40-team event shot down in flames

– Fifa presidential candidate Gianni Infantino’s (pictured) plan for an expanded 40-team World Cup came under fire from two of his rivals as the campaign to secure the top job at the corruption-hit organisation heated up on Thursday.

Four of the five candidates to replace Sepp Blatter in the February 26 election in Zurich gave presentations to members of the Concacaf confederation, which governs the sport in North and Central America and the Caribbean, at an airport hotel in Miami.

Uefa general secretary Infantino’s plan to create eight new spots in the World Cup was attacked by both Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and former Fifa deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne, however.

Salman gave a powerpoint presentation of his manifesto and the words on the screen read “Promises of more World Cup spots during an election period are unprofessional”.

He said any changes should be well explained and gain broad support before being introduced.

Champagne was sharper in his condemnation.

“My programme is not smoke and mirrors,” the Frenchman said. “They are facts and not the kind of projects that are being thrown around like organising a World Cup with 40 teams when we know that is not the central issue for 150 federations around the world.

“We know that organising a World Cup with 32 teams is already so costly and so difficult. We know also that the international calendar is so complicated,” he added. –