Doha – The President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, has a strong designer South American Football Body Conmebol to expand the FIFA World Championship from 2030 to 64 teams. Such a step would lead to “chaos” in the tournament structure.
Sheikh Salman spoke on Saturday on the edge of the 35th AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur the expansion plan, which was presented by Conmebol President Alejandro Dominguez in the early this week.
“Personally, I don’t agree”, the Bahrainian leader told AFP, which insisted that the 2030 edition had already chosen 48 teams.
The AFC President warned that the constant increase in tournament size would cause significant problems for the structure and organization of the competition.
“If the problem remains open to changes, the door is not only open to the expansion of the tournament to 64 teams, but someone could come along and demand that the number to increase to 132 teams,” said Sheikh Salman. “Where would we end? It would be chaos.”
The World Cup 2030, which will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the tournament, is already planned as an unprecedented multi-continental event.
While Spain, Portugal and Morocco will be a host Most games, three opening games will take place in South America – in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay – who recognize Uruguay as the host of the first World Cup from 1930.
The tournament is expanded 48 teams from the 32-team format in Qatar 2022. This expansion was already approved for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
CONMEBOLS DOMINGUEZ formally proposed The further expansion to 64 teams during the 80th congress of the South American committee on Thursday, which indicates that it celebrates a one -time increase to celebrate the 100th century.
“For the only time, we propose to keep this centennial with 64 teams on three continents at the same time so that all countries have the opportunity to experience a world championship and so that no one is left out of this celebration,” said Dominguez.
The South American proposal would probably guarantee all 10 Conmebol memberships in the tournament. Venezuela is currently the only South American country that has never qualified for a World Cup.
If the expansion was approved, the tournament size would effectively double to 128 games compared to the 64-game format from 1998 to 2022.
While Sheikh Salman had rejected changes for 2030, he did not refuse any potential format adjustments future tournaments Beyond the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
“If we want to discuss subsequent tournaments … that’s another matter,” he said.
The proposal has received a mixed reaction from the management bodies of football. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin before dismissed It as a “bad idea”, while FIFA general secretary Mattias Grafstrom said that global management would “analyze” the proposal.
“There are many things that need to be studied and we will take time and consult everyone,” said Grafstrom.
Critics argue that the expansion on 64 teams would water down the quality of the game and devalue continental qualification competitions, while the supporters would suggest that more nations would give the opportunity to take part in the leading event of football.
The idea was first grew up at a FIFA council meeting in March by Ignacio Alonso from Uruguay Football Federation before it was officially proposed by Conmebol’s Dominguez this week.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who took part in the Conmebol Congress on Thursday via video conference on Thursday, previously supported the tournament extensions during his presidency, which began in 2016 to apply for higher income for the 211 member associations of FIFA and more opportunities for the qualification of the national teams.
The final decision on the tournament structure remains at FIFA, which must reconcile the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the World Cup with the maintenance of the competitive integrity and the logistical feasibility of the tournament.
