World Cup: Fifa president Gianni Infantino wants 48-team tournament please log in to view this image Infantino was elected as Fifa president on 26 February 2016 Fifa president Gianni Infantino has proposed expanding the World Cup finals to a 48-team tournament - a larger number than his election promise. The Italian suggested 16 of those teams would be eliminated after one knockout match - before the group stages. The rest of the tournament would be the same as it is now, with 32 teams competing in group stages followed by knockout rounds. One of his election promises was to expand the finals to 40 teams. Infantino said a decision would be taken by the governing body's council in January. special guide. "These are ideas to find the best solution, we will debate them this month and we will decide everything by 2017," said the 46-year-old. "They are ideas which we put forward to see which one is the best." Infantino took charge of football's world governing body in February after the disgraced Sepp Blatter resigned. Under his proposal, a preliminary knockout round in the host country would involve 32 teams with the winners reaching the groups, while a further 16 seeded teams would get a bye to that stage. "It means we continue with a normal World Cup for 32 teams, but 48 teams go to the party," he added. "Fifa's idea is to develop football in the whole world, and the World Cup is the biggest event there is. It's more than a competition, it's a social event."
Make it 96. Might as well. If he really thinks he's being clever and progressive with that idea! What an idiot. It's hard enough to accommodate the current number of teams and their fans in host cities and venues and home base practice facilities as it is! This doesn't help it grow. It's their grand plan to make it almost impossible to take it to poorer developing countries who won't be able to handle the sheer numbers of people and coordination those numbers would bring, to "secure" the events in first world countries who can deal with it. What a ridiculous man he is
Hmmm if this hare brained scheme gets approved then I can't wait to see the carnage of WC2022 in Qatar - which is effectively a one city state (Doha) - 48 teams and fans in one city the size of Leeds. What could possibly go wrong?
Even better, just play all the qualifying group games in a 6 month period in the host country before the Finals and suspend all domestic leagues for a season every four years. That way absolutely everyone gets to go to the 'party'. Or why not make it like a modern school sports day with no 'winners' and prizes for everyone, so no feelings are hurt. FFS.
