FIFA probes adding ’22 World Cup hosts

FIFA continues the push to expand the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams, considering Kuwait and Oman becoming cohosts with Qatar, which remains in the middle of a complicated diplomatic standoff with several Arab neighbors. Qatar’s infrastructure is already stretched for the Middle East’s first World Cup, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino wants to add 16 more countries to the planned 32-team tournament. That’s too many games for the eight stadiums spread over just a 30-mile radius in Qatar, a tiny nation with just 2.7 million people, most of them foreign workers. Infantino has been lobbying for an expanded 2022 tournament for months, even suggesting some games in Saudi Arabia, which is leading the bitter isolation campaign with several Arab neighbors against Qatar. Kuwait has been trying to mediate the crisis. FIFA is now looking at Kuwait and Oman, a person with knowledge of the situation told the AP on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential.

MLB

DODGERS HAVEN’T RULED OUT KERSHAW FOR OPENING DAY >> Clayton Kershaw has not yet been ruled out for opening day by the Dodgers despite all the time he’s missed at spring training with a sore left shoulder. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, for now at least, Kershaw remains scheduled to start March 28 for the two-time defending NL champions even though it seems unlikely based on the progress the three-time Cy Young Award winner would need to make in the next few weeks.