San Francisco Chronicle

16 teams added to World Cup for 2026

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ZURICH — FIFA will expand the World Cup to 48 teams, adding 16 nations to the 2026 tournament that is likely to be held in North America.

President Gianni Infantino’s favored plan — for 16 threeteam groups with the top two advancing to a round of 32 — was unanimousl­y approved Tuesday by the FIFA Council.

It meets Infantino’s election pledge of a bigger and more inclusive World Cup going beyond European and South American teams, which have won all 20 titles.

“We have to shape the football World Cup of the 21st century,” said Infantino, who also promised funding increases for FIFA’s 211 member federation­s at his election in February.

With 80 matches instead of 64, FIFA forecasts the equivalent of $1 billion extra income at current rates from broadcasti­ng and sponsor deals, plus ticket sales, compared with $5.5 billion revenue forecast for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

FIFA projects an increased profit of $640 million despite some extra operating costs and prize money for teams.

FIFA’s six continents should find out by May how many extra places they each will get.

“No guarantees have been made,” Infantino said. “The only sure thing is that obviously with 48 teams, everyone will have a bit more than they have today.”

UEFA wants 16 European teams at the tournament, which is strongly favored to be played in North America. The CONCACAF region has not hosted the World Cup since 1994 in the United States.

American, Canadian and Mexican soccer leaders have had informal talks about a co-hosting bid.

FIFA members are to pick the host in May 2020.

Africa and Asia could be winners in a bigger World Cup with up to nine places each. They had only five and four teams, respective­ly, at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Still, FIFA expects the standard of soccer to drop compared with the 32-team format set for the next two World Cups in Russia and Qatar.

FIFA must break with soccer tradition to make its new format work after an original 48-team plan — with an opening playoff round sending 16 “one-and-done” teams home early — was unpopular.

Instead, three-team groups will replace the usual groups of four to create simple progress to a knockout bracket. However, it leaves one team idle for final group games and could risk collusion between the other two teams.

FIFA said it could guard against result-rigging by introducin­g shootouts after group games that end in draws.

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