By Andrew Warshaw
December 8 – It will not be formally agreed by the FIFA Council until early January but it now seems likely future World Cup finals after 2022 will feature 16 groups of three in a 48-team tournament if Gianni Infantino obtains sufficient support for the idea.
Members of the Council are reported to be receiving various recommendations for FIFA’s showpiece event from 2026 onwards: two 48-team team options, two 40-team options and sticking with 32.
Initially Infantino floated the idea of an opening playoff round for 32 of the 48 finalists but that did not gain sufficiently strong support and the FIFA president’s new “preferred” blueprint was reportedly being communicated to Council members for examination ahead of the January 9-10 session in Zurich.
Under the plan all finalists would start out in 16 groups of three teams. The top two teams would advance to a new round of 32, with the third-placed team going home after two matches. The two World Cup finalists themselves would still play a total of seven games meaning no additional fixtures being added.
Although Sepp Blatter’s successor apparently no longer backs a 40-team event, that option will still be on the table with the possibility of eight groups of five or 10 groups of four.
Infantino’s term ends in 2019 but giving 16 more countries a chance to play on world football’s biggest stage would be a clever election ploy if he decides to go for a second term which seems likely to be his intention.
But Infantino’s apparent preferred format is not without flaws, with results of final group games able to be manipulated to suit both teams as has happened in the past -most infamously between West Germany and Austria in 1982.
More immediately, and the subject of intense debate, will be how to allocate the additional slots from the current 32-team format which stays for Russia and Qatar. Most of them seem certain to go to non-European countries.
“Football is a world sport and we cannot confine it just to a few countries. It’s more than just Europe and South America. It’s the world,” Infantino said when first suggesting expansion to 40 or 48 nations.
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