FIFA President Gianni InfantinoGETTY IMAGES
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that the organization should, "if possible," increase the size of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to 48 teams from 32 teams, according to Arnold & Vyas of REUTERS. Last month, Infantino said that a majority of national football federations were "in favor of expanding the tournament and a decision was expected ahead of the qualifying draw in March." Infantino, speaking at a sports conference on Wednesday, also said that FIFA was "seeing whether it would be possible for some of Qatar’s Gulf neighbors to host some of the matches." Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt launched a diplomatic and trade boycott of Qatar in June '17 that has "complicated the prospect of sharing the tournament." FIFA voted in '17 to increase the size of the tournament from 32 to 48 teams starting from '26 but, since then, Infantino has been "mulling the possibility of bringing the change forward" to '22. Infantino said, "If you think it's a good thing to have 48 teams in the World Cup, why not try four years before, that's why we are analyzing whether its possible to have 48 teams already in 2022" (REUTERS, 1/2).
