Armstrong Vaz
Doha: FIFA President Gianni Infantino said he is will try to impress upon the FIFA Council in accepting his idea of having an expanded World Cup finals of 40 teams in 2026.
Speaking at the end of his two-day visit to Qatar the Swiss said he will have discussion with all the stake holders before a decision is taken.
“The decision to have a 40-team World Cup Finals rest with the FIFA council. We need to discuss it with all the stake holders,” said Infantino in response to a question.
“We must open the finals up to more teams. We’re going to talk about this with everyone: players, the Fifa council. Not only do you give lots of teams the possibility of taking part, but also to many of dreaming of a place in the finals.”
“It is my idea, it was in my manifesto, I believe it is beneficial for football based on my experience and the changes I made to the Euro Championships,” said the former UEFA Secretary General.
The increase in the number of teams from 16 to 24 at the Euro Championship brought in a different dynamics to the event in the run up to the qualification.
“ With the increase of the European championship to 24 teams, it created the most exciting qualification ever. The teams which never qualified like Albania made it to the finals, and teams which always qualified did not qualify like Netherlands, why , because we did not have just eight more teams which can qualify but you had 20 more teams which dreamt in realistic terms of qualifying. So they played differently.
“So the whole dynamics of the whole qualification has changed with the increase in teams in the European championship. From this point it is positive , but, for 2018 and 2022 finals in Russia and Qatar – it is fixed at 32 as for 2026 we will discuss,” added the 46-year-old.
The finals have had 32 teams since 1998 and the champions, who used to automatically qualify as holders, have had to go into the qualifying phase from the 2006 tournament.
Infantino said he did not plan to change this policy under the new plans. The hosts for the 2026 finals have yet to be voted. Meanwhile, FIFA’s decision to set the wintertime period as the time-frame for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar instead of the traditional summertime will not result in any problems for the world of football, Infantino said.
Infantino admitted that FIFA World Cups were traditionally held in summertime, but the decision had been already made and it would not result in problems for the international football. The World Cup, he said, is one of the most important sports events on the global scale and needs optimal conditions, while international football federations should adjust their tournament schedules for the championship in 2022.
FIFA officially announced in March 2015, that the 22nd edition of FIFA’s flagship event would be played in November and December 2022, with the final match taking place on December 18, 2022 -- Qatar’s National Day - and with the objective, in principle, of staging the tournament in 28 days.
An initiative of switching the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from summer to November-December period was initially proposed two years ago by former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who cited blazing heat in the Arab state in summer time as the reason for the drastic change of the traditional time frame.
The Peninsula
