Infantino: Federations 'supportive' of 48 team World Cup

Gianni Infantino has confirmed that there is sufficient backing for the proposed expansion of the next World Cup, although the feasibility of staging the whole competition in Qatar remains unresolved.

Head of FIFA, Infantino, said a decision on the rearranged format of the competition would be announced in March.

Last year, the world football governing body voted to increase the size of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, beginning with the 2026 edition of the tournament. Yet since the vote, FIFA chief Infantino has been trying to bring the change forward to the next World Cup in 2022.

Infantino spoke to the media about the matter this week, saying: “We gathered the opinions as well of our members, the federations. So far, of course, the majority are in favour because 16 more teams participating not only means that 16 more countries will have World Cup fever, but 50 or 60 countries will be able to dream of qualifying for the World Cup. Whether it is feasible or not is a different question."

Infantino also admitted that it would be unlikely that designated hosts, Qatar, could manage to host 16 extra teams on its own. He added: “"Is it feasible to do it only in Qatar? Difficult probably. Is it feasible to have a few games played in neighbouring countries? Maybe this is an option.Of course, I'm not naive enough to not know and read the news, and what's going on, but we are in football not in politics and in football sometimes dreams come true."

Of the March announcement date, Infantino explained that the decision would have to be made at that stage of the year, because the qualifying competition for the tournament will have to be contested that summer. Yet he denied that it was too late to alter the format of proceedings.

He concluded: “For those who think it's late, I've been told that the decision to move the World Cup in 1998 to 32 teams from 24 in 1994 was also taken only four years in advance so there is already a precedent.”