Fifa president Gianni Infantino wants to take the number of teams taking part in the World Cup from the current to 32 teams to 48 teams.
“We can consider a World Cup of 48 teams which would in fact be a 32-team format because we have seen that the ideal format is 32 teams.The idea would be that the best 16 teams in qualifying would qualify directly for the group phase.He confirmed that the 32 other teams would dispute a play-off round from which the winners would enter the next stage to join the other 16 countries.This gives more chances for more teams. Furthermore, there would be no impact on the football calendar because these play-off matches would be played instead of friendlies before the World Cup.”
Infantino believes a 48-team World Cup would represent “a high sporting level because from each play-off the best teams would qualify.People talk a lot about a decline in the standard but in my opinion the quality of the Euros was not less good, on the contrary. There were teams who you could not imagine could be so strong and the level was very high.”
He’s certainly right about Euro 2016. Countries like Iceland took the tournament to a whole new level.And Euro2020 promises the to take the new concept and format even further.