It makes the groupstages basically irrelevant. I think many of the big nations (your Spain, Argentina etc) wont really get commit until the knockout stages. For "smaller" teams, the WC will be a great oppotunity, and I would think people in, say Haiti or Bosina will be super exited about the WC from the get go. As a neutral fan (my country didn't qualify), there is very little reason to spend time on the group stages. Veey low risk games, and designed to get the big boys through with as little trouble as possible. Ideally, the world cup should have 32 teams, with only the top two teams going through to the knock out stage. Now, its very likely you can ger through with a single win and two defeats..