The South American soccer confederation (CONMEBOL) has asked FIFA to expand the 2022 World Cup tournament to 48 teams, with the first-ever 48-team World Cup currently schedule to take place in 2026.
According to CONMEBOL, their president Alejandro Dominguez has asked FIFA President Gianni Infantino to speed up the expansion of the World Cup.
Having an expanded tournament in Qatar would produce plenty of problems as the tiny Middle East nation would have to increase the tournament from 64 to 80 games.
With the 2022 World Cup set to take place in November/December instead of the usual June/July timeframe due to concerns over the extreme heat in Qatar, expanding the tournament beyond 28 days during a break in the domestic seasons in Europe would also create plenty of issues.
This is certainly an intriguing request from the South American nations but if FIFA is serious about getting as many teams involved as possible, surely they won’t be that against a 48-team World Cup in Qatar having already sanctioned it for 2026?