‘Overwhelming support’ for World Cup change
FIFA is set to ignore the old adage about not messing with a winning formula by approving president Gianni Infantino’s plans to expand the World Cup.
The 37-member Fifa Council, which makes strategic decisions for football’s governing body, will this week decide whether to increase the tournament from 32 teams to 40 or 48, starting in 2026.
Infantino, elected last February to replace the disgraced Sepp Blatter, pledged during his campaign to enlarge the tournament – a promise designed to appeal to the bulk of Fifa’s 211 member associations that rarely or never qualify for World Cups.
Infantino now says he has ‘‘overwhelming support’’ for his plans.
The council’s nine European representatives seem least likely to support the change.
A spokesman for the European governing body Uefa offered little enthusiasm, saying it was ‘‘gathering feedback from its national associations – which are the ones directly impacted by any change’’.
The association representing Europe’s most powerful clubs, already struggling to nurse players through long domestic seasons, last month wrote to Infantino to say that that ‘‘politics and commerce should not be the exclusive priority in football’’.
But even if the Europeans oppose the expansion, Infantino’s comment suggests they will be in a minority.
Critics say it would be wrong to change a 32-team format that, in 2014 in Brazil, produced a tournament of exhilarating football, unpredictable results and few meaningless or hopelessly one-sided matches.
German football boss Reinhard Grindel has said Fifa should stick to its ‘‘tried and tested formula’’, and that all of the possible alternatives had ‘‘considerable weaknesses’’.
Infantino has said his preferred option is for a 48-team tournament that would start with 16 groups of three teams, where the top two would qualify for a knock-out round of 32.
‘‘For this alternative, the draw would probably have to be abolished to avoid tactical behaviour in final group matches,’’ Grindel said.
‘‘But having extra-time and penalties in the group stage is itself problematic, adding organisational difficulties to an already higher number of matches.’’
Infantino has also proposed a preliminary round of 16 knockout ties, with the winners joining 16 seeded teams in a 32-team group phase.
‘‘This would lengthen the tournament by one week for half of the participating teams, and considerably increase the burden on the players,’’ Grindel warned.
Grindel said the first choice would lead to ‘‘a large number of matches where teams would be just playing for pride’’, and the latter could leave some secondplaced teams waiting for up to four days to find out whether they had qualified.
‘‘Past World Cups have always been tournaments that have enthused players, spectators and sponsors alike,’’ he said. ‘‘So why change it?’’
- AAP