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FIFA to expand World Cup to 48 teams
Soccer’s governing body, FIFA, voted on Tuesday to expand the World Cup to 48 teams from its current 32,
brushing aside concerns that the expansion would lower the overall standard of the tournament and make it too big and unwieldy.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, fulfilling a promise he made during last year’s election campaign, said the move meant that “more can participate and many more will have a chance to dream”.
“We are in the 21st century and we have to shape the World Cup of the 21st century,” he said at a news conference after the announcement.
“It is the future. Football is more than just Europe and South America, football is global. FIFA president Gianni Infantino added.
An initial stage of 16 groups of three teams will precede a knockout stage for the remaining 32 when the change is made for the 2026 tournament.
The hosts of the 2026 tournament will be decided in May 2020. The CONCACAF Confederation, representing North and Central America and the Caribbean, is seen as a strong contender, possibly providing a joint bid from at least two of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Infantino said it had not yet been decided whether penalty shootouts could be used to decide drawn group-stage matches.
The qualifying competition, meanwhile, is likely to become a mere formality for many of the strongest teams.
He had initially suggested a 40-team tournament, but then added another eight to that total in October.
Those who have never qualified include 41 out of FIFA’s 54 of its African members and 10 out of 11 members in the Oceania region.
According to Fifa research, revenue is predicted to increase to £5.29bn for a 48-team tournament, giving a potential profit rise of £521m.
Campaign group New Fifa Now described the expansion as “a money grab and power grab”.
But Infantino said: “It’s not at all a money and power grab, it is the opposite, it’s a football decision.”
He added the decision was taken “based on sporting merit”.
The inaugural World Cup, staged in 1930 in Uruguay, featured just 13 teams and 17 matches. Sixteen teams took part from 1934, eight more were added from 1982 onwards and, finally, another eight in 1998.
