The next idea from the border crosser Infantino: A World Cup with 64 starters

Al Thani, of course, had a hand in football and was significantly involved in hosting the 2022 World Cup.

Moving things don’t just happen physically. The 56-year-old is also busy when it comes to commuting dangerously close to corruption. The British human rights organization FairSquare has lodged a complaint against him with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – the political proximity to him US President Donald Trump is just part of it.

What many critics see as a threat: Now the Swiss-Italian is already thinking about the future, thinking about splitting up the World Cup from 48 teams (for many that was already too many). 64 teams to increase. What can you think of it?

+ Development aid

Perhaps Infantino is thinking of his second home Italy, which now has a reasonable chance of being there after three failed attempts. But rather, Infantino wants to help smaller nations to reward them for their enthusiasm for football. “If you don’t give them the chance to take part in a World Cup, then you take away their drive to improve,” says Infantino. The Africans could then field 13 nations, the Asians, who this time only brought one country, Japan, into the knockout phase, twelve instead of eight or nine.

+ More fairy tales

No, the so-called underdogs weren’t cannon fodder, just Curaçao had a fall (1:7 against Germany). In other countries, fairy tales were written despite the lack of a chance to become world champions. As with den Cape Verde and her goalie grandpa Vozinha.

+ No calculations

The system with the eight best third-place teams in the group failed. It wasn’t just Austria and Algeria that had to play a draw – and did so. With 64 teams, only the top two teams in the group would advance.

+ More money

The milkmaid logic rules here: more games lead to more income (advertising, TV presence), and the nations also benefit.

– Mammoth program

Five weeks is already too long, some fans are already saturated before the hot phase. However, these five weeks should not be extended – 64 teams ensure a mammoth program in Spain, Portugal and Morocco (the first three games in South America). In the worst case scenario, there are six group games per day – as is often the case, people don’t think about the inflation that also exists in sport. The simple calculation: more games = less value of the individual games.

– Quali-Chaos

Qualification becomes a walk in the park for some countries, which makes many games harder to market. And excitement will look different (unless Italy plays).

– Host distress

For 128 games would be 20 to 25 stadiums necessary – currently there are “only” 16 larger areas than in 2030. An alignment like before in one country has become almost impossible. With all the income that FIFA is looking forward to, additional costs for the infrastructure have not yet been taken into account.