Bogota (Colombia): FIFA president Gianni Infantino, whose election promises included expanding the World Cup finals to 40 countries, proposed Monday here an even larger tournament involving 48 teams.
However, he suggested that 16 of those teams would go home after just one knockout match, and the remainder of the tournament would be played, as now, with a 32-team group stage, followed by a knockout phase.
Infantino, speaking during an event at the Sergio Arboleda University here, said a final decision would be taken by the FIFA Council in January. “These are ideas to find the best solution, we will debate them this month and we will decide everything by 2017,” Infantino was quoted as saying by the local media here. “They are ideas which we put forward to see which one is the best.”
Infantino said his suggestion was to have a preliminary knockout round involving 32 teams played in the host country, with the 16 winners reaching the group stage. A further 16 seeded teams would get a bye into the group stage informed the FIFA chief.
“The idea is that 16 teams would qualify directly to the group stage and the other 32 would play in a preliminary phase, in the country which hosts the World Cup – they would play for the remaining 16 places,” he pointed out.
“It means we continue with a normal World Cup for 32 teams, but 48 teams go to the party. 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,” he added.
However, Germany coach Joachim Loew said that a larger tournament would ‘dilute’ its sporting value, while other European countries strongly opposing an increase in the number of teams. “Ultimately the best teams play in the World Cup,” Loew was quoted as saying by the ‘Bild’. “We should not just look at numbers, but also at the quality of football… that is more important.”
Reuters
