By Mark Gleeson
ATLANTA, July 12 (Reuters) – Any further expansion of the World Cup, increasing the number of teams participating at the finals to 64, will be discussed after this year’s edition, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said without providing any details.
The 2026 finals in Canada, Mexico, and the United States have seen 48 teams for the first time, a decision that was heavily criticised but which has not provoked much debate since the tournament kicked off on June 11.
“These are all issues that we will be examining after the World Cup,” Infantino, who successfully pushed for the expansion of the finals from 32 teams, told Swiss television outlet Blue Sport.
He did not elaborate, saying only: “I think it is important that when you want to organise a World Cup, you do it for the whole world — not just Europe and South America, but effectively the entire world.
“Every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup. You can see that the quality of the teams is extremely high and it’s getting higher and higher, all over the world.
“If you don’t give smaller countries a chance to participate in the World Cup, they’ll lack the incentive to keep improving.”
Infantino hailed the 48-team tournament as a success, saying: “Every team played at a high level. Teams from every continent scored goals and earned at least one point.
“Nine out of 10 African teams reached the knockout stage. At the last World Cup, there were only five teams from Africa. That just goes to show how important it is to include all teams, to give them this opportunity to participate,” he added.
The size of the World Cup field was increased to 32 teams in 1998. The next finals in 2030 are to be co-hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain, and the 2034 tournament will be in Saudi Arabia.
INFANTINO DEFENDS HYDRATION BREAKS AND TICKET PRICES
Infantino, who rarely gives media interviews and has limited his number of formal press conferences, admitted that introducing hydration breaks during each half, which many have seen as a cynical attempt to help television partners get more advertising revenue, had proved controversial.
“This is a topic that sparks a lot of debate. After all, we don’t want to get everything perfect; we like to give everyone something to disagree with… no, joking aside. Last year, during the Club World Cup in the USA, there were cooling breaks whenever it was very hot.
“These short breaks occurred in about 60% of the matches but not in the other 40% because the temperature wasn’t as high. There were many complaints, as the feeling was that all teams should face the same conditions,” he said.
He also defended the high ticket prices at the World Cup, saying: “The stadiums are full; capacity utilisation is at 99.7% and it will likely reach 99.9% by the end.
“Experts determined the ticket prices before the tournament. Our experts worked on that and told us: ‘These are the prices you can go with’. We see the proof now: prices that some people claimed were too high are being resold on the secondary market —which is perfectly legal here — for four or five times the original cost.”
Infantino said he expected FIFA to generate a total of 13 to 14 billion Swiss francs ($16.08 billion to $17.32 billion) from the 39-day World Cup. “That is quite satisfactory,” he said.
($1 = 0.8084 Swiss francs)
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Atlanta; Editing by Clare Fallon)
