FIFA president Infantino says proposed expansion will boost region’s hopes No Southeast Asian country has qualified for the World Cup – despite the Dutch East Indies’ participation in 1938 – but that might turn out to be a reality in the long run.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has suggested expanding the World Cup from the present 32 teams to 40 or 48 teams in 2026, which might inevitably allow more Asian teams to qualify.
Yesterday, at a media briefing on the Four Seasons Hotel, Infantino expressed his desire to carry a 48-team World Cup, a much bigger format than the 40 he promised through the FIFA presidential election campaign, which he won in February.
The 46-year-old Swiss-Italian arrived for a three-day summit with representatives of Asian football teams.
Asked by The New Paper whether it might be possible to create an area for Southeast Asia, Infantino didn’t dismiss the concept and said: “I hope so.
“When I see the eagerness for football in these countries, I hope that one among the ASEAN countries will qualify.
“I see the passion in the previous couple of days of the Suzuki Cup and it was a fully amazing semi-final where Indonesia beat Vietnam. We see the eagerness that’s there.
INFANTINO’S PREFERENCES
“Increasing the variety of seats will increase the probabilities of seeing a team from this region compete within the World Cup…
It also relies on what format the Asian Football Confederation proposes.
“I believe in expanding the World Cup because it means more countries involved in the most important football competition and more promotion of football.”
Ahead of this week’s summit, Infantino asked football’s world governing body to send five proposals for World Cup formats to FIFA Council members.
These include two 48-team options, two 40-team options, and maintaining the present 32-team format.
Yesterday, Infantino expressed his desire to organise a World Cup with 48 teams and narrowed the alternative right down to three options.
One possibility is to create 16 groups of three teams, with the highest two teams advancing to the knockout round.
Another idea would see 16 teams qualify directly for the group stage, with 32 countries competing for the remaining 16 spots in eight groups, which might then follow the present format.
The 40-team version will resemble the non-linear version that was utilized in the 24-team World Cup from 1982 to 1994.
In this scenario, 10 groups of 4 teams will probably be formed, with the winners of the ten groups and the six best runners-up advancing to the round of 16.
Infantino revealed that member associations from Europe, Asia and Oceania, which attended a FIFA summit this week, were in favour of expanding the World Cup, with the overwhelming majority in favour of 48 teams.
He added: “To be clear, all of those formats will be played over the identical variety of days as they currently are, in the identical variety of stadiums (currently 12), and the 2 teams that qualify for the ultimate will play seven matches.
“There isn’t any loss for players and clubs because the calendar stays unchanged, nevertheless it is a large profit for football because it allows more teams to take part in the World Cup.
“We have 10 years to work on this. This is the appropriate time.”
Rejecting claims that the league’s expansion would undermine the prestige of football’s top competition, Infantino highlighted how a comparatively smaller team like Costa Rica knocked traditional powerhouses Italy and England out of the group stage of the 2014 World Cup.
The FIFA chief also expressed hope that ASEAN football nations would join forces to attempt to host the World Cup within the football-mad region, whose population is growing rapidly and now stands at greater than 623 million.
However, with Qatar set to host the 2022 World Cup and FIFA’s policy of excluding confederations that hosted the previous two tournaments from bidding, ASEAN can only hope for the World Cup to achieve its shores in 2034 on the earliest.
“I am very much in favor of the possibility of organizing conferences together,” Infantino said.
“The World Cup has turn out to be such an enormous event that FIFA has many demands.
“Because we want to be certain our demands are balanced, we want to come back right down to earth on this issue to some extent.
“If a rustic doesn’t have to have 12 stadiums that may hold greater than 50,000 people, and it only has 4, why not let the three countries join forces, which might higher fit into each country’s football development strategy?
“Then more countries will find a way to fulfil their dream of hosting a part of the World Cup.
“Before submitting a bid, practical and logistical issues should be determined, equivalent to the venue for the opening match and final.
“We can even must sort out tax, currency and legal issues in order that we will have a unified and standardized commission for organizing the World Cup. All this should be clear before the rights to prepare are awarded.”
NowaPapier.com.sg
