Football Governing body FIFA has abandoned plans to expand the 2022 Qatar World Cup to 48 nations.
It has decided to stick to 32 countries because of political and logistical complexities of using another Gulf nation. FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s hopes of expanding the Middle East’s first World Cup in the region were dashed by the regional diplomatic crisis and the body’s demands on host nations to adhere to its human and labour rights requirements.
That means the World Cup will not be expanded until 2026, with FIFA already having approved a format with 48 teams for that tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
A meeting of the FIFA Council in March authorised Infantino to work with Qatar to see if it was feasible to use at least one more country in the region to accommodate 16 more matches and present a proposal at meetings in June.