12 groups of 4, top 2 from each group plus the 8 best 3rd places teams go through to the knock-out stage which will now feature an extra round of 32. So the group stage actually only eliminates 16 countries.
Can the World Cup return to groups of 4 when it never left groups of 4? The idea of groups of 3 has been rightly rejected for being shite and removing all the drama from final group games.