On Friday, a meeting of the FIFA Council took place in Miami, where two steps transforming international football were taken.
FIFA has almost finally decided that the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be expanded to 48 teams. So far, 32 national teams competed in this tournament.
In this case, the World Cup will not only be played in Qatar - another Persian Gulf state will likely co-host the tournament. A meeting with Qatar's leaders will take place in June in Paris, during which the final decision on the number of teams in the World Cup will be made.
The decision to have a 48-team tournament could have been made much earlier, but negotiations have been hindered by poor relations between Qatar and neighboring states - the UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. It is likely that other neutral states such as Kuwait or Oman will join Qatar.
During the meeting, a new format for the FIFA Club World Cup was also approved. Instead of the current tournament, a world club championship will be organized in 2021, with 24 teams competing.
European clubs immediately announced that they will not participate, but FIFA still introduced innovations. A total of 14 European clubs are expected to participate in this tournament.
"We hope that all the biggest teams on the planet will participate in this tournament," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the meeting. "The best teams should compete in this format tournament. We will continue discussions with the clubs."
The Club World Cup would also be played every four years.
