By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – FIFA and Russia’s 2018 World Cup organisers have joined forces to play down Michel Platini’s idea of expanding the World Cup to 40 teams. The UEFA president made the proposal in a newspaper in which he suggested that all but one of the extra teams be drawn from continents other than Europe in an attempt to find a compromise to pacify Continents seeking greater representation.
“Never say never, but it’s unlikely,” said FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke during a visit to the Russian World Cup host city of Kazan for a meeting with local organising committee bosses.
Platini’s plan foresees an extra two teams each from Asia, the Americas and Africa, with one more European side and one team from Oceania, with the tournament expanded by only three days.
But Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, the 2018 LOC chairman and a member of FIFA’s executive committee, suggested Platini’s comments, which were directed towards Russia being the first World Cup to embrace possible enlargement, were disrespectful.
“FIFA will take the final decision, but it’s unrealistic to change the demands when we’ve already got to the stage of discussing the calendar,” Mutko told reporters.
“Of course, everything’s possible, but you need to respect the country that’s carrying out the preparations for the tournament. We’re preparing on the basis that 32 teams will be taking part.”
Platini’s suggestion came after FIFA president Sepp Blatter re-iterated his preference for reducing the number of European countries at the World Cup in favour of Africa and Asia.
Valcke’s Russian visit focussed on reviewing the LOC’s work and discussing what needed to be done over the coming year.
Last week, the FIFA’s second in command told reporters in London that he would also meet Russian LOC chief executive Alexey Sorokin face to face on the fringes of the trip to discuss the issue of racism but made no mention of this in his assessment of how his visit went, preferring to accentuate the positive.
“I’m very pleased with the speed of the preparations that we’re seeing at the moment in Russia,” Valcke said. “FIFA currently has three World Cups on its agenda, and since the 2014 tournament in Brazil is just around the corner, it’s really important for us that Russia isn’t waiting until the whole world starts looking ahead to 2018, but is responsibly pressing on in all the key areas.”
Mutko said Russia was finding it easy to “reach agreement on the key issues” with Fifa such as infrastructure and government guarantees while Sorokin confirmed that Yekaterinburg would remain as one of the 11 host cities despite concerns over stadium construction delays.
FIFA also confirmed that the qualifying draw for the 2018 tournament will be made on July 25, 2015, in St. Petersburg.
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