Atlanta: FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to enlarge the tournament from 32 to 48 teams in the next World Cup if certain conditions are met.
Qatar will be hosting the next FIFA World Cup in 2022 and expansion would mean adding at least one more country in the Gulf to host football matches.
“We will move to the next stage, we will explore the possibility of who could potentially be hosting some of the Games in the Gulf regions,” CNN quoted Infantino, as saying.
So, for the expansion of teams, some neighboring countries would require to share the hosting duties. The possible World Cup venues for the expansion of teams for the World Cup 2022 will be Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.
The decision will be made in June and then the final call will be taken by the Council and the Congress, “And if we come to some conclusions in June we will make a proposal to the Council and to the Congress, who is our ultimate decision-making body, who will provide the final decision on this topic,” he added.
Interestingly, it has been already decided by the World football’s governing body that the World Cup 2026 which is scheduled to be hosted jointly by the US, Canada, and Mexico will feature 48 teams.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]