch-infused liability team will probably get wasted.

That is actually a brilliant idea. Prolongs the World Cup. More football for everyone and something to watch when England get plastered by Portugal. I mean, I love England, but in light of Scolari and his dedicated team, our Crouch-infused liability team will probably get wasted.

Laurent - that's a great idea.

Many people draw a huge sigh of relief when the World Cup rollercoaster ride comes to an end. And why not, concentrating all our emotional eggs into one basket for 19 days is hardly sane. Lovely global insanity for almost 3 weeks.

Being an insane optimist is the right choice for me. When England win the Cup, I get to say "I told you" to all those armchair doubting Thomases, whose daily worries I have to put up with. Even if we don't, we get to develop our hunger for next time. We still get to sigh with relief, win or lose. If only Christmas was once every 4 years...

I am in a sporting vacuum. I can't handle this and wimbledon is not doing the trick especialy with tiger tim about to be going out later today to the fedster. My working day has lost all structure, nothing to look forward to at 3 or 4pm or again at 8 with a boys footie snack (beer, pizza). If I am not careful I'm gonna find myself losing weight, re-discovering my marriage and resuming work.

I too am suffering from World Cup withdrawal.

I would like to suggest that you can all relive the glorious last two and a half weeks from several different perspectives by checking out my website (to which the Beeb have also thoughtfully provided a link on the right-hand side of this page).

It's my account of my marathon quest to watch each of the teams (well, 30 of them at least) with their fans (once I'd found them) in London.

I like the idea of the WC Cup, would add more games.

Personally I'm suffering a double-whammy - not only is there no football today, but I'm also back at work after the best part of two weeks off, which I spent simply watching as much football as I could! I'm only in today and tomorrow, and then all the game-less days next week, but wish now that I'd just booked the whole month off!

Mind you, if I was at home with nowt to do, I may find myself watching Henmania... shudder...

World Cup has 64 (48 in groups) games as things stand. The idea with 4 groups of 8 would put that up to 112 group games and 120 in total, by my reckoning. A bit OTT perhaps. Maybe one extra team per group, so 40 teams qualify and everyone gets one game extra? Actually, I'm talking craap, that's still 32 extra games. So maybe leave it as it is!

Nothing can compare to two weeks of non stop football. The beer has been flowing and now all of a sudden you look up at the telly and see bloody tennis! cant cope i crave the beautiful game!

My best suggestion for extending the World cup format it this.
Play the first round as is. Then instead of knockout for the round of 16, Have another round robin of 4 groups of 4. Then you have the 8 qualifiers into the knockout stage of the quarter finals.
This way good teams who made it through the group stage don't get booted on a single game's mishap.And the big time refereeing disasters may even be diluted.

I have predicted the last 2 WC winners correctly. With my perfect track record, trust me on this one, it's Germany.
And email me in 3 years and I'll tell you who's next.

I remember reading a poll on the most beautiful women in the world, and supposedly, they are from the ukraine, so chin up, i'm sure there are plenty more people for you to meet!

I think Laurent's idea of cup for the losers of the group stage is a great one. It's a pity that after two years of preparations, half the teams have to go home after three matches.

I'm missing the football desperately. Tennis - boring as hell watching a ball being served at 100mph and the person on the other end missing it repeatedly.

I do love all the previous ideas but without wishing to disparage them, you're all thinking too small.
Every 4 years? Why not every other year, or better still every year!
And do we really need to see the likes of poor San Marino, Laos, Cook Islands flummoxing their way through a futile qualifying process?
Stick them all in there. I'd pay good money to see Surinam versus Qatar, Brazil v Cambodia, Haiti against Switzerland (Hey, the Swiss have to attack against someone, surely) and I believe many others would too. Come on, lets storm the house of FIFA and kick down the doors of oppression to smaller nations. Let the chants ring out: "EQUITORIAL GUINEA FOR THE CUP!"

I think Laurent's idea of cup for the losers of the group stage is a great one. It's a pity that after two years of preparations, half the teams have to go home after three matches.

I'm missing the football desperately. Tennis - boring as hell watching a ball being served at 100mph and the person on the other end missing it repeatedly.

Well, I am suffering from the WCW symptoms, too. But I got a lot of things done today:

went shopping
cut the grass
did the laundry
ironed the clothes
brushed the cats
cleaned the windows...

and had a good long talk with the hubby...about footie

must......have........football.......

Make the prize for the losers cup (e.g. a parallel set of knockouts just for the 3rd place in every group), automatic qualification for the next world cup...

I like KAS idea of two group stages. It has been done before, in 74, 78 and 82.
But then again, this leaves only 3 games for the weaker teams.
Why not have the 4 best 3rd placed teams advance as well into four groups of five teams. The best team out of each group advances then straight to the semi finals.
Well, and just as KAS sais: GERMANY will be the winner this year.

hello there! wimbledon is an exciting tournament, but its such a pity thats its on now actually. The football has been so exciting and some first round matches of tennis simply doesnt make up for it ! btw, who doesnt agree with a last 4 of england V brazil and Italy V argentina??

The Plate idea is in some ways an excellent one I think, to fill in this void we are experiencing now. However, think about the emotion of the competition - it is all about winning the cup and once you have lost, carrying on in some sub tournament would almost seem to be rubbing it in (remember Italy 3rd/4th playoff in 1990?). That said, the other suggestion providing automatic qualification to the winner would be a great idea - except that the ultimate winner does not qualify automatically, or the losing finalist, or semi-finalists... Two group stages? I don't know, there must be the right solution in there somewhere.

This pause also gives us an excellent chance to focus on the atrocious refereeing and on Sepp's actions.

Poll sent home? Just a starter...

I miss the games but it is nice to have a day without watching 50 yellow cards, 18 wrong calls, and another country see 4 years of hard work destroyed by inept, biased, and/or corrupt refs. I think this World Cup will be remembered for the poor refs more than any great goals.

Shame to see FIFA ruin this. Almost glad to see this World Cup end. We all know that the refs will decide who wins so what is the point of waiting until the 9th. Let Poll and his lot pick a country today and we can get back to proper (club) football. I think I'll skip 2010 unless FIFA makes major reforms...which sadly isn't going to happen.

PLEASE......no more group stages! The last thing we need is more games where a 0-0 draw will put a team through or a 1-0 score will put both teams through. More KO rounds would be OK but I don't know how that would be achieved.

If a team wins the plate/1st round losers cup.....hang on, I must be having footie withdrawal. Is this how a smackhead feels when he's forced on the wagon? Realised I was addicted when I felt sorry for the Swiss going out.....

The plate idea sounds spot on, could fill in these days (or nights if you're in Oz like me!) when there is no other footy on, games could be played in the smaller stadiums that get abondoned after the group stages so would probably still fill up.

This world cup has been full of poor refeering, but don't we say that every time? I seriously think there needs to be more video evidence in use after games, for things like diving, etc. similar to Rugby.

The sooner Blatter leaves the better.

A WC Trophy/Plate idea sounds good, sort of like a B- tournament.

I can't stand Wimbledon. The fact that Wimbledon is on, when football isn't makes it worse. At least when World Cup matches are on at the same time as Wimbledon, then Wimbledon gets 'buried'.

Still, at least Wimbledon's only two weeks, and while the World Cup finishes at the same time, at least the week after I get to watch Newcastle in the intertoto (see, there are some advantages to that, the season starts earlier).

Living in Japan, and having put myself through 19 consecutive all-nighters in my (ultimately, I'm glad to say, successful) attempt to watch every match live, before then having to go to work each weekday and survive on quick sleeps in the evenings and early mornings, the 'rest day' did come as somewhat of a relief.
I'm sure I would still have to find time to watch this new plate competition, though...

How about bringing back the second group stage? But also how about a pre-WC tournament - as 32 teams is a bit silly. We are at the last 8 teams and 6 are European, 2 South American.
This means that effectively half the European and half the South American sides that qualified have reached this stage - yet no teams from Oceana, Africa, Asia or CONCACAF made it.
All the traditional powers (except Uruguay) have made the last 8. With only Portugal and Ukraine of the 8 not having previously won the WC.

The WC should be smaller (24 teams) with a pre-tournament involving the European teams who came 2nd, plus the Asian, African and CONCAFAF nations.

Ah, now that it's back, what wonderful drama. And who should the Germans thank for winning them the match? Lehmann? No! Arsene Wenger, that's who, for keeping faith with Lehmann when many others would not have done.

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