April 14 – Following in the footsteps of UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa has expressed opposition to a 64-team World Cup.
Salman told Agence France Press: “Personally, I don’t agree.”
He pointed to the 2030 edition which is to be played with 48 teams, saying that the “the matter is settled”.
He didn’t rule out discussing the number of participants at subsequent tournaments, but was sceptical of the benefit. In 2034, the World Cup returns to the Asian Confederation with Saudi Arabia as hosts.
“If the issue remains open to change, then the door will not only be open to expanding the tournament to 64 teams, but someone might come along and demand raising the number to 132 teams,” said Salman. “Where would we end up then? It would become chaos.”
At the UEFA Congress in Belgrade, European football boss Ceferin called a 64-team World Cup “a bad idea”. He expressed surprise at the idea, proposed by Uruguay’s Ignacio Alonso at the last meeting of the FIFA Council.
Last week, South American football boss Alejandro Dominguez backed a tournament expansion from 48 teams to 64 teams for the 2030 World Cup as a one-off for the centenary celebration of the global finals.
“We are convinced that the celebration of the centenary will be something unique, because it has only once been 100 years old. And for this reason, we are proposing, for one, to carry out this anniversary with 64 teams, across three simultaneous continents. So that all countries have the opportunity to live a world experience, and so that no one is left out of this party even if it is played everywhere, it is our party,” said Dominguez.
Under the presidency of Gianni Infantino, FIFA decided in 2017 to expand the World Cup from 32 teams to 48 teams. It is the tournament’s first expansion since 1998 when the finals featured 32 participants for the first time, up from 24 finalists at the 1994 World Cup in the USA. Next year, the World Cup returns to the United States in a 48-team format. Neighbours Mexico and Canada will serve as co-hosts.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1744714923labto1744714923ofdlr1744714923owedi1744714923sni@i1744714923tnuk.1744714923ardni1744714923mas1744714923
