The Daily Bee (May 23rd, 2019): World Cup format stays the same for Qatar 2022

• Sancho won’t leave BVB this summer (ESPNFC)

Despite Michael Zorc and Hans-Joachim Watzke’s denying reports of a Jadon Sancho exit this summer at multiple occasions, reports still surfaced claiming the winger could leave BVB for Manchester United. ESPNFC has nown once again, confirmed that Dortmund has absolutely no interest in selling their young star. Nevertheless this will likely continue all summer long until the transfer window closes.

• International call-ups

Several BVB-players have been called up for their national teams, such as Jadon Sancho (England), Axel Witsel and Thorgan Hazard (both Belgium), Manuel Akanji (Switzerland), Raphael Guerreiro (Portugal), Thomas Delaney (Denmark).

Both Mahmoud Dahoud and Jacob Bruun Larsen have also been named to the preliminary squads of Germany and Denmark for this summer’s U21 European championship in Italy and San Marino. Meanwhile Dan-Axel Zagadou will hope to get a spot on France’s U20 squad for the U20 World Cup in Poland this summer.

In addition Achraf Hakimi will participate in the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt with Morocco.

Dortmund also has several German national team players all of a sudden, Marco Reus is joined by new Dortmund players Nico Schulz and Julian Brandt. Jogi Löw had some surprises as usual, Mario Götze still can’t get back into the team despite his strong season but Jonas Hector did.

• World Cup 2022 to be played with 32 teams

The original FIFA plan was to expand the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from 32 to 48 teams and change the format of the tournament. However because the host country cannot meet the requirements to host a larger tournament, FIFA has decided to keep the current format and stay at a maximum of 32 teams.